Benecaster Terms of Service

Last updated: August 2026

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1. Agreement

By creating an account at benecaster.com, purchasing a license, or installing or using the Benecaster plugin, you agree to these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree, do not use Benecaster.

These Terms apply to all users of Benecaster, including free tier users, paid plan subscribers, and anyone who installs the plugin.

Anadar Professional Services, LLC (“Benecaster,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a Connecticut limited liability company operating benecaster.com and publishing the Benecaster plugin.

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2. Definitions

“Service” means the Benecaster plugin (free and paid versions), the benecaster.com website, the license validation server, the customer account portal, and all related services and documentation.

“Plugin” means the Benecaster WordPress plugin, including both the free version available from the WordPress.org directory and any version operating under a paid license.

“Account” means a benecaster.com customer account.

“License” means the entitlement to the paid features of the Plugin at a specific plan tier, granted to your Account and exercised by connecting a site to it. A License is not a key, a file, or a credential you hold; it is a record on your Account, and the Plugin obtains access by validating a site’s connection against it.

“Add-on” means a separately purchased or plan-included component that extends the Plugin’s functionality.

“Activation” means the registration of a WordPress installation with our license server, enabling paid features on that installation.

“Subscriber” means an end user of your podcast who subscribes to your content using the Plugin. Subscribers are your customers, not ours — we have no direct relationship with them.

“Built-in Membership” means the Plugin’s optional internal membership system, which collects Subscriber payments through a Stripe account that you connect and control. When you use it, the Plugin creates and manages Stripe customer and subscription records inside your own Stripe account on your behalf. Money moves between your Subscriber and you; we are not a party to that payment and at no point hold your Subscribers’ funds. Built-in Membership is an alternative to connecting a third-party membership plugin, and the two are treated differently wherever these Terms concern Subscriber billing — see Section 5.8.1.

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3. The Service

3.1 What Benecaster Provides

Benecaster enables private podcast subscription management on WordPress. It generates authenticated private RSS feeds for paying subscribers, integrates with supported third-party membership and subscription plugins, and provides subscriber management and analytics tools.

Benecaster does not host audio files. Your episode audio remains on your existing podcast hosting provider.

3.2 Free Tier

The free version of the Plugin may be installed and used without a benecaster.com account. Free tier features are as described in our current documentation. We may modify free tier features at any time without notice.

3.3 Paid Plans

Paid plan features require an active benecaster.com account and valid license. Features available at each plan tier are as described in our current pricing and documentation. We may modify features with reasonable notice.

The Launch plan is a paid plan priced at zero, not the free tier. It requires an Account and a License, is subject to plan limits, and is governed by every provision of these Terms that applies to paid plans — including Section 5 on billing and renewals and Section 9 on cancellation and termination. The only respect in which it differs from the other plans is the amount charged. This distinction matters because the free tier in §3.2 requires no Account at all, while Launch is licensed in exactly the way Starter, Growth and Pro are.

3.4 Service Availability

We will make reasonable efforts to maintain the availability of the license validation server. Brief outages may occur. The Plugin is designed to be fail-open: if it cannot reach the license server due to a network issue, server outage, or other technical failure, it continues operating normally and does not interrupt your subscribers’ access. This design choice is deliberate, but it does not constitute a guarantee of continuous availability.

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4. Accounts

4.1 Registration

To access paid features, you must create an account at benecaster.com with accurate information. You agree to keep your account information current.

4.2 Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your Account credentials. Because a License is exercised by connecting a site to your Account, anyone with access to your Account credentials can connect sites under your License, and you are responsible for sites connected that way. You may not give a third party access to your Account, or connect a site on their behalf, except as expressly permitted by these Terms. Contact us immediately if you believe your Account has been compromised.

4.3 Eligibility

The Service is for business and professional use. By creating an account, you represent that you are at least 18 years old and have the legal authority to enter into these Terms on behalf of yourself or any entity you represent.

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5. Plans, Billing, and Renewals

5.1 Pricing

Current pricing is shown at benecaster.com/pricing.

Existing subscriptions are not repriced by default. A change to published pricing applies to new purchases. It applies to an existing subscription only where we expressly apply it, in which case §5.1.1 governs.

5.1.1 Price Increases — 30 Days’ Notice

We will give you at least 30 days’ notice by email before increasing the price of an existing subscription. The notice will state your current price, the new price, and the date from which the new price applies.

The new price is charged at your first renewal falling on or after the 30th day following that notice. If a renewal falls within the notice period, it is charged at your existing price.

Nothing is charged mid-cycle. A price change is applied at a renewal only — no proration and no supplementary charge is made at the time of the change.

