Subscriptions and billing (Stripe)

Bluebridge bills assignors through Stripe. Officials are always free and never see plan UI at all; everyone who needs write access (events, assignments, schedules, groups, co-assignor seats) holds a Basic or Premium plan. The current price list lives at /pricing.

The two tiers

• Basic — $9/month or $79/year. Includes the core assignor workflow with usage limits (see below).
• Premium — $14/month or $99/year. Removes the Basic limits and unlocks bulk paste-list invites and schedule sharing.

Both plans start with a one-week free trial — no charge until the trial ends, and you can cancel during the trial to drop back to free-tier read-only without ever being billed.

Basic plan limits

Basic has these throttle limits, all of which Premium removes:

• 5 active tournaments per year
• 50 group members across your groups
• 1 co-assignor seat per event
• 5 viewers per event
• Bulk paste-list invites — Premium only
• Schedule sharing — Premium only

Officials and the plan UI

Officials don't see any plan UI — no pricing page link in the menu, no Plan pill in the profile header, no Manage billing button. If an official subscribes to Basic or Premium (typically because they're starting to run their own events), the role auto-promotes to assignor on the back of the Stripe webhook. They can keep officiating exactly as before, but now they have the full assignor menu too.

What Stripe handles vs. what Bluebridge stores

Subscription checkout, the Stripe Billing Portal, payment method capture, invoice generation, and dunning all live inside Stripe's hosted surfaces. Your card number, CVV, and bank account details go to Stripe directly — Bluebridge never receives or stores them. From Stripe's webhook we keep:

• plan_kind — basic or premium
• plan_status — active, trialing, past_due, canceled, or comp
• plan_trial_ends_at — when the free trial converts to paid
• plan_renews_at — next renewal date for active subscribers
• stripe_customer_id — the opaque pointer we use to send you back into the Billing Portal

That state powers the Plan pill in your account dropdown and the Plan section at the top of /profile. If you ever wonder which plan you're on, both surfaces tell you.

The one-week free trial

Both paid plans include a one-week free trial. During the trial you have full access to your tier's features. We email a reminder before the trial ends; if you don't cancel via the Billing Portal before the trial-end date, Stripe charges your saved payment method and the plan becomes active. Canceling during the trial keeps your data but reverts the account to free-tier read-only.

Switching plans

Paid users can switch between Basic and Premium any time from /pricing or from the Stripe Billing Portal. Upgrades take effect immediately and Stripe prorates the difference against your current period; downgrades take effect at the end of your current paid period, so you keep your Premium features through the time you've already paid for.

The Stripe Billing Portal

Hit Manage billing from /profile to land in the Stripe Billing Portal. From there you can update your card, switch plans, download past invoices, or cancel your subscription. The Bluebridge UI links into the portal — we deliberately keep that surface self-serve so you never have to wait on us to update a card or cancel.

Co-assignor seats

Every co-assignor you add to one of your events needs their own active paid Bluebridge plan. The event owner's subscription doesn't extend write access to anyone else — each co-assignor is billed individually. This is enforced server-side: the add-co-assignor endpoint returns a 402 with the specific person's name when they don't hold an active Basic, Premium, or comp plan at the moment you add them.

The error string names the offender ("Sandra Bowerbank does not have a paid plan yet — ask them to start a Basic or Premium plan from /pricing"), so the next step is unambiguous: forward them the pricing link. They click "Become an assignor" in their account dropdown, run through Stripe checkout (one-week free trial — no immediate charge), and the webhook flips their role to assignor and clears the gate within seconds. Then you can add them on your event without re-entering anything.

Removing a co-assignor always succeeds, even if your event is currently over a seat-count limit. That way you can drop a stale delegate without first having to re-enroll them.

Canceling

Open /profile and hit "Manage billing" to land in the Stripe Billing Portal. Cancel there and your access continues through the end of the current paid period — no immediate cut-off. We don't pro-rate refunds for partial periods. Annual plans canceled within 7 days of the initial paid charge are eligible for a full refund of the most recent annual payment if paid features weren't actively used; email albert@joinbluebridge.com to request one.

Failed payments

If a renewal payment fails, Stripe retries on its standard schedule and your plan status flips to past_due in the meantime. You'll see a banner in /profile prompting you to update billing. If the charge is still uncollected after Stripe's retry window, paid features are suspended (existing data is retained) until you clear the balance — at which point access restores automatically.

Comp plans

Some accounts (partners, pilots, operational comps) carry a comp plan — full paid functionality with no Stripe subscription. The Plan pill shows "Comp" in that case, the Manage billing button is hidden, and the billing language above doesn't apply. We can revoke a comp grant with reasonable notice; reach out if your situation changes.

Taxes

Subscription prices on /pricing are exclusive of any sales, use, VAT, or similar taxes. Where Stripe is required to collect tax based on your billing location, that line item is added during checkout and shown on Stripe's receipt.