Licensing, Plans, and Show Limits
This page covers the practical details of how your Benecaster plan governs what you can do: how many shows you can run, what happens when you exceed a limit, and how enforcement and recovery work.
Show Limits
Each Benecaster plan includes a fixed number of active shows:
| Plan | Show limit |
|---|---|
| Launch | 1 |
| Starter | 1 |
| Growth | 2 |
| Pro | 5 |
| Multi-Show | Unlimited |
| Studio | Unlimited |
Archived shows do not count. Only published (active) shows count toward your plan limit.
What Happens When You’re Over the Limit
If your active show count exceeds your plan’s limit — for example after downgrading from Pro to Growth — Benecaster automatically disables the newest excess shows during the next daily license validation check.
Which shows are disabled: The newest shows are disabled first. If your plan allows 3 shows and you have 5, the two most recently created shows are disabled. If you then upgrade to a 4-show plan, the newer of those two is still disabled and the older one is re-enabled. The newest shows stay disabled longest.
What “disabled” means: Disabling is a metadata flag on the show’s WordPress post record — no data, episodes, or subscriber tokens are deleted. It is fully reversible. While a show is disabled:
- Both its public feed URL and all private subscriber feed URLs return HTTP 410 Gone, with the XML comment:
This podcast feed is temporarily unavailable while the site owner is over their plan's show limit.Podcast apps and directories receive the 410 and treat the feed as removed until it is re-enabled. - The show is hidden from public show listings and archive pages on your WordPress site. The admin Shows portfolio still shows it (with the Disabled pill — see below).
- All data, episodes, and subscriber tokens are intact. Nothing is deleted.
Creating a new show while over-limit is blocked — the REST API returns 403 show_limit_exceeded rather than the standard at-capacity 403 show_limit_reached. See Troubleshooting Shows → for what these error codes mean and how to resolve them.
For a walkthrough of how the over-limit state looks in the Shows portfolio screen, see Shows Portfolio — Over-Limit State →.
Recovery
Recovery is automatic on the next successful license validation after you bring your active show count back within your plan limit — either by upgrading your plan or archiving a show. When validation succeeds:
- The disabled shows’ metadata flag is cleared
- Their feeds begin serving content again on the next request — no cache flush needed
- Subscriber tokens that were blocked by the 410 start delivering content immediately
Trigger an immediate validation from Settings → Account → Validate now rather than waiting for the daily automatic check.
Partial recovery: If you upgrade to a plan that brings you within range but doesn’t eliminate all excess, the oldest disabled shows are re-enabled first. Example: 5 shows on a 3-show plan, you upgrade to a 4-show plan — the older of the two disabled shows comes back; the newer one stays disabled.
Upgrading or Archiving to Resolve
Upgrade your plan at benecaster.com/shop/plans/ to a plan with a higher show limit, or to Multi-Show or Studio for no show limit. Shows are re-enabled on the next license validation.
Archive a show to bring your active count within your current plan’s limit. The archived show’s feeds and subscribers are preserved — archiving is reversible. Go to the show’s settings page and choose Archive show.
Unarchiving and Live Plan Checks
When you unarchive a show, Benecaster makes a live call to the license server to verify you have a slot available. This adds a short delay (around 500 ms) to the unarchive action compared to the pre-existing local check. Two outcomes are possible:
- License server unreachable — you’ll see “We couldn’t verify your plan slot right now — try again in a moment.” Check your site’s outbound connectivity to benecaster.com and retry.
- Plan is at or over the limit — you’ll see “Unarchiving this show would exceed your plan’s show limit. Upgrade or archive another show first.”
Subscriber Limits
(This section covers subscriber limits — coming in a future documentation pass.)
What Limits Apply on Free Installs
(This section covers free-tier limits — coming in a future documentation pass.)