Start free, upgrade when you need more

Signing up is free, and the Hobbyist plan has no time limit. Every new account gets 100 free sessions with no card, and can build, test and deploy on Hobbyist with 2 projects and 1 live shortcode. That is enough to put a small service live before you spend anything.

Two things, separately. A plan sets what you can build: how many projects and live shortcodes, which steps you can publish, and how many people work on a project. Sessions are your customers using your service, and they are paid from your session balance at GHS 0.025 a session, 10% less on Team.

It is prepaid credit that you top up from GHS 10, in any amount. Each completed session takes its charge from it, and unused balance never expires. It is never used to pay for a plan.

In the dashboard, under Billing, choose a plan and pay on our payment provider's page, for a month or a year at a time. The saving for paying by the year is shown on each plan. We do not store your card details and nothing renews by itself, so we send reminders 7 and 3 days before your plan ends.

You have 5 days after the end date to renew, and everything keeps working during that time. After that, paid features pause and the account returns to Hobbyist limits: live services that use Collect Payment, Sub-flow or API menus, and live shortcodes beyond the first, stop taking new sessions, and projects beyond the first two become read-only. Nothing is deleted. Renew to restore everything without republishing; sessions already in progress always complete.

Upgrade at any time. You pay only the difference for the days left in the current period, and your renewal date does not move. To move to a lower plan, schedule it in the dashboard; it takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, with no refund. Switching between monthly and annual happens when you renew.

No. What a project can do follows the plan of the account that owns it. Someone you invite works within your plan on your project, whatever plan their own account is on.

Yes. Every step type is available in the builder and the simulator on every plan. A paid plan is only needed to publish a flow that uses Collect Payment, Sub-flow or a menu filled from your API.

A session is one complete USSD interaction between a user and your application, from the moment they dial your shortcode to when the session ends by the user exiting, timing out or completing the flow. Multiple menu selections within the same interaction count as a single session.

Your flows stop taking new sessions until you top up. We email you at 20% and 5% of balance left so you have time to top up. Sessions already in progress always complete.

Asterisks supports Africa's Talking, Hubtel, Nalo Solutions and Arkesel. If your provider isn't listed, email support@useasterisks.com and we'll prioritise the integration.

Projects you created before plans were introduced keep everything they had, including all step types and up to 10 collaborators, and they do not count against your plan's limits. Live session traffic, audit logs and unlimited AI drafts stay on your account for 60 days after the change, then follow your plan.

Yes. You can export every flow as JSON from the builder at any time. Your data belongs to you, so there is no lock-in.