Following five vessels is free, and the free plan is not a trial: it does not expire and it never asks for a card.

What each plan does

The map, search, departure and arrival notices, photos, messages and your own AIS receiver are available on every plan, the free one included. Paid plans increase the number of boats you can follow, lists you can keep, fleets you can use and fleets you can run, plus the length of track history you can view.

Prices are shown in US dollars on the website. In the App Store you are charged in your own currency, at Apple's equivalent price.

The columns, one at a time

• Boats you can follow. Boats within your plan appear through their enabled lists, keep their last known position and can send departure and arrival notices. The type filter does not hide an enabled list's boats. At the limit, you can unfollow a boat to make room for another. Existing follows are retained after a downgrade, but those beyond the new limit pause as described below.
• Lists. How many lists you keep besides Favorites and the boats you photographed, the ones you made and the ones you subscribe to counted together. The boats across your lists count toward the follow limit above; a boat on two lists counts once. Lists
• Fleets you can be in. How many of the groups your boat has been added to stay live at once, oldest membership first. It does not limit how many you may join: memberships beyond it stay listed but carry nothing, no roster, no positions, no chat and no messaging reach to those boats.
• Fleets you can run. How many you can start and organize yourself. A separate number, and a fleet you run never uses up one of the fleets you can be in. Fleets
• Track history. How far back the AIS track behind a vessel is drawn: the last 24 hours on Basic, the last 7 days on Plus, the last 30 days on Pro. Windows beyond your plan stay visible on her panel and say which plan unlocks them rather than disappearing, and asking for one you do not have is answered with the plan, never with a half-drawn line labelled as something it is not.

A longer track window does not improve coverage. Gaps in received reports remain gaps on every plan; upgrading cannot supply a position the network did not receive.

Where you meet a limit

• Following past your limit is refused, with the plan screen offered. Unfollow a vessel you no longer watch, or move up.
• Subscribing to a list bigger than the room you have left keeps its first boats and lists the rest under Beyond your plan. That is a plan limit, not a fault. What your plan counts
• Fleets beyond your plan are grouped under Not on your plan in the Fleets panel.
• A track window you do not have says which plan has it.

Subscribing on the website

Plans are managed on the Plan screen in the account menu. Choosing one takes you to a card payment; from then on that screen also holds Manage billing, which is where you change your card, read your invoices, switch between Plus and Pro, and cancel.

• Switching between Plus and Pro takes effect straight away, with the difference charged or credited on the spot rather than at the end of the month.
• Cancelling leaves the plan running to the end of the period you have paid for, and you keep the follows you already have while it runs. There is no refund for the remainder of a month you have paid for.
• If a card payment fails, you keep your plan while it is retried. Nothing is switched off on the first failed attempt; the Plan screen and your e-mail will ask you to update the card.

Subscribing in the app

The same plans are sold in the AIS Fleet app for iPhone, as App Store subscriptions.

A plan is one plan wherever you bought it, and it is the same account. It is billed where you bought it, and that is the part worth getting right:

• One bought in the app is paid to Apple and cancelled in your Apple ID subscription settings. The Plan screen on the website will keep pointing you there rather than offering to bill you a second time.
• One bought on the website is paid by card and cancelled under Manage billing.
• Check where your current plan is billed before subscribing. Each side warns you when the other already has a plan running.
• Restore purchases, on the app's plan screen, brings an App Store subscription back after a reinstall or a new phone.
• If you change to a cheaper plan in the App Store, the change takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, so the app will say you are on Pro and renewing to Plus until then. That is accurate rather than a mistake.
• If an App Store renewal cannot be collected, paid access may pause while Apple retries it. The Plan screen keeps pointing you to Apple to update or cancel that subscription and does not offer a card subscription meanwhile.

Complimentary plans

Some accounts carry a plan we granted rather than one that was bought: a member who helped us, an early contributor, an arrangement with a club. The Plan screen says so, shows no upgrade and no billing controls, and there is nothing to cancel. If you hold one and want a different plan, write to [email protected] rather than buying alongside it.

Moving down a plan

Nothing is deleted when you move down, and nothing is deleted when a plan lapses. What happens instead is that the extra capacity goes quiet:

• Follows past the new limit stay listed under Beyond your plan, still yours, not drawn and not announced, until you unfollow something or move up.
• Lists past the new limit pause: nothing added, nothing drawn, no notices. Anyone subscribed to one of your lists keeps seeing it as it was.
• Fleets past the new limit carry nothing until there is room.
• Fleets you run past the new limit pause for everyone in them, first fleets kept. You are told before it happens when a cancellation is scheduled, and again when it does.

Move back up and everything comes back as it was.