I’ve just received the email offering Elements CMS Pro. This is a paid extra (initially at a discount). What advantages does it have over the Markdown CMS that comes free with the basic Elements package?
Hi @gallifrey55
The Online Editor that comes with Elements gives you a browser-based WYSIWYG editor with one user, one content folder, and one resources folder. Meaning you can login from any browser, create and edit your content, and upload images - all for free!
The highlights of the Pro version are:
- Unlimited users and roles
- Unlimited content and resource folders (plus sub-folder support)
- Version history and rollback
- AI Writing Assistant
- MCP server so you manage your content from Claude, Codex, and other AI tools
- Webhooks lets you trigger actions when you create/edit/delete content
The full comparison table is on the Elements CMS website
It’s a one-off payment per domain with lifetime updates, no subscription, and it’s currently 50% off.
Do let me know if you have any other questions 
Please clarify.
If I want to use the latest online editor on three different websites I will need to get “CMS Pro” three times?
You need to buy a separate one-time CMS Pro license for each individual website.
The nice thing about CMS Pro, though, is that you can then use it on as many subdomains of that site as you like. That’s one of the main differences between the regular CMS version and CMS Pro.
And well… the current deal is pretty tempting. Even if you don’t actually need another license right now, you could always grab one or two for later — assuming there’s still a little holiday money left because you maybe skipped an ice cream or two to keep the figure in check. ^^
I’m confused as well. If I buy the CMS Pro, will it be usable for just one website? If that is the case… then it is insane.
Given the extra capabilities of Pro and that this is a one-time purchase (no subscription), it made sense for me to find a way to take advantage of the current 50% off promo and get two copies - one for use now and the other ready for another planned site. Without the promo, I would have waited.
I honestly don’t really understand the confusion here.
Since the launch of the Online CMS, it has always been clearly communicated that you need a separate license for each domain if you want to use the PRO or STUDIO features.
From what I can see, STUDIO has now basically been merged into PRO.
So all the features that were previously included with STUDIO are now also available with PRO. In other words, you now get everything that used to be part of STUDIO for the PRO price.
And if you don’t need all those extra features, you can still use the Free version. Yes, it’s quite limited, but it’s still perfectly fine if all you want to do is run a simple basic blog.
What has NOT changed is that you still need a separate license for every domain where you want to use the Online CMS. And to be fair, I think that’s completely reasonable, especially since other providers handle their licensing in a similar way.
So I don’t really see much reason to be confused. The situation seems pretty straightforward to me.
Just get a PRO license and you really can’t go wrong.
The CMS Pro license is valid for one domain, however, you can use it on as many subdomains as you want. This means your license would be valid for main-website.com and blog.main-website.com.
If you want to use it on separate domains, you would need to purchase a license for each domain.
Thank you @ben and all. I did not read the FAQ at the bottom and the money I had for this just got spent. I still think you guys do a wonderful job and wish I had more to invest in the product.
I just need to build some stuff and get it up on the store and re-invest the money in better tools.
Do you recommend to put the blog in a sub domain? @dan
Personal preference, but I find it easier and prefer it on the main domain, e.g. main-website.com/blog
Agree with @dan on this: site.com/blog, because people are more likely to find it. Others disagree.
Sub-domains are definitely useful if you have a really complex site that has distinct niches within it that need separate maintenance. I’ve considered moving my other photography sites under bythom.com (e.g. zsystem.bythom.com, dslr.bythom.com, film.bythom.com), but then you end up having to show how to get to those on the main site (e.g. they need menu entries, which you don’t want to be named zsystem.bythom), so you aren’t educating your site visitor how to get to them directly. You’re also adding things that the user has to type to get there in the first place.
Which brings us back to the point: site.com with a menu entry for blog is self-reinforcing for the user. If they do want to get to the blog directly, the sophisticated user will just add that specific URL to their bookmarks.
If your blog is located at mywebsite.com, having a sub-domain is useful if you want a staging area for your website e.g. staging.yourwebsite.com/blog. This means that CMS Pro will still work with the one license.
Having a testing website (on ServBay / Mamp) e.g. dev.yourwebsite.com/blog will also work with the same CMS Pro license.
Hello,
Could you please explain why there are four different names for Elements CMS: Free, Solo, Studio and Pro?
On this page https://cms.elementsplatform.com/blog/pricing-for-the-online-editor, only Free, Solo and Studio are mentioned, while on this one https://cms.elementsplatform.com/online-editor/#pro-features, only Free and Pro are referred to.
How should this be understood?
The site is a little outdated, we’e working on a revamp.
There are two plans, the Free version that is included with RapidWeaver Elements, and the Pro version that gives you additional features. Those are the only two listed in the pricing section.
You should find the information up-to-date in the CMS documentation.
Hope that helps to clear things up!
I think it would also be helpful to distinguish between the platform Elements (yearly update paid plan) and the CMS (one time charge). At least that is where my confusion came from until I was reminded that the CMS is a one-time investment.
That has cleared it up for me about the domains. One thing I do not understand is I received a serial number but I do not know how to use it. I presume it needs to be used somewhere somehow. It’s probably in some documentation I have not found yet.
Hi @martef86
Have you added the Online Editor to your project and published your site? If so, you can visit the page with the Online Editor and enter your CMS Pro serial number on the License page.
@ben how do you remove license if you would like to move it to another project. I assume there must be some kind of a de-authorize option?
I am not that far with my Blog to try this out with my own Pro license 