Effective 21 August 2026
1. Three ways to the pro tools
Shelly's drawing, painting, photo and type tools are free, with no watermark. The pro tools come with any one of three plans: Shelly+ (a monthly or yearly subscription), Shelly Desktop bought to own (one payment and a licence key), or Ripple Extra (Ripple's Reader+ and Ripple+ together). Prices are shown before you pay. Payments are processed by Lemon Squeezy, which acts as the merchant of record and handles tax.
2. Shelly+ and the free trial
Shelly+ is Shelly's own subscription, for people who don't use Ripple as well as those who do. It comes with a licence key by email, which you enter in Shelly › Settings › Licence; no account is needed. If you subscribe while signed in to Ripple, it also unlocks your Ripple account, including Shelly on the web. The key works for as long as the subscription does. A new Shelly+ subscription starts with a free trial when one is shown at checkout. You won't be charged if you cancel before the trial ends; otherwise the first payment is taken when it ends, and then each month or year until you cancel.
3. Cancelling
Cancel any time in Lemon Squeezy's billing portal using the email you paid with (Shelly › Settings › Billing has the link), or from Settings › Billing in Ripple. Shelly+ stays on until the end of the period you've paid for, then its licence key stops working and the pro tools lock. Your designs, files and everything made with them stay yours.
4. Shelly Desktop, bought to own
Buying Shelly Desktop gives you a personal licence key by email. Enter it in Shelly › Settings › Licence to unlock the pro tools on that computer. The key is checked with Lemon Squeezy when you activate it and from time to time after that; Shelly keeps working offline for a week between checks. A key can be active on a limited number of computers at once (shown in Settings › Licence); deactivate it on a computer you no longer use to move it. The QuillTide Lifetime Licence terms apply to the version you buy, including what it says about updates and future editions.
If you buy while signed in to Ripple, the purchase is also linked to your Ripple account, so signing in unlocks Shelly too.
5. Refunds
Ask for a refund from Shelly › Settings › Billing › Request a refund, from Settings › Billing in Ripple, or by emailing hello@quilltides.com with your order number. We read every request and reply by email. When a refund goes through, the plan it paid for ends: a refunded subscription stops straight away, and a refunded licence key is disabled. Nothing you made is removed.
This does not limit any consumer rights that apply to you under mandatory law.
6. Privacy
Shelly keeps your designs on your computer. Checking a licence sends the key and a random name for the computer to Lemon Squeezy; no hostname or hardware fingerprint is collected. The QuillTide Privacy Policy explains the rest.