Concepts

This page gives the words that the manual uses. Glossary gives the short form of the same list.

Plan

A plan is what the Portal offers. It names the product, the price, and the machine that the product runs on. The Products screen shows the plans under your instances.

A plan is free or paid:

• A free plan needs no card. The Portal activates it at once. You can hold one instance of each free plan.

• A paid plan needs a card. The Portal sends you to Stripe before it builds anything.

A plan puts you on your own machine, or on a machine that you share:

• On your own machine you are the administrator. You can restart the machine and update the product.

• On a shared machine you are one account among several. You sign in as yourself. You cannot restart the machine, and you cannot update the product, because the machine also carries other customers.

Instance

An instance is one running copy of a plan. You can hold several instances of one paid plan. Each one is a machine of its own, at an address of its own.

An instance holds your data. The Portal destroys the machine and the data when the subscription ends. See End an instance.

Address

The address is where the product answers. It is the largest text on the row, and it is the thing that you give to the people who use the product.

You choose the address when you activate the plan. You cannot change it later. The address is a link only while the instance answers. A row that is still Setting up shows the address as plain text.

Region

The region is where the machine stands: Europe or the United States. The data of the instance stays in that region.

You choose the region when you activate the plan, and only if the plan is offered in more than one. You cannot move an instance to another region.

Subscription

The subscription is the payment that keeps one instance running. Stripe holds it, and it charges the card each billing period.

One instance has one subscription. The row shows the two together: the address is the instance, and the date beside the state is the subscription.

States

The Portal folds the payment and the machine into one state. The row shows one word, and it is the answer to can I use it?

State	What it means	What to do
Waiting for payment	You started a purchase, and you did not finish it. Nothing is built, and nothing is charged. The address is held for you.	Press Finish payment, or give the purchase up. See Give up on a purchase.
Setting up	The Portal is building the machine. The address does not answer yet.	Wait. The row changes by itself.
Ready	The instance runs, and the subscription is paid. The date says when it renews.	Nothing.
Ending	You cancelled the subscription. The instance runs until the date on the row, and the Portal then destroys the machine.	Press Keep it to go on paying. See Keep it after all.
Payment failed	Stripe could not take the money. The instance still runs, and Stripe tries the card again.	Change the card in Payment settings. See Payment settings.
Setup failed	The machine did not build. The row says why.	Press Deploy again. If it fails again, write to support. See Support.
Ended	The subscription is over, and the machine is gone.	Choose a plan again, if you want another instance.

An update is a separate matter. The Portal does it to a machine that already runs. The row therefore shows an update beside the state, and not in place of it. See Update to latest.