You may cancel at any time before the new price takes effect, under §9.1, and retain access for the remainder of the period you have paid for.

5.1.2 Price Reductions

A reduction in price applies at your next renewal, with no waiting period. The 30 days’ notice in §5.1.1 is a protection against an increase and is not applied to a decrease — you are not held at a higher price while a notice period runs.

5.2 Billing Periods

Plans are available on monthly or annual billing cycles. Annual plans are charged once per year.

5.3 Automatic Renewal

Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period using the payment method on file. We will send a renewal reminder by email before each renewal date. To stop renewal, cancel your subscription from your account dashboard before the renewal date.

5.4 Automatic Plan Upgrades

Automatic upgrades (enabled by default): When your paying subscriber count has exceeded your current plan’s limit for 24 consecutive hours, your plan is automatically upgraded to the next tier. The 24 hours are continuous, not cumulative: if your count returns to or below your plan’s limit at any point, the period is cleared and begins again from zero the next time you exceed the limit.

The upgrade takes effect immediately, and the prorated amount is charged to your card that day. The amount covers the remainder of your current billing period at the new plan’s rate. Your billing cycle anchor does not change — your next full renewal remains on the same date, and the new plan’s full rate applies from that renewal onwards.

If that charge is declined, the upgrade does not happen. Your plan stays where it is and is held to its existing limits, so subscribers past your limit receive your public feed until the charge succeeds or you upgrade manually. A declined upgrade charge is not a missed payment on your plan: you remain fully paid up, nothing is owed, no grace period begins under §5.8, and nothing is suspended. We will email you to ask you to update your card.

One exception: the move from Launch to Starter is charged in full rather than prorated. Launch has no paid subscription behind it, so an upgrade from Launch does not adjust an existing plan — it starts your first one. The first invoice for the new plan is charged to your card immediately, in full, and your billing period begins that day. If the card is declined, the upgrade does not take effect and your account stays on Launch; nothing is owed and no grace period begins. See §9.2 for how the 30-day money-back guarantee applies to this charge.

Total feed tokens are a separate limit with a separate 24-hour period. Your token cap counts every active feed on your account, including free-tier listeners, and is not the same as your paying subscriber limit. Automatic upgrade on the token cap is off by default and must be enabled separately in your account settings.

Opting out: You may disable automatic upgrades in your account settings, for either limit independently. If you do, subscribers who join while you are over your plan limit will receive your public podcast feed instead of their private subscriber feed until you manually upgrade your plan. Benecaster does not intercept billing by your membership plugin — subscribers in this state are still charged by your membership plugin regardless of their feed access level.

You may also upgrade manually at any time from your account dashboard. The same treatment applies: the plan changes immediately and the prorated amount is charged that day.

5.5 Plan Downgrade Conditions

Eligibility (all plans): You may downgrade to a plan once your account has fitted every limit that plan imposes — its paying subscriber limit and its active show limit — for 30 consecutive days. If your account stops fitting either limit at any point during that period, the 30 days are cleared and begin again.

Additional condition where the target plan has no subscriber limit: For a move from Studio to Multi-Show, or from Multi-Show to Pro, you must also have been on your current plan for at least 30 days. Both conditions must be met.

Effect: When you choose to downgrade, the change takes effect at the end of your current billing period, on monthly and annual plans alike. You retain the higher plan for the remainder of the period you have paid for. No mid-cycle downgrade is available. In exceptional circumstances, contact support — we review requests individually and may apply a prorated credit at our discretion.

Downgrading to Launch follows the same rules and is available from your account dashboard.

No downgrade is ever automatic. A plan moves down only because you ask it to.

5.5.1 Billing Interval Changes

You may switch between monthly and annual billing at any time from your account dashboard. A change of billing interval is not a plan change — your plan, its limits and its features are unaffected, and the eligibility conditions in §5.5 do not apply to it.

The change takes effect at the end of your current billing period, in both directions. Nothing is charged, credited or prorated at the time you request it. A change from annual to monthly therefore takes effect at your annual renewal, which may be up to twelve months away; you retain the full year you have paid for. You may cancel a requested change at any time before it applies.

5.6 Prorated Charges and Credits

Upgrades: A plan upgrade takes effect immediately. A prorated amount for the remaining portion of the current billing period at the new plan’s rate is charged to your card on the day of the upgrade. Your billing cycle anchor is unchanged, so your next invoice falls on its normal date and carries the new plan’s full rate. If the charge is declined the upgrade does not take effect — see §5.4.

Downgrades: No prorated credit is issued, on monthly or annual plans. Downgrades take effect at the end of the billing period you have already paid for — you retain access to the higher plan for the remainder of that period. In exceptional cases we may issue a prorated credit at our sole discretion — contact support.

