Kiwisio free: how the trial works and when the subscription becomes necessary

A misconception to clear up right away

"Free" usually makes people think of a limited version: fewer features, a limited number of contracts, a flagship feature reserved for paid users. This is not how Kiwisio works.

There is only one offer, with a single level of features. What changes between the free and paid versions is never a feature being removed; it's an access that stays open or closes. As long as it's open—whether free or in trial mode—everything is available: listings, matchmaking, messaging, contracts, scheduling, salaries and Cesu declarations, dashboard. None of this is reserved for paying subscribers.

Signing up doesn't trigger anything

Creating an account on Kiwisio doesn't start any countdown. No payment details are requested at signup, and no expiration date is set at this stage. The account remains in this state as long as no engaging action is taken: it's full access, with no time limit.

This choice isn't just cosmetic: it prevents a household that simply wants to browse profiles, compare listings, or test the dashboard from seeing a countdown run out before they've even decided to hire someone.

What really starts the 30-day trial

The free trial begins at the exact moment the account takes its first engaging action—an action that shows a real intention to use the service for good, not just to browse it. Four actions trigger this start:

• signing an employment contract;
• creating a one-off activity (service outside a contract, such as an intervention or repair);
• sending a first message to a profile;
• activating the Cesu mandate from your profile.

As soon as one of these four actions occurs, the trial end date is set for 30 days later, and an email confirms the start of the countdown. A special case exists for an employee or employer who didn't yet have an account: if a contract concerning them has already been signed by the other party, their own trial starts retroactively as soon as they create their account, rather than restarting from zero without any history.

This list isn't set in stone: to date, it includes four actions, but it may evolve as new features are added to Kiwisio.

Each person has their own countdown. On the same contract, the employer and employee each start their own trial at the moment of their own first action, not at the same time.

During the 30 days: nothing changes, everything stays open

Throughout the trial period, access remains identical to that of a paid account: no features are locked, no quotas are applied. It's the same as the period before the trial started, simply with a known end date that's reminded in the interface.

At expiration: an access that closes, not features that disappear one by one

If no subscription has been taken out before the 30 days are up, access switches to restricted mode. In practice, almost all account actions require an active subscription to continue: the account isn't deleted, data isn't lost, but most operations are blocked until a subscription is taken out. A few basic viewing screens (profile, addresses) remain accessible to allow account management or subscription.

Subscribing at any time—even before the 30 days are up—immediately reactivates full access. And if the subscription is taken out before the trial has even started (no engaging action yet taken), the 30 free days aren't lost: they're added to the paid period.

What has been created remains viewable, even in restricted access

An important point, often a source of concern: what has been created during the trial or subscription is never deleted simply because the subscription has ended. Signed contracts, completed schedules, hours worked, and salary declarations remain viewable in restricted access, with no countdown erasing their content progressively.

However, this retention follows the durations set out in the Terms and Conditions and privacy policy, not an indefinite period. Signed contracts and signature logs are kept for 5 years after signing, billing data for 10 years, in line with legal obligations. Other account-related data, including schedules and exchanges, follow the account's lifespan: they only disappear if the account is deleted, voluntarily or due to long-term inactivity—not simply because the subscription has expired.

One nuance concerns upcoming schedules. As long as the subscription isn't reactivated, events scheduled after the end date of access are no longer displayed: it's not deletion, just a display that stops at that date until you resubscribe. Anything already past remains visible as normal.

One exception that remains free in all cases: browsing listings

One point escapes this mechanism, even after the trial has expired: browsing job and service listings remains always accessible, without an account and without a subscription. It's the act of searching for listings itself—not just its restricted version—that stays open: browsing listings, opening a listing's details, or even publishing one never requires full access at any point.

What remains conditional on an active subscription is matchmaking—that is, the step where you actually contact a profile to start a discussion.

This is a deliberate choice for now: nothing prevents the scope of what remains free from evolving in the future, but the intention is to keep listing browsing open to everyone, including accounts whose trial has ended.

The special case of the Cesu mandate

The third-party declarant mandate (see the dedicated article on the Cesu mandate) is one of the services that is conditional on full access: activating it from your profile requires the account to be in an unexpired trial or subscribed, never in restricted access.

Requesting the mandate itself counts as one of the four engaging actions mentioned above: if the trial hadn't started yet, activating it triggers the 30-day countdown in the same way as sending a first message or signing a contract. On the other hand, an account already in restricted access (trial expired without subscription) can no longer activate the mandate until it has resubscribed.

One nuance is worth knowing to avoid misunderstanding what actually stops. If the mandate is revoked, whether at the employer's initiative or because the subscription is no longer active, it's only the teledeclaration to Urssaf that stops: once activated, the Cesu+ and the immediate advance of the tax credit (AiCi) continue to work.

In summary

One exception to know: browsing listings remains always free, even in restricted access.

The principle boils down to one sentence: Kiwisio never reduces what you can do; it only conditions the length of time you can continue doing it for free, from the moment you start using it for real.