Compare the PhotomatixCL Plans

The monthly charges are calculated from the base subscription charge, which covers the number of monthly credits you purchased, plus the per-credit charge for any extra credits used above this amount.

If you purchased 5,000 credits monthly, for example, you would always pay the price for that amount each month, and if you used more than 5,000 credits in a month, you would also pay the additional amount per credit for everything over 5,000.

Your billing period runs from the day you purchased your subscription to the same day of the next month, and you are billed at the end of the period for the charges in that period.

You can view the number of credits for the current billing period using the -lq option, i.e. by entering the command:
PhotomatixCL -lq

This command prints a sentence giving you the number of credits. If you prefer to print just the number of credits, use the command:
PhotomatixCL -lqs

The number of credits returned by the -lq and -lqs commands has a different meaning depending on your license:

• For a Growth subscription license, it refers to the number of credits you have used in the current billing period.
• For a Lite subscription license, it refers to the number of credits remaining for the current billing period.
• For a Pay-as-You-Go license, it refers to the number of credits remaining in your license.

You can change the amount of monthly credits in your subscription by purchasing a new subscription for the new amount and canceling the old one.

You will then get a new license key, which you can load using the -ll <YourLicenseKey> command.

Your old subscription will stay active until the end of the final billing period, so it's usually best to switch toward the end of a billing period.

Please contact our support team to cancel your old subscription.

To cancel your subscription, please contact our support team.

You can view the PhotomatixCL License Agreement in PDF format here.

Growth plan

If you have a Growth subscription, PhotomatixCL requires Internet access to track your usage. However, PhotomatixCL will still run normally during an Internet outage, as long as the outage doesn't last more than 24 hours. Here is how it works :

PhotomatixCL sends an HTTPS request to the host tracking.hdrsoft.com on port 443 each time you create images with PhotomatixCL, to update the number of HDR merge credits you have used.

If it can't access the tracking server, it will attempt to contact the backup tracking server at www.hdrsoft.com.

If neither is accessible, PhotomatixCL will print a warning, but you will be able to continue using PhotomatixCL for up to 24 hours, or until you have a day's worth of unreported credits.

If access is restored before this time, the credits will be automatically reported, and PhotomatixCL will continue to operate normally. If the server still can't be contacted after this time, PhotomatixCL will fail with an error (unless the -trial option is supplied, which will apply a watermark to the images).

Lite plan

If you have a Lite subscription, you only need to be connected to the Internet once a month.

PhotomatixCL will attempt to contact the HDRsoft server at the time of your Lite subscription renewal date. If you don't run PhotomatixCL every day, it will contact our server the first time you run PhotomatixCL after your subscription renewal date.

If PhotomatixCL cannot contact the HDRsoft server at that time, it will continue to work until it is able to contact the server.

If you've run out of your monthly credits before PhotomatixCL can contact the HDRsoft server, PhotomatixCL will continue to run, but it will add a watermark to your HDR images.

You can, provided you are on the Growth subscription plan. A Growth license is designed for stateless systems and fully supports running multiple instances concurrently, so long as they have access to our tracking server.

To load your license in a serverless environment, run the PhotomatixCL -ll <YourLicenseKey> command when each instance starts up, or before each PhotomatixCL command that you use to create images.

Yes, simply purchase more Pay-As-You-Go credits. You will get a license key, which you can load using the -ll <YourLicenseKey> command. If you have credits remaining already, the new credits will be added to them, so you can top up at any time.

You can use both, as long as you use Pay-As-You-Go credits on one system and a monthly subscription on another system.

If you need to temporarily get more HDR merge credits on a system that has a Lite subscription license, please contact us at support@hdrsoft.com to let us know how many more you need and for how long so that we can advise you on the best options.

Switching from a Growth subscription to Pay-As-You-Go credits

Cancel your subscription and load the license key you will get after purchasing the Pay-As-You-Go credits.

You will be billed at the end of the billing period for the usage for the final month of your Growth subscription. You can continue to use the Growth subscription for the rest of the billing period on other systems if you wish.

Switching from a Lite subscription to Pay-As-You-Go credits

Cancel your subscription and load the license key you will get after purchasing the Pay-As-You-Go credits.

Any remaining merge credits from your subscription will carry over, and the system will use your remaining merges and the Pay-As-You-Go credits. Note that your monthly HDR merge credits refresh will stop once you switch.

Switching from Pay-As-You-Go credits to a Growth or Lite subscription

Wait until you've used all your Pay-As-You-Go credits before loading the subscription license. Loading a subscription license will cancel any remaining credits.