Billing interval changes: No charge, credit or proration is applied. See §5.5.1.

Discount codes: A referral discount applies once, to your first invoice. A later plan change or billing interval change is charged at full price. Other discount programmes may have their own duration, which is stated when the code is issued.

5.8 Payment Failures

This section applies to payments for your own plan — your first purchase and your renewals.

If such a payment fails, we will retry it according to our payment processor’s standard schedule. The 30-day grace period begins at the first failed payment and runs at the same time as those retries — it does not start after them. Your paid features and your existing subscribers’ private feeds continue operating throughout, so a payment problem resolved at any point during the grace period causes no interruption to your audience. If payment has still not been collected when the 30-day grace period ends, subscriber feed access is suspended and, if you use Built-in Membership, Subscriber billing is paused as described in Section 5.8.1.

A declined upgrade charge is not a payment failure under this section, and nothing in this section applies to one. If the prorated charge for a plan upgrade is declined (§5.4), the upgrade simply does not happen. Your plan stays where it is, and because you have already paid for that plan in full, no grace period begins, your account is not suspended, and your Subscribers’ billing is not paused. You owe us nothing.

The only consequence is the one that was already true before the upgrade was attempted: subscribers past your current plan’s limit receive your public feed until you are back within the limit or you move to a larger plan. We will email you to ask you to update your card. It is worth doing promptly — a card that cannot be charged for an upgrade will usually also fail at your next renewal, and this section does apply to that.

5.8.1 Suspension of Subscriber Billing at Grace Expiry

This section applies only if you use Built-in Membership. If you collect Subscriber payments through a third-party membership plugin — such as MemberPress, WooCommerce Subscriptions, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content Pro, or Patreon — nothing in this section applies to you, and Section 5.8.2 does.

What we do. When the 30-day grace period in Section 5.8 ends without payment, your Subscribers’ feed access is suspended. At the same moment, and for the same reason, the Plugin pauses collection on the Stripe subscriptions it created in your Stripe account, so that your Subscribers are not charged for access they no longer receive.

Why we do it. Those subscriptions exist because the Plugin created them on your behalf. Left alone, they would continue to renew on their normal schedule while the feeds they pay for return an error. We consider it unacceptable for your Subscribers to be charged for a product that has stopped, and we will not leave that outcome in place when it is within our power to prevent it.

Pausing is not cancelling, and the difference matters. A paused subscription is not billed, but it remains in your Stripe account with its history, its payment method, and its relationship to the Subscriber intact. We do not cancel, delete, or refund anything. If you do not intend to return, ending those subscriptions is your decision and yours alone — we will not make it for you, and a paused subscription will otherwise sit in your Stripe account indefinitely.

What happens if you come back. If your account returns to good standing, the Plugin resumes collection on exactly the subscriptions it paused, and Subscriber feed access is restored at the same time. Anything you cancelled or paused yourself in the meantime is left as you left it — we treat your own actions on your own Stripe account as deliberate and will not reverse them.

What we cannot do, and where the limits are. This is a best-efforts action against a third-party payment processor and is not guaranteed:

• A show configured for test mode, or whose Stripe credentials the Plugin cannot use, is skipped. Subscriptions on such a show are not paused and may continue to be charged. The Plugin will tell you in your WordPress dashboard when this happens, naming the affected shows, but acting on it is yours to do.
• Individual pause attempts can fail — for example if Stripe is unavailable, or if the subscription has already been changed on Stripe’s side. The Plugin records and reports failures rather than concealing them.
• We are not liable for Subscriber charges that occur because a pause could not be applied, was applied late, or was reversed by you or by Stripe. Section 14 applies.

You can always act yourself. Nothing here removes your ability to pause, cancel, or refund any Subscriber subscription directly in your Stripe account at any time, whether or not your account is in good standing.

5.8.2 Third-Party Membership Plugins

If you collect Subscriber payments through a third-party membership plugin or platform, that billing is outside our control and we do not attempt to alter it. When Subscriber feed access is suspended under Section 5.8, your Subscribers may continue to be charged by that third party until you stop the billing yourself. We will remind you of this, but only you can act on it. See also Section 11.

5.9 Taxes

Prices are exclusive of applicable taxes. You are responsible for any sales tax, use tax, VAT, GST, or similar taxes applicable to your purchase, as determined by your location and applicable law.

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6. License Grant

Subject to these Terms and payment of applicable fees, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the Plugin on any WordPress installation, subject to the show limits of your current plan.

