All you need to know about using Testable after 1 Sept 2023

We’re thrilled to share some exciting news with you about upcoming changes to our platform that we’ve designed with your needs in mind. Starting from September 1, 2023, we’re updating our subscription tiers to make them more straightforward, beneficial, and aligned with our commitment to empowering your research efforts. This means saying goodbye to the old pay-as-you-go credit system and welcoming a new, streamlined structure.

Understanding the new plan structure

Let’s dive into what’s changing with our different accounts:

For the full tier list and feature & benefits table click here

Basic Academic (New)

Every student and researcher with an academic email address will continue to have lifetime access to a free Basic Academic Testable account. On Basic Academic, you can continue to build as many experiments as you’d like and you gain full access to our Templates and Community Library.

Data collection on Basic Academic

  • Collect unlimited results on your own account. That means you test your experiments and the resulting results data easily, and you can also collect data in person in the lab by logging into your Testable account on the test computer in the lab.
  • Collect unlimited results on Testable Minds. If you are paying for participants through Testable Minds, you can use the Testable software free of charge to record experimental data.

If you wish to collect data anywhere else online, you will need to be subscribed to our Plus Academic or Pro Academic accounts or be included in a departmental license.

Plus Academic (New)

In the Plus Academic tier, we’re raising the bar to enhance your experience and it will be priced at $299/year per user. You get access to the full set of Plus features, like Project Collaboration, the in-editor Trial Previewer, and our latest feature: Realtime Fieldwork Insights. These features help you build experiments with ease, work with others, and keep a close eye on, and professionally report, your data collection. We’re also giving including $100 participant budget that will automatically be added to your account when you subscribe to Plus. You can instantly use this budget to set up a participant recruitment project on Testable Minds and explore the best way to collect quality data for your studies. If you ever get stuck, Plus Academic users also gain access to our live 1-on-1 Help Clinic with our research experts.

Data collection on Plus Academic

  • Collect up to 500 results each month, anywhere online, and unlimited results on Testable Minds or on your own account.

Participant recruitment on Plus Academic

  • $100 Minds budget for participant recruitment is included
  • Further budget can be purchased at a discounted commission rate of 20%

If you only need to use Testable for a single Project, or a shorter amount of time, we also offer the option to upgrade to Plus Academic for a single month at a time for $99/month. This upgrade grants you all the same benefits and data collection privileges as the annual subscription, but you will not receive any free Minds budget.

Free Plus Academic trial

For Basic Academic users (both existing and new), we’re offering a 1-month free trial of the Plus Academic tier. This is a fantastic opportunity to explore the advanced features that Plus offers. You can also try the new Plus if you are already subscribed to any legacy account before you decide to upgrade.

Pro Academic (New)

We’re introducing a brand-new Pro Academic tier priced at $699/year per user. This tier lets you enjoy unlimited data collection anywhere, $200 free Minds participant budget, and access to all Plus features. Additionally, Pro Academic users benefit from unlimited collaboration and priority email support. If you are a seasoned researcher conducting lots of online experiments, this is the all-breaks-off, full peace-of-mind premium package.

Data collection on Plus Academic

  • Collect unlimited results anywhere. No restrictions on data collection.

Participant recruitment on Plus Academic

  • $200 Minds budget for participant recruitment is included
  • Further budget can be purchased at a discounted commission rate of 15%

You may have noticed that our legacy “Lab” group product is not featured here anymore. We are deliberately removing this option as it doesn’t reflect the way that actual Labs work and collaborate on research. Instead of the fixed-users and fixed-results-per-user model that we had before, we came up with a system that is much more flexible while still allowing for the simplified user management that the Lab license offered. Introducing…

Custom Lab groups

We are now making it easier than ever for you to create, manage, and pay for your custom work group on Testable. In a new interface, you can select any number of accounts that you need. You may for example want one Pro Academic account for the main researcher to conduct most of the data collection, and another three Plus Academic accounts for their collaborators, which gives them access to all advanced Testable tools as well as collaboration. You will be able to pay for all accounts in one place and manage their lifecycles (renewals/cancellations) all from a revamped group management panel.

