How long can I stay on the free plan?
Forever! Or at least until the sun goes supernova in about 10 billion years. This is not a free trial, it’s a free product– there’s no time limit. You can create and host your website and use Bounce House, for free, for as long as you’d like.
How do I get a custom domain name?
On the more legit plan, you can choose a custom domain right in Bounce House and your website will become available at that domain. Check out the features page to learn more about custom domain names.
What if I already have a custom domain name?
If you already have an existing domain that you bought using a third party domain registrar (like Namecheap, GoDaddy, or others) you can use that domain with Bounce House without needing to transfer the domain. But if you registered your domain using a different website builder (like Squarespace, Wordpress, or other), we currently don’t support transferring those.
What are payment requests?
You can send a payment request to any contact, and they will receive an email with a checkout link. It’s a more legit way to charge your customers than linking to PayPal or Venmo (it’s like invoicing), hence it being part of the more legit plan. All payments on Bounce House are powered by Stripe so your banking information and your customer’s credit card information is protected and secure. Check out the features page to learn more about payments.
What kind of e-commerce functionality is there?
If you need to set up a hardcore online store including fulfillment, you probably want to use a service like Shopify. But if you want to add individual products or service packages to your website, where people can check out with a credit card, and the money goes straight into your bank account, then you’ve come to the right place. All payments on Bounce House are powered by Stripe so everyone’s sensitive information is protected. Check out the features page to learn more about payments.
What is the payment processing fee?
If you use a payment request, payment block, or donation block (the 3 ways you can collect payments using Bounce House), a processing fee of 5% + $.50 will automatically be deducted from each purchase.
Let’s take an example: You send a $50 payment request to a customer named Layla for the personal training session she did with you this morning. She gets an email with a link and pays you $50. The processing fee is $3 (5% is $2.50 + $.50), so you end up with $47.
In case you’re curious, the breakout between Bounce House and Stripe is that 2.9% + $.30 goes to Stripe, and 2.1% + $.20 goes to Bounce House, but you will just see it was a single processing fee.
What are customer messages?
Your website will have a contact request form on it. When someone fills it out, you get notified with a new message. On the free plan, you can receive up to 5 messages a month, whereas the more legit plan has unlimited messages. Check out the features page to learn more about contacts.
What is hosted video?
You can upload your own videos to your website that play in a clean, unmarked video player. Having your videos not just be YouTube or Vimeo embeds, as with other more legit features, just makes your site feel... more legit! Check out the features page to learn more about video blocks.
Any other fees I should know about?
There are two fees relating to custom domains that are quite rare:
These are because of fees that we pay to our domain registrar (an Amazon service called Route 53) whenever you get a new domain or transfer out a domain.
If I’m not sure whether I need the more legit plan, what should I do?!
Jump in for free! If it makes sense in the future, you can upgrade to the more legit plan at any time. Or if you end up being happy on the free plan, then great!
