When you create a new MailShield SEG account, you are automatically enrolled in a free trial. This allows you to fully evaluate our email filtering, sandboxing, and quarantine features on your own network before committing to a paid plan.
Here is everything you need to know about how the trial operates and what happens when it concludes.
How the trial works
- When the clock starts: Your trial does not start the moment you sign up. The countdown begins the exact moment you finish the onboarding wizard and configure your first domain.
- No credit card required: You do not need to provide any payment details to start your trial.
- Full feature access: During the trial window, your account is entirely unrestricted. You have full access to every feature included in your selected plan tier, including custom policies, quarantine management, and the e-Discovery archive (if testing the Compliance plan).
Monitoring your trial status
Throughout your trial, a status indicator will be visible on your dashboard and inside the Subscription & Billing page. This will tell you exactly how many days you have left.
When you have 3 days or fewer remaining, the indicator will turn amber to warn you that your trial is nearing expiration.
What happens when the trial expires?
If you do not upgrade to a paid subscription before your trial window closes, your account will be downgraded to a restricted state:
1. Dashboard Lockout You will lose the ability to manage your email security. Access to the Quarantine queue, Policy configurations, Outbound setup, and User Management will be locked.
2. Mail Flow Interruption (Action Required) This is the most critical impact of an expired trial. When a trial expires without payment, your domains are automatically suspended on the MailShield gateway to prevent abuse.
If your domain's MX records are still pointing to MailShield when the trial expires, the gateway will reject your incoming mail and it will bounce back to the sender. To prevent your emails from bouncing, you must do one of two things before the trial expires:
- Subscribe: Add a payment method and start a paid subscription to keep the gateway active and your protection running seamlessly.
- Revert your MX records: If you choose not to subscribe, you must log into your DNS provider and change your MX records back to your original mail server (e.g., Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) so your mail bypasses MailShield entirely.
How to subscribe
You can convert your trial into a paid subscription at any time.
- Navigate to the Subscription & Billing page in your dashboard.
- Ensure your Billing Info (legal name, email, and optional KRA PIN) is filled out.
- Go to the Plans tab, verify your domain count and preferred billing cycle (Monthly or Annual), and click Proceed to Payment.
Your remaining trial days are forfeited when you subscribe, and your new paid billing cycle will begin immediately.