Pricing without the games.
Four plans. No seat charges, no feature-gate maze, no trial that quietly becomes a bill. Businesses pay by the number of apps they track, because that's the size of the problem we're solving for them.
Unlimited people on every plan.
We price by apps tracked — never by seats — because the whole point is inviting everyone who can forward an invoice. Adding your whole family, or your whole company, costs nothing extra. Pay annually and get two months free.
Family
Individuals or Households
$0/forever
Not a trial. The plan.
Up to 25 apps · unlimited people
- More free capacity than any other tracker
- One shared intake inbox
- Owners per person — filter family vs. individual costs
- Upcoming-renewals view
- Full invoice history
Starter
Small Businesses
$50/month
or $500/year (2 months free)
Up to 50 apps · unlimited people
- Everything in Family, plus:
- Teams, branches & divisions with cost roll-ups
- Agreements with computed notice deadlines
- CSV import
- Activity timeline (audit trail)
Growth
Growing Companies
$100/month
or $1,000/year (2 months free)
Up to 100 apps · unlimited people
- Everything in Starter
- Room for a real software estate
- The plan most companies land on once the inventory is honest
Scale
Larger Organizations
$250/month
or $2,500/year (2 months free)
Unlimited apps · unlimited people
- Everything in Growth
- No app ceiling, ever
- Priority answers from a human at hello@cardinera.com
For scale: Growth is $1,200 a year. Industry studies put wasted SaaS spend around 30% — a single auto-renewal caught before its notice deadline typically pays for ShelfLife for years.
How the business trial actually works
Day 1: sign up with a card. The card proves you're real; it is not charged. You get the full product — no gates, no watermarks, your real data.
Day 30: ShelfLife asks whether you'd like to start paying. If you opt in, billing begins that day at the plan you choose. If you don't, you are not charged — we don't start billing and hope you didn't notice. Your data remains yours and exportable either way.
Yes, this costs us customers who "would have forgotten to cancel." We're comfortable losing revenue we'd have had to be ashamed of.
Questions people actually ask
What counts as an "app"?
One product you pay for or track: Slack is one app, Figma is one app, your in-house CRM you want on the record is one app. Agreements, invoices and renewals attached to an app don't count separately — an app with three years of invoice history is still one app.
Why do you need a card for a free plan?
Because the intake inboxes are a shared system, and a card is the cheapest honest way to keep bots and abusers out of it. On the Family plan the card is never charged — there is no trial to expire and no paid tier we're steering you toward. It's identity, not a hook.
What happens if we go over our app limit?
Nothing breaks and nothing is deleted. ShelfLife tells you you've outgrown the plan and asks you to upgrade before adding more. Your existing data is never held hostage to a pricing tier.
On the Family plan, hitting the limit usually means something better: a list that long almost always contains subscriptions nobody uses anymore — which is exactly what ShelfLife is for. Have a look at what's renewing before assuming you need more room. And if your household genuinely runs that many, tell us — we're not going to wall in a real family.
Why price by apps instead of seats?
Because seat pricing punishes exactly the behavior that makes the product useful — inviting more people to forward invoices and keep the record honest. The number of apps you track is a fair proxy for the size of the problem we're solving for you, so that's what you pay for.
Do you look at our invoices or subscriptions?
Software processes them; people don't read them. Your data is tenant-isolated, never sold, never shared, never mined for advertising or "benchmark insights" products. This isn't a settings toggle — it's the business model: you pay us money, we provide software, and that's the entire transaction.
Can we pay annually?
Yes — two months free ($500, $1,000 or $2,500 a year). And in keeping with how we do trials: before your annual plan renews, we email you a reminder with the amount and the date. A renewal you saw coming is the only kind we want — we're a renewals company; we'd be embarrassed to ambush you with ours.
Can we cancel anytime?
Yes, in the app, effective at the end of the period you've paid for — no retention flow, no phone call, no "are you sure?" gauntlet. And because you can export your data whenever you like, leaving is a real option, which is how we prefer to keep customers: by being worth it.
A husband and wife both forward to the same inbox — do we need two accounts?
One household account, one shared inbox address, as many people as you like. Each person forwards from their own email; each subscription gets an owner so you can see whole-family costs or one person's slice. Businesses work identically, with teams and divisions in place of family members.
Will the prices change?
If they ever do, existing customers keep their price for at least twelve months and hear about it from us directly — not from a bank statement. And Family stays free; that one isn't a pricing decision, it's a founding one.
Pick a door. Both are honest.
Families start free and stay free. Businesses get 30 real days to decide, and nothing happens without an opt-in.
Get started