Licenses & Subscriptions
To connect your HAM station over the internet with ShackConnect, you need a license. The license is a yearly subscription that you can purchase on the ShackConnect online shop.
You can connect to your friends' servers without purchasing a license for your account.
However, your friends need to purchase a user seat to invite you to share their servers. There is no limit to how many friends can share a seat with you, and you have access to all the product features, including using a Client device.
The license gives you one Server slot to connect your station. You can use it in one of the following ways:
- Download a ready-to-flash Server image for Raspberry Pi (free with your license), or
- Attach Server hardware purchased from our online shop.
New to ShackConnect? Start with the Server setup guide to get your station on the air, then come back here to add seats for your friends.
Extra subscriptions
Your license can be extended with additional extra subscriptions. These let you share your station with friends, run multiple stations, or add more Client devices to your account.
Extra Server
Adds another Server slot. This allows you to connect multiple station locations and switch between them from your account. If you invite friends to share your servers, they get access to all your servers (unless you don't want them to - you can control their access on a per-server basis).
You use the extra Server slot in the same way as the server slot that comes with your license, by downloading and flashing an image on a Raspberry Pi, or by attaching Server hardware purchased from the online shop.
Extra Seat
Adds a friend slot you can use to invite a friend. Invited friends can use all your Servers (if allowed by you) and control the connected devices there.
You can use ShackConnect without your own license if someone else shares a server with you. You only need a license when you want to host your own station.
Extra Client
The extra client subscription is not yet available. Support for it will be added in a future update.
An extra Client device that adds support for additional virtual serial ports and virtual audio devices to integrate with external applications.
Useful when one Client isn't enough for all the rigs and interfaces in your shack with the external applications you want to run. Note that you do not need an extra Client to connect more server-side devices if you are controlling them from our browser dashboards and not external apps.
No license or extra Client subscription is needed too use a single Client device, which should cover the needs of all but the most advanced users.
To unlock more serial ports as well as other power-user features, we recommend you first purchase the Client PRO hardware device before reaching for an extra Client slot. You can use the Client PRO with your free Client slot.
How extra subscriptions are billed
Extra products are also billed yearly, and they are aligned with your license renewal date even if bought separately. When an additional subscription is purchased separately fom the license, the charge is prorated so it lines up with that date — after that, everything renews together on a single yearly invoice.
If your license renews in 6 months and you add an extra seat today, you are charged for roughly half a year now. From then on, the seat renews on the same day as your license.
Managing your subscriptions
For now, you can only cancel your subscription as a whole. To do this, go to your account management page and press the Cancel subscription button. You will still be able to use ShackConnect until your license expires (unless you delete your account).
You bought your license along with an extra seat in March, and your subscription renews every March. If you cancel in June, nothing changes right away — you and your invited friends can keep using ShackConnect until the following March, when the license expires and is not renewed.
Your subscription gets cancelled and you will not get billed anymore, but you will not be able to utilize your account for the remainder of the already paid subscription period.
Your purchased hardware devices will be automatically detached from the deleted account so they can be gifted or resold.
We recommend you cancel your subscription instead, so you do not lose your access and your data. If you have attached a purchased hardware device, you can detach it from your account without deleting it. You can reactivate your subscription later if you decide to come back.
Summary
- A license is required to host a station and includes one server slot.
- Use the free Raspberry Pi image or attach purchased hardware.
- Add extra Servers, extra seats, and extra Clients as your needs grow.
- Friends you add to a seat can use ShackConnect without their own license.
- No license or extra subscription is needed for the first ShackConnect Client device.
- Extras are billed yearly and prorated to align with your license date.
Visit the shop to get your license / hardware.