Help & Common Questions
Deeper answers about how Draftli's approval-to-payment workflow actually works — pricing, Stripe, supported file types, security, and more. If you're still shopping, the homepage answers the five most-asked questions and the pricing page shows full plan details.
Pricing & plans
- How do Free, Pro, and Ultra differ?
- Free is €0/mo with 1 GB of storage, a 500 MB max file size, and a 5% platform fee on every approved project. Pro is €19/mo (or €190/yr) with 25 GB of storage, a 2 GB max file size, and no platform fee. Ultra is €39/mo (or €390/yr) with 100 GB of storage, a 2 GB max file size, no platform fee, and custom branding for the client portal. The full breakdown is on the pricing page.
- What does the 5% platform fee on Free apply to?
- It applies to the project amount you set when you create the project — the same amount your client is charged. It's taken as a Stripe application fee on top of Stripe's own processing fee, which is paid by your connected Stripe account either way. Pro and Ultra have a 0% platform fee, so on those plans only Stripe's processing fee applies.
- Can I switch plans without losing projects?
- Yes. Subscriptions are managed through the Stripe Billing Portal from your settings. Switching from Free to Pro or Ultra is a standard Stripe Checkout. Switching between Pro and Ultra prorates the difference. Your projects, files, share links, and Stripe Connect account are unaffected by plan changes.
- What happens if I cancel my Pro or Ultra subscription?
- You keep access until the end of the period you've already paid for, then drop back to Free. If your storage is over the 1 GB Free quota at that point, new uploads are blocked until you delete files or resubscribe. Existing projects, share links, and downloads keep working — nothing is deleted automatically.
- Which currencies can I bill clients in?
- Each project can be billed in EUR, USD, or GBP — you pick the currency when you create the project. Subscriptions to Pro and Ultra are billed in EUR only.
Payments & Stripe
- How do I get set up to receive payments?
- The first time you create a project, you're prompted to connect Stripe. Draftli uses Stripe Connect Standard, which means you own and control your own Stripe account — Draftli is the platform on top. Onboarding is the standard hosted Stripe flow: you provide business and bank details to Stripe directly, and once charges are enabled you're ready to take payments.
- Which countries does Stripe support for creators?
- If your country is supported by Stripe Connect Standard, you can use Draftli. The list changes over time, so we don't hardcode it — check the current list at stripe.com/global. Your client doesn't need a Stripe account — they just pay by card on the hosted Stripe Checkout page.
- When and how do payouts land in my bank account?
- Payouts are governed by Stripe, not Draftli. Stripe transfers funds from your Stripe balance to your bank account on the schedule you've set in your Stripe Dashboard — usually daily or weekly. Draftli has no role in moving money out of Stripe.
- What happens if my client's card is declined?
- Stripe Checkout shows the client the decline reason and lets them try a different card. The project stays in its previous state until a payment actually succeeds — nothing is marked paid and no original files are unlocked. The client can return to the same review link and try again.
- How do refunds and chargebacks work?
- Refunds are issued from your Stripe Dashboard — Draftli listens for the refund event and updates the project record so you and your client both see the refunded state. Chargebacks (disputes opened by a client's bank) appear in a dedicated Disputes view inside your Draftli dashboard with the deadline to submit evidence. You submit evidence to Stripe; Stripe's decision is final.
Files & uploads
- Which file formats can I upload?
- Images (PNG, JPG, WebP), PDFs (rendered page-by-page so clients can pin notes per page), and videos (MP4, MOV, WebM). Other file types can still be attached as post-payment delivery files — those don't need a preview because they're only released after approval.
- How big can a single upload be?
- 500 MB per file on the Free plan. 2 GB per file on Pro and Ultra. Storage quotas across all your projects are 1 GB on Free, 25 GB on Pro, and 100 GB on Ultra.
- How does the watermark work, and is it required?
- When you create a project, a watermark on previews is on by default. Image and PDF previews are resized for fast loading and tiled with your business name as a semi-transparent diagonal overlay. Video previews are transcoded to a 720p preview clip with the same watermark baked in. The full-resolution originals stay in a separate, private storage bucket and aren't touched. You can toggle the watermark off when creating the project if your workflow doesn't need it.
- How does video preview generation work?
- Video transcoding runs on a background worker, not in your browser. You upload the source, the worker produces a watermarked 720p preview (capped at 60 minutes of source length), and the file row updates when the preview is ready. If a video preview fails, you can retry generation from the file row in the project's file management panel.
Annotations & rounds
- How do pin annotations actually work?
- Your client clicks on the spot of an image, PDF page, or video frame they want to talk about. A pin lands at that coordinate (stored as a percentage so it stays in place across screen sizes) and they type a comment underneath. You see new annotations appear in real time on the project detail page and can reply or mark individual threads as resolved.
- What is a round, and what happens to old ones?
- A round is a snapshot of the work you've sent for review. When you upload a new round, the previous round is marked as superseded — the share link now points at the new round's files, but the old round's files and annotations stay archived on the project so you (and the client, if they scroll back) can see what changed.
- Can the client still comment after they've approved?
- No. Once a project is paid, comments and pin-dropping are disabled on that project — the page becomes the unlocked-originals view. If revisions are needed afterwards, you can supersede with a new round, which reopens annotations.
Security & privacy
- Where are my files stored, and who can read them?
- Files live in Supabase storage buckets, split by purpose. The originals bucket is private — nothing on the public internet can read it; downloads happen through short-lived signed URLs (expire in 4 hours by default). The previews bucket holds the watermarked previews and is publicly readable because that's what your client's browser fetches. The deliveries bucket holds post-payment delivery files and is also private.
- Can I delete my account and all my data?
- Yes. Account deletion is in your settings. It first checks that you have no active projects or pending payments, then cancels any active subscription, deletes all your files across every storage bucket, and cascades through projects, rounds, files, annotations, and payments. For tax and dispute-defence reasons, succeeded payment records (Stripe payment intent ID, amount, currency, paid-at timestamp) are copied into a separate retained-transactions table that survives account deletion. You can also export everything as JSON via the data-export endpoint before deleting.
- What if there's a copyright complaint about a file?
- We honour valid takedown requests. When a file is taken down, it's moved into a private quarantine bucket and the share link returns a takedown notice instead of the file — the file isn't deleted permanently, so it can be restored if the complaint is withdrawn or resolved.
Question we haven't covered? Email contact@draftli.io and we'll add it.