Ellipsus Plus payment guide
What is subscribe-to-own?
Most subscription plans ask you to rent software indefinitely, with no clear end in sight. Traditional one-time purchases have a different problem; you buy a version of a product that over time falls behind, requiring paid upgrades or repurchases later. Neither felt right for Ellipsus.
So we built a plan we hope is sustainable for us and more reasonable for writers: Subscribe-to-own.
On a subscribe-to-own plan, every payment counts toward your ownership of Ellipsus Plus. Instead of paying forever, your monthly or annual payments apply toward the cost of owning the Plus license outright.
You can upgrade to Ellipsus Plus in three ways:
- Buy the Ellipsus Plus license outright with a one-time payment of $99
- Pay annually with two payments of $60
- Pay monthly at $6 per month for 24 months
With an active subscription or one-time purchase, you’ll receive all Plus updates, maintenance, improvements, and future features. Once you’ve paid for your license, you own Ellipsus Plus forever.
Are subscribe-to-own plans the same as the one-time purchase?
They lead to the same result: ownership of the Ellipsus Plus license.
With the one-time purchase, you pay for your license upfront and own it immediately.
With a subscribe-to-own plan, each payment counts toward permanent ownership. You can use all Ellipsus Plus features right away, and you’ll keep full access as long as your payments continue.
Once your plan is fully paid, your Plus license is yours permanently.
What does "owning the license forever" mean?
Once you’ve paid the full amount (either through the one-time purchase, or completing the monthly plan or annual plan), you no longer need to keep paying for Ellipsus Plus. You own the license forever. That means:
- You’ll keep access to Ellipsus Plus at no further cost than the price at time of purchase.
- You’ll own the features included in Ellipsus Plus, plus updates, bug fixes, improvements, and maintenance.
- You’ll also receive access to any upcoming Ellipsus Plus features.
Once you own the Plus license, you will not need to pay another Plus subscription fee.
What is a “license”?
Your Ellipsus Plus license stays with your Ellipsus account as long as you have it. If you change the email on your account, the license follows the account. You can't sell it, hand it to a friend, or move it to another account.
A Plus license means you own the perpetual right to use all EllipsusPlus features through our service. (You don't own our source code, infrastructure, or Ellipsus’s intellectual property; e.g., you cannot edit or sell our code).
Can I gift an Ellipsus Plus license or subscribe-to-own plan to someone else?
Right now, no—the license is account-bound and non-transferable. But we're considering including a gifting option in the future!
Do I need to subscribe for 24 months in a row on the monthly plan?
No. The monthly plan’s 24 months do not have to be consecutive paid months. If you cancel and come back later, the clock picks up where you left off.
What is Stripe?
Stripe is the secure payment platform we use for Ellipsus Plus purchases, subscriptions, and billing management.
You can access billing from your Ellipsus Settings page. From there, you will be taken to Stripe to update your payment method, view invoices, cancel your plan, or manage other payment details.
Right now, Ellipsus Plus payments are available in dollars and euros. We plan to add more currencies and regional support in the future.
Managing your Plus plan
How do I upgrade or change my Plus plan?
Upgrading from the monthly plan to the annual plan, or to a one-time purchase
You can upgrade from the monthly plan to the annual plan within the first 10 months.
The amount you’ve already paid will be applied to the total cost of the Ellipsus Plus license at the time of final payment.
As of now, this credit will be arranged through our in-app support chat—but we plan to make this process self-service as soon as possible.
Switching from the annual plan to the monthly plan
To switch from the annual plan to the monthly plan, let your current annual term finish. You can then start on the monthly plan.
Your completed annual term will still count toward owning the Ellipsus Plus license. After one annual term, 12 additional monthly payments will complete your subscribe-to-own period.
How do I change my payment method?
You can update your payment method with Stripe at any time via your settings page.
What happens if a payment fails?
If your payment fails, we’ll notify you in-app and by email for seven days.
If the payment isn’t successfully processed within seven days, your account will return to the free plan.
Your writing will remain safe, and you’ll continue to have full access to your documents, drafts, comments, sync, real-time collaboration, etc. Plus features will become unavailable while you’re on the free plan. If you decide to return to Plus, your saved Plus content and settings will be available again.
Cancelling your Ellipsus Plus plan
How do I cancel my plan?
Head to to your settings page to cancel your Plus plan. You’ll be redirected to Stripe.
Plus licenses and the right of withdrawal
Like any digital purchase in the EU and UK, you have a 14-day right of withdrawal from the date of first purchase. After that, Plus licenses are non-refundable.
What happens if I cancel before completing my payments?
If you cancel Ellipsus Plus before your license is paid-in-full, your Plus access will continue until the end of your current billing period.
After that, your account will return to the free plan. Your writing and account data will stay safe and accessible, but you will no longer have access to Plus features.
Your payment progress still counts toward the total cost of a Plus license, even if you cancel before completing the plan. You can resubscribe at any time and pick up where you left off, or pay off the remaining balance in one lump sum.
If you decide to come back later, your Plus settings—any custom themes, Emboss badges and writing journey, etc.—will be there, just as you left them.
Can I receive a refund after cancelling my plan?
You can request a refund within 14 days of your first Ellipsus Plus purchase, including the one-time purchase, and both subscribe-to-own plans.