This license does not include the right to:

• Distribute, resell, sublicense, or transfer your License, or your Account, to any third party
• Move an Add-on entitlement from the License it was purchased against to another License, including another License you hold. Add-on entitlements are non-transferable. Where an Add-on was attached to the wrong License because of an error made at the time of purchase, contact support and we will correct it; this is a correction, not a transfer, and does not create a right to move an entitlement afterwards
• Use a single license to provide the Plugin’s functionality as a service to multiple unrelated parties (see Section 7)
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Plugin except to the extent expressly permitted by applicable law
• Circumvent, disable, or tamper with the license validation system
• Modify the Plugin’s code in any way that disables, bypasses, or undermines license enforcement, entitlement verification, subscriber count reporting, plan limit enforcement, or add-on access control — regardless of the nature of any open-source license under which the Plugin’s code may be distributed
• Deliberately configure your server, network, hosting environment, or firewall in any way that prevents the Plugin from communicating with the Benecaster license server, where that configuration is intended to or does result in your retaining access to paid features without a valid active license or beyond the limits of your current plan
• Alter, suppress, remove, or substitute any field in the data transmitted to the Benecaster license server — including subscriber counts, show counts, or any field used for plan limit enforcement or upgrade determination — in a way that misrepresents your usage
• Remove, replace, obscure, or substitute the Benecaster name, logo, or other Benecaster branding anywhere in the Plugin, or present the Plugin or any modified version of it to a client or any third party as your own product or as a product other than Benecaster
• Distribute a modified version of the Plugin under the Benecaster name, or in any way that would lead a recipient to believe the modified version is the Plugin as supplied by us

6.1 Modifying the Plugin

Do not modify the core Plugin. The Plugin is built to be extended from outside — hooks, filters, shortcodes, template overrides, admin extension points, and a documented public function surface — and that extension surface is where customization belongs. If something you need is not reachable from it, tell us and we will look at adding it. That is a better outcome for you than a modified copy, and it is the route we support.

Support and warranty are conditioned on an unmodified core. If the Plugin’s own files have been altered, we may decline to provide support for the affected installation, and any warranty or service commitment in these Terms does not apply to behaviour arising from the modification. Plugin updates overwrite modified core files, so a change made this way is also lost at the next update.

Two restrictions in this area are absolute rather than conditional, and they are listed in Section 6 above: branding and attribution, and anything that undermines license enforcement. Benecaster’s name and logo are ours regardless of the license under which any of the Plugin’s code is distributed, and no modification gives anyone the right to present the Plugin — modified or not — as their own product, or to remove our branding from it.

6.2 Enforcement Integrity

The Plugin is designed to continue operating if it cannot reach the license server due to network problems or hosting limitations outside your control (“fail-open design,” described in Section 3.4). This design choice exists to protect your subscribers’ access during legitimate technical outages. It does not constitute permission to deliberately exploit that design to retain paid features without payment or beyond the limits of your current plan.

If we determine that you have deliberately configured your environment to block the Plugin’s license server communication — including through firewall rules, DNS manipulation, hosts file entries, network-level filtering, or any other technical means — you will be in material breach of these Terms regardless of whether paid features continued to operate during that period. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your license immediately upon discovery of such conduct without providing an opportunity to cure.

You acknowledge that enforcement circumvention may cause us harm that is difficult to quantify, and you agree that we are entitled to seek injunctive relief and specific performance in any court of competent jurisdiction to prevent or remedy circumvention, without the requirement to post a bond or other security.

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7. Shows and Acceptable Use

7.1 Show Limits

Each plan sets two separate limits — the number of shows you may run, and the number of WordPress installations your license may be activated on:

These are two limits, not one, even where they share a number. A Multi-Show license permits three shows and three site activations; it does not permit three shows spread across any number of installations. Connecting a further installation beyond your plan’s activation limit is refused.

Staging and development environments are tracked separately and do not consume a show slot — only creating a show does. Benecaster detects common staging URL patterns; where a staging environment is not recognized automatically, our documentation explains how to declare it.

7.2 Own-Shows Requirement — Multi-Show and Studio

All shows under a Multi-Show or Studio license must be shows that you own and operate. Every show must be a podcast operation for which you are the operator — not a show belonging to a client, employee at another organization, collaborator, or any other party.

Examples of permitted use:

• Multiple shows at separate domains, all operated by you
• A main show plus an archive or spinoff show, all under your control
• Multiple shows operated under a single podcast network or organization you run

Examples of use that are not permitted:

• Running a show for a client as part of a freelance or agency engagement
• Connecting another podcaster’s site to your Account so they can use your License for their own show
• Using one license to serve multiple podcast operators who are not part of the same organization

7.3 Consequences of Acceptable Use Violations

Violation of Section 7.2 may result in termination of all shows under the license. We will attempt to notify you and provide a reasonable opportunity to cure the violation before terminating, except where the violation is willful, repeated, or likely to cause ongoing harm. Termination under this section does not result in deletion of data on your WordPress installations — no subscriber data is deleted.

