Manage Plans in the Site Dashboard
Upgrade a free site to a paid plan or downgrade a site's current plan within the Site Dashboard.
Discuss in our Forum Discuss in SlackChanging your site plan is typically done at launch time. For a comprehensive step-by-step guide to going live, refer to Launch Essentials.
If your site benefits from Preferred Pricing, contact your Supporting Organization for assistance, in order to retain your special pricing rate.
Access Site Plan
Go to the Site Dashboard.
For Sandbox sites, click Upgrade next to the site's name:
Otherwise, click the current plan tag next to the site's name:
Note
Changing your site plan is typically done at launch time. For a comprehensive step-by-step guide to going live, refer to Launch Essentials.
Upgrades
Site plan upgrades will change your site's resources and access to features immediately. The associated card will be charged a prorated amount for the remainder of the current billing period.
If your site benefits from Preferred Pricing, contact your Supporting Organization for assistance in order to retain your special pricing rate.
Downgrades
Site plan downgrades will change your site's resources and access to features immediately. Beginning on the next billing cycle, the associated card will be charged for the new site plan. No prorated refunds or credits will be issued for site downgrades.
If your site benefits from Preferred Pricing, contact your Supporting Organization for assistance, in order to retain your special pricing rate.
Downgrade to Sandbox
To downgrade to Sandbox, see Cancel Current Plan. Note: Custom domains are not available to Sandbox sites. Downgrading to a Sandbox site will automatically delete existing custom domains across all environments of the site. If you decide to return to a paid plan in the future, you will need to add the domains again.
Downgrading to a Sandbox site will disable automatic backups. You will still be able to create backups manually. For details, see Backups Tool.
Roles & Permissions
The permission to manage a site's plan is granted only to the roles of Site Owner / Organization Administrator. Other roles do not have access to change the site plan as described on this page. For details, see Role-Based Permissions & Change Management.
Note
If you need to assume site and billing ownership, the current Site Owner must transfer it to you directly.
Considerations
Consider the following changes to feature access before upgrading or downgrading the site's plan. Certain scenarios require code changes in order to safely change the site plan.
Basic Plan
New Relic, Object Cache (formerly Redis), and Pantheon Search are not available for Basic sites. These features must be disabled in order to select Basic as the new site plan when upgrading or downgrading plans.
For Object Cache and Pantheon Search (Solr), the following code changes are required before the feature can be safely disabled:
Safely Remove Object Cache
Uninstall the WP Redis plugin. Review Uninstall Plugins for detailed instructions.
Delete the
wp-content/object-cache.phpfile.Commit and deploy these changes to the Live environment.
Go to Settings, select Add Ons, then click the Remove button for Redis.
Go to the Site Dashboard, and click Clear Caches.
Safely Remove Pantheon Search
Uninstall the Solr Search for WordPress plugin. Review the Uninstall Plugins section of Working in the WordPress Dashboard and Drupal Admin Interface for detailed instructions.
Ensure the default search mechanism is functioning.
Commit and deploy these changes to the Live environment.
Go to Settings, click Add Ons, and then click Remove for Solr.
Safely Remove Object Cache
Disable the Redis Object Cache module.
Delete the Redis configuration from
settings.php.Commit and deploy these changes to the Live environment.
Go to Settings, select Add Ons, then click Remove for Redis.
Go to the Site Dashboard, and click Clear Caches.
Safely Remove Pantheon Search
Disable the Apache Solr Search,Search API Solr Search, and the Pantheon Apache Solr modules.
Delete all schema configurations from
settings.php.Commit and deploy these changes to the Live environment.
Go to Settings, click Add Ons, and then click Remove for Solr.
Elite Plan
Elite sites cannot manage plans from the Site Dashboard. Contact our sales team or reach out to your dedicated Client Sales Executive for details.
Enterprise Organizations
Plan prices are not shown in the Site Dashboard, and you will not be prompted to enter billing information as described below.
If the site is associated with an Enterprise Flagship organization, additional Performance plans not shown in the Site Dashboard are available to purchase.
Contact our sales team or reach out to your dedicated Client Sales Executive for details.
Purchase a New Plan
This section covers purchasing a new plan. Review the previous section on feature availability before switching plans to Basic.
Note
Did you know Pantheon offers savings for sites purchased with annual billing? See Pantheon Annual Billing for more information.
Select Plan
Go to the Site Dashboard.
For Sandbox sites, click Upgrade next to the site's name. Otherwise, click the current plan tag next to the site's name.
Click Select to switch plans:
Enter Billing Information
Site ownership is designated to the user account entering billing information.
If this is your first time taking a site live on Pantheon, you'll likely need to add a new card to your account:
Click the Add New Card link.
Enter the email address you would like invoices sent to.
Enter your credit card information and click Add Card.
Make sure the desired card is selected and click Continue.
To associate an existing card from your account as the payment method for this site:
Select the desired card.
Click Continue.
This process will transfer ownership of the site immediately. The account paying for the site is automatically assigned the Site Owner role and will receive future invoices and billing notifications. Agencies maintain access by being associated as a Supporting Organization.
A transfer of ownership is the most common way non-agency developers and Registered Agencies (i.e., non-Partner Agencies) deliver completed sites to their clients. If you are a Partner Agency looking to ensure that your client receives Preferred Pricing, you should send an invitation to your client to pay for the site.
Single-site businesses can also use this method when site ownership needs to be transferred to someone else within the company. The invitation will guide the recipient through adding their payment method to the site for the designated plan.
We recommend communicating with the business owner well in advance of sending a transfer request. It's a good idea to have them notify you once they've upgraded so you can continue the going live procedure. Feel free to share the Account Management guide with them.
Open the Site Dashboard for the site.
Click Transfer Site and enter the email address associated with the account to which you want to transfer site ownership.
Click Send Request.
The recipient will need to confirm the transfer.
Resellers and Enterprise workspaces must contact their Account Manager or create a Support ticket to request a transfer of ownership.
Confirm Your Purchase
Make sure the Plan details are correct.
Verify the card shown in Billing details.
Click the Submit button.
The Site Owner will receive an email confirmation of this change, a new invoice will be issued, and a prorated amount for the current billing cycle will be credited or charged to the associated card automatically.
Invoices and transaction history related to this change can be found in Account > Billing.
Cancel Current Plan
Review the previous section on feature availability before downgrading to Sandbox.
Note
While all site plans downgrades will be effective immediately, no partial refunds will be issued, per our terms of service.
Go to the Site Dashboard.
Select the current plan:
Click the Downgrade to free link to cancel the current plan:
Check Yes, cancel my plan then click Continue:
Make sure the change details are correct, then click Submit.
Remove the existing card as a payment method for the site. For details, see Billing in the Site Dashboard.
Optionally, you can remove the Sandbox site after downgrading. For details, see Deleting a Site on Pantheon.