Smore Is Going Paid in 2026: What Teachers Need to Know

If you opened your inbox this week and saw an email from Smore titled "We're making some changes to Smore," you are not the only one. Smore is sunsetting their free tier. Every teacher on the free plan has 30 days to pick a paid plan or lose access.

Here is what is actually happening, what your options are, and what you should do this week before the clock runs out.

What Smore announced

The email Smore sent says four things. You are currently on a Free plan. Within the next few days, your account will be automatically enrolled in a free 30-day Smore Pro trial. At the end of the 30 days, you can choose to select a plan or discontinue your use of Smore. You will not be automatically billed. After your 30-day free trial, you will need a paid plan to retain access to Smore.

Translation. Free is going away. You get a 30-day taste of Pro to soften the landing. After that, pay $99 a year or stop using Smore. The cheapest paid plan starts at $8.25 per month when paid annually, which works out to $99 per year.

The timeline

Free users got the email in mid-to-late May 2026. Within 3 to 5 days of the email, free accounts are auto-enrolled in a 30-day Pro trial. 30 days after auto-enrollment, the trial ends and without a paid plan account access is restricted or terminated. You can pick a paid plan anytime during the trial to keep working, or cancel and delete the account at any time. Smore will not auto-bill you. If you got the email on May 22, your trial likely ends around June 22 to June 25.

What changes for current free users

A few practical questions every teacher is asking.

Can I still log in after the trial ends? Smore's email says you will need a paid plan to retain access. That suggests the account stays logged in but features get locked. Your published newsletter URLs may continue to work for a while or may get taken down. Smore has not been crystal clear on this part.

What happens to newsletters I already published? This is the biggest unknown. The safest assumption is that without a paid plan, your published newsletters will eventually go offline. If you have URLs you have shared with parents over the years, those URLs may break.

Will Smore charge my card automatically? No. Their email explicitly states you will not be charged unless you select a plan during or after the trial period. Good on Smore for not pulling the dark-pattern move.

Does this affect Smore for Teams plans? No. The email says if you are already on a Smore for Teams plan, you will be unaffected. The change applies only to individual free users.

Why Smore made this change

This is not out of nowhere. It is a normal stage of a mature SaaS business. Smore launched in 2010. By 2026 they have onboarded millions of teachers, most of whom never paid anything. Free users cost money. Every newsletter sent costs Smore in hosting and email delivery. Every support ticket from a free user costs them in staff time. At some point the math stops working.

Companies in this position have three choices. Raise prices on paying customers, get acquired by a bigger company, or convert free users to paid users. Smore is doing the third. It is the right move for Smore as a business. It just lands hard for teachers who built years of work on the free plan.

Your three options

Option 1: Pay Smore $99 a year. If Smore works for you and $99 is in your budget, this is the simplest path. Pick a plan during the trial, keep your existing newsletters and URLs and workflow, move on with your year. Best for teachers who love Smore, send weekly newsletters, and have school or personal budget for the $99. Catch: the cost may rise over time. SaaS prices rarely move down. Today's $99 plan may be $129 in a year or two.

Option 2: Switch to a free alternative. A few tools still offer permanent free tiers built for teachers. Daystage is one. Mailchimp is another (though it is not really built for schools). The work involved in switching is real. You will need to export your Smore data, set up the new tool, rebuild a few templates, and re-engage your subscriber list. Expect to spend a few hours total. Best for teachers who do not have budget, dislike SaaS pricing changes on principle, or want a more modern editor experience. Catch: you have to do the switch.

Option 3: Export your data and stop using newsletters. Some teachers will use this moment to step back. If your newsletter habit has been mostly inertia, this is a clean off-ramp. Export what you have, save it as PDFs, stop sending. Best for teachers who were not getting much engagement and are quietly relieved. Catch: parents lose the regular communication channel.

How to export your Smore data before the deadline

If you are switching or stopping, save your work first. Smore makes this less obvious than it should be.

To save a newsletter as a PDF: open the newsletter, click the Preview or public URL link to view it as parents would see it, then in your browser choose File then Print then Save as PDF. Do this for every newsletter you want to preserve. There is no bulk export.

To save your newsletter URLs: from your Smore dashboard open your Newsletter Library, copy the public URL for each newsletter and paste it into a spreadsheet. Note the date, title, and any associated class or grade level. Even if Smore takes the pages down later, you have the URL list and can decide what to recreate.

To export your subscriber list: go to your subscriber list or contacts section. If a CSV export is offered, download it. If not, copy the email addresses manually into a spreadsheet. Keep this file private. Parent emails are protected data under FERPA in many districts.

If you switch: the easiest path

Pick the new tool first. Do not try to evaluate while exporting. It splits your attention. Read a comparison of the top Smore alternatives if you have not already.

Set up your new account. Most modern tools take under 20 minutes from signup to first draft. Bring your old newsletters with you. Daystage offers a free service where you paste up to 5 Smore newsletter URLs and the team rebuilds them in your new account within 24 hours.

Move your subscribers. Either import the list directly (if your new tool supports it) or send a one-time email from Smore asking parents to re-subscribe at the new URL. The second approach gets cleaner data and respects opt-in norms.

Send your first newsletter from the new tool. This is the moment the switch becomes real. Aim for the first newsletter to go out within 7 days of signup so you do not lose momentum.

The Daystage refugee offer

If you are switching and Daystage looks like the right fit, use code DAYSTAGE12 at signup to get Starter free for 12 months. That covers a full school year. After 12 months you can stay at $79 per year or downgrade to the permanent Free plan. No credit card required to start.

What to do this week

Three things matter most. Save your existing newsletters as PDFs before the trial ends. Pick your path. Pay, switch, or stop. Do not drift past the 30-day window. If you switch, do it inside the next 14 days so you have time to test the new tool before you fully cut over.