Free, until it costs us money.
Almost all of JoyRemote is free, permanently. We charge for one thing: reaching a computer over the internet, which is the part that runs on a server we pay for.
- Unlimited time between computers on the same network
- Not counted towards anything below
- Phone and browser access on your own Wi-Fi
- Every feature it has today — nothing is held back
- Advanced features added in the future may cost money, on your own network too. What you have today stays free.
- First 1.5 hours over the internet are free
- After that, $5 settles it for that computer, for as long as we run the service. That is the life of the service, not a fixed number of years, and not your life or the computer's. If we ever stop
- No renewal and no recurring charge. We never see or keep your card — the payment is handled by Paddle, or by Google Play in the phone app from Google Play
- Only for connections your network will not allow directly
- First 15 minutes of relay are free
- Its own purchase: you do not need the payment above to buy it
- Most connections never need it
- Optional: have it buy the next 5 hours by itself when under 10 minutes are left, so a call does not stop in the middle. Off unless you turn it on, and off again whenever you want
What happens if you do not pay
Your own network is untouched, and every feature keeps working on it. (Advanced features added in the future may cost money, on your own network too - you will see the price first, and what you already have stays free.) What stops is reaching computers over the internet: once the 1.5 free hours are used, a session over the internet that is open is ended, and new ones do not start until the $5 is paid. JoyRemote warns you after the first hour, when half an hour is left, and again fifteen minutes before, with a button to pay.
The hours are counted by our server, from the moment a session over the internet connects until it ends. Asking, approving and setting up cost nothing, so an attempt that never connects is never counted. Relay time is counted only while the relay is carrying the session. Two devices behind the same internet connection are counted as being on your own network, which is free.
Whose hours they are
A session started from the JoyRemote app counts on the device it was started from - the computer, or the phone - and that device's payment covers it. A session started from a web browser counts on the computer it connects to, because a browser has nothing of its own to count against. Nobody can spend your computer's hours that way without you: every browser session is approved on that computer first.
What the relay is
Usually the two computers talk to each other directly and nothing passes through us. Some networks — hotels, offices, some mobile connections — will not allow that, and then we carry the picture between them. That costs us real bandwidth, which is why it is the one thing metered by the clock rather than bought outright.
Relay time you have bought is a balance of hours, spent only while the relay is actually carrying a session — it does not drain on the clock. If you want it to keep itself topped up, JoyRemote can buy the next five hours for $5 whenever less than ten minutes are left, which is ten minutes before a relayed call would otherwise stop. That is the only thing we ever charge for without you being there, it is off unless you switch it on in Settings, and switching it off stops it at once and keeps whatever you had already bought.
Why per computer
The charge settles one computer, because a computer is what the cost attaches to. Reinstalling JoyRemote, or reinstalling Windows on the same computer, does not ask you to pay again - and does not give you new free hours either. A computer with a new motherboard is a new computer, with its own free hours; a payment for the old one does not move to it.
A phone running the JoyRemote app is priced like a computer: its own 1.5 free hours and 15 free minutes of relay, and $5 once, paid through Google Play in the app from Google Play. The phone's payment covers that phone only, not every phone on the same Google account. On an iPhone it is paid through the App Store and, as Apple requires, covers the iPhones signed in to the same Apple account; relay time stays with the iPhone it was bought on. Reinstalling the app keeps what the phone has used and paid for; a phone reset to its factory settings is a new phone.
Prices in US dollars. Tax is added at checkout where your country requires it. See the refund and cancellation policy and the license agreement.