How to make the most out of Directual’s pricing and resource limits

For all the newcomers and those considering trying, we’ve decided to prepare this short and handy intro to Directual’s pricing system and limits. After all, on certain plans, you pay for certain things! Let’s break it all down for clarity.

How the pricing works

There are two categories: App plans and the Team plan. The latter is geared toward agencies and freelancers, more on that below.

There are four parameters that affect the total cost of an app:

• Load: the more operations and server load, the higher the bills
• Support options: community, phone, chat, email
• Extra platform features: custom domains, advanced security, etc
• Service Level Agreement: event processing guarantees, backups, etc 

We’ve structured the general pricing to be as far close to “pay-as-you-go” as possible. 

Every plan has operational limits: GET, POST, and HTTP requests, operation processing, file storage, etc. Your limits are renewed on the 1st day of each month. If you run out of your operational limits, you have to pay extra for on-demand resources — if you tick the box for it in the Billing section (no surprises, don’t worry).

There is a single owner for each app or team, the administrator if you will, who can add funds, review payment history, and do other stuff in the Billing section. 

Currently, there are four tiers of App plans. We’ll go over operational resources and how they work a bit after that. 

Do note: the App plans are per app. So if you’d like to have 3 simultaneous apps running at the same time, that’s 3 plans paid separately.   

Trial plans

You won't be hit with fees for stuff you didn't agree to after starting a trial. Canceling here is straightforward, no hidden fees attached.

Your trial's length depends on the plan you pick. Here's what you need to know:

• Startup plan: no need to input your credit card upfront. You get two weeks to test things out with a set monthly resource limit.
• Pro plan: this one's longer, offering a four-week trial. To kick this off, we need $1 from you. Sounds odd, but it actually helps you manage your finances better and reduces the hassle of later card addition—look into "cart abandonment" for a similar vibe.

If you're not keen on sharing your card details for the trial (totally get that), we accept crypto, wire payments or other methods.

We take Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, TON, and even MIR cards.

Promo codes also get a tweak; activating one requires a card, payment service, or crypto, but you won't be charged just for activating it.

Already have an active account according to the plan's criteria? Then you're all set, no extra steps needed.

You may have heard that there was a free plan. Yes, there was one, but we deprived it. Here is why.

Startup plan ($39/mo)

This plan is perfect for those looking to get a headstart and test their hypothesis on the market, or for product managers looking to build software for internal use. Thanks no-code capabilities of Direcutal, getting a working app up to speed is extremely quick. Build something cool, and see how it works—without paying an arm and a leg for it.

Here are the features:

• Basic features: same as the free plan—the database builder, backend builder, frontend builder, and others
• White label web-portal: not a single trace that your product has been built on no-code anymore
• Scenarios, endpoints, app versions, plugins with no limit: try everything you want, at scale
• Plugins (any number): rig up everything we’ve got on the integration list at the same time if you dare!

Same community support level, which for an MVP or an internal app is enough most of the time.

Pro plan ($175/mo)

At this stage, we’ve included the features and operational limits to help high-load apps thrive. The difference between the Startup plan and the Pro plan is quite steep: on top of extra features, you get %1500 more when it comes to operations, requests, and other limits on average. Perfect for scaling a healthy app that is already seeing a demanding load!

Onboard the Pro plan, we’ve got…

• Everything you can find in the Startup plan
• Custom domain and free SSL
• Advanced security (sha256 or bcrypt encryption)
• Swagger for your API
• AI-logo generator (learn how cool it is!)
• Advanced scenario settings like collision prevention mechanism

At this level, your operational limits are even cheaper to replenish, so you can get more juice out of the app for less. We know the numbers can add up, so naturally, there’s a discount for getting more operations done in bulk.

And, this is the tier where you get premium support! We’ll answer the emails, chat, and communicate in any other way available.

Joint Journey, Kale, and our own Sports Event Dashboard projects are prime examples of what can be achieved on the Pro plan.

Business plan ($599/mo)

Designed for high-load apps with thousands upon thousands of active operations daily or even hourly. With this plan, you get absolutely everything Directual and its team can offer.

Included are…

• Everything you can find on the Pro plan
• JavaScript SDK
• Hosting region selection: US, EU, Russia, Canada, Australia, etc.
• Dev–prod environments: even easier to maintain update pushes
• SLAs: get guarantees on things that you expect, and more
• Daily backups: for both data and metadata.

On-demand resources for your high-stress product will be even cheaper than the Pro plan. 

On top of that, you can get a personal consultation with the team on how any problem you might have.

Check out our Habit Hero, Evidpo (47,000+ students!), and Mokka case studies to see what kind of projects require the Business plan (spoiler alert: big ones!)

Team plan

This wonderful plan is created specifically for development agencies and freelancers. We’ve even covered how it works separately. The main difference is that on the Team plan, you pay per seat, instead of paying per app. Every seat has Pro plan features (with a negligible difference), and it’s much cheaper. 

The features:

• Everything included in the Pro plan, per seat (with Startup limits)
• Premium support: we’ll help you out in a pinch!
• Up to 50% of the payment your clients make for their app! 

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Yes, that’s right! If you are a no-code development agency, or a no-code freelancer (or something in between), you can absolutely capitalize on this plan. Get paid to make an app, and get paid for your client paying for the app plan!

Limits, upgrading, and downgrading your plan

Upgrading and downgrading

If you have an app on the Free plan and you wish to upgrade, all you need to do is connect your payment method or use your account balance, which can be topped up with D-coins! 

In case you’d like to downgrade your plan, proceed to the Billing section and select the Free plan. As soon as it activates on the first day of the month, you can then upgrade it immediately after.

Operational limits and D-coins

The D-coin is a stablecoin we’ve introduced to Directual as an alternate currency you can use to either pay for your plan or extend your operational limits. One D-coin equals $1 US dollar. Very handy for blockchain devs, because…

You can top up your D-coin balance via:

• PayPal, Visa, or Mastercard
• Crypto: TON
• Promo-codes: be sure to join our Discord channel — you can catch some freebies there regularly!
• Affiliate rewards: more on that soon!

Here’s how the limits report looks like in the Dashboard section:

If you’d like to know how much you can get in terms of limits on each plan, we recommend taking a look at our Pricing page for the latest information.

Afterword

We hope this article has shed some light on what you can expect billing-wise from Directual! Our mantra when it comes to development is: “Just start”. And nothing can be better than starting your no-code project without having to pay at all! 

In case you have questions or propositions, ask in the no-code community, or be sure to send us a message at hello@directual.com!