Marketplace: Maintenance Subscriptions, Updates & Perpetual Rights
Understand Maintenance subscriptions -- what they cover, how renewal and cancellation work, why perpetual version rights survive cancellation, and how coupons and 100%-off grants work.
A Marketplace purchase gives you two distinct things: a License and an optional Maintenance subscription. These are intentionally separate so you understand exactly what you own and what is ongoing.
What a License Gives You
A License grants one project the perpetual right to use and modify a specific version’s source code. This right never expires, regardless of what happens to the Maintenance subscription, the seller’s account, or the listing’s published status.
Specifically, your license guarantees:
- You received the actual source files at the installed version.
- You can modify those files freely within your project.
- The right to use and modify that version in that project is permanent.
- If you cancel Maintenance, unpublish occurs, or the seller stops operating, your installed source and perpetual use rights are unaffected.
Licenses are project-bound. Using the same pack in a second project requires a second license at the same price. One license = one project.
What Maintenance Gives You
A Maintenance subscription is optional and adds:
| What you get | Notes |
|---|---|
| Compatible updates | Access to newer pack versions through the Marketplace tab |
| AI-assisted reconciliation | When an update has conflicts with your modifications, the reconciler is dispatched |
| Security notices | Notifications when a security or compatibility issue is found in an installed pack |
| Compatibility notices | Alerts when a dependency or runtime change affects your version |
| Seller support | Access to the seller’s stated support channel during the active period |
Maintenance is priced as an annual subscription. The default term is one year. Some listings include first-year Maintenance in the one-time purchase price; others price it separately. The listing detail page shows both amounts explicitly before you purchase.
Renewal and Cancellation
Auto-renewal
Maintenance auto-renews once a year by default. The renewal date is shown on the project’s Marketplace tab, under Licenses on this project.
- Reminder. About 7 days before the renewal date, everyone on the buyer workspace gets one email with the amount and the date.
- The charge. On the renewal date we charge the listing’s annual Maintenance price to the card you paid with at purchase. That card is saved on the seller’s Stripe account, because the seller is the merchant of record: the renewal is a charge by the seller, the same as the purchase. Chipp’s marketplace fee is deducted from that charge; it is not an extra cost to you. A successful charge extends Maintenance by one year.
- No saved card, or a declined card. We try again 1 day later and 3 days later. If all three attempts fail, Maintenance lapses and you get one email saying so. Your license and installed source are not affected, and you can renew by hand at any time.
- Free Maintenance. A listing with a $0 Maintenance price renews automatically with no charge.
Cancelling Maintenance
To cancel auto-renewal, open the project’s Marketplace tab, expand the
license under Licenses on this project, and click Cancel auto-renew. Your Maintenance access continues through the
already-paid-for period (the maintenance_through date). After that date:
- Update access, reconciliation, notices, and support access lapse.
- Your license, installed source, and perpetual use rights are completely unaffected. Cancellation touches only the Maintenance subscription record, never the entitlement.
Cancellation is not the same as losing your code. The installed source files remain in your project exactly as they were. The only thing that changes is access to future updates and support.
Renewing by hand after a cancel
Cancelling auto-renew never locks you out of renewing. Renew maintenance stays on the license after you cancel, before and after the end date, and after an auto-renew charge lapses.
- Renew maintenance opens a checkout for one more year. If your current term has not ended, the new year starts at the end of it, so you lose no paid time. If it already ended, the new year starts today.
- Renewing by hand does not turn auto-renew back on. You pay for one year and nothing is charged next year unless you choose to.
- Turn auto-renew back on appears after you cancel. It charges nothing now; the card saved at purchase is charged on the renewal date. If the term already ended, the charge runs within the hour.
What “perpetual version rights” means in practice
When Maintenance ends (by cancellation, expiry, or seller account closure):
- Your project keeps every file installed up to that point.
- Those files are yours to modify, deploy, and maintain.
- You cannot pull future pack updates without an active Maintenance subscription (or purchasing a new license for the updated version).
- The seller’s ability to support, patch, or update their listing does not affect your right to use your installed copy.
Coupons and Alpha Grants
How coupons work
Coupons are issued by Chipp and redeemed instead of paying at Stripe checkout. A coupon can be a percentage discount or a fixed-amount discount. It may apply to one specific listing or to any listing. Coupons have optional expiry dates and redemption limits.
To redeem a coupon:
- Open the project’s Marketplace tab.
- Find the listing in the Catalog.
- Enter the code in the Coupon / grant code field next to it.
- Click Redeem. The project receives a full license.
First-party Recipes are free
The first-party Recipes are picked in the New project dialog and are labeled “Free with any plan”. They carry no separate marketplace license fee, so there is nothing to purchase or redeem and no coupon code is needed.
100%-off grants
A 100%-off grant is a coupon with a 100% discount. You redeem it the same way as any other coupon, from the project’s Marketplace tab. The project receives a full license (perpetual use rights) at no cost, with the same one-year Maintenance term as a paid purchase.
Sellers cannot issue coupon codes themselves; coupons are created by Chipp.
Managing Your Subscriptions
All of a project’s licenses and their Maintenance state are listed on the project’s Marketplace tab, under Licenses on this project. Expand a license to:
- See the Maintenance state and renewal date (or the date updates end).
- Click Cancel auto-renew (access continues through the paid period).
- Click Renew maintenance to pay for one more year by hand. It is there whenever auto-renew is off, including after a cancel and after the term ended.
- Click Turn auto-renew back on after a cancel.
- Preview and apply the packs in the license. The preview shows the version’s changelog.
Licenses are managed per project; there is no workspace-wide Marketplace billing panel.
Related guides
- Recipes, Feature Packs & the Marketplace — the vocabulary and mental model behind everything above.
- Marketplace: Browse, Purchase & Create a Project — how to read a listing’s price and Maintenance terms.
- Marketplace: Install into an Existing Project — how Maintenance gates which updates you can apply.
- Marketplace FAQ — concrete answers to common licensing and Maintenance questions.