Canvas Docs

Plans And What A Site Means

Canvas plans differ in one thing: how many sites they cover. Every plan carries the full premium feature set, the complete block library, the demo library, updates and support, so choosing a plan is a question about your site count, not about features. This page lays out the plans and then defines the word every licensing question turns on: what a site is.

The Plans

Canvas is sold as a yearly license in three sizes, plus one add on:

  • Starter, $39 per year, for up to 3 sites.
  • Professional, $89 per year, for up to 10 sites.
  • Agency, $199 per year, for up to 100 sites, and the only plan that includes multisite network activation.
  • White Label, $99 per year, an add on to any plan rather than a plan of its own. While it is active, white label branding applies across your activations, replacing Canvas branding in the WordPress admin with your own.

There are no lifetime plans, and there is no feature ladder hidden inside the tiers: a Starter site and an Agency site run the same Canvas. Plans are bought and changed in the billing area of your Canvas account, at https://dashboard.canvaswp.com/billing, which is where the Get a License button on the Canvas > License screen opens and where you are asked to sign in. Upgrading is self service and prorated, so growing into the next size never means buying again from zero.

Your current plan shows as a badge on the Canvas > License screen, and the "What this license unlocks" panel on the same screen lists exactly what your license carries, straight from the licensing service.

What A Site Means

A site is one WordPress installation, and it occupies one seat while your license is activated on it. Three rules make the count predictable:

  • Activation spends the seat, deactivation frees it. Selecting Deactivate on a site's Canvas > License screen returns the seat to your pool, so retiring a site never strands its seat.
  • Development environments are free. Local and staging copies (localhost, .local and .test addresses, recognised staging hostnames) do not count against the allowance. Moving Between Staging And Production has the details.
  • Moving is not a second site. When a site changes address, its activation migrates with it rather than spending another seat. How To Move A License To Another Domain covers both the automatic and the manual path.

Multisite Networks

On a WordPress multisite network, the Agency plan's network activation covers the whole network with a single activation: activate once and every site in the network is licensed, with each subsite's License screen noting that it is covered by the network license. On Starter and Professional, multisite is not included, and sites are licensed individually.

Pitfalls

The site limit is reached but a site on the list is dead. A site that no longer exists cannot deactivate itself. Deactivate it from the site's own License screen while it still runs; for a site that is already gone, contact support to release the seat.

A staging copy is counted as a site. Recognition is by hostname, and a staging address without a recognisable development marker reads as production. The Environment row on Canvas > License shows which way the copy was classified, and deactivating a disposable copy frees its seat.

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