Billing And Provider Options

Billing is a central part of hosted contributor sites. It explains what the site can use, what is locked, what the current limits are, and where to upgrade or get help.

What Billing Shows

Contributor Billing should show:

• Current plan.
• Billing status.
• Current period end when available.
• Media storage used and remaining.
• Images, documents, audio, video, resources, and private-source-only counts.
• Per-file upload limit.
• Page and post limits.
• Available features.
• Locked features.
• Upgrade and cancellation path.
• Stripe-hosted management actions when configured.

Plans And Limits

Service Plans can define:

• Media quota.
• Per-file upload limit.
• Page quota.
• Post quota.
• Feature availability.
• Platform Showcase surfacing.
• Master post surfacing.
• Custom email sender support.
• Stripe payout support.
• Indexing override support.
• Platform fee for site payments.

When a plan is assigned, its snapshot is copied into the contributor site so the SubCMS can show correct usage and locked states.

Locked Features

A locked feature is not an error. It means the current plan does not include it.

Examples:

• Shop.
• Resource Downloads.
• Documentation.
• Forms.
• Custom Postmark sender.
• Stripe Connect payouts.
• Higher media quota.
• Higher upload limit.
• Indexing override controls.

The Features page should describe what is included and what requires upgrade.

Downgrade And Cancel Expectations

When a contributor downgrades or cancels:

• Existing private source assets remain protected.
• Public resources that are still referenced should not be removed without a clear cleanup action.
• Locked feature controls become unavailable.
• Billing should explain what will stop working before the contributor confirms a change.
• Platform support can run lifecycle checks if cleanup is needed.

Downgrade behavior should be conservative. It is better to preserve data and disable new privileged actions than to remove content automatically.

Custom Postmark Sender

By default, contributor sites inherit the master platform Postmark configuration.

A paid plan can allow custom sender signatures. This lets a contributor site send email as its own approved sender while still fitting inside platform support rules.

Common uses:

• Contact form replies.
• Contributor notifications.
• Order or request messages tied to the contributor brand.

The platform still manages core delivery readiness and support boundaries. Contributors should not see raw platform provider credentials unless the product intentionally allows it.

Stripe Site Payments

There are two Stripe concepts:

Concept	Purpose
Service billing	The contributor pays the platform for the hosted site plan.
Site payments	Visitors pay the contributor site for shop items or catalog purchases.

Service billing stays on the master platform account.

For site payments, a paid plan can allow Stripe Connect. The contributor connects a payout account, while checkout can still use the master Stripe account. The platform can retain the configured platform fee from payments.

Commerce Models

DesertCMS supports these commerce modes:

Mode	Meaning
Disabled	No public checkout.
Master-owned sales	The CMS instance receives direct Stripe Checkout sales into its configured Stripe account.
Contributor-owned sales	A contributor instance receives direct Stripe Checkout sales into its configured Stripe account.
Platform marketplace payouts	Checkout uses the master Stripe account, transfers proceeds to a contributor connected account, and keeps the plan platform fee.
Marketplace planning	Planning state for marketplace checkout that should not accept live checkout.

For hosted contributor sites, the product goal is platform marketplace payouts when the plan allows Stripe Connect.

Account / Help

Account / Help should include:

• Current plan summary.
• Support email.
• Billing help link.
• Documentation links.
• Platform status.
• Provider inheritance summary.

This keeps contributor support inside the product instead of pushing site managers into operator settings.