Membership FAQ

Hey FOSSers!

I understand you may have questions about the It's FOSS News membership. I am going to answer most of the frequently asked questions here. If you have more questions, feel free to contact us.

What is the difference between Free and Paid/Pro membership?

With the free membership, you get access to the regular FOSS Weekly newsletter.

As a Pro member, you get an ad-free reading experience along with some Pro members-only content (in progress)

Which It's FOSS websites are included in the Pro membership?

At the moment, only It's FOSS News (news.itsfoss.com) is included in your membership for an ad-free experience with members-only content.

The main domain, itsfoss.com, is on a separate platform.

How to access the Pro member resource?

Login with your account. As a pro member, you won't see ads.

We plan to add some premium content that will be applicable to Pro members only at first and then to other members.

What is my account password? How do I reset it?

There is no password for your account for both free and Pro members. We don't store it. This is a new security trend these days, and we are trendy people :)

Your email is the gateway to accessing your account. When you want to log in, request a login link with your email. You will be logged in on that device for a couple of weeks or until you clear your browser cookie or change the browser and/or device.

How much does the Pro membership cost?

There are two tiers:

• sudo membership: costs a monthly payment of $5
• root membership: costs an annual payment of $50

Can I pay via PayPal?

The built-in payment system only uses Stripe at the moment. However, if you wish to use PayPal, there is an alternate manual way. Please contact us, and we'll share the details of our PayPal account and when the payment is processed, we'll enable the membership for you.

Since it is a manual process, the PayPal option is only available for the root (annual) membership.

Can I just not make a one-time donation?

Sure you can. You can support us on Ko-fi.  

Is there a trial period?

No, there is no trial period. If you are in doubt, go for the monthly payment option.

Can I get a refund?

There are no provisions for refunds. You can cancel your membership any time you want.

The pricing is high; can you reduce it?

No. Our pricing is a lot less than what other publishers charge.

After the payment gateway charges and VAT like taxes, we lose around 25% of your payment. On top of that, we have to pay 25% income tax on it. So, we are not pocketing a lot of money here.

Why should I get the membership anyway?

Why indeed!

• No intrusive ads. Just a clean reading experience.
• Access some content (like interviews and opinion pieces) before others
• Support It's FOSS as an indie publisher and help us create more useful Linux content

How do I cancel my pro membership?

When logged in, you can access your account page. Here, you have the option to change your subscription. You can cancel the subscription from here.

If you still face difficulties, just send us a message from the same email id as your account requesting cancellation. We'll do it manually for you.

How do I delete my account (as a free or pro member)?

Just send us a message from your email is used for the account on It's FOSS News. We'll delete your data from the server forever.