CommCare Pricing FAQs

Understanding Dimagi’s offering

• Dimagi’s offering
• Choosing a software plan
• Fees for additional users
• Fees for additional SMS
• More information on custom reports

Starting and managing your subscription to a software plan

• Subscribing to a software plan
• Applying for a pro-bono plan or pro-bono feature
• Applying for a developer plan
• Extending the software plan you had as part of an Implementation Bundle service
• Upgrading or downgrading to another software plan
• Ending a subscription

Making a payment and getting an invoice

• Monthly invoicing and payment process

• Payment conditions
• Payment methods
• Advance payment (“pre-payment”) and credits
• Updating Billing Contact Information

Other FAQ about our software plans

• API access: Is the CommCare-Export tool considered use of API Access for the purposes of software plan/billing?
• Dimagi support: How does my software plan affect the level of support I get from Dimagi?
• HIPAA security: What is the difference between HIPAA security at the STANDARD and PRO plan level?
• Custom reports: What are the custom reports that are offered in the Pro, Advanced, and Enterprise software plans?
• What happens if my project’s subscription ends and gets downgraded to the Community software plan?

Other FAQ about invoicing/payment

• Credits: Am I losing my credits when my subscription ends?

More questions not answered in this FAQ

I/ Understanding Dimagi’s offerings

Dimagi’s offerings:

• Software Plans: 

• Software plans give you access to CommCare on Dimagi's managed cloud servers. For a monthly subscription fee, you can create your own CommCare application, deploy it on your users’ phones, and manage and track the flow of data in real-time, all with no technical background required. CommCare’s unique features and user-friendly interface have been optimized based on the experiences and feedback of hundreds of our partners since 2005.
• Our five software plans include various levels of cloud server support, advanced features, SMS capabilities, automatic software updates, bug fixes and maintenance support, security updates, HIPAA compliance, and much more. For specific plan details, please see “choosing a software plan” or visit our software plan page.

• Implementation Bundles: 

If your project requires in-country support from Dimagi staff to help develop mobile applications, facilitate project implementation or build staff capacity, you can purchase an implementation bundle. These bundles include implementation and capacity services as well as 12 months of either the Pro or Advanced software plan. You can choose between five Implementation Bundles, which can include implementation services ranging from two weeks of onsite application scoping to a full 18-month deployment aimed to take a project to scale. See more here

Dimagi has also developed a maturity model to help you determine the package level best suited for your organization’s needs. If you are interested in discussing further, please contact Dimagi at information@dimagi.com.

• Capacity Services: These are services that can be purchased individually. They enable organizations to selectively add specific services to their pre-existing mobile systems to either strengthen their program or technology or to develop new features.

Choosing a software plan

Dimagi offers five software plans tailored to meet different partner and project needs.

• We offer a completely free version of CommCare. The Community plan supports up to 50 mobile users and provides access to all basic CommCare features.
• To add more mobile users or to access more advanced features, you can upgrade to a higher-level software plan. Software plans cannot be adjusted and are not customizable.
• If you need more advanced features but want to keep the same number of users, you will still have to upgrade to the higher-level software plan. We do offer pro bono access to pay-only features for organizations that can demonstrate need. [see Pro-Bono section]

Please see the list of software plans here, and refer to the CommCare Plan Details for additional details about each software plan's associated features:

• Community: For projects in a pilot phase with a small group (up to 50) of mobile users that require very basic CommCare features. 
• Standard: For projects with a medium set (up to 100) of mobile users that want to build in limited SMS workflows and have increased data security needs.
• Pro: For projects with a large group (up to 500) of mobile users that want to build in comprehensive SMS workflows and have increased reporting needs.
• Advanced: For projects scaling to an even larger group (up to 1,000) of mobile users that want the full CommCare feature set and dedicated support from Dimagi staff. 
• Enterprise: For projects scaling regionally or countrywide that require the full CommCare feature set. Your organization will receive discounted pricing and dedicated enterprise-level support from Dimagi.

For FAQ about our software plans, please check [Other FAQ about our software plans]

Fees for additional users:

• Mobile users: Each plan comes with a number of mobile users free of charge. This number represents all mobile users that are not currently deactivated. Both active and inactive mobile workers are counted. To reduce your number of mobile users, you can deactivate inactive users. Read more about archiving users on Create and Manage CommCare Mobile Workers. If you exceed the number of mobile users included for free in your plan, you will be charged $1/month for each additional mobile user.
• Web users: There is no limit to the number of "web users" you can have. For the difference between a web user and a mobile user, please see this page (CommCare Fundamentals - Web and Mobile Users) on our CommCare Help site.

