Users often change their plans, and if the plans are different by nature, such changes cause losses in user data. To minimize such losses, plans are grouped so users can change plans only within one group. When a user switches plans, only accounting information changes.

Users cannot switch plans if they belong to different groups. If user's plan does not belong to any group, the user will be unable to switch to any new plan. Each plan can be only in one group.

Each group should consist of two and more plans. It makes little sense to put one plan to a separate group. Rather, leave this plan outside any group.

You should always group plans based on their compatibility, so plans with the same settings belong to the same group. Don't group plans of different nature (for example Windows and Linux hosting), or this will lead to unexpected results. A very common mistake is to put Unix and Windows2000 trial plans into a separate group. This will not allow trial users to switch to pay plans, as they are in a different group, and if a user switches from Windows2000 Trial to Unix trial, he will lose the settings that are unavailable under Unix plan, including ASP and ODBC service.

Do not move data between computers nor reconfigure it. This means that only plans that keep data on the same computers and do not require any reconfiguration are compatible.

To enter the Plan Groups page, click the Plan Groups link on the Admin Panel:

You will be presented with a screen with unassigned plans on the left and groups of compatible plans on the right:

To put several plans into one group, check them and click Submit Query. The plans will be removed from the list of Available plans. At the same time a new group of these plans will be added to the Plan groups list.

To ungroup plans in a group, click the DELETE button next to the group you want to delete.

To add a plan to the group, delete the group first and then create a new one, with the plan you wanted to add.

To regroup plans, you must ungroup them first, and then group them the way you want.

Note: E-mail Only plan is not compatible with other plans, which means you can't move an account from E-mail Only plan to a plan with the Unix User resource. Instead, you would have to create a new Unix account.