FotoGrids ships as two plugins. The Free plugin is permanently free, runs without a licence, and includes the entire core Gallery experience. The Pro plugin extends Free with paid features and requires an active licence. This article explains how the licence system works end-to-end, where licences come from, what an “activation” is, and what changes when a licence expires.
If you are activating a key right now and just want the steps, jump to Activating Your License Key.
What you buy #
FotoGrids Pro is sold from fotogrids.com/pricing. At checkout you choose a plan and a billing cycle. After payment, three things are issued to you automatically:
- An order receipt by email.
- A licence key — a long alphanumeric string that proves you own a paid plan.
- A download link for the Pro plugin’s ZIP file.
The same information is available in your customer account at fotogrids.com/account, which is where renewals, plan changes, and downloads also live.
Free and Pro are two separate plugins. Free is installed from WordPress.org or with a Free download from fotogrids.com. Pro is installed as a second plugin alongside Free — see Installing FotoGrids Pro for the procedure.
Activations and site limits #
Each licence key allows the plugin to be activated on a fixed number of sites. The number depends on the plan you bought:
| Plan | Sites included |
|---|---|
| Pro Starter | 1 site |
| Pro Plus | 5 sites |
| Agency | 25 sites |
An activation is the act of telling the licence system that a specific WordPress site is using your key. Each activation consumes one slot on the licence. If you reach the limit, you can either upgrade your plan for more slots or deactivate an existing site to free a slot — see Transferring a License to a New Domain for the deactivation procedure.
A development copy of a Pro feature you are evaluating does not need its own activation if you have not activated the licence on that site yet — Free is permanently free and unlocks Pro features only after the key is entered.
Activation flow #
When you enter your licence key on a fresh installation of FotoGrids Pro, the plugin contacts the licence server and asks two questions: “is this key valid?” and “does this site have an available slot?” If both answers are yes, the server records the activation, returns a licence record, and the plugin stores it locally. From that point on every page load uses the local record — the plugin does not make a network round-trip per request.
Periodically (every few days at most) the plugin re-validates the local record with the licence server in the background. This is how renewals, plan upgrades, and expirations are picked up. If the network is unavailable during a re-validation, the plugin continues to use the last known good state — it does not deactivate your Pro features the moment a check fails.
What happens if the licence expires #
When a paid plan expires without renewing, FotoGrids enters a graceful, predictable state.
- Pro features continue to work as long as you do not deactivate or update the Pro plugin. Anything you have already set up — Slider layouts, advanced metadata, Custom CSS per Gallery, WooCommerce integration — keeps running on visitor traffic. Galleries do not become unstyled, the Lightbox does not stop opening, and no visitor sees a warning.
- Pro feature updates stop. New versions of the Pro plugin are only available to subscribers with an active licence. The Free plugin always updates from WordPress.org regardless of your Pro status.
- The admin UI shows a renewal notice with a direct link back to your account at fotogrids.com/account. The notice is not intrusive — there is no modal blocking the editor, no nag screen on the Plugins page.
- Support entitlement ends at the date your licence expired. Tickets and prioritisation depend on plan tier; see your account page for what your specific plan includes.
Renewing your licence at any later date restores everything immediately. No data is lost — your stored Gallery settings, Pro-only options, and Templates remain in the database the entire time.
An expired licence does not break a live Gallery. Visitors see exactly what they saw the day before the licence expired.
What a licence does not do #
The licence system is in charge of unlocking paid Pro features and entitling you to updates and support. It does not gate anything in the Free plugin. The Free plugin runs without any licence and shows no licence prompts — every Free article in this documentation applies to a Free installation with no key entered.
The licence also does not phone home with visitor data, image content, or analytics. The only data sent to fotogrids.com is the minimum needed for activation and renewal checks — your licence key, your site URL, and version numbers. No image bytes, no Gallery data, no visitor information ever leaves your site.
Refunds, cancellations, and transfers #
- Refunds and cancellations are handled in your customer account at fotogrids.com/account. Both are processed by the payment provider — see the terms displayed at checkout for the refund window that applied to your purchase.
- Transferring a licence from one domain to another is supported and free of charge. See Transferring a License to a New Domain.
- Selling or giving your key to another party requires that the original activation be released first; see the transfer article for the steps.
Tips #
If you are not sure whether a feature is Free or Pro, the most direct place to check is the feature’s own documentation article — every page in this documentation that describes a Pro-only feature is tagged with the relevant tier. Pro-only controls are visible in the settings panels on a Free installation, but displayed with a Pro badge indicating they require an upgrade. Look for the badge to identify which features are available on your current plan.
For the steps to activate a key, see Activating Your License Key.