7.4 Agency and Developer Engagements

Agency or reseller use — where you operate a Benecaster-powered podcast on behalf of a client who owns that podcast — is not permitted under any plan. Each podcast operator must hold their own Benecaster license tied to their own benecaster.com account.

If you are a developer or agency setting up Benecaster for a client, the license must be purchased by or for the client under their own benecaster.com account. This ensures the client owns their subscriber data, their feed infrastructure, and their license relationship independently of your engagement with them. We offer no reseller or volume licensing at this time.

7.5 Own-Shows Requirement — All Plans

The own-shows requirement of Section 7.2 applies to all Benecaster plans, not only Multi-Show and Studio. A license issued to you may not be used to operate a show for which another party — a client, employer at a separate organization, or any third party — holds the subscriber relationship or retains editorial control over the podcast. The plan tier does not affect this requirement: a single-show Starter or Growth license is subject to the same restriction as a Studio license.

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8. Add-ons

8.1 Scope

Add-ons are entitlements attached to your license. A purchased add-on is available across all shows under that license — no separate activation or additional charge per show, and shows you add later are covered on the same basis. An add-on applies to the license itself; it is not directed to, or restricted to, any one show. Studio plans include all current and future podcaster add-ons automatically. CRM Sync add-ons (Business Tools) are not included in Studio and must be purchased separately.

8.2 Modification and Redistribution

Add-ons are licensed to you, not sold, and are supplied only through your Benecaster account. You may not:

• Modify an add-on’s code, or create derivative works from it
• Copy, distribute, resell, sublicense, publish, or otherwise make an add-on available to any third party, including by making the distribution file available for download
• Remove, replace, or obscure the Benecaster name, logo, or other Benecaster branding within an add-on, or present an add-on to a client or any third party as your own product
• Use an add-on on a site that is not covered by the license the entitlement is attached to

These restrictions are wider than those on the core Plugin, and deliberately so. Add-ons are not distributed through the WordPress.org plugin repository and are not offered under an open-source license. Where the two differ, the terms applying to add-ons are the ones stated here.

Extending an add-on is a different thing and is permitted. Add-ons expose the same hooks and filters the core Plugin does, and building alongside one is ordinary WordPress development — see Section 6.1.

8.3 Renewals

Annual add-on fees renew separately from your core plan and are billed on their own schedules. We will notify you before each renewal.

8.4 Discontinuation

We may add, modify, or discontinue add-ons. If we discontinue an add-on you have purchased and paid for, we will provide a prorated refund for the unused portion of the current billing period.

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9. Cancellation and Termination

9.1 Cancellation by You

You may cancel your subscription at any time from your account dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. During the remainder of the paid period, all features continue operating normally, including the ability for new subscribers to join.

After the paid period ends:

• New subscriber token generation stops — no new subscribers can join
• Existing subscribers’ private feeds remain active for an additional 30-day grace period. This grace period exists to give you time to resolve any billing or account issues without immediately disrupting your audience.
• After the 30-day grace period expires, subscriber feed access is suspended
• Your account data is preserved, and nothing is deleted automatically. Everything on your own WordPress installation — your subscribers, tokens, episodes and settings — stays entirely under your control; we have no ability to delete it, whether automatically or on request

Combining two licences is not a cancellation under this section. If you merge one of your licences into another (see §9.4), the licence being absorbed ends immediately, with no end-of-period wait and no 30-day feed grace. Neither applies, because nothing stops: your sites move to the surviving licence before the absorbed one closes, and your subscribers’ feeds are never interrupted. The paragraphs above describe ending a subscription and leaving; a merge ends a licence while the service continues on the one that absorbed it.

9.2 Refunds

We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all initial paid plan purchases. Contact support within 30 days of purchase for a full refund. Renewals are not refundable except as required by applicable law or as described in Section 5.5 for plan changes.

The automatic upgrade from Launch to Starter is an initial paid plan purchase and is covered by the guarantee, on the same terms as a plan you buy at checkout yourself. It is your first paid plan and it is charged in full on the day it happens (§5.4), and the fact that we started it for you rather than you choosing it does not narrow your rights — if you did not want it, contact support within 30 days for a full refund.

A plan upgrade charge is not an initial purchase and is not covered by the guarantee. When your plan moves up — whether you asked for it or it happened automatically under §5.4 — the prorated amount charged that day covers service on your existing subscription rather than a new purchase, and is not refundable as of right.