Fees for additional SMS:

To estimate your per SMS fee beyond the SMS monthly limit included in your software plan, you have to first determine which SMS gateway you will be using. To learn more about your choice of Gateway, please visit our Gateway options description.

• Dimagi's Gateway (Excluding Enterprise Level): Any additional messages beyond the monthly limit will be charged a per-message fee by the local telecommunications provider. The SMS gateway fee will vary depending on the country and the telecommunication network, although it typically falls between .01 USD and .10 USD.
• Your Gateway (or Enterprise Level on Dimagi Gateway): Software plans that have their own gateway have an unlimited amount of incoming and outgoing messages. While these plans are not subject to telecommunications' fees, Dimagi charges an additional $.01 (US) per message on all incoming and outgoing messages.
• NB: Outbound SMS refers to SMS sent by CommCareHQ to the mobile users, other registered beneficiaries, or end-clients. Inbound SMS refers to SMS sent by users to CommCareHQ.

II/ Starting and managing a subscription to a software plan

Subscribing to a software plan

• Please note that you need to create a project space before you can subscribe to a software plan. Learn here how to create a project space.
• Log into CommCareHQ and go to the project space you want to subscribe to a plan. Click the orange button at the top right of the page that says the name of your project and navigate to the Settings page (“Project Settings”). Choose "Current Subscription" from the menu on the left, and select and confirm your plan. Your project will be subscribed to that plan immediately, and you will receive an invoice at the end of the month (pro-rated from the time you were subscribed on that plan during that month).
• Please note that your invoice will be sent to your Billing Contact. To make sure the billing contact information is accurate, visit your Project settings>Billing Contact information page. If there aren’t any Billing Contact, invoices will by default be sent to the web users registered.

Applying for a pro-bono plan or pro-bono feature

Dimagi offers pro-bono software plans or features on a need-only basis. Pro bono applications are usually granted to small organizations who want to do a small or pilot project and who have thoroughly considered their feature needs. You can apply for a pro-bono plan by filling out this application.

Please remember: Our Community software plan is completely free, supports up to 50 mobile users, and gives you access to all basic CommCare features.

Applying for a developer plan:

Developer accounts will be offered pro-bono to developers looking to write tools that integrate with CommCare. To make a developer account request, please email information@dimagi.com. 

Extending the software plan you had as part of an Implementation Bundle:

If your service agreement with Dimagi is about to end but you would like to retain your CommCare HQ subscription and keep your existing functionalities, you should follow these steps:

• One month before your contract end date, you will receive a reminder email from CommCareHQ mentioning that your contracted subscription is about to end.
• When you receive the email, click the link provided to go to the subscription page (https://www.commcarehq.org/a/[project name]/settings/project/subscription/), and hit the renew button. Choose your current plan or a higher plan if other functionalities will be needed. Using the "renew" button ensures that your subscription will be renewed as soon as your current contract runs out and that there will be no interruption in your use of functionalities. Even if you renew before the end of your contract, you won’t get charged for the new plan until the current one expires. 
• Once your new subscription begins, on the 1st of every month you will receive an invoice with the charges you've incurred for the past month. See monthly invoicing and payment process for more information on payment methods. See Advance payment (pre-payments) and credits if you want to pre-pay for several months.

Upgrading/downgrading to another software plan:

You can upgrade or downgrade to another software plan at any time. Please note that:

• The subscription will take effect as soon as you make the change in your project settings. If you change your subscription in the middle of the month, you will only be billed for the portion of the month when your subscription was active.
• If you downgrade to a lower-level subscription, please note that the features that were only available in the higher subscription level will be made inactive. 

To upgrade or downgrade, go to Project Settings > Current Subscription and click "Change Plan".

Ending a subscription:

You can end a subscription at any time by following the process described in [Upgrading/downgrading to another software plan] and choosing the Community plan.

III/ Making a payment and getting an invoice

Monthly invoicing and payment process

Unless you pre-paid for your subscription [see section on Advance payment] and did not incur any additional charges for SMS or users, the billing contact of your project will receive an invoice by email on the first day of each month for charges incurred over the previous month. The invoice will include the base fee for the software plan subscription, as well charges for any SMS or users over the included limit.

Payment conditions

• Due date: The payment due date is set at 30 days after the end of the month, unless the monthly payment due is below $100 and your total balance is below $100. In this case, the due date will be postponed until the total balance reaches $100. Your monthly invoice will include the mention of the total balance.
• Late payments: If the invoice becomes past due, we will send you a reminder email. If the invoice is not paid within 60 days following the due date, we will send a warning email a few days before and downgrade your subscription to the Community plan. If this happens, your project will lose the features associated with the previous software plan, however all of your data will remain accessible.

Payment methods:

Invoices can be paid via credit card, Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), or check.

