What gh0stcloud costs

The base fee, usage, and how the credit you start with works.

Your bill has two parts that behave differently: a fixed base fee, and whatever your applications actually consume. Both are paid out of your credit balance.

The base fee

EUR 9.99 per month, VAT included. The same amount for individuals and for businesses; the difference between the two account types is in the invoicing details, not in the price.

The base fee belongs to your account, not to the number of applications you run.

On top of that comes the infrastructure your applications actually occupy: compute, storage and traffic. This is measured hourly and attributed to your account rather than estimated at month end, so the portal shows you where the month is heading while it is still running.

What that means in practice depends on your application. A small application that is rarely called sits in the range of a few euros; something holding several replicas and larger volumes around the clock, correspondingly more. The calculator on the pricing page will work out an estimate for you.

Credit

Everything on gh0stcloud is paid from a credit balance. That balance is a prepayment towards future services, not a means of payment, and not a deposit.

When you create your account you receive EUR 15 in starting credit. That lets you deploy straight away without adding a payment method first. How long it is valid for is shown in the portal, and we remind you before it runs out. Starting credit is not paid out and not refunded. It is a reduction on future services, not money that belongs to you.

Credit you top up yourself does not expire. Settlement happens in this order: first the credit that expires soonest, then any remaining starting credit, then credit you paid for.

When an invoice falls due it is settled against your balance automatically, and you are notified. If the balance does not cover it, the remainder is shown as an open amount you can either pay directly or cover by topping up.

Unused credit that you paid for is refunded on request when the contract ends, to the payment method you topped up with. Credit already used is not refunded, because it paid for services that were provided. As a consumer you can also withdraw from a top-up; the part not yet used at that point is refunded.

When the balance runs low

Here is the line that matters most: if a valid payment method is on file, nothing happens. You are a paying customer, the invoice is collected normally, and an empty balance is not an event.

Without a payment method on file, it goes like this:

When the balance gets low, you are notified. Nothing else changes.
When it is used up, a grace period starts. Everything still runs.
When that period expires, your applications are stopped. Your data is kept.
Only if the retention period then also passes is the environment deleted.

Steps 1 to 3 are reversible: as soon as you top up or add a payment method, everything continues, with no data loss. Only the last step is final, and it does not arrive without warning.

Each of these moments is a phase of the account with a date and one thing to do; account phases lists them, including what a full account is and why it is never deleted.

What costs extra

Managed operations, migrations and response times faster than the self-service commitment are not automatically included. They are agreed before they are incurred, and appear on your invoice only then.

VAT and invoices

Self-service base fee and usage prices are quoted as gross prices including 19% VAT. The pricing page also shows the net amount for every unit price.
Managed packages and consulting are offered to businesses only. Those prices are net prices plus VAT.
Every credit top-up is an advance payment. You immediately receive an advance payment invoice showing the VAT. Later invoices deduct the settled advance payment including its VAT, so nothing is taxed twice.
The starting credit is a price reduction. It appears on the invoice as a discount, not as a payment.
You receive invoices electronically by email and in the portal. Businesses receive an e-invoice in ZUGFeRD format.
Registration is currently only possible with a registered office or residence in Germany. Different VAT rules apply to customers in other countries; we conclude such contracts only by individual agreement.

What is binding