Subscription Tiers & Billing

Freelancer Nodes operate on a three-tier subscription model, allowing you to start for free and upgrade as your freelance business grows. This article covers each tier’s features, billing mechanics, and the addon system.

Subscription tiers overview

The FreelancerSubscription model tracks your plan, billing status, and Stripe integration. Three tiers are available:

FREE tier (£0/month)

The free tier provides essential features to get started with freelancing on NexusRMS:

• Connect to up to 5 companies
• Create up to 5 invoices per month
• Basic profile and schedule management
• View and accept booking requests
• Sign RAMS documents digitally
• Calendar sync (Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCloud)
• No equipment inventory
• No GPS time tracking
• No public portfolio

LITE tier (£9.99/month)

The Lite tier adds professional tools for active freelancers:

• Connect to up to 20 companies (connection slots reset monthly)
• Unlimited invoices
• GPS time tracking with geofence verification
• Public portfolio visible to companies
• Calendar sync (Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCloud)
• No equipment inventory
• No tax tools

PRO tier (£19.99/month)

The Pro tier unlocks the full Freelancer Node feature set:

• Unlimited company connections
• Unlimited invoices
• GPS time tracking
• Public portfolio
• Equipment inventory (up to 50 items via max_equipment_items)
• Own projects and client management
• Tax tools — vat_registered, vat_number, default_tax_rate, tax_inclusive_pricing
• Team features for collaboration
• Calendar sync (Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCloud)

Subscription statuses

Your subscription moves through the following statuses, tracked by the status field on the FreelancerSubscription model:

• Trial — Active trial period. Full feature access with no payment required.
• Active — Subscription is paid and current.
• Past due — A payment has failed and Stripe is retrying. Feature access continues temporarily.
• Cancelled — The subscription has been cancelled. Access continues until the end of the current billing period (ends_at).
• Suspended — The subscription has been suspended due to repeated payment failures or administrative action.

Trial period

All new Freelancer Nodes begin with a 14-day free trial (trial_ends_at). No credit card is required. During the trial, you have full access to the features of the tier you selected. If you do not add a payment method before the trial ends, your account reverts to the FREE tier.

Billing and Stripe integration

Subscriptions are billed monthly through Stripe. The FreelancerSubscription model links to Stripe via stripe_subscription_id, stripe_customer_id, and stripe_price_id. Billing cycle fields include current_period_start, current_period_end, next_billing_date, last_payment_at, amount, and currency (GBP, USD, or EUR).

Upgrading

You can upgrade your tier at any time from the Subscription page. When upgrading:

• The change takes effect immediately
• Billing is pro-rated — you only pay the difference for the remainder of the current period
• Any existing discount is preserved and applied to the new tier’s price
• Equipment limits and connection limits update instantly

Downgrading

Downgrading takes effect at the end of your current billing period to ensure you retain access to paid features until you have been fully billed for them. If you are on the PRO tier with equipment inventory, items exceeding the lower tier’s limit will become read-only but are not deleted.

Cancellation

When you cancel your subscription:

• The canceled_at timestamp is recorded
• The ends_at field is set to the end of the current billing period
• You retain full access until ends_at
• After the period ends, your account reverts to the FREE tier
• A cancellation_reason can be optionally provided

Addon subscriptions

In addition to the base tier, optional addons can be purchased through the FreelancerAddonSubscription model. Addons are available on any tier:

• PAT Testing (pat_testing) — £14.99/month. Enables portable appliance testing management for your own equipment, including test scheduling, result recording, and certificate generation.

Addon subscriptions have their own Stripe integration, billing cycle, and cancellation flow, independent of the base tier.

Lifetime discounts

Companies can offer invitation discounts to freelancers via the FreelancerInvitation model. When you accept an invitation with a discount_percentage attached:

• The discount is applied to your subscription as a discount_source of type invitation
• The discount persists for the lifetime of your subscription — discount_expires_at is set to null
• The discount carries over when you upgrade or downgrade tiers
• Other discount sources include promotion and manual (applied by support)
• Maximum discount is capped at 50%

Subscription page

Your subscription is managed at /fl/{nodeId}/subscription. This page displays:

• Your current plan name and monthly price
• Usage statistics (connections used, invoices created this month, equipment count)
• Billing history and next payment date
• Upgrade prompts when you approach tier limits
• Discount information, if applicable

Tips

• Start with FREE to explore the platform and connect with your first companies at no cost.
• Upgrade to LITE when you need GPS time tracking or want to send more than 5 invoices per month.
• Consider PRO if you own equipment you want to track or need tax tools for VAT management.
• Accept company invitations that include discounts — these lifetime discounts reduce your monthly cost permanently.

Next steps

Continue to the next article to learn about the Join Crew page and how companies attract freelancers to their network.