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Harness has two plans. The Hobby plan is free and runs a small studio, and the Professional plan removes the student limit and adds the parts that work without you, like automatic billing and online payments. Every new studio starts with 30 days of Professional, no card needed, and you manage your plan under Settings → Subscription.

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Hobby and Professional

The plans differ in how many students you can have and how much Harness does on its own. Everything else is on both plans: the calendar and annotations, students and contacts, the sign-up form and student portal, messages, and the money record, including recurring charges, invoices you send yourself, payments, expenses, and reports. The app sometimes calls the Hobby plan the free plan. On Hobby, a Professional control shows a lock; click it, then Upgrade. The scheduling buttons on the calendar are hidden instead. The Hobby plan is free, and Professional is billed monthly or annually; see pricing.

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The trial

The trial gives you the Professional plan for your first 30 days, with no card. The account row at the bottom of the sidebar shows how many days are left. When the trial ends, your studio moves to the Hobby plan and nothing is charged. Harness then shows a dialog where you choose Continue on free plan or Upgrade. If you have more than 5 students by then, you choose who to keep first.

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The 5-student limit

The Hobby plan holds 5 students, and inactive students count as well as active ones. A family’s sign-up counts once you approve it. On the Hobby plan, the Students page shows how many of your 5 you’ve used, and at 5, Add Student and approving sign-ups are blocked until you upgrade or delete a student. If your studio ends up on the Hobby plan with more than 5 students, after a trial or when a paid plan ends, Harness asks you to choose before you go on. Click Upgrade to keep everyone, or pick 5 students and click Lock and continue. The rest are locked: they move to Inactive with a lock icon, come off future lessons, and their recurring charges pause. Their history and balances stay, and their families keep portal access. Upgrading unlocks everyone at once.

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Upgrade, switch, or cancel

During the trial or on the Hobby plan, upgrade from Settings → Subscription. Click Upgrade, choose Annual or Monthly, and pay on Stripe’s checkout page, where you can also enter a promotion code. Upgrade is also in the account menu and on the message that appears when you click a locked control. Once you’re on Professional:
  • Switch to annual charges the difference today and switches right away. Switch to monthly waits for your renewal date.
  • Manage in Stripe changes your card.
  • Billing history has a receipt for each payment. Each one is also recorded as an expense in your books.
Cancel subscription asks why you’re leaving, then ends your plan at the end of the period you’ve paid for, never sooner. Until that date, Reactivate undoes it with no charge. After it, your studio is on the Hobby plan.

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If a payment fails

A failed renewal doesn’t lock you out; everything keeps working while you fix it. A banner at the top of the app and a Subscription payment failed item in your inbox tell you, and the account menu shows Update payment. Harness tries the payment again on its own, but Update card on the banner fixes it right away. If the payment never goes through, your plan ends and your studio moves to the Hobby plan.

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What your families see

Families never see which plan you’re on. On the Hobby plan, a few things change for them:
  • Invoices arrive without a Pay Now button, and older pay links stop working, even if Stripe is still connected. See Online payments.
  • Booking and reschedule links show as no longer available.
  • Automatic reminders stop.
The student portal and the sign-up form work the same on both plans.

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FAQ

No. Each studio has one login, for its teacher.
Your studio went over the Hobby plan’s limit, so you chose which students to keep. You can’t unlock one student on their own; upgrading unlocks every locked student at once. See The 5-student limit.
Paid billing starts the day you upgrade, and the trial’s remaining days aren’t added on.
No. You keep Professional until the end of the period you paid for, then move to the Hobby plan with all your students and records. If you have more than 5 students, you choose who to keep.
On the Hobby plan, Harness creates charges but doesn’t make invoices on a schedule. Your saved choice comes back when you upgrade. See Automatic billing.