Plans grant credits, actions spend them — meter generations, API calls, exports, render minutes, or any per-use action through one credit ledger in a left-sidebar member app. Auth, billing and a dedicated admin app already done.
Every action carries a price. Every price hits one append-only ledger. The balance you see is the balance you have — debited up front, refunded on failure, never negative.
Wrap any per-run tool in consume_credits_for_action() and the metering is handled for you. Plans top up the balance each period; the ledger records where it went.
Wrap an export, a lookup, a render, an AI call or render minutes in consume_credits_for_action() and it debits the balance atomically. No double-spend, no half-charged runs — the deduction and the work commit together or not at all.
Every spend and every top-up is a row: amount, action, balance-after, timestamp. Nothing is mutated in place, so a user's history reconciles to the current balance by addition — handy when someone emails asking where 40 credits went.
Set the cost per action in one place — a cheap lookup at 1 credit, a heavy render at 25. Tools live in the member sidebar app and open freely; each run is gated by the balance, not a hard tier wall, and a zero balance routes to top-up. Change the price without touching the call sites.
Plans grant a credit allotment each billing cycle. The Stripe webhook credits the ledger on renewal; cancellations stop the top-up, not the account.
If an action throws after it charged, credit the same amount straight back to the ledger. The reversal is its own row, so the audit trail stays honest.
The same consume_credits_for_action() path backs both a logged-in user clicking 'Run' and a script hitting your API with a key. One balance, one ledger, whether the spend comes from public/api.php or a jQuery button — so usage-based billing works for humans and machines without a second accounting system.
Top-ups, spends, and a refund land as append-only rows with a balance-after, so the number on the account is just the column added up.
| Action | Type | Amount | Balance after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scale plan renewal · stripe | + | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| Run premium workflow · web | - | 25 | 1,975 |
| Generate report export · web | - | 10 | 1,965 |
| AI image generation · api_key | - | 1 | 1,964 |
| Refund: export failed mid-run · web | + | 10 | 1,974 |
| Create a note · api_key | - | 1 | 1,973 |
Usage metering where the books always balance — debits, top-ups and refunds all land in one append-only ledger.
You're in one now. Hop straight to any other site type — same tab, still a demo: no card needed, no payment is real, and nothing you do is saved.
Each site-type demo is one of the seven ready-to-run profiles in the download — copy the folder, add your keys, ship.
Keep the infrastructure small. Make the product yours.
| web_build_step | none |
| source_code | included |
| hosting | your own server |
| database_mode | SQLite WAL |
Every install ships with this. Search users, replay webhooks, inspect billing and revoke keys — server-rendered, access-gated, no second app.
| User | Plan | Status | Joined |
|---|---|---|---|
| ada@example.com | Pro | active | 2d ago |
| grace@example.com | Scale | active | 5d ago |
| linus@example.com | Starter | past due | 3w ago |
| margaret@example.com | Pro | active | 1mo ago |
| blocked@example.com | Free | blocked | 1mo ago |
invoice.paidevt_1Q8x…a3customer.subscription.updatedevt_1Q8w…f1checkout.session.completedevt_1Q8w…7cinvoice.payment_failedevt_1Q8v…02charge.refundedevt_1Q8u…9dcurl -H "Authorization: Bearer ss_live_••••" \ https://app.yoursaas.com/api.php?resource=notes { "ok": true, "data": [ "note_18f2", "note_18f9" ], "rate_limit": "58/60", "credits_left": 1840 }
copy a template folder
composer install · Stripe + SES
rebrand · plans · run doctor
NGINX + PHP-FPM · take cards
Try the local app before configuring billing or email. Provider approval and deployment take additional time.
Define plans in app/subscriptions.php, attach Stripe price IDs, and the checkout flow stays generic across every project.
Default access for new users and trial accounts.
For a small paid SaaS tier.
For heavier usage and premium features.
For power users and high-credit products.
Whatever you decide — a generation, an API call, an export, a render minute. Plans grant credits; each action spends them through one ledger via consume_credits_for_action().
Your call per plan. Period credits top up to a fresh allowance each period by default, and you can switch to rollover in the plan config.
Yes — combine recurring plans that grant credits with one-time purchases for top-up packs.
The starter includes prepared queries, signed Stripe webhooks, CSRF checks, rate limiting, session hardening, setup diagnostics and regression tests. Configure the enabled providers, verify backups and test your own product before launch.
You pay your hosting and service providers directly. Budget for a PHP server, domain, transactional email and payment processing. Image generation/storage and native app store accounts add costs if you enable them. Check provider pricing for your region and expected usage; the template itself is a one-time purchase.
This is a live, fully interactive demo — explore every screen. Nothing you do is saved and no payments are real.