The free trial and what happens when it ends
New accounts start on a free trial so you can try HostTracker at real scale before deciding on a plan.
What you get
Section titled “What you get”- 30 days, starting from account creation.
- Up to 100 monitors, at a 1-minute check interval, across the monitor types your account supports.
- No card required to start - you sign up and start monitoring immediately.
This is enough to monitor a real portfolio of sites, not just one or two, while you evaluate HostTracker. SMS sending and API calls carry their own fair-use limits during the trial to prevent abuse.
The exact timeline
Section titled “The exact timeline”Days are counted from the day the account was created; the trial ends on day 30.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Day 0 | Account created on the trial package. Monitoring starts immediately. |
| Day 30 | The trial ends. If you haven’t chosen a plan, the account is marked disabled for the reason “package expired”. You get an email that day naming the two monitors that will keep running and the date the account will be deleted. Every monitor keeps running. |
| Days 30-37 | Seven more days with everything as it was: every monitor keeps checking and alerting as normal. |
| Day 37 | Your two most-checked monitors keep running, checked every 30 minutes, and keep sending you email alerts. Every other monitor pauses. You get an email listing which monitors are still checked and which paused. |
| Day 37 until deletion | The two monitors keep running. You can sign in and choose a plan at any time until sign-in locks; reminder emails give the lock and deletion dates. |
| 83 days after the trial ends (about day 113) | Sign-in to the account is locked. |
| 3 months after the trial ends (about day 120) | The account and its data - monitors, check history, contacts and status pages - are deleted, unless a plan was chosen before then. |
The lock and the deletion are carried out by scheduled jobs shortly after those dates - never before the dates the emails give.
If you’ve chosen and paid for a plan before day 30, your account simply continues on that plan with no interruption at all - the timeline above never starts.
Which two monitors keep running
Section titled “Which two monitors keep running”The two monitors with the most checks over the last 30 days of the trial. Ties go to website (HTTP/HTTPS) and ping monitors, then to the older monitor. A monitor that checked more often than every 30 minutes is slowed to 30 minutes; one already set to a longer interval, or to a cron schedule, keeps its own schedule.
Choosing a plan brings everything back
Section titled “Choosing a plan brings everything back”Choose a plan at any point - during the trial, in the seven days after it, or while only two monitors are running - and the account is active again on that plan:
- Every paused monitor resumes, as many as the new plan allows. If you have more monitors than the plan includes, the ones that don’t fit stay paused until you upgrade or make room.
- The two monitors slowed to 30 minutes go back to the interval you had set, unless the new plan’s minimum interval is longer - then they use that minimum.
- If you changed one of those two monitors’ interval yourself after day 37, your change is kept.
Your two options once the trial ends
Section titled “Your two options once the trial ends”Both are available from Billing -> Packages at any point during or after the trial, until sign-in locks:
- Activate a paid plan, then pay within 14 days. Monitoring runs on the new plan’s limits from the moment you activate it, with every monitor and interval restored as described above. If payment isn’t completed inside that window, the account pauses until you pay - your choice and configuration are kept.
- Switch to Free. The account becomes active on the Free plan’s limits (2 monitors, checked every 30 minutes) with no end date, and the deletion clock stops. Monitors beyond Free’s limits stay paused, not deleted.
Do it with the API or MCP
Section titled “Do it with the API or MCP”get_account (or GET /account) reports the account’s billing state under flags:
active is false while disabled, enabled turns false on day 37 when monitors pause (the two kept
monitors still run - check each monitor’s own status to see which), and disableReason names the reason
(PackageExpiration after a trial that ran out). These flags inform - they don’t themselves change anything;
choosing a plan is a billing action taken in the app.
Converting to a paid plan
Section titled “Converting to a paid plan”You can upgrade at any point during or after the trial - see Upgrade or downgrade your plan. Upgrading early doesn’t waste any trial time; it simply replaces the trial with the plan you choose.
Limits and gotchas
Section titled “Limits and gotchas”- The seven days after the trial, the day-37 pause, the sign-in lock and the deletion are automatic and account-wide - they are not something you configure.
- A trial account that never adds a monitor still gets the same emails; they simply focus on getting started rather than on numbers.
- Signing up with just an email (no password) still starts the same 30-day trial - see account settings and the sign-in note below for how to get back into that account later.