Combining two licences inside the guarantee window refunds the absorbed licence automatically — you do not need to contact us. When you merge one licence into another and the absorbed licence’s initial purchase is still within the 30 days, its initial payment is refunded in full at the moment of the merge. ⚠ This spends that purchase’s money-back guarantee. The refund has been made, so there is no second claim on the same purchase afterwards. Outside the 30 days, a merge instead credits the unused part of the absorbed licence’s term to your account, as described in §9.4. You receive one or the other, never both.

If an automatic upgrade was not what you wanted, contact support. We can move you back to your previous plan and apply a prorated credit at our discretion, as described in §5.5. If you would rather it never happened at all, automatic upgrades can be switched off in your account settings, for each limit independently — §5.4 explains what capping costs you, and it is a real cost rather than a free choice.

9.3 Termination by Us

We may suspend or terminate your account for material breach of these Terms, including violations of the acceptable use requirements in Section 7. We will provide reasonable notice and an opportunity to cure except where the breach is willful or causes immediate harm.

We may terminate inactive accounts after an extended period of inactivity, with prior notice by email.

9.4 Effect of Termination

After termination:

• Your License ceases to be valid and the Plugin reverts to its free version on the next validation check-in
• No data is deleted from your WordPress installation
• Any Subscriber billing you run through Built-in Membership is not cancelled by termination. If it was paused under Section 5.8.1 it stays paused; if it was never paused it continues to renew. Your Stripe account is yours, and ending those subscriptions is your decision — see Section 5.8.1
• Sections 6 (restrictions), 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 17 survive termination

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9.4 Combining Licences

If you hold more than one Benecaster licence, you may combine them into a single licence from your account dashboard. The licence you keep is moved to a plan that covers the combined use; the other is absorbed and closed immediately.

• Your sites and subscribers are not interrupted. Site connections move to the surviving licence before the absorbed licence closes, and no reconnection is required.
• Add-ons you purchased, or that we granted you, move with it. Add-ons that were included with a plan are not transferred — the surviving licence provides its own according to its plan.
• Money back: within the §9.2 window, the absorbed licence’s initial payment is refunded in full. Outside it, the unused portion of its term is credited to your account. One or the other applies, never both.
• Billing records are retained. Invoices issued against the absorbed licence remain part of your records and are available on request, though they are no longer listed on your account dashboard once that licence is closed.

Combining licences is initiated by you. We do not merge licences on your behalf.

10. Intellectual Property

10.1 Our Property

Benecaster, the Plugin, benecaster.com, and all associated materials are the property of Anadar Professional Services, LLC and are protected by applicable copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property law. These Terms grant you a limited license to use the Service; they do not transfer any ownership interest.

10.2 Your Content and Data

You retain all rights to your podcast content, subscriber data, and any content you create. We claim no intellectual property rights over your content. You grant us only the limited rights necessary to operate the Service — specifically, to validate your license and process telemetry data as described in our Privacy Policy.

10.3 Feedback

Any feedback or suggestions you provide about the Service may be used by us without restriction, obligation, or compensation to you.

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11. Third-Party Services

The Plugin integrates with third-party services, including WordPress membership plugins, payment processors, podcast hosting providers, and analytics platforms. Your use of those services is governed by their own terms and policies, not these Terms. We are not responsible for third-party services and provide no warranty regarding their functionality, availability, or compliance.

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12. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy, available at benecaster.com/privacy, describes how we collect and use information in connection with the Service. The Privacy Policy is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

By using the Plugin on your WordPress site, you process your subscribers’ personal data. You are the data controller for that data and are responsible for complying with applicable privacy law, including providing appropriate disclosures to your subscribers about how their data is collected and used.

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13. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING — WITHOUT LIMITATION — WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS.

Nothing in this section limits any warranty rights you may have under applicable consumer protection law that cannot be waived by contract.

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14. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY OF Anadar Professional Services, LLC AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AND SUPPLIERS TO YOU FOR ANY AND ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE UNUSED PORTION OF YOUR MOST RECENT PAYMENT TO US.

For the purposes of this section, “unused portion” means the pro-rata share of the most recent billing period’s payment corresponding to the time remaining in that period after the event giving rise to the claim.

IN NO EVENT WILL BENECASTER BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF REVENUE, LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, EVEN IF BENECASTER HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND EVEN IF A REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

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15. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Anadar Professional Services, LLC and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and successors from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use of the Service in a manner that violates these Terms; (b) your podcast content; © your relationship with your podcast subscribers, including any claims brought by subscribers; (d) your violation of any applicable law or regulation; (e) any claim that your use of third-party services in connection with Benecaster infringes the rights of any third party; or (f) any modification of the Plugin’s code, or any configuration of your network, server, or hosting environment, that circumvents or interferes with license enforcement, entitlement verification, subscriber count reporting, or the Plugin’s ability to communicate with the Benecaster license server.

