Simple & transparent pricing

How do I get started?

Starting is easy! Sign up for free right now, and create as many stories as you like. Contact us during your trial period to switch onto a paid plan to enable publishing.

What are your payment terms?

We keep our billing and accounting overheads low so that we can allocate more resources to making a magical product and delivering outstanding customer support. In aid of this, we have strict payment terms and a simple billing process.

For customers on annual billing who spend a minimum of $5,000 per year, we offer credit card payments and bank transfers (ACH credit transfers for US customers). Please note that we cannot accept cheques (or checks!).

For all other customers, credit card is the only acceptable payment method, and a valid credit card must remain on file with our PCI Data Security Standards compliant payment gateway for the duration of your subscription.

Our payment terms are strictly Net-0 day (i.e., due upon receipt) unless we have negotiated a signed agreement stating otherwise.

What do you mean by "site"?

A site is simply the location, usually identified by a domain (e.g., example.com) or subdomain (e.g., my.example.com) where your audience reads your stories. All plans can be expanded by configuring more sites at an additional cost.

What support do you provide?

Our customer support is part of the Shorthand magic. Really. Here's what one customer recently told us:

"Please know that you have had a very large and positive influence on my life and how the next few weeks will proceed work-wise."

That's the kind of impact our support and success team delivers every single day.

Shorthand is beautifully simple to use, but we're here when you need us! You can contact us by email, and if you have our Premium support option, by phone.

We have extensive support documentation and training videos in our knowledge base. You may also like to become part of our Slack community for all things Shorthand and visual storytelling.

Customers on our Pro plan or who have our Premium support addon also benefit from our story kick-off service, where we provide feedback on your first three stories if you'd like us to.

Basically, we've got you covered!

How are stories published?

That’s up to you.

Here at Shorthand we believe in an open and diverse web. Our aim is to help you create unique, compelling reading experiences for your audience on your website. With that in mind, we offer several publishing options.

First, you can download a zip file containing the HTML, CSS, Javascript and media assets, which you can host on your own servers, at a URL of your choosing. This approach affords you complete flexibility.

Second, you can export the story via our story API, enabling you to automate the story export workflow. This approach is often chosen by customers who have integrated Shorthand with their existing CMS.

Third, if you'd rather, we can host your story on our servers, under a domain or subdomain of your choosing.

Finally, we offer an embed code enabling you to launch the story from a page in your CMS or elsewhere.

What happens if I don't want to use Shorthand any more?

If you have our Shorthand^x add-on, simply ensure you've published and/or exported all your stories, then ask us to deactivate or delete your account.

If you don't have Shorthand^x then we offer a basic export of your story data without the Javascript and CSS that makes Shorthand stories magical. If you'd like to keep your Shorthand stories live, then you'll need to continue with your subscription.

I'm on an old plan with story credits. How do I move to a new plan?

Get in touch with us by clicking the button below, and we'll be happy to help you find the plan that's right for you.

I want to upgrade from Shorthand Social to Shorthand. Can I bring my stories with me?

Unfortunately, we don't currently have an automated method for migrating Social stories to Shorthand. Social is a completely separate platform. However, for customers who'd like to recreate their Social stories in Shorthand, we can enable URL redirection from your old stories to your new stories. Note that any Social user who has published one or more Social stories prior to July 1, 2018 qualifies for one year of Prelude for free. We also offer discounts on our other paid plans to Social users. Please get in touch using the button below.