Sailever.com — Pricing Model & Monetization Strategy (PRICING-SPEC-001)¶

Document Version: 2.0
Target Platform: Garmin Connect IQ WatchApp (apps/garmin-watchapp), Wear OS WatchApp (apps/android), Web Logbook (apps/server), and Cloud Ingestion Engine
Date: October 2026
Status: Architecture & Business Specification

1. Executive Summary¶

Sailever employs a hybrid freemium on-wrist + cloud-companion monetization model. Recording occurs locally on the wrist via a standalone WatchApp (apps/garmin-watchapp, apps/android); long-term fleet tracking, multi-track trip aggregation, interactive charts, weather overlays, automated logbooks, and crew collaboration live on the web backend (apps/server).

The monetization architecture is guided by six principles: 1. Safety & Recording Invariant: Recording on the wrist is sacred. The WatchApp never blocks tracking, never interrupts active sailing, and always records the native Garmin FIT activity to Garmin Connect regardless of subscription status. 2. PRO Gated Watch Sync: Direct SLTB upload from the WatchApp to Sailever and device pairing require an active PRO subscription or an active 14-day PRO trial. 3. 14-Day Free Trial & Graceful Fallback: New accounts receive 14 days of full PRO access upon pairing/registration. After 14 days without an active subscription, accounts fall back to the Free Tier. Free users retain permanent access to view their existing trips and share public trip links, but cannot sync new tracks directly from the watch and have limited profile statistics. 4. Decoupled Lifetime Unit Economics: The Lifetime PRO tier provides perpetual access to all PRO features except premium third-party nautical depth charts (bathymetry tiles). This eliminates recurring external API tile costs on a one-off purchase while preserving high margins. 5. Crew Collaboration as a Viral Growth Flywheel: PRO users can share trips with crew members inside Sailever. Free users can be crew members and view the trip. When a crew member is also PRO, the shared trip becomes co-editable by both. 6. End-of-Period Seasonal Pause: Accommodate winter layup ("Winterlager") without mid-cycle prorating complexity: pausing takes effect at the conclusion of the paid billing period, maintaining full access through the paid cycle and suspending renewal thereafter.

2. Pricing Tiers & Architecture¶

All prices are consumer-facing and include VAT (Gross / inkl. MwSt.) in applicable jurisdictions.

Dimension	Free Tier (Post-Trial Fallback)	14-Day PRO Trial	PRO Monthly	PRO Annual	Lifetime PRO
Price (incl. VAT)	€0.00	€0.00	€9.90 / mo	€29.99 / yr (~€2.50/mo)	€119.99 (one-off)
Billing Cadence	Perpetual	14 days	Monthly recurring	Yearly recurring	One-off purchase
Target Segment	Casual sailors, crew members, trial alumni	Newly registered sailors	1–2 week charter sailors	Boat owners, syndicate members, active skippers	Boat owners, long-term supporters
Seasonal Pause	N/A	N/A	End-of-period pause	End-of-period pause	N/A (Perpetual)

                              ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
                              │      Free Tier (Watch Only)     │
                              │  • Standalone WatchApp tracking │
                              │  • Max 3 days trip continuity   │
                              │  • Local Garmin FIT preserved   │
                              └────────────────┬────────────────┘
                                               │
                                 Account Pairing on Sailever
                                               │
                              ┌────────────────▼────────────────┐
                              │        14-Day Free Trial        │
                              │       Full PRO Cloud Sync       │
                              │      All Features Unlocked      │
                              └────────────────┬────────────────┘
                                               │
                                      Trial Expiration
                                               │
              ┌────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────┐
              │ (No purchase)                  │                                │
┌─────────────▼─────────────┐    ┌─────────────▼─────────────┐    ┌─────────────▼─────────────┐
│      Free Tier Fallback   │    │      PRO Subscription     │    │        Lifetime PRO       │
│  • View past trips        │    │  • €9.90/mo or €29.99/yr  │    │  • €119.99 one-off        │
│  • Public trip links      │    │  • Direct watch upload    │    │  • All PRO features       │
│  • Total miles/year only  │    │  • Premium depth maps     │    │  • Standard charts        │
│  • Join trips as crew     │    │  • Weather & polar charts │    │  • No recurring tile fees │
│  • No direct watch upload │    │  • Crew collaboration     │    │  • Lifetime cloud sync    │
└───────────────────────────┘    └───────────────────────────┘    └───────────────────────────┘