This feature will not be available on 1st September but will be launched shortly after.

Buying accounts for other people

We have also added an easy option to purchase an account on someone else’s behalf. For example, as a supervisor, it will be easy for you to upgrade a student’s account to Plus Academic so they can collect data and recruit participants for their thesis project, without having to deal with invoices or payments themselves.

This feature will not be available on 1st September but will be launched shortly after.

Department (New)

We also have a brand new department license available to allow all staff and students in your department to use Testable without restrictions. It offers comprehensive data collection everywhere, a generous discount on Testable Minds participant recruitment budget (10% instead of 30% on purchased budget), $1000 participant budget already included as well as access to all premium features. We also added new, exclusive support and governance benefits tailored to the needs of those in charge of managing research technology in the department. Contact us to enquire about a custom offer for your department.


How Will These Changes Affect You?

As a general rule, you will be able to use any credits and subscriptions that you already purchased, in the same way as before until they run out, or until you choose to convert them towards an upgrade to our new plans.

Current subscriptions and credits

If you currently have a Plus or Lab subscription, you can continue using it until it expires or upgrade to any of the new tiers at a pro-rated price. However, renewal of your old subscription or purchase of new credits won’t be possible.

As for your remaining credits, they can be used as usual until they run out or be transformed into vouchers for a subscription.

Converting existing credits and subscriptions

Converting existing credits

If you still have credits on your account after 1st of September, you have two options:

  1. You can use the credits as before, to record or unlock one participant results data per credit. You can continue using the credits indefinitely until you run out.
  2. You can convert your credits into a discount towards purchasing one of our new monthly or annual plans.

How is the value of my credits calculated?

If you decide to convert your credits, you need to convert all of your remaining credits at once, and they will be transformed into a discount corresponding to the average value of your credits.

That means that we’ll multiply the number of all your credits times the average purchase price you have paid for your credits in the lifetime of your account.

Here is a slightly more complex example to illustrate how this will happen. Don’t worry, Testable will do the calculations automatically at checkout.

After September 1st, Gill has 120 credits left on her account.

  1. She received 10 credits for free when she signed up (as these were awarded for free, they are worth $0)
  2. She purchased 150 credits using the standard price of $1/credit.
  3. During a Christmas promotion, she purchased a further 150 credits at a 50% discount for $0.50/credit.
  4. In total, she spent $225 for a total of 300 credits (150 * $1 + 150 * $0.50).
  5. That means the average purchase value of her credits is $0.75 ($225/300)
  6. In time, Gill collected 180 results with Testable, leaving her with the 120 credits she still has now, but the average purchase value of her credits remains $0.75/credit.
  7. Gill now wishes to upgrade to the new Plus Academic subscription that costs $299/year.
  8. At checkout, Testable automatically calculates that Gill’s credits are worth $0.75 * 120 = $90.
  9. That means that she will now only have to pay $209 for the upgrade to Plus Academic ($299 – $90)

Converting existing memberships

Do you still have an active (Legacy) Plus subscription? You can either keep it and use its benefits until your subscription expires, or you can convert your remaining months into a discounted upgrade to the new Plus Academic tier. With our new Plus Academic account, you can collect data without the need for credits (up to 500 a month!), you gain access to new features, such as project collaboration, and you also receive $100 free for participant recruitment on Testable Minds.

Here is how the value of your remaining Plus membership is calculated:

  1. Credits: Any credits you still have remaining on your account will be converted according to the logic outlined above (see ‘Converting existing credits’)
  2. Subscription: The non-credit benefits for our Legacy Plus Academic license are valued at $49/year. This amount is pro-rated for the time still remaining on your Plus subscription.

