Subscription statuses and what they mean for access
Subscriptions move through statuses — trialing, active, past_due, canceled, unpaid among them — and entitlements follow those statuses mechanically. Two design decisions matter to understand: past_due keeps working, and only canceled or unpaid steps access down.
Both decisions exist because RowShield is a monitor. Its worst failure mode is going quiet exactly when attention lapses elsewhere.
past_due keeps watching, on purpose
When a card expires or a charge fails, the subscription enters dunning: the provider retries the payment over several days while the subscription sits at past_due. During that window RowShield keeps scanning, keeps alerting and keeps every entitlement active, alongside a clear payment-failing notice in the billing panel.
The notice is informational, not punitive. Dashboards, history, alert configuration and the API all behave exactly as before while dunning runs, because half-disabled monitoring is worse than either extreme — it teaches teams to ignore both the tool and the warning.
Cutting a security monitor off the moment a card expires would stop the scans precisely when nobody is watching the dashboard either — a card expiry on a Friday would blind the project for a weekend. The grace period closes that gap; updating the payment method restores everything silently.
When access steps down
If dunning concludes without a successful payment, the provider moves the subscription to canceled or unpaid, and entitlements resolve to the Free plan: one project, daily scans, email alerts, one seat. Channels beyond email stop being offered, and intervals clamp to the Free floor using the same mechanism described in the entitlements article.
Recovery is the same path in reverse: once the provider reports a healthy subscription again, the next evaluation of the entitlement function widens access back out, because no state was ever cached against the failed status.
Nothing about the step-down hides results. Findings and remediation SQL remain visible on any plan, so an organisation sorting out its billing can still see exactly what state its projects are in.
Related questions
- My card expired and the panel says payment is failing. Did my monitoring stop?
- No. Scans and alerts continue at full entitlements while the status is past_due. Update the payment method and the notice clears; the provider retries in the meantime.
- Does a billing problem ever hide my findings?
- No. Findings and remediation SQL are never withheld on any plan or any status. Billing changes scope and frequency only.
Did this answer your question? If not, tell us what is missing — article corrections go straight to the person who maintains it.