Licence and activation
One payment, a key in your inbox, three machines, and no account anywhere.
What is free, and what is not
The whole editor is free, forever: every field type, every layer, unlimited projects, decks and cards, no watermark and no time limit. So is the output that makes a game playable — PNGs, Tabletop Simulator sheets, and a print-and-play PDF.
Pro is the pre-press half of the export: bleed, cut lines and duplex backs inside the PDF, CMYK with your print shop's ICC profile, PDF/X-1a, the print-shop presets, and output DPI, JPG and TIFF for per-card files. The full table is on the pricing page.
Pro controls stay live without a licence, and the preview still draws the file you would get. Only writing it stops — someone deciding whether to buy should be able to see what they would be buying.
What it costs, and what tax is added
$59, once. Where your country charges VAT or a digital sales tax it is added on top of that — the checkout shows the exact total before you enter a card. A company with a VAT number can enter it there and pay the $59 without it, under the reverse charge.
Activating
Buying mails you a key. Paste it into the licence dialog; the app checks it once over the network and stores it. After that it is Pro offline, indefinitely — there is no sign-in, no account and nothing to log into.
Three machines
A key activates on three. Nothing is read off your hardware, so a new drive, a reinstalled operating system or a restored backup does not cost you a seat. Replacing a machine you still have access to? Release its seat from the licence dialog on that machine and it is free again.
Being offline
Only activation needs the network, and only once. A background re-check runs monthly and its failure changes nothing — no dialog, no nag, no degraded mode. An app that refuses to start because a server had a bad morning is a broken app, and it would be our fault rather than your network's.
Updates, and what "12 months" means
The licence is perpetual. The twelve months are the window in which you receive new versions; when it lapses, your key and your installed version keep working exactly as they did. Renewal is optional and discounted.
Updates are not gated on paying. The free tier is a real tool people use for years, and shipping them a build that stops improving to punish somebody else would be the wrong trade.
Refunds
14 days. The free version is the whole editor, so what a key buys is the pre-press output — and whether your print shop accepts that particular file is the one thing you cannot check before paying. That is exactly what a refund window is for.
If Boardsmith is ever discontinued
The version you have keeps working; nothing about it depends on a server staying up. And a build with the licence check removed gets published, so a project you started here never becomes a project you cannot finish.