Of course, Testable will make all these calculations automatically, but here is an example to illustrate:

  1. John subscribed to Plus Academic on 1st of March 2023. On 1st September, he will be exactly 6 months into his subscription.
  2. That means that of the $49, $24.50 ($49/2) is still available for a pro-rated upgrade.
  3. Additionally, John still has 100 credits left of the 300 that were awarded to him by the old Plus license. As explained above, these are valued at $0.50 each, awarding him an additional $50 by the rules of credit conversion.
  4. When John upgrades to the new Plus Academic, he is credited a total of $74.50 ($50 from his remaining credits plus $24.50 from his remaining Plus subscription).
  5. The price for the first year of the new Plus Academic subscription will now be $224.50 ($299-$74.50) for John.
  6. When upgrading at a pro-rated price, you will need to commit to the full duration of the new subscription.

Important notes on converting credits and memberships:

  • Credits awarded automatically by being added to a Lab group cannot be converted
  • Credits transferred from a departmental license cannot be converted
  • Departmental credits (visible on the admin panel) cannot be converted
  • Lab memberships cannot be converted
  • The maximum value of the conversion cannot exceed the price of your upgrade – $1. That means you will always need to pay at least $1 for your upgrade. Any excess value will be lost in the transaction and cannot be used later.
  • You can also convert new memberships into other types of new memberships. For example: If you purchase Plus Academic and decide to upgrade to Pro Academic: The remaining value of your Plus Academic subscription will be pro-rated and converted to a discount towards your Pro Academic purchase.

The Reason Behind These Changes

Our primary motivation for these updates is to enhance the synergy between Testable, our experiment-building software, and Testable Minds, our participant pool. Our unique identity verification system guarantees the most reliable data for your online studies, and by conducting your experiment building and participant recruiting on the same platform, we believe we can help you save time and effort.

Our new tiers are tailored to encourage the integrated use of Testable and Testable Minds, resulting in a smoother and more efficient research process.

Please note that these aren’t the only changes. There are more enhancements to the features of each tier, and all details will be available on our new website when it launches.

We are genuinely excited about these changes and look forward to continuing to support your research endeavors. Thank you for your continued trust in Testable.


FAQs

What happens if I am part of a Departmental license?

  • Departmental licenses have their own rules and nothing will change for you, as long as you are covered by a license.
  • We do have new departmental licenses available with new benefits regarding Testable Minds and data collection, which we will discuss individually with the license admins.

What happens to the credits I still have?

  • You can use any credits you may still have the usual way until they run out or you can transform them into vouchers for a subscription.

What do I have to do to convert my credits?

  • It all happens automatically. Simply go to our new “Plans” section under your Profile on the Testable dashboard and select the Plan you are looking to purchase. At checkout, you will be asked automatically if you wish to convert your credits or your existing legacy Plus membership.

What if I currently have a Plus or Lab subscription?

  • If you are subscribed to Plus or Lab you can continue using it until it expires.
  • If you have a Plus subscription, you can also upgrade to one of the new tiers at a pro-rated price.
  • You cannot renew your old subscription or purchase new credits.

Can you clarify what happens to Lab users?

  • In the current world, a lab account consisted of a fixed 6 accounts that had to be purchased as a package. This system will be discontinued, and there will not be an equivalent account type in the new world.
  • Everyone currently on a Lab account (admin or member) will be able to keep their benefits and credits until the agreed expiry date.
  • In the new world, admins can purchase any flexible number of Plus or Pro accounts to form and manage a flexible “lab group”. You can allow your current lab to expire and create your ideal lab group using our new shop after 1st September.

What happens if I am a Basic Academic user?

  • All basic users (existing and new) who signed up with an academic email account will receive a 1-month free trial of the new Plus Academic.

Can I convert credits towards a Minds budget purchase?

  • No. Credits were used to pay for the Testable software, so conversions can only be made for purchases towards any of our new Testable plans.

How does the monthly limit work on Plus?

  • When you collect more than 500 results in any given month (if you upgraded on the 12th Jan, the month will run until the 12th Feb, and the following until 12th of March etc.). Any further results will get locked and you will not be able to access them. They can be unlocked either by upgrading to Pro Academic or by waiting for the next month when the limit refreshes. As an example, if you collect 510 results from 12th Jan – 12th Feb, 10 results will be locked until the end of the period. On 12th Feb, the 10 results will automatically unlock and your monthly limit for the period between 12th Feb – 12th March will drop to 490.