Subscription Tiers and Billing

LoopString offers six subscription tiers designed to grow with your project, from a single home device all the way to enterprise fleet deployments. This page explains what each tier includes, how billing works, and how to keep track of your usage.

Overview

Every LoopString account starts on the Free tier automatically — no credit card required. Paid tiers unlock more devices, more sensor slots, faster data rates, and longer data retention. All paid plans are billed through Stripe, and you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time from the Billing settings page.

The Six Tiers

The tiers in order from smallest to largest are: Free, Hobby, Maker, Pro, Business, and Enterprise.

Free

• Price: $0 per month, no credit card required
• Devices: 1
• Sensor slots: 8
• Minimum sensor push interval: 30 seconds
• Data retention: 1 day
• Monthly write quota: 5,000 database writes per day
• Best for: Trying out the platform, evaluating a single sensor, or lightweight personal projects

Hobby

• Price: $7 per month (or $5.83 per month billed annually as $70 per year)
• Devices: 2
• Sensor slots: 20
• Minimum sensor push interval: 30 seconds
• Data retention: 30 days
• Monthly write quota: 50,000 database writes per day
• Best for: Home automation, grow tents, and personal IoT projects with a handful of sensors

Maker

• Price: $20 per month (or $16.67 per month billed annually as $200 per year)
• Devices: 5
• Sensor slots: 60
• Minimum sensor push interval: 15 seconds
• Data retention: 90 days
• Monthly write quota: 200,000 database writes per day
• Best for: Serious makers running PID control loops, analytics, and multi-room setups

Pro

• Price: $44 per month (or $36.67 per month billed annually as $440 per year)
• Devices: 15
• Sensor slots: 200
• Minimum sensor push interval: 15 seconds
• Data retention: 365 days (1 year)
• Monthly write quota: 500,000 database writes per day
• Best for: Small businesses and advanced users who need dashboard sharing, conditional logic, and a year of historical data

Business

• Price: $150 per month (or $125 per month billed annually as $1,500 per year)
• Devices: 50
• Sensor slots: 500
• Minimum sensor push interval: 5 seconds (near real-time)
• Data retention: 730 days (2 years)
• Monthly write quota: 2,000,000 database writes per day
• Best for: Full-scale commercial operations, fleet management, and multi-Pi mesh networks

Enterprise

• Price: Custom — contact LoopString for a quote
• Devices: Unlimited
• Sensor slots: Unlimited
• Minimum sensor push interval: 1 second
• Data retention: Unlimited
• Monthly write quota: Unlimited
• Best for: Large organizations requiring dedicated infrastructure, a service-level agreement (SLA), and custom integrations

Understanding the Limits

Devices

A device is a Raspberry Pi running the LoopString Node-RED agent. When you add a new device and your count would exceed your plan limit, the platform will block the addition and prompt you to upgrade.

Sensor Slots

A sensor slot represents one data-publishing signal — a single measurement channel from a connected sensor, such as temperature, humidity, or CO2. If you have a sensor that publishes three distinct measurements (for example, temperature, humidity, and pressure all from one physical sensor), that counts as three slots.

Slots are shared across all your devices. When you reach your slot limit, new sensors added to the Configurator will not publish data until you either remove existing sensors or upgrade your plan.

Minimum Sensor Push Interval

This is the fastest rate at which your sensors can push readings to the cloud dashboard. The platform enforces this limit at the Pi level through the Node-RED flow that is deployed to your device.

• Free and Hobby: At most one reading every 30 seconds per sensor
• Maker and Pro: At most one reading every 15 seconds per sensor
• Business and Enterprise: At most one reading every 5 seconds (Business) or 1 second (Enterprise)

You can configure individual sensors to push less frequently than this minimum if you prefer — for example, reading soil moisture only once every 10 minutes. The minimum interval is a ceiling on speed, not a requirement to push that fast.

For situations where you need faster data temporarily — for instance, while tuning a PID controller — the Live Meter mode on each sensor card lets you temporarily push readings every few seconds without permanently changing your flow configuration. Live Meter automatically reverts after 10 minutes.

Data Retention

LoopString stores sensor history for the duration shown for your plan. Readings older than your retention window are automatically removed. Free tier keeps only the last day of readings, which is enough to view live trends. Upgrading to a paid plan extends how far back you can look in Analytics and on individual sensor sparklines.

Write Quota

Each sensor reading written to the database counts against your daily write quota. The dashboard shows your total writes for the current calendar month and how close you are to your limit. If you reach 80% of your quota, a warning appears in the Usage panel. If you reach 100%, data writes may be throttled until the month rolls over or you upgrade.

How Billing Works

LoopString uses Stripe to handle all payments securely. Your payment details are stored and processed by Stripe — LoopString never sees your full card number.