Where your indemnification obligation arises under clause (f) of this section, the liability limitations in Section 14 do not apply to our claims against you — we may seek the full measure of damages caused by circumvention conduct, including lost subscription revenue attributable to the period of circumvention.

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16. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes, we will provide at least 30 days’ notice by email to your account address or by a notice in your Benecaster admin dashboard before the revised Terms take effect. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you may cancel your subscription before the effective date. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

Changes required by law may take effect immediately.

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17. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Connecticut and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Binding Arbitration: Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising from or relating to these Terms or the Service that cannot be resolved informally shall be submitted to binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. The arbitration shall be conducted in Fairfield, Connecticut, or by video conference if both parties agree. The arbitrator’s decision is final and binding and may be enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Class Action Waiver: You and Benecaster each agree to bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class action, class arbitration, or representative proceeding.

Exceptions: Either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to prevent irreparable harm, without waiving the right to arbitration for other claims. Claims small enough to qualify for small claims court may be brought there.

If the arbitration clause is found unenforceable, disputes shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Connecticut, and you irrevocably consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

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18. General

18.1 Entire Agreement

These Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and Anadar Professional Services, LLC regarding the Service and supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, and understandings.

18.2 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent possible, and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

18.3 No Waiver

Our failure or delay in enforcing any provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of our right to enforce it in the future.

18.4 Assignment

You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations without your consent in connection with a merger, acquisition, change of control, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets.

18.5 Force Majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance resulting from causes beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, acts of government, internet disruptions, or third-party service failures.

18.6 Contact

For questions about these Terms:

Anadar Professional Services, LLC
[Street Address]
[City, CT ZIP]
United States
[legal@benecaster.com or appropriate contact address]

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19. Referral Program

19.1 Eligibility

The referral program is open to all active Benecaster account holders, including Launch (free-tier) accounts. There is no requirement to hold a paid plan to refer — credits accumulate regardless of your current plan tier.

However, credits can only be redeemed against a renewal charge. Because a Launch account carries no renewal charge, your credit balance accumulates until you upgrade to a paid plan, at which point it becomes available for use.

19.2 How Credits Are Earned

When someone becomes a new paying Benecaster member using your referral link or code, you earn a credit equal to 50% of the list price of the plan they purchased on their first paid invoice. A minimum credit of $10 applies — if 50% of that amount is less than $10, you earn $10 regardless.

The referral discount applied to the referred person’s own purchase does not reduce your credit. Your credit is calculated from the plan list price before that discount, so both parties receive the same 50% amount, subject to the minimum rule in this section.

For annual plan referrals, the credit is based on the full annual plan price, not a monthly equivalent.

Add-ons. Add-ons purchased in the same checkout as the plan are included in the credit calculation. Add-ons purchased subsequently, on any later invoice, do not generate additional referral credit.

Other discounts. Discounts other than the referral discount — including academic pricing, promotional pricing, and any discount code issued by Benecaster — do reduce the amount from which your credit is calculated. In those cases the credit is 50% of the discounted price, subject to the $10 minimum.

19.3 Attribution

Referral attribution is established when your referral creates a Benecaster account — free or paid — using your link or code. Attribution does not lapse with the passage of time; a referred person who signs up on Launch and pays two years later still counts.

Eligibility is consumed at account creation, not at first payment. A referred person who creates a free account and later leaves, without ever paying, has used their one opportunity under the program. The program exists to attract new people; someone returning of their own accord is a win-back, which is handled through promotional campaigns rather than the referral mechanism.

An abandoned checkout — where someone visits the plan selection page but does not complete account creation — does not consume eligibility, because no account is created.

Attribution depends on your referral code being present when the account is created, and clicking your link is not by itself tracked. Your link carries the code to the signup form and fills it in, but the code is only recorded when the account is actually created. If someone follows your link and does not sign up in that visit — closing the page and returning later, using a different browser or device, or going to benecaster.com directly — the code is no longer present and the signup is not attributed to you. We do not track visitors between visits for this purpose.

We therefore cannot credit a referral for which no code was submitted, and we cannot reconstruct one after the fact from browsing activity. If you believe a referral of yours was not attributed, contact us and we will look into it.

If a referral signs up on the free tier first and later upgrades to a paid plan, the credit is earned at the time of their first paid invoice.

