Free vs. Pro
Boldbobbin has a Free plan and a paid Pro plan. (A Lifetime plan also exists: see below.) Your current plan shows as a badge next to your account.
The whole design workspace (drawing, stitches, importing, auto-digitizing, and exporting) works on the Free plan. What Pro adds is the ability to send certain content out, plus a few tools of its own and a commercial license.
The pattern to hold on to: the Pro-gated content features are all free to create, preview and edit. The wall is at export and publish, not at the work. Nothing in your design is ever locked or lost.
What each plan includes
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Design, generate stitches, import | Yes | Yes |
| Export to every machine format | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-digitize (Photostitch, Auto-Trace): create and preview | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-digitize: export or publish | No | Yes |
| Pixel art: paint, preview, edit | Yes | Yes |
| Pixel art stitched as cross-stitch or mini-satin: export or publish | No | Yes |
| Fill patterns: design and preview | Yes | Yes |
| Fill patterns: export or publish | No | Yes |
| Your own fonts: import, digitize, edit, stitch with | Yes | Yes |
| Your own fonts: export a design that uses one | No | Yes |
Your own fonts: export the .bbf, or keep fonts in the cloud | No | Yes |
| Density analysis | No | Yes |
| Cloud designs | Up to 10 | Unlimited (within fair use) |
| Community publications | A few (the dialog shows your count) | Unlimited |
| Run sheet PDF export | No | Yes |
| Batch export (several formats at once) | No | Yes |
| Commercial use license | No (personal use only) | Yes |
| Watermark on image (PNG/SVG) and video exports | Yes | No |
Cloud design limit
The Free plan lets you keep up to 10 designs in the cloud. When you reach the
cap, Boldbobbin tells you and offers to upgrade or delete some designs. Local
.vemb saves to your own computer are never limited. Pro gives you unlimited
cloud storage (within fair use).
There is also a Lifetime plan, capped at 50 cloud designs. It's a special plan and these limits may change over time.
Community publications
The Free plan includes a handful of published designs; the publish dialog shows how many you have used. When they are all in use you can unpublish one to free a slot, or upgrade. Designs you have already published stay online either way.
What counts as Pro content
Five kinds of content are gated at export and publish:
| Content | What's free |
|---|---|
| Photostitch | Run it, preview it, edit the result. |
| Auto-Trace | Same. |
| Pixel art stitched as cross-stitch or mini-satin | Paint it, preview it, edit it. A sprite set to tatami fill, or an empty one, is not gated at all. |
| Fill patterns | Design with a pattern and see it on screen. |
| Your own lettering | Import a font, digitize it, correct any letter, set text with it. |
If a design uses several at once, the prompt names all of them together rather than sending you round the export loop once per feature.
The check reads the design's current content, so removing or changing the offending thing ungates it immediately, with nothing to clear. Switching a sprite from cross-stitch to tatami, or a fill from patterned to plain, is enough.
Publishing runs the same check as exporting, so it cannot be used to route around the gate.
Density analysis
Analysis is the one Pro feature that isn't about content: it measures a design you already made. It is Pro outright, not gated at export.
Custom lettering
Making fonts is free: import a typeface, digitize it, correct any letter, set
text with it, preview it, and save the design. What needs Pro is getting it
out: exporting a design containing text in one of your own fonts (any format,
including the run sheet and video), and exporting the font itself as a .bbf.
Your fonts stay on your computer either way. If you're on the Free plan and need to export, switch that text back to one of the six bundled fonts and the design exports normally. See Fonts and lettering.
Watermark
On the Free (personal) plan, PNG and SVG image exports carry a small "Boldbobbin" wordmark badge in the bottom-right corner, and exported videos carry a "Made with Boldbobbin" watermark. Machine embroidery files (DST, PES, and the rest), JSON, CSV, and the PDF run sheet are not watermarked. Pro removes both watermarks.
License
Free exports are under a personal-use license (no selling finished goods or the files). Pro exports carry a commercial license. The commercial rights granted to a file at the moment you export it are permanent for that file: they stay valid even if you later change or cancel your plan.
Upgrading
When you try to use a Pro-only feature, Boldbobbin shows a prompt that names the feature, with two buttons: Got it (dismiss) and See Pro plans. When it is an export, the prompt lists every Pro feature the design uses and says plainly that nothing is locked and nothing in your work is lost: you upgrade only to send it out.
See Pro plans opens the Boldbobbin website pricing page (boldbobbin.com/pricing), where you pick a plan and pay. That page is where current pricing lives, and prices may change, so check there for the latest.
Cancelling
Manage or cancel your subscription from your account on the Boldbobbin website (billing is handled there, not inside the editor). If a plan lapses, paid capabilities remain until the paid period ends, then the account returns to Free. Already-exported files keep their commercial license.