3. Comprehensive Feature Comparison Matrix¶

Functional Area	Specific Feature	Free Tier	14-Day PRO Trial	PRO (Monthly / Annual)	Lifetime PRO
WatchApp & Recording	Standalone on-wrist tracking	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited
	Native Garmin FIT file preserved	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
	On-wrist trip continuity without reset	⚠️ Max 3 days (72h)	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited	✅ Unlimited
	Device pairing & direct SLTB watch upload	❌ Disabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled
Charts & Mapping	Standard nautical basemap (OpenSeaMap)	✅ Included	✅ Included	✅ Included	✅ Included
	High-resolution depth contours & bathymetry	❌ Standard only	✅ Full depth contours	✅ Full depth contours	❌ Standard only (Protects unit economics)
Weather & Environment	Track historical weather overlay (wind, sea state, rain, clouds, baro)	❌ None	✅ Full weather overlay	✅ Full weather overlay	✅ Full weather overlay
	Track barometric pressure analysis	❌ None	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled
Performance & Analysis	Engine vs. sailing time auto-detection	❌ Not available	✅ Live & retroactive	✅ Live & retroactive	✅ Live & retroactive
	Retroactive engine/sail analysis on old tracks	❌ Not available	✅ Enabled	✅ Auto-analyzes all tracks	✅ Auto-analyzes all tracks
	Trip empirical polar diagram (SOG vs. TWA)	❌ Not available	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled
Trip Journal & Media	In-trip event noting & logbook annotations	❌ Read-only	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled
	Geotagged photo matching to track coordinates	❌ Not available	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled
Profile & Statistics	Annual distance overview	✅ Total miles per year	✅ Full year breakdown	✅ Full year breakdown	✅ Full year breakdown
	Days sailed summary	❌ Hidden	✅ Visible	✅ Visible	✅ Visible
	Sailing time vs. engine time ratio	❌ Hidden	✅ Visible	✅ Visible	✅ Visible
	Night distance (hours between sunset & sunrise)	❌ Hidden	✅ Visible	✅ Visible	✅ Visible
	Offshore distance (>12 NM from coast)	❌ Hidden	✅ Visible	✅ Visible	✅ Visible
	Public Skipper Profile (custom handle & badges)	❌ Private only	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled
Crew & Social	Public trip web link (shareable read-only link)	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled
	Join trips as crew member	✅ View-only crew member	✅ Full crew access	✅ Full crew access	✅ Full crew access
	Invite crew members to own trips	❌ Not available	✅ Unlimited invites	✅ Unlimited invites	✅ Unlimited invites
	Co-editing on shared trips (when crew is also PRO)	❌ View-only	✅ Co-edit enabled	✅ Co-edit enabled	✅ Co-edit enabled
Logbook & Export	Historical trip data vault access	✅ Read-only for past trips	✅ Full access	✅ Full access	✅ Full access
	Re-grouping & merging tracks into trips	❌ Fixed	✅ Full editing	✅ Full editing	✅ Full editing
	Official PDF Logbook & Sea-Time export	❌ Basic GPX only	✅ Full PDF & exports	✅ Full PDF & exports	✅ Full PDF & exports

4. Deep-Dive: PRO Feature Architecture¶

4.1 Historical Weather & Environmental Overlay¶

For PRO users, every uploaded track is asynchronously enriched with historical marine weather data at 1-hour resolution matching the exact GPS coordinates and timestamps: - Wind Vector: True wind direction and speed (knots), gust strength. - Sea State: Significant wave height (meters) and primary swell direction. - Atmospheric Conditions: Precipitation/rain rate, cloud cover percentage. - Barometric Pressure: Watch sensor barometric trend cross-calibrated against meteorological sea-level pressure. - Interactive Map Playback: As the user scrubs through the track slider on the web chart, the weather widget displays real-time weather at that track point.