To make a payment:

• To pay by Credit Card:

• Log onto CommCare HQ, click on your project (orange icon in the top right corner), go to Project Settings, click on Billing Statements in the left column
• Find the Statement you want to pay and under "Payment Status" select "Make Payment"
• Under Payment Amount, select to either pay the full balance or a portion of the balance
• Under Card Information enter your credit card details and click "Submit Payment"


• To pay by EFT:

• You can find Dimagi’s bank details on your invoice.
• When submitting an EFT, please indicate the invoice number
• After submitting the EFT, send an email to accounts@dimagi.com and indicate the following information.

• Project space name: ___
• Invoice number: _____
• Date of Electronic Fund Transfer: _____
• To pay by check: Checks can be sent to the mailing address found on your invoice.  Please make all checks out to “Dimagi”, and be sure to include invoice number and the project space name in the memo

Advance payments (pre-payments) and credits:

You can also choose to pay for a subscription, a software plan, potential additional SMS and/or users beyond the included limit in advance.

• For the software plan, you can pre-pay for either the length of the project (if there is an end date) or for a specific number of months that you define.
• To know how many credits you will need for additional SMS or users, please refer to Fees for additional users and Fees for additional SMS.

Pre-payment methods:

• Via credit-card:

• On your subscription page, click the "Add Credits" button and pre-pay with a credit card. 
• Each credit = 1 USD. You can buy separate credits for SMS, Users, or the software plan. 
• Credits will be automatically applied to your monthly invoice until you run out. At that point, you'll start receiving post-pay monthly invoices again. Please note that credits don’t expire even if you suspend your subscription.
• Via EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer), please send an email to accounts@dimagi.com with the following information and we will send you an invoice:
• Billing Account name:___________________
• Billing Account address:___________________
• Project space name: ___________________
• Total amount to pre-pay: $___________________
• Software plan: [X] months for period [Date 1 – Date 2] for [Name of software plan] plan: $___________________
• SMSs: $___________________
• Users: $___________________

Updating Billing Contact Information:

Billing Contacts will receive invoices, subscription reminders, and other billing updates. They do not have to be CommCareHQ web users. To change or update the Billing Contacts, please go to Project Settings > Billing Contact information (on the left of the page), and update the information. If no billing contacts are entered, the invoices will by default be sent to the web admin users registered for this project space. To check the web admin users registered, go to Users> Web Users & Roles on www.commcarehq.org. If you have any other questions regarding your invoice, please contact us at accounts@dimagi.com.

IV/ Other FAQ about our software plans

API access: Is the CommCcare-Export tool considered use of API Access for the purposes of software plan/billing?

No, the CommCare-Export tool accesses all records via the API, but is intended to be available to all plans.

Dimagi support: How does my software plan affect the level of support I get from Dimagi?

Unless you have a services agreement, your software plan determines the level of support you receive from Dimagi.

1. Community & Standard - use our regular support channels (the "Report an Issue" button and the CommCare-users group) to get general support. Standard plan users have access to more direct email support follow-up.

2.  Pro - In addition to general support, you can ask support questions specific to your project's application and content. You will not have a specific Dimagi point of contact.

3.  Advanced - In addition to our regular support channel you will have a point person from Dimagi person for app/content support specific to your project.

HIPAA security: What is the difference between HIPAA security at the STANDARD and PRO plans level?

Our standard and PRO offerings currently include the same security from a technology standpoint (although this may change in the future).  The key difference is whether Dimagi is willing to assume liability and sign a "Business Associates Agreement" (BAA), which we only do in the PRO and higher packages"

Custom reports: What are the custom reports that are offered in the Pro, Advanced, and Enterprise software plans?

• If your organization has a Pro, Advanced, or Enterprise software plan, you have the option to access custom reports in your project space. You must contract with Dimagi to have custom reports built on CommCareHQ. There is an additional one-time cost for the development of each custom report.
• If you subscribe to the "Community" or "Standard" software plans, custom reports are not available to your organization. 
• In the future, we hope that other software developers and organizations will be able to build their own custom reports on CommCareHQ.  

What happens if my project subscription ends and gets downgraded to the Community software plan?

Your project will lose the features associated with the previous software plan, (e.g. if you were using an SMS reminder functionality as part of your workflow, this will get disabled), however all of your data will remain accessible.

V/ Other FAQ about invoicing/payment

Credits: Am I losing my credits when my subscription ends?

No, the credits you load onto your subscription as pre-payment don’t expire. Even if your paid subscription ends and you are downgraded to a Community Subscription, your credits are still loaded onto your account, and start getting debited again once you face new charges.

VI/ More questions not answered in this FAQ

If you have any other questions on pricing and payments, please reach out to accounts@dimagi.com and we would be happy to help you.