The free trial
What you can do before you pay, and what happens when the trial runs out.
Once sign-up opens, every new account's first show will start on a free trial. You won't need a card, and it won't run out on a date. It's a small allowance for seeing what Podato does with your own show. Until then Podato is invite-only: invited testers get a tester account instead of the trial, and anyone else can join the waitlist on the home page.
What the trial includes
| On the free trial | |
|---|---|
| Episodes processed | 3 in total |
| Guest research | 8 guests |
| Research on your show from the web | 5 runs (one happens automatically when you set up) |
| Pieces written or rewritten | 12 in total |
| Shows | Your first show only |
| People | Just you |
| Analytics and the Brain | Not included (Grow plan) |
Reading your feed is free and doesn't use any of this, so your whole back catalogue appears in Podato straight away. Episodes whose feed already includes a transcript are processed free too, so they never use your 3. See How Podato works.
Keeping an eye on it
While you're on the trial, a Free trial meter shows how many of your 3 free episodes you've used and how many are left, with an Upgrade button. On a computer it sits at the bottom of the sidebar; on a phone it's a strip under the header. It updates as each episode finishes.
The Billing card in Account settings shows the rest: your processed episodes, and your guest research so far. Guests shows how many free guest researches you have left.
When it runs out
When you've used an allowance, Podato says which one, for example You've used your free trial allowance, and offers a See plans button. Everything you've made stays: your episodes, write-ups and guests are all still there to read, copy and edit.
To keep going, choose a plan for your show. See Plans and limits.
Adding another show
The trial is for your first show. When you add another, Podato asks you to choose a plan for it before it starts work on it. Once any of your shows has a plan, the trial is over: a show without a plan of its own can't process episodes, write or research guests until you choose one for it.