Is the free trial actually free

Across the six vendors we checked on their own pages — HubSpot, Semrush, monday.com, Asana, Shopify and Squarespace — only Semrush asks for a credit card at sign-up. The other five state plainly that no card is required. If you never hand over a card, walking away should not produce an invoice; but not being billed and keeping the work you did are separate matters.

Only one of the six charges you for doing nothing

Table 1: the four conditions of a free trial (August 2026, from each vendor's own pages. All day counts are calendar days. Amounts are given outside the table.)

Scroll horizontally to see all columns.

Semrush is the only row that leaves you with homework. Forget to cancel and the plan you picked is charged on day 7. The cheapest paid plan, SEO, is $139 per month on monthly billing.

HubSpot's terms read: "Unless you purchase a subscription to the applicable Subscription Service before the end of the free trial, all of your data in the Subscription Service may be permanently deleted at the end of the trial, and we will not recover it." Expired Squarespace trial sites are likewise marked for permanent deletion. Under both sets of terms, anything you will need after the end date has to be exported or captured before it.

Entering a card means you can no longer walk away

Asana's official help states: "Unless you've manually added payment details, you can simply let the trial run its course and you won't be billed." Shopify states: "If you decide to upgrade to a paid plan within your free trial period, then charges will only start after the free trial period ends." The moment a card or a plan is registered, all five move from a state where no invoice is issued to one where billing starts on the end date.

From here on, this is about paid contracts

A trial with no card attached has no cancellation procedure to speak of. The table below covers canceling a paid contract.

Table 2: when a cancellation actually takes effect after you move to a paid plan (August 2026, from each vendor's own pages)

The "30 days" at monday.com and Asana is counted back from the renewal date of the paid contract, not from the end of the trial. Call the start of a 14 day trial D0 and it ends at D0+14; subtract 30 days and you get D0−16, a date 16 days before you began — which does not exist. The date that governs is 30 days before the renewal date of the paid contract, and it is fixed on the day you move to paid.

Three facts decide what happens at the end

1. Whether a card is on file. Only Semrush requires one at sign-up. On the other five a card can be added part-way through, and Asana states that billing then starts the moment the trial ends.

2. What the end date triggers. With a card or a plan registered, billing starts automatically. Without one, no invoice is issued: the account returns to its previous plan (HubSpot), is deactivated (monday.com) or is paused (Shopify).

3. Whether the work survives. HubSpot and Squarespace state that trial content may be permanently deleted. Shopify retains the store data.

1. Record the end date at sign-up. Asana publishes no trial length, so it cannot be calculated — the confirmation screen is the only source for the end date. For Semrush we set 2 reminders, 2 days before and the day before, because the cancellation confirmation link expires after 24 hours.

1. While the decision is still open, monthly billing is the cheaper mistake. The month written off is $39 for Shopify Basic (monthly billing, US pricing, rechecked 6 September 2026) and $139 for Semrush's SEO plan. On annual billing, Shopify Basic is $29 per month × 12 = $348, taken in one go when you sign.

1. Annual billing works only when the decision can be reached inside the refund request window. Squarespace refunds in full within 14 days of purchase, but canceling an annual plan stops the site immediately. Spend all 14 days evaluating and the site disappears at the moment of the request. Our own reminder sits at "purchase date + 12 days".

Whether you were asked for a card decides what follows

If you were not asked for a card, no invoice follows from the terms. What is left is the content, and it has to leave before the end date.

If you were asked for a card (Semrush), 2 cancellation reminders set before you start are the only defense. Where they cannot be set, we would not start at all. The vendor states that the $1 authorization can sit on the statement for several weeks at some banks. Flagging it to finance in advance avoids the query later.

Canceling is not the same as being refunded. Canceling means "stop billing me from now on"; a refund means "give back what I paid". They are separate requests.

A trial is worth little without a solid block of working time inside two weeks. Shopify's 3 days will not cover anything close to a production test. Annual billing fits poorly when you are not the sole decision-maker, when another department will also test it, or when this falls in your busy season. The window for requesting a refund is only 7 to 30 days.

Sources (checked August 2026; Shopify US pricing rechecked 6 September 2026)

• Semrush: 7 day trial / Billing FAQ ($1 authorization, may remain for several weeks, virtual cards not accepted, one trial only) / Cancellation and Refund Policy (first annual purchase of 12 months or more only, 7 calendar days, monthly billing excluded, automatic billing at the end of the trial, when cancellation takes effect) / Terms of Service (automatic billing at the end of the trial) / Cancellation steps, confirmation link valid 24 hours / Pricing (SEO plan, $139 on monthly billing)
• HubSpot: 14 days, no card required / No automatic billing at the end, account returns to its previous plan / No mid-term cancellation, cancels on the renewal date, 5 business days' notice / Customer Terms of Service 2.12 permanent deletion of trial data / 4.5 no refunds
• monday.com: 14 days, no card required, deactivated at the end / 30 day refund, prorated / Cancellation steps, 30 days' notice
• Asana: No card required / What happens if you add payment details / Cancels on the renewal date / Subscriber Terms 4.1 no refunds, 4.4 30 days' notice
• Shopify: 3 days, no card required / Store paused after the trial / billing starts on upgrade / No refunds as a rule, 7 days / 30 days, reviewed individually / Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing cycle / US pricing (Basic, $29 per month on annual billing, $39 on monthly billing)
• Squarespace: 14 days, no card required, 7 day extension, permanent deletion / Annual billing refundable within 14 days, monthly billing not refundable / When cancellation takes effect

We could not find Asana's trial length stated on the vendor's own pages. On Shopify's, the official help says "The length of your free trial can vary based on different factors.", and the 3 days is what the sign-up page displays. Terms change, so check each vendor's own pages before you start.

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