Choosing the Right Plan

MagicMap is designed to grow with your compliance practice, and the right plan depends on how you work, who you work with, and how much of your mapping process you want to automate. This article helps you make that call quickly.

What's Covered in This Article

• Quick decision guide: match your situation to a plan in under a minute
• Free vs Solo: when the free plan is enough, and when it is not
• Solo vs Team: when to bring your team in
• Adding Michi AI: when the AI add-on earns its cost
• Starting with a trial: how to evaluate paid plans before committing

Quick Decision Guide

Start here. Find the row that best describes your situation.

Not sure? Start on Free, run a 7-day trial of Solo or Team when you are ready, and upgrade permanently only if the paid features make a clear difference to your workflow.

Free vs Solo: When the Free Plan Is Enough

The Free plan is genuinely useful, not just a teaser. If your needs are straightforward, you may not need to upgrade at all.

Stay on Free if:

• You map one unit at a time and Basic mode covers your structure
• Your compliance evidence documents only need to be delivered as PDF
• You are a solo practitioner who does not need branding on exports
• You want to explore MagicMap before committing any budget

Upgrade to Solo if:

• Your auditor, compliance manager, or client requires Excel or Word format
• You are mapping complex units with many criteria and want to organise content into named sections (Group mode)
• You are mapping a full qualification and need multiple units in one map (Cluster mode)
• You deliver training under your own brand and want your logo on exported maps
• TGA has released a revised version of a unit you have already mapped, the Migration Tool (Solo only) handles this without rebuilding from scratch

Key difference in one sentence: Free gives you unlimited Basic maps as PDFs. Solo gives you the full professional toolkit for a single user.

Solo vs Team: When to Bring Your Team In

Solo is a single-user plan, the Workspace Owner only, no Collaborators. Team adds shared workspace access on a per-seat model.

Stay on Solo if:

• You are the only person who creates and maintains compliance maps
• Your team members only need to receive the finished export, they do not need to edit maps directly

Upgrade to Team if:

• You have one or more colleagues who need to build or edit maps alongside you
• You run an RTO compliance team where multiple curriculum developers contribute to mapping
• You manage mapping work for multiple RTO clients and want to delegate individual projects to team members
• You need a shared single source of truth, one workspace, all maps, accessible by everyone with the right access

Team pricing in practice: The Team plan base price ($30/month or $300/year) includes 3 seats. If your team is just 2 people you and one Collaborator.  Team still covers you within the base. Each additional seat beyond 3 adds $5/month or $50/year.

Key difference in one sentence: Solo is the right tool for individual compliance professionals. Team is for anyone who maps collaboratively.

Adding Michi AI: When the Add-On Earns Its Cost

The Michi AI add-on ($29/month or $290/year) is available on Solo and Team plans. It unlocks Smart Import and Smart Grouping, and unlimited AI operations.

Try your 2 free operations first. Every workspace gets 2 free lifetime AI operations regardless of plan. Use them on a real mapping task to judge whether Smart Import saves you meaningful time before paying for unlimited access.

The add-on earns its cost if:

• You regularly start new maps from existing learning materials or mapping spreadsheets > Smart Import turns a multi-hour manual task into a review-and-confirm workflow
• You work in Group mode and spend significant time manually organising mapped content into sections > Smart Grouping automates this
• You are onboarding a new qualification or a new RTO client and need to produce multiple maps quickly from existing documentation
• You manage a Team workspace where several Collaborators are running Smart Import frequently > one add-on subscription covers the whole workspace

The add-on is less critical if:

• You build all your maps from scratch, row by row, without reference files
• You primarily use Basic mode and do not use grouping
• You map infrequently and your 2 free operations cover your occasional AI needs

Key difference in one sentence: Michi AI pays for itself when the time you save on initial import and organisation outweighs the monthly cost,  which typically happens within the first two or three maps.

Starting With a Trial

If you are not sure whether Solo or Team is right for you, use the 7-day free trial before committing.

What the trial gives you:

• Full access to all features of the plan you select, include Group and Cluster modes, Excel and Word export, branding, and the Migration Tool
• On Team: the ability to invite Collaborators and test the shared workspace experience
• 7 days to run real mapping tasks, not just explore the interface

What to watch for:

• The trial is one per workspace, once used, it cannot be repeated
• A credit card is required upfront, but you are not charged unless you let the trial convert at day 7
• If you activate the Michi AI add-on or purchase extra seats during the trial, billing starts immediately, the trial ends at that point
• Cancelling during the trial returns you to Free at no cost, with all your maps preserved

How to start a trial:

1. Open the user menu (bottom-left) and click Subscription
2. Select Solo or Team and click Try Now
3. Complete payment details at Stripe

Most compliance professionals start on Free, discover they need Excel output or Cluster mode for a specific project, and upgrade to Solo. Teams grow into the Team plan when collaboration becomes a bottleneck. Michi AI is the multiplier — it is worth adding once you have regular mapping work that would benefit from automated import. There is no wrong starting point: all your maps and data carry forward across every plan change.

Related Articles:

• Plans Overview
• Starting a Free Trial
• Upgrading Your Plan
• Downgrading or Cancelling
• Michi AI Add-On Overview
• Managing Seats (Team Plan)
• Billing and Subscription