Subscription and Billings

Every organization has a subscription that determines what features are enabled, how many sites the org can hold, and how billing works. The subscription is managed at the org level by the owner — admins and members do not see the subscription screen.

This page covers what plans control, the billing model, adding sites, and the relationship between subscription, sites, and members.

What the Subscription Controls

A subscription gates a few things at the org level:

Site count — The maximum number of sites the org can hold. Different plans include different baselines; additional site slots can usually be purchased on top.

Member count — The maximum number of org members. Higher tiers allow more.

Features — Some capabilities — multi-environment publishing, advanced access controls, larger file/upload limits, custom integrations — are gated to higher tiers. The features available to your org are visible in the subscription screen.

Support level — Standard email vs. priority support, depending on plan.

When you bump into a limit (try to create a site when you're already at the cap, invite a member beyond the seat count), the CMS prompts you to upgrade or add capacity inline.

Plans

Plan details — tier names, pricing, feature inclusions — are listed in the subscription screen and at sleekcms.com. The general shape:

• Free / Starter — Single-site sandbox for learning and prototyping.
• Standard — Production-ready for one or a few sites.
• Team / Business — Multi-site setups, more members, more features.
• Agency / Enterprise — Large-scale multi-tenant agency use, custom integrations.

Upgrading and downgrading is self-service from the subscription screen. Mid-cycle changes are pro-rated.

Adding Site Slots

If you need more sites than your plan includes but don't want to upgrade to a higher tier, most plans allow purchasing additional site slots independently.

The Add Sites option in the subscription screen lets you buy capacity in small increments. Each slot adds one to your site cap and is billed alongside the base plan.

This is the right path for orgs that need just a couple more sites without jumping to the next tier. Agencies with many small client sites typically buy bulk slots rather than upgrading to enterprise.

Billing

Billing runs on a monthly or annual cycle, chosen at subscription time. Annual billing typically includes a discount.

The subscription screen shows:

• Current plan and cycle — Plan tier, billing frequency, next billing date.
• Payment method — Card on file, with the option to update.
• Invoice history — Past invoices as downloadable PDFs.
• Stripe billing portal — A link to the full Stripe-managed portal for payment method changes, tax info, and detailed invoice management.

Payments are processed through Stripe. Invoices are issued for each billing cycle and emailed to the org owner.

Who Sees the Subscription Screen

Only the org owner sees the subscription screen and can make changes to the plan or billing details. Org admins can see that a subscription exists and what plan the org is on, but cannot modify it. Org members and site members see nothing about billing.

If billing access needs to transfer (the original owner is leaving the team), use the Transfer Ownership action on the org Members screen to move the owner role to another member. The new owner gains subscription access immediately; the previous owner is demoted to admin.

→ Members

Plan Changes and Downgrades

Upgrading — Takes effect immediately. The new plan's features and limits become available; your billing prorates for the remainder of the current cycle.

Downgrading — Takes effect at the end of the current cycle. You keep the higher-tier features and limits until the cycle ends, then the downgrade applies. If your current site count or member count exceeds the new plan's limits, you'll need to reduce before the cycle ends — the downgrade fails until limits are within the new plan's bounds.

Canceling — Same as downgrading: takes effect at the end of the current cycle. After cancellation, the org enters a read-only state where existing content and templates are preserved but new edits and new deploys are restricted. Re-subscribing restores full access.

Failed Payments

If a payment fails, the org enters a grace period. During the grace period:

• A warning banner is shown in the CMS.
• Notifications are sent to the org owner's email.
• The Stripe billing portal becomes the primary way to update the payment method.

If the grace period ends without payment, the org enters the same read-only state as a cancellation. Restoring access requires resolving the payment and re-subscribing.

Multi-Org Billing

Each org has its own subscription. If a user belongs to multiple orgs (e.g., they own one org and are a member of another), each org bills independently to its own owner.

There is no centralized billing across orgs. For consolidated billing across multiple business units, consider whether you actually need multiple orgs or whether a single org with multiple sites would work.

What's Next

• Organization Management — Overview of org structure.
• Sites — Managing the sites your subscription covers.
• Members — Managing org members and the seat count.
• Templates — Cloning sites without consuming extra capacity (cloned sites count toward your site cap).