No Card, No Tricks: Our Pricing Promises
Plant apps have a billing reputation problem. Here are the six promises Leaf Scan makes instead — starting with a free trial that doesn't ask for your card.
Search reviews of the most popular plant apps and a pattern appears that has nothing to do with plants: surprise charges after "free" trials, subscriptions that take a support ticket to cancel, prices that change without warning. The most-downloaded app in this category has thousands of complaints about billing alone.
We can't fix the category, but we can refuse to participate. So we're writing our pricing principles down, publicly, where you can hold us to them.
The six promises
One: the free trial never asks for a payment card. Seven days of everything, and when it ends, it just ends — you choose what happens next. Nobody gets charged for forgetting.
Two: nothing you create is ever held hostage. Your plants, photos, journal, care history, and schedules stay fully yours and fully usable on the free plan, forever. Lapsing a subscription never locks up your data.
Three: the full price, the renewal date, and how to cancel are all on the paywall itself — not in a footnote, not three menus deep. Cancelling takes one tap into your App Store subscriptions, and we link it directly.
Four: no fake urgency. No countdown timers, no "offer expires tonight" that resets tomorrow, no full-screen upsell after every photo you take.
Five: notifications are for your plants, not for us. Care reminders, yes. Marketing pushes, never.
Six: leaving and returning is painless. Cancel anytime and your premium history reactivates instantly if you ever come back.
What's free, what's paid — in one honest table
The free plan is a complete plant care app: unlimited plants, full scheduling and reminders, the journal, the light meter, toxicity badges, and a monthly allowance of AI features — identifications, a diagnosis, growth comparisons, and Plant Doctor chat messages.
Premium removes the allowances and unlocks the deepest AI features: unlimited identification and diagnosis, weather-adaptive schedule intelligence, unlimited growth tracking comparisons, and multi-photo identification. In short: the free plan cares for your plants; premium gives them a full-time botanist.
When you do hit a monthly limit, we show you exactly where you stand — "3 of 5 free identifications used, resets July 1" — and waiting is always presented as a legitimate option, right next to the upgrade button.
Why we're doing it this way
Partly because it's right, and partly because it's good strategy — honest pricing is rarer than good AI in this category, and we'd rather earn five-star reviews that say "they didn't trick me" than squeeze one more conversion out of a dark pattern.
These promises live permanently in the app under Settings → Our promises. If we ever break one, say so loudly — in a review, to our support inbox, anywhere. We're betting the company on keeping them.
- 7-day full trial, no card required, no auto-charge.
- Your plants and data are never paywalled — free plan forever.
- Price, renewal, and cancel link all on one screen.
- Zero marketing notifications. Reminders are for plants only.
FAQ
What happens exactly when my trial ends?
The app calmly tells you the trial is over and shows precisely what changed: AI features return to their monthly free allowances. Everything you created — plants, schedules, photos, history — is untouched and fully usable. No charge happens, because we never took a card.
How do I cancel a paid subscription?
Settings → Manage subscription takes you straight to your App Store subscription sheet — one tap, managed by Apple, effective immediately at the period's end. We link it from the paywall too.
Will prices change?
If they ever do, existing subscribers keep their price for at least a full year, and we'll announce changes here on the blog first. No silent regional repricing.