After that 14-day period, you will be ineligible for a refund. We do not provide prorated refunds if you cancel partway through a monthly or annual paid period. Instead, your Plus access will remain active until the end of the period you’ve already paid for. After that, your account will return to the free plan.
What if I want to cancel mid-month?
You can cancel anytime. Your Plus access will continue through the end of the billing period you've already paid for. We do not issue partial refunds outside the 14-day withdrawal window.
If I delete my account, does this also delete my Plus license?
Yes. Permanently deleting your Ellipsus account also deletes any completed Plus license associated with that account, and does not create an additional right to a refund. If you request account deletion within 14 days of purchasing Ellipsus Plus, we’ll automatically process a refund before deleting your account.
For other circumstances, please contact support and we will review the situation individually.
What happens if I delete my account and return later?
Fully deleting your Ellipsus account permanently deletes the account and any Ellipsus Plus license or subscribe-to-own payment progress associated with it.
If you later create a new account and subscribe to Ellipsus Plus again, your subscribe-to-own progress will restart from scratch.
If the deletion happened under special circumstances, we will review the situation individually.
What changes if I re-activate Plus?
Re-activating Ellipsus Plus is immediate. As soon as your payment is successfully processed:
- All Ellipsus Plus features will unlock. (You may need to refresh once for the changes to appear.)
- Your saved custom themes, Emboss badges and writing journey, chat history, unlimited version history, and other Plus settings will be available again, just as you left them.
- If you are continuing a subscribe-to-own plan, your previous payments will still count toward license ownership.
- If you upgrade to the one-time purchase in the first ten months, your previous payments will still count toward the total price of a plus license.
If your Plus features do not become available after refreshing, please contact support so we can investigate.
Will you ever raise prices on Ellipsus Plus, or will there be a tier above it?
If you have an active Ellipsus Plus plan, your plan price will not increase. Active subscribe-to-own users and one-time purchasers will keep the price they signed up for.
There will be no higher tier than Plus. In the future, we may also explore separate plans for larger organizations, such as schools or other groups.
What happens if I return to the free plan?
If your Plus access ends because you’ve cancelled your plan, or do not resolve a failed payment within seven days, your account will return to the free plan.
If you return to the free plan, you’ll continue to have full access to your documents, drafts, comments, sync, real-time collaboration, etc.
What changes is access to Plus-only features. These features will become unavailable while you’re on the free plan, including public-facing Plus features like shared Emboss badges and your Emboss writing journey, writing insights access, access to collaborator chat, and custom themes.
If you decide to return to Plus, your saved Plus content and settings will be available again.
What happens to my writing if I cancel Plus?
Ellipsus Plus does not change your ownership of or access to your writing, or limit your access to core Ellipsus features—it adds features on top of the free plan.
So if you return to the free plan after cancelling Plus, you’ll continue to have full access to your documents, drafts, comments, sync, real-time collaboration, etc.
What happens to custom themes if I cancel Plus?
Any themes you’ve created with the custom theme builder will remain saved to your account, but will be inaccessible on the free plan.
If you return to Ellipsus Plus, your custom themes will become available again, exactly as you left them.
What happens to Embossed work if I cancel Plus?
Your Emboss badges and writing journey metrics will stay saved to your documents and account, but they won’t be visible or accessible while you’re on the free plan.
If you’ve Embossed work on Reader links, the Emboss badge and writing journey will no longer appear on those links until your Plus access is restored.
If you re-subscribe or upgrade to the one-time payment, your Emboss badges and writing journey will reappear on your documents and Reader links.
What happens to collaborator chat if I cancel Plus?
If you revert back to the free plan:
- You'll lose the ability to start new chats in your documents.
- Chat access in your documents is tied to your plan. If you return to the free plan, your collaborators will no longer be able to use chat in those documents either. (We’ll let them know in-app).
Existing chat history will remain in your account. You can still open previous chats and copy any text you’d like to save elsewhere, before or after downgrading.
If you return to Ellipsus Plus, chat access will reappear everywhere it was before.
What happens to unlimited version history if I cancel Plus?
If you revert to the free plan, you’ll have access to the most recent 30 days of version history.
Older versions of your work will not be available from your account while you’re on the free plan.
However, in cases of possible data loss, our support team will be able to help recover earlier versions. (Please contact us at support if you need help accessing older version history in these circumstances.)
If you return to Ellipsus Plus, your unlimited version history will be visible again.
What happens to writing insights if I cancel Plus?
If you revert to the free plan, you won’t be able to access writing insights. If you return to Ellipsus Plus, insights for your work will be available again.
What happens to large image uploads if I cancel Plus?
If you’ve already uploaded images that exceed the free plan’s size limit, they’ll stay visible in the documents where you added them.
While you’re on the free plan, you won’t be able to upload new images above the free size limit. When documents are merged or duplicated, those images may also be skipped if neither the document owner or collaborator has Plus.
If you return to Ellipsus Plus, you’ll be able to upload large images again.
What happens with any future Plus features if I cancel Plus?
Future Ellipsus Plus features will also require Plus access to use.
Questions? Contact us via Ellipsus support.
For the binding legal version of all of this, see our Terms of Service.