Three tiers. One free. Two that cost money. Here's what's behind each door.
The Three Tiers
Shelvd has three subscription tiers. Each builds on the one below it.
Collector (Free)
The starting point. You can catalog up to 500 books with full access to every cataloging field, library lookup, import/export, search, and statistics. No credit card required, no trial period, no "freemium" tricks where essential features are hidden behind a paywall.
What you don't get: image uploads, AI scanning, collection audit, and the higher book limits. But for someone starting out — or with a focused collection under 500 titles — the free tier is complete and genuinely usable.
Collector Pro (€9.99/month)
For serious collectors. Everything in Collector, plus:
- 5,000 book limit — room for a real library
- 5 GB image storage — upload photographs of your books with 51 label types
- 10 AI Scans per month — photograph a book, get 31 fields extracted automatically
- AI Enrich — re-analyze existing photos to fill missing fields
- Collection Audit — ten health checks with a score and fix lists
- Bulk image import — match images to books by filename
If you're actively cataloging and want photographs alongside your records, this is the tier.
Dealer (€49/month)
For professional booksellers and large collections. Everything in Collector Pro, plus:
- 100,000 book limit — inventory-scale capacity
- 25 GB image storage — enough for thousands of high-resolution photographs
- 50 AI Scans per month — five times the Pro allowance
- PDF catalog sheets — professional one-page-per-book printouts in six paper sizes
- Priority support — faster response times
If you sell books for a living and need Shelvd to be a professional tool, this is the tier.
What's Free for Everyone
Some things are available on all tiers, including Collector (free):
- All cataloging fields (there are a lot of them)
- Library Lookup across 32 providers in 27 countries
- Import from Excel/CSV/TSV
- Export to Excel, CSV, JSON, XML, RIS, BibTeX
- SQLite database export
- Global and advanced search
- Collections and tags
- Provenance tracking
- Valuation history with trend charts
- Condition history
- External links (64 types)
- Statistics dashboard
- Barcode scanner
- Duplicate detection
- Activity log
- The entire Wiki (you're reading it)
The free tier is not a demo. It's a functioning book cataloging tool with a 500-book ceiling.
Feature Gating
When a feature is restricted to a higher tier, Shelvd tells you. You'll see upgrade prompts where the feature would normally appear — not error messages, not blank spaces. The prompt tells you which tier unlocks the feature and links directly to the upgrade page.
Some features have limits rather than on/off gates:
| Limit | Collector | Pro | Dealer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Books | 500 | 5,000 | 100,000 |
| Image storage | — | 5 GB | 25 GB |
| AI Scans / month | — | 10 | 50 |
| Tags | 10 | 100 | 500 |
| Collections | 3 | 20 | 100 |
When you approach a limit, Shelvd warns you. When you hit it, the relevant action is disabled with a clear explanation of why.
Billing
Subscriptions are billed monthly through Mollie, a European payment provider. Shelvd accepts credit cards, debit cards, iDEAL, Bancontact, and other methods depending on your region.
You can manage your subscription in Settings → Billing:
- See your current plan and next billing date
- View your AI Scans balance
- Purchase additional AI Scan credit packs
- Cancel your subscription (effective at end of current billing period)
Cancellation is immediate in the sense that you click a button and it's done — no retention calls, no "are you sure" dark patterns beyond a single confirmation. Your access continues until the end of the paid period, then you revert to the Collector (free) tier.
Upgrading and Downgrading
Upgrading takes effect immediately. You pay the first month at checkout and get instant access to all features of the new tier.
Downgrading happens at the end of your billing period. If you cancel a Dealer subscription on March 15 and it renews on March 28, you keep Dealer access until March 28, then revert.
When you downgrade:
- Books above the free tier limit aren't deleted — they're still there, you just can't add new ones until you're back under the limit
- Uploaded images remain accessible — nothing is deleted
- AI Scan credits (purchased ones) remain in your balance — they never expire
Shelvd doesn't punish you for downgrading. Your data is your data.
AI Scan Credit Packs
Need more scans than your monthly allowance? Purchase packs:
| Pack | Scans | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 25 | €2.50 |
| Regular | 100 | €7.50 |
| Bulk | 500 | €29.00 |
Purchased credits never expire and are used after your monthly allowance is exhausted. See AI Scan Credits for the full breakdown.
The Honest Version
Shelvd is built by a small team. The free tier exists because everyone should be able to catalog their books properly. The paid tiers exist because servers, AI APIs, and image storage cost money, and building professional-grade software for a niche audience isn't free.
If the free tier does what you need, use it forever. If you need more, the paid tiers are priced to be sustainable, not extractive. There are no ads, no data selling, and no investor-driven growth metrics making us put useful features behind unnecessary paywalls.
See also: AI Scan Credits · AI Book Scanning · Settings Guide