Must I really pay 4 times more (Pro License) - if I’m making a website for somebody else ? - please clarify.
Isn’t this odd ?
I make websites sometimes. It’s not something I do all the time
Be clear please - if I want to make a website for a client I must pay £250 / year instead of £60
Thanks
Hi @jbob,
The Pro license costs more than the Base license because it provides additional features and benefits tailored to professional web designers and developers.
With the Pro license, you have the right to build and sell websites to clients, which isn’t allowed with the Base license. This makes it a business tool rather than just a personal-use product.
The Base license includes Elements branding on published sites, whereas the Pro license removes it, allowing you to present fully branded client work.
The Pro license grants access to all available features, tools, and priority support, ensuring professionals have everything they need to deliver high-quality websites.
Pro users get faster and higher-priority customer support, making it easier to resolve issues quickly—essential for professionals working on client deadlines.
The Base license is meant for personal projects or hobbyists, while the Pro license is designed for freelancers, agencies, and businesses who are making money from reselling websites.
Ultimately, the pricing reflects the added value, flexibility, and commercial rights that the Pro license provides compared to the Base license.
You can find a full comparison and details on our licensing page.
Let me know if you’d like further details!
Who is Plus for?
The Plus license is designed for users who need more than the Base license but don’t require the full commercial permissions of the Pro license. Here’s who it’s best suited for:
• Enthusiasts – If you enjoy building websites for fun, side projects, or personal use but want more flexibility than the Base license, Plus is a great fit.
• Non-Commercial Users – You can build websites for yourself, friends, or community groups, as long as you’re not selling the sites or offering paid web design services.
• Freelancers Testing the Waters – If you’re experimenting with website building but not yet taking on paid client projects, Plus gives you more tools without the branding.
• Small-Scale or Internal Use – Perfect for in-house projects, charities, or organizations that need a polished website but aren’t reselling their work.
• No Elements branding – Your sites look fully your own, without the Elements badge.
• More features – Access additional features including unlimited globals, and unlimited custom components.
• Better flexibility – Use it for more than just personal projects, as long as you’re not selling websites to clients.
If you ever decide to start selling websites, upgrading to Pro ensures you have the proper license for client work.
Let me know if you need more details!
Dan, I think you’re missing out people like me - and I suspect much of your Classic user base - who maintain a site of their own and perhaps one or two ongoing sites for other designers and so on. I think you need a 3 site license for people like me and an unlimited site license for those making a career of such tools. £250 / year is beyond my reach, particularly at my stage of career.
From what you’ve said, it sounds like the Plus license might work for you, especially if you’re only managing a few sites for friends (at no cost).
However, if you’re offering web design as a paid service, the Pro license is the right choice — You can factor the cost of the license into your client pricing, ensuring you’re properly licensed for commercial projects.
We have more details on what each license offers over in the docs.
Hope that helps.
I took a look at the pricing-structure today and, sorry, but this is feature-discrimination against your users at it’s best.
Not only is switching to a subscription model, tedious as always and removing one big USP of Rapidweaver, but it’s moving you into the big mass of stupid SaaS companies.
However, LLMs are your biggest threat, because they really work great for web stuff. Pick a framework like Bootstrap and spending $250 per year on LLMs takes a long time…
Dan, can you please elaborate on “right to build and sell”?
I haven’t started publishing, but have been wondering about this for a few weeks. I purchased the Plus version, but I’m confused about how many sites are considered crossing the line from Plus to Pro. Something that I never had to think about using classic versions.
I am also trying to figure out if “client” sites under the Pro version are hosted buy Realmac? Thought I read something about Elements hosting capabilities before.
Dan will obviously know better but I think you can use the Plus for as many sites as you like as long as you don’t charge the client for them.
Our subscription model is different. Even if you stop your subscription, you get to keep the version of Elements you have and can continue using it. The only caveat to that is if you are reselling websites built with Elements, you should have an active Pro subscription. However, there’s nothing enforcing this, so we’re operating on an honesty basis for that part.
LLM’s are definitely a game-changer for coding assistance (I often use them for the Element custom components I build in our demos). But even with AI tools, there’s still a lot of value in having a visual, no-code/low-code tool like Elements, especially for those who don’t want to mess with code at all.
Sure, if you are charging clients money for building them a site with Elements, you need to have an active Pro license.
The licensing page in the docs goes into more details about this.
If you are building sites for yourself (or your own business), then you can build as many as you like 
No, we do not host websites. You might be getting confused with Elements Cloud - that’s our online storage platform for backing up and sharing projects.
Dan, I suspect you’re going to have a tough time getting many of the Classic crew of 3 or 4 years ago on board. There are too many options out there that don’t get close to this cost whilst holding extensibility and interoperability advantages that you can’t.
Every system has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Elements has a lot going for it, and it’s getting more powerful by the day.
I feel confident in what we’re building, especially with the feedback we’ve received so far. We love it, and users seem to love it. We’re clearly doing something right. We’re going to push on and see where we can take this thing!
Don’t get me wrong Dan - I love it too. I just - as explained - don’t currently see a justification for me vs my current tools - ie classic and WP. I’d love to be pushing ahead learning this but my circumstances do not justify a £250 / year sub for the one or two third party sites that I currently maintain. I don’t think you have this right. Those that focus on commercial sites will likely have no issue. Dabblers like me are out.
Just read this and as a business and currently building my new e-commerce site in ELEMENTS I assume I need PRO licence? I have PLUS at present to try and learn new programme. Is there an upgrade path for BETA users to PRO please?
If it’s your own business, a Plus license is fine
If you want to upgrade or downgrade you’ll need to email us as it’s currently a manual process. In the future they’ll be a way to do it in-app so you can amange it yourself.