4.2 Trip-Derived Empirical Polar Diagrams¶

Using the historical wind overlay aligned with GPS track speed-over-ground (SOG) and course-over-ground (COG): - The system computes true wind angle (TWA) for all sailing segments (excluding motoring). - Generates an empirical polar diagram representing the boat's actual performance across wind angles and wind speeds on that trip. - Enables skippers to assess sail trim efficiency and boat speed relative to theoretical polar targets.

4.3 Geotagged Photos & Event Timeline¶

EXIF Timestamp Alignment: PRO users can upload photos from their phone or camera. The server extracts the EXIF timestamp and GPS data, automatically anchoring each photo to the exact spot on the nautical track.
Voyage Events: Skippers and co-editing PRO crew can log discrete events (e.g., "Reef 1 in main", "Dolphin pod sighted", "Anchored in 5m sand") along the track timeline.

4.4 Advanced Profile Statistics & Gating¶

SailEver divides statistics into baseline free indicators and advanced PRO analytics: - Free Tier (the logbook's standard view): The four top numbers — distance (sailed / engine), skipper miles (share of miles and trips), days on the water (sailing and engine time), night miles (nautical night) — and distance per year split into sailed and engine. - PRO Tier: - How the nights were spent: In port, at anchor, on a buoy, lines to shore, at sea. - Boat length and type: Miles per length band, split by sailing yacht / catamaran / motorboat; longest boat skippered. - Globe: Every trip as a dot on a turnable globe. - Offshore Distance: Nautical miles logged farther than 12 NM from the nearest coastline. - Retroactive Analysis: When a user upgrades to PRO, a background job re-analyzes all their historical tracks to calculate propulsion breakdown, night miles, and offshore stats.

4.5 Collaborative Crew Permissions Model¶

Trips can be shared by a PRO skipper with other Sailever users: 1. Skipper (Trip Owner - PRO): Full administrative rights, can add/remove crew, change boat details, delete or trim tracks. 2. Crew Member with Free Tier: Can accept trip invites, view the shared trip in their logbook, and have the trip's distance count toward their personal yearly miles. Cannot edit trip notes, trim tracks, or add photos. 3. Crew Member with PRO Tier (Co-Editor): When an invited crew member has an active PRO subscription or trial, they automatically receive Co-Editor privileges: - Can add and edit trip notes and events. - Can upload their own geotagged photos to the trip timeline. - Can edit boat details and logbook weather notes. - Cannot delete the trip or remove the owner.

4.6 Public Skipper Profile¶

PRO users can claim a public handle (skipper.sailever.com/<handle>, profile.md).
Shows the logbook statistics, avatar and header image, bio (certifications as free text), a globe of all trips, and the trips the skipper picked.
Free users have private accounts with no public vanity URL or public profile page.

5. Lifetime PRO: Unit Economics & Mapping Strategy¶

5.1 The Third-Party Tile Liability Problem¶

High-resolution nautical charts featuring detailed depth contours, soundings, and bathymetry data rely on licensed nautical data providers or specialized tile-hosting services. These providers charge per thousand tile requests or require ongoing subscription licenses.

In a recurring subscription (€9.90/mo or €29.99/yr), tile API usage is funded by ongoing ARR. In a one-off Lifetime plan (€119.99), an active sailor using high-density bathymetry tiles for 10+ years would erode profitability and generate negative unit economics.