19.4 Credit Application

This section governs referral credit only. Your account may also hold refund credit — your own prepaid money returned to you, for example when a plan change starts covering something you were paying for separately. Refund credit is a different instrument with different rules: it carries none of the restrictions in this section, is not capped per renewal, and is never forfeited. See §19.11.

Referral credit applies automatically to core plan renewal charges. Referral credit does not apply to add-on purchases, one-time purchases, or Setup Service fees. Up to 50% of any single renewal charge may be offset by referral credit; any remaining balance carries forward to subsequent renewals. Referral credit applies to each plan subscription on your account independently on its applicable renewal date. Because add-on subscriptions are billed on separate invoices, referral credit cannot be applied to them regardless of account settings — the exclusion is structural.

19.5 Credit Accumulation

There is no limit on the number of referrals you may make or the total referral credit you may accumulate.

19.6 Active Account Requirement

This section governs referral credit only. Refund credit is never forfeited — it is your own money and closing your account does not entitle us to keep it. See §19.11.

Referral credit remains on your account as long as your Benecaster account is active. For purposes of this section, “active” means your license status is active or suspended — Launch (free-tier) accounts qualify on the same basis as paid accounts.

Downgrading to Launch is not a forfeiture event. A customer whose subscriber count has fallen back into the free tier retains their full referral credit balance. Referral credit accumulated while on a paid plan remains available and will apply when you next renew a paid plan.

Referral credit is forfeited only when your account is deliberately closed — when your license status becomes cancelled or expires without renewal. Payment failure is not a forfeiture event. A customer experiencing a billing issue retains their balance throughout the payment grace period and indefinitely beyond it. Forfeiture requires active account closure, not a payment lapse.

Credit of either kind is not redeemable for cash.

19.7 Self-Referral Prohibition

Using your own referral link or code — through a separate email address, a secondary account, or any other method — is not permitted and may result in forfeiture of credits and account suspension.

19.8 Fraudulent Activity

We reserve the right to investigate referral activity that appears abusive, coordinated, or fraudulent, and to void credits that we reasonably determine were not earned legitimately. We will provide notice before forfeiting credits except where the fraud is clear and ongoing.

19.9 Program Modifications and Discontinuation

We may modify the referral program terms or discontinue the program at any time with notice by email. If the program is discontinued, credits earned by active account holders will continue to be applied against renewals until fully used or until the account is closed, whichever comes first.

19.10 Referred Customer Discount

When you create a Benecaster account using a referral link or code, you are eligible to receive a discount on your first paid plan subscription. The discount amount is 50% of the list price of the plan selected, subject to a minimum of $10 and capped at the full plan price. In practice this produces three discount shapes: Starter is discounted to $0 for the first period, Growth receives $10 off, and Pro and above receive 50% off.

First invoice only. The discount applies to your first paid plan invoice. A Launch account that later upgrades to a paid plan qualifies — the discount applies at the time of that first plan payment. A subsequent plan upgrade (from one paid tier to another) does not qualify, even if you have never previously used a referral discount.

Once per person. The discount is available once per person, ever. Cancelling a plan and resubscribing does not restore eligibility. Eligibility is tied to account creation: once you have created an account under a referral, the discount has been used or forfeited regardless of whether a payment was ever made.

Annual plans. The discount applies to annual plans on the same terms as monthly plans. The 50% discount on an annual plan reflects first-year acquisition economics and is accepted as such.

Stacking with other discounts. Referral discounts may be combined with other discounts applied to the same invoice. When multiple discounts apply, the referral discount is applied last, to the net price after other discounts.

Identity and enforcement. Eligibility is determined by the email address used to create the account. Creating a second account under a different email address to claim the discount again is a violation of §19.7 and §19.8 and may result in credit forfeiture and account suspension. We are unable to technically prevent address substitution but will void discounts we reasonably determine were obtained this way.

19.11 Two Kinds of Credit

Your account can hold two separate credit balances. They are shown separately because they are different things, not two halves of one figure.

Referral credit is spent first. When both balances could cover a charge, referral credit is applied before refund credit, up to its cap and eligibility; refund credit covers whatever remains.

This ordering protects you rather than us. Referral credit is the perishable, restricted balance — capped per renewal and forfeited if your subscription lapses. Refund credit is unrestricted and never expires. Spending the refund balance first would burn credit that can never be lost in order to preserve credit that can, so a customer who later cancelled would forfeit referral credit they could have used. Draining the perishable balance first means nothing is lost that did not have to be.

A consequence worth expecting: once refund credit covers what the §19.4 cap leaves, an invoice can legitimately reach $0.00. That is correct, not an error.

Neither balance is redeemable for cash.