Monthly Billing

• You are charged on the same day each month, starting from the date you first subscribed
• Your tier limits take effect immediately when your payment processes
• Upgrades prorate the difference for the remaining days in your current billing period

Annual Billing

• Pay for 12 months upfront and receive the equivalent of 2 months free
• Annual pricing is shown as a monthly equivalent for easy comparison, but the full annual amount is charged at once
• Hobby annual: $70 total ($5.83 per month equivalent)
• Maker annual: $200 total ($16.67 per month equivalent)
• Pro annual: $440 total ($36.67 per month equivalent)
• Business annual: $1,500 total ($125 per month equivalent)
• You can switch between monthly and annual billing through the Stripe Customer Portal at any time; the change takes effect at your next renewal date

Stripe Customer Portal

The Stripe Customer Portal is where you manage payment methods, download invoices, and change your plan. Access it by navigating to Settings > Billing and clicking "Manage subscription." The portal opens in a new tab and is hosted directly by Stripe.

The Usage Dashboard

The Usage panel in Settings > Billing gives you a real-time view of your consumption for the current billing period. It shows:

• Your current plan name
• How many sensor slots you have used versus how many your plan includes
• How many database writes you have made this month and what percentage of your monthly quota that represents
• Your data retention period for the current tier
• A breakdown of writes and reads per device, so you can identify which devices are generating the most traffic

The progress bars change color as you approach your limits:

• Blue means usage is within normal range
• Amber means you have used 80% or more of your quota — consider upgrading soon
• Red means you have hit your quota and writes may be throttled

Upgrading or Downgrading Your Plan

Upgrading

1. Go to Settings > Billing
2. In the Compare Plans section, find the tier you want and click Upgrade
3. This opens the Stripe Customer Portal, where you complete the change
4. Your new limits apply immediately after the payment succeeds
5. Any prorated credit for your current period is applied automatically by Stripe

Downgrading

Downgrading is also done through the Stripe Customer Portal. Before downgrading, check that your current usage fits within the lower tier's limits:

• If you have more devices connected than the lower tier allows, you will need to remove devices before or immediately after downgrading
• If you have more sensor slots in use than the lower tier allows, excess sensors will stop publishing data
• Your data retention window will shorten to match the new tier; readings older than the new window will be removed at the next cleanup cycle

Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period, not immediately.

Cancelling

Cancelling your subscription through the Stripe Customer Portal will revert your account to the Free tier at the end of your current paid period. Your data and device configurations are preserved, but you will be limited to one device and eight sensor slots.

Troubleshooting

My sensors stopped publishing data after adding a new one

You have likely reached your sensor slot limit. Go to Settings > Billing and check the sensor slots progress bar. If you are at your limit, you can either remove unused sensors from the Configurator or upgrade to a higher plan to increase your slot count.

I upgraded my plan but my device count limit did not change

Tier limits update immediately when Stripe confirms your payment, but the dashboard reads this from a Firestore subscription that may take a few seconds to reflect the change. Wait 10 to 15 seconds and reload the page. If the limit still shows the old tier, sign out and sign back in to force a fresh auth token and re-read your customer record.

My payment failed and I see a payment warning banner

If Stripe was unable to charge your card, your account will show a delinquent warning in the billing page header. Click "Update payment" to open the Stripe Customer Portal and add a new payment method. Stripe will automatically retry the charge after you update. Your device and sensor access continues during the grace period, but it will be suspended if the payment remains unresolved after several retry attempts.

I am on an annual plan and want to switch to monthly

Open the Stripe Customer Portal (Settings > Billing > Manage subscription) and change your billing interval. The switch takes effect at your next renewal date — you will not be charged again until your current annual period ends, at which point you will be billed at the monthly rate.

The Usage panel shows no data for this period

Usage data is recorded by a background Cloud Function that runs a daily rollup. If you are on a new account or just changed your plan today, there may not be a usage record for the current period yet. This is expected and not an error — the panel will populate automatically once the first rollup runs, typically within 24 hours of your first sensor write.

Known Issues and Limitations

• Sensor slot counts update in near real-time as you add or remove sensors in the Configurator, but there can be a delay of several seconds before the billing page reflects the new count after a flow is deployed.
• Downgrading plans does not immediately remove devices or sensor slots — enforcement happens at the next login session or page reload. If you are managing a shared account, inform your team before downgrading.
• The Enterprise tier requires manual account configuration by the LoopString team. Clicking an upgrade button will not automatically provision an Enterprise account — contact support to discuss your needs.
• Data retention cleanup runs on a scheduled basis and is not instantaneous. Readings slightly older than your retention window may remain visible briefly before the cleanup job removes them.
• Write quota resets at the start of each calendar month, not on your subscription renewal date. These two dates may differ if you subscribed mid-month.