5.2 The Clean Separation Solution¶

PRO Monthly & Annual: Full access to high-detail nautical charts with depth contours and bathymetry overlays.
Lifetime PRO: Complete access to all Sailever cloud features (direct watch upload, weather backfill, polar diagrams, engine analysis, crew co-editing, public skipper profile, unlimited trips, data exports) using the standard OpenSeaMap nautical basemap.
User Transparency: Clearly communicated on the pricing page: "Lifetime includes perpetual cloud logbook sync and all PRO analytics with standard OpenSeaMap charts. Premium bathymetric depth layers are reserved for active recurring subscribers."

5.3 Paid Data Services Needed Before Launch (cost of goods, to price in)¶

During the beta, SailEver uses free data tiers that do not allow commercial use. Before the paid plans go live (out of beta), these have to be bought, and their monthly cost belongs in the unit economics above. Prices change: check them at purchase time.

Service	Used for	Today (beta)	Needed for launch
Open-Meteo API	Model wind stored with every track (track editor: wind barbs, TWD / TWA / TWS), tide times	Free tier: non-commercial only; 600 calls/min, 5,000/h, 10,000/day. One request per track (all wind cells and days at once); whether every cell counts as a call isn't documented	A commercial API plan (open-meteo.com/en/pricing); the API key goes into the server's credentials
Tide data	Tide times per position (today Open-Meteo Marine, a model, not harbour tide tables)	Open-Meteo free tier	A commercial tide source: Open-Meteo's commercial plan, or a dedicated tide API with harbour stations if the model isn't good enough
Pro depth maps	The depth layer on every map	EMODnet bathymetry (free, attribution)	Higher-resolution, charted depth data for "pro" maps where EMODnet is coarse

Usage grows with tracks, not with users, so the wind costs are per track (about one request per track and day of sailing).

6. On-Wrist 3-Day Rule & Pairing Gates¶

6.1 Unpaired Standalone Recording (Free)¶

Any compatible watch can record tracks locally without an account or subscription.
Native Garmin FIT activities are always stored to Garmin Connect.
Unpaired watches enforce a 3-day (72-hour) trip continuity limit:
After 72 hours from the first track in a trip, the watch disables Continue trip.
The sailor can tap Start new trip at any time without losing any recording capability.
Cumulative trip odometer resets locally on the watch.

6.2 Watch Pairing & Direct Upload Gate¶

Pairing a watch with an account requires an active PRO subscription or 14-day trial.
When an account trial expires or a subscription is paused/cancelled:
Watch pairing remains linked in database records, but the upload endpoint returns 402 Payment Required on track sync.
The WatchApp notifies the user: "Upload paused. Renew PRO on sailever.com to sync trips."
All tracks remain stored on the watch's internal flash memory and in Garmin Connect. When the user renews PRO, pending tracks can be uploaded.

7. Membership Pause Policy (End-of-Period Model)¶

Sailing in temperate regions is fundamentally seasonal. Forcing continuous year-round billing during winter storage creates resentment and churn.

7.1 "End-of-Period" Pause Semantics¶

Pausing does NOT freeze or prorate mid-cycle time. A pause scheduled during a paid cycle takes effect at the end of that paid billing cycle.

Monthly Example:
User subscribes on July 10th.
User clicks "Pause Membership" on July 24th.
Result: Full PRO access continues through August 9th at 23:59 UTC. On August 10th, no renewal charge occurs. The account transitions to the Free tier fallback.
Annual Example:
User subscribes on May 1st for €29.99 (paid for 365 days).
User selects "Pause Membership" in September after winter layup.
Result: Full access remains active through April 30th of the following year. At the 365-day boundary, the subscription does not renew and transitions to the Free tier fallback until manually resumed.

7.2 Data Vault Guarantee During Pause / Fallback¶

Permanent Access: All historical trips, tracks, engine hours, weather overlays, and notes remain 100% accessible in read-only mode on the web logbook.
Export Rights: Users can view and export previously saved trips (PDF, GPX, CSV).
Public Links: Existing public links to past trips continue to function.

