When and How to Pay for Pantheon

Pantheon is free for developers to use for as long as you need. You can spin it up and try almost all features without seeing a credit card form. No trials, no tricks, no crippleware. 

But clearly we're running a business here, so where does the money come in? This post details when it makes sense to keep your site on the “free” plan, and when you’d benefit more from a paid account.

When it makes sense to use Pantheon for free:

1. You're a developer. We believe developers should almost never have to pay. Accounts are always free, and each free account includes two free sites.  Unless the website is a personal project of yours, another party will likely handle the bill.  

• Start a project quickly with one of your two free "development slots.”  
• Use the dashboard tools for each site—including the git repository, SFTP access, team controls, and our Drush aliases
• Use Pantheon's team management interface to invite your client, manager or colleague. (Whomever is responsible for project budget/billing). We built our platform to be flexible with teams who build sites, so you wouldn’t need to set up a new account for every new site, or share accounts between people.

2. You’re working on a contrib module, or testing different distributions. Our container-based architecture allows us to provide first-class service for these use-cases gratis. There's no way to do this economically if you're launching VPSs or cloud instances for each site, and traditional models for "shared hosting" can't provide that first-class experience.

3. You’re curious. Sign up today and start using the tools. It’s a frictionless, self-serve process. (No pesky sales calls, 30-day trials and crippleware, or credit card forms.)

At some point, you’ll want to make the switch from a free site to a paid site. 

When it makes sense to upgrade to a paid plan:

1. Your site is still in development, and you need:

• The ability to load more data into Pantheon than the free tier supports.
• Automatic nightly backups — and the peace of mind they bring.
• You're developing with SSL on specific domains.
• Custom domain names for dev and test or a "preview" for live.
• Better support during development.
• Enterprise needs.
• 24x7 support
• Traffic planning, launch planning, load testing, and site audit.
• The ability to work in parallel on a large web project.

2.  You’re getting ready to launch.

For example: You’re adding your own domain name to your site is a premium feature on Pantheon, so before you can point real-world traffic at your site you'll need to at least move to the "Personal" plan.

We still advise everyone to start payment and set everything a few days before going live, so that you can preview your live environment, etc. It can take stress and uncertainty out of the launch process, which is always a good thing. Measure twice, cut once. For enterprise customers, you get our launch concierge service. It's included in your Pantheon Enterprise plan. 

Which brings us to Multidev

Earlier this month, Pantheon launched Multidev, the single most requested feature since our debut. Multidev is available for the Business plan and above; it’s not available on the free tier.

Why not for free? Because Multidev is a power tool. You only truly need it if you're working as part of a team operating in parallel on a real project.

That’s when you (and your client) will get the most value.

All that time it takes to set up environments and resolve workflow issues? The frustration and setbacks that happen when a development infrastructure is kludgy or fragmented? This can can run into the thousands of dollars in consulting and cause weeks of project delay.

Multidev lets teams skip all that, and start developing on Pantheon from the start, one of the best ways to insure a hassle-free launch.

A team of three professional developers only needs to save five minutes a day before it becomes a net savings:

$100/hr x 5 mins x 3 people x 20 days = $500/mo

With Multidev, there's a compelling reason to start development on a Pantheon Business plan from the get-go.

We're pretty sure site owners will understand this, and we know from working with our partners over the past year that projects built on Pantheon — those with "one platform from day one" — have a high success rate compared to those that try to migrate at the very end.

If you're a developer working on a project that needs Multidev, let us know — there's a dedicated contact form right in your dashboard — and we're happy to help make the case.