Region prices and the shared node credit

Avaloi runs your sites on servers in the region you pick. Servers cost a different amount in each region, so each region has its own price for each plan. You see the price for your region before you pay, and it is the most you will ever pay for that plan.

How a region price is set

Each price comes from one rule, the same for every plan and region:

1. Take Google Cloud's price for one server in the region, plus its disk.
2. Divide by the number of sites of the plan's size a server holds when it is 70 percent full. Larger plans give each site more PHP threads and a heavier CPU share, so a server holds fewer of them.
3. Multiply by the plan's sites.
4. Add the card fee and Avaloi's margin: the price is set so at least 30 percent of it is left after the server, the disk, and the card fee, to pay for support, backups, the edge network, and the rest of Avaloi. Round up to the next $5.

Annual plans cost ten times the monthly price: two months free.

Prices in Ashburn, Virginia, United States at launch (a location that already has a data center):

Plan	Sites	Monthly	One more site slot
Starter	1	$35	$35
Pro	3	$115	$40
Business 1	5	$285	$60
Business 2	10	$755	$80
Business 3	20	$2,265	$115
Agency	25	$2,830	$115

Each site gets its plan's PHP threads: 4 on Starter, 6 on Pro, 8 on Business 1, 12 on Business 2, and 16 on Business 3 and Agency, with 256 MB of PHP memory per thread. A site that needs more can add PHP memory with the PHP memory pool add-on.

These prices are drafts until Avaloi signs them off. The Start a plan modal always shows the current price for the region you pick.

Your price never goes up

When you start a plan, its price is locked. It never rises while the plan is active, even when the region price goes up for new customers.

When the region price falls, your plan moves to the lower price at your next renewal. There is no partial charge or credit for the rest of the month. Owners, Admins, and Billing members get a notice first, such as "Your Pro plan in Ashburn, Virginia, United States drops from $115.00 to $100.00 a month from November 6."

A plan that is still in its free first month, or that has never been charged, moves to the lower price at once, so its first invoice already charges it. Avaloi checks every plan each day after it reads Google's prices, so a lower price is never missed. Plans bought before region prices move down the same way when the region price is lower. A plan locked at an older, lower price keeps it.

Changing a plan (for example from Business 1 to Business 2) takes the region's current price for the new plan, and locks that.

The shared node credit

Prices assume servers are 70 percent full. When the region is fuller than that, servers cost Avaloi less per site, and half of that saving comes back to you:

• The credit is worked out after each monthly billing period, from how full the region was on each day.
• It appears as a line on your next invoice, such as "Shared node credit, Ashburn, Virginia, United States, October".
• It is at most 15 percent of your plan's price. The Start a plan modal shows that most: "You get up to $17.25 back each month when this region is busy." A plan locked at an older, lower price gets a smaller credit, or none, because there is less saving left to share.
• No credit is paid for a month when the region was 70 percent full or less, for the free first month, or on annual plans (they already get two months free).

The My plan tab shows each plan's region, its locked price, and its last credit.

A plan belongs to one region

A plan is bought for a region, and its sites go in that region. When you add a site, pick the region first; the Plan list then shows the plans for that region with a free slot. To put a site in another region, buy a plan for that region.

Pick any location

You can pick any data center location in the list when you add a site or start a plan. Nothing is greyed out. Each location shows its city and country, such as "Eemshaven, Netherlands". Avaloi lists the locations where its servers run on Google Cloud.

A location may or may not have a data center yet:

• It has one. Your site goes on a server that is already running, and you pay the normal price.
• It has none. You are the first, so Avaloi opens a new data center for your site. That takes about two minutes, and the window says "Opening your new data center, this takes about two minutes." Avaloi starts the server only after your plan is paid.

If Avaloi cannot open a new data center right now because its cloud account is at a limit, the site fails with a plain message, your plan stays as it is, and you can pick a location that already has a data center or contact support.

The first customer in a location pays the opening price

A new data center is a whole server, and the first customer carries all of it. So the first plan in a location with no data center costs more than the normal price. The same rule sets it, with one change: the server's cost is shared over a quarter of its sites instead of 70 percent of them. The region picker and the Summary step show the exact price before you pay:

You are the first in this region, so this data center opens for you. Your price is $320 a month and it never goes up. You get credits back as others join.

For example, a Pro plan with 3 sites is $115 a month once a location has a data center, and $320 a month for the first customer there (prices at Google's launch rates).

What the first customer gets in return:

• The price is locked and never goes up, like any plan. It does not drop to the normal price just because the data center now exists.
• Credits come back as others join. On a monthly plan, once the location is fuller than 25 percent, half of what the shared server saves your plan comes back as a credit on your next invoice. The credit is at most 15 percent of your price in a month, and it never takes Avaloi's margin below 30 percent. The more sites join, the bigger the credit, up to that limit.
• Annual plans get no credit. Their opening price lasts one year, and at renewal the plan moves to the normal price for the location.

Everyone who joins after the data center exists pays the normal price. If you buy a plan in an empty location and another customer does too before either of you has created a site, you both see the opening price, because no server exists yet.

When your data center opens somewhere else

If Google has no room in your location when your first site needs a data center, Avaloi may open it on a different server type or in a nearby location in the same legal area. Your price does not change:

• The plan keeps the price you locked, and it stays a plan for the location you bought it for. Avaloi absorbs any difference in what the server costs.
• Your site shows the location where the data center really is, so the Sites list and the API may show a city other than the one on your plan.
• The owners get a notification and an email that name both locations. You can ask support to move your sites back when the first location has room.

See Nodes for how Avaloi picks the server type and the nearby location.

For scripts and agents

• GET /v1/billing/quote?region=us-east4&plan=pro returns the price of a plan in a region: amount_cents, site_slot_cents (one more site slot), share_credit.max_cents_per_month, capacity (ready, or new_node when the first site waits about two minutes for a new data center), opening (first_in_region, the plain message above, assumed_fill_percent, and standard_monthly_cents), and stale (true when Google's price has not refreshed; the price is then the last good one). It needs billing:read. A region where Avaloi cannot host answers 409 with the code region_not_open.
• GET /v1/billing/plans?region=us-east4 lists the plans with the region's prices. Signed in, a region with no data center is priced at the opening price and first_in_region is true. The public GET /v1/pricing always shows normal prices.
• POST /v1/billing/subscriptions takes region. The plan is charged that region's price and locked. A region where Avaloi cannot host answers 422 with the code region_closed.
• GET /v1/regions lists the locations you can pick, each with a label (city and country), a code, and has_data_center (false means your first site opens one). Avaloi staff also see regions that take no sites, with status: closed and a closed_reason. POST /v1/sites in one of those answers 422 with the code region_closed.
• GET /v1/billing/subscriptions shows each plan's region, locked_amount_cents, and last_credit.
• POST /v1/sites with a subscription_id for another region answers 409 with the code plan_region_mismatch.
• The MCP tools quote_region_price and list_regions return the same quote and list.

Not yet

• South America and some other locations. Google does not offer Avaloi's server type there yet.
• Discounts for plans with many sites.

Quick answers

Why is my plan cheaper than my friend's in another location? Servers cost less in your location. Each location has its own price.

Why does my first plan cost more in a new location? You are the first there, so a new data center opens for you and you carry all of it. The price is locked, and credits come back as others join.

Can my price go up? No. Only new plans see a higher region price.

Why is there a credit on my invoice? Your region was busier than 70 percent last month, so part of the saving came back to you.

Related

• Billing and plans
• Payment methods