8. Conversion Funnel & Behavioral Economics¶

[ Garmin Connect IQ / Wear OS Store Download ]
                     │
                     ▼  (100% Free Standalone Recording)
[ Standalone WatchApp Tracking ]
  • Free on wrist
  • Trips up to 3 days continuous
  • Native Garmin FIT saved
                     │
                     ▼  (Pairing Gate: 35% - 45% Conversion)
[ Account Creation & Device Pairing ]
  • 6-digit code on sailever.com
  • Starts 14-Day Full PRO Free Trial
                     │
                     ▼  (Active 14-Day Free Trial)
[ PRO Value Realization ]
  • Direct watch SLTB upload
  • Premium depth contours
  • Historical weather & barometric overlay
  • Engine vs. sail auto-breakdown
  • Geotagged photo matching & crew invites
                     │
                     ▼  (Trial Expiration: 5% - 8% Paid Conversion)
        ┌────────────┴───────────────────────────┐
        │                                        │
        ▼                                        ▼
[ Paid Subscription Selection ]         [ Fallback to Free Tier ]
  ├── 55% Annual (€29.99 / yr)            • Historical trips preserved in vault
  ├── 35% Monthly (€9.90 / mo)            • Public trip links remain active
  └── 10% Lifetime (€119.99)              • Total miles/year stats visible
                                          • Can join other PRO skippers' trips as crew
                                          • Watch direct upload paused

9. Technical Implementation Specifications¶

9.1 Backend Endpoints & Policies (`apps/server`)¶

Ingestion Endpoint (POST /api/v1/tracks/segments):

class Api::V1::TracksController < Api::BaseController
  def create_segment
    device = current_device
    user = device.user

    unless user.pro_active? # Checks trial_active?, active_monthly?, active_annual?, active_lifetime?
      return render json: {
        error: "payment_required",
        message: "Direct watch upload requires an active PRO subscription or trial."
      }, status: :payment_required
    end

    # Proceed with SLTB segment ingestion
  end
end

Trip Authorization Policy (app/policies/trip_policy.rb):

class TripPolicy < ApplicationPolicy
  def update?
    return true if record.user == user # Owner can always edit
    # Crew co-editing rule: crew member must also be PRO
    record.crew_members.exists?(user: user) && user.pro_active?
  end

  def show?
    record.user == user ||
      record.crew_members.exists?(user: user) ||
      record.public_link_active?
  end
end

Background Jobs (app/jobs/):
EnrichTrackWeatherJob: Fetches historical hourly ERA5/Open-Meteo marine weather (wind speed/dir, wave height, rain, clouds, sea-level pressure) for track coordinates.
AnalyzeTrackPropulsionJob: Computes speed thresholds, vessel states, and auto-detects engine vs. sailing time. Queued retroactively for all user tracks upon PRO upgrade.
AlignPhotoCoordinatesJob: Extracts EXIF GPS or timestamps, matching photos to nearest track coordinates.
GenerateTripPolarJob: Cross-references track SOG with weather wind vectors to construct empirical polar curve.

10. Summary of Product Invariants¶

Safety first: Tracking never stops on the wrist; Garmin FIT files are always saved.
Direct sync requires PRO: Direct watch upload and device pairing are active during the 14-day trial and paid PRO subscriptions.
Perpetual Free fallback: Users who do not subscribe keep their historical trip vault, public trip links, and can be invited as crew on other trips.
Lifetime unit economics are protected: Lifetime PRO includes all PRO analytics and sync features with standard OpenSeaMap charts, excluding high-cost bathymetry tile APIs.
Crew collaboration drives viral growth: PRO skippers can invite Free crew; PRO crew members become co-editors.
Billing pauses take effect at period end: Users retain 100% of the period they paid for. Historical data is never locked behind a paywall.