Honest answers
Why is there a free tier at all?
Because Farside exists to make travel tracking easy and fun for everyone — not to lock the basics behind a paywall. We want anyone to map every country, region, and city they've been to, star the next places they're dreaming of, and discover destinations they hadn't thought of yet through the map and the Journal. Free gets you the full Passport map, your visits, three custom wishlists, a simple travel log, and unlimited friends — enough to live in for years.
Can I earn Citizen for free?
Yes. Every five friends who join through your invite and start filling in their own map — five countries is the bar — earns you one free month of Citizen, and it keeps compounding. Bring fifteen and that's three months; bring ten more the following month and that's two more, five in total. Subscribers earn too, and the months are added on top rather than absorbed: buy an annual for twelve months, refer ten active friends, and you have fourteen months of Citizen — the referred months are held and start the moment your paid term ends. Your invite link lives on the Friends tab.
What happens if I cancel Citizen?
You drop back to Free at the end of your billing period. Your data — visits, wishlists, friends — stays. Lists you created stay accessible to anyone you shared them with; you just can't create new ones until you re-subscribe. Your Founding Member badge (if you have one) stays on your profile — it's permanent, subscription or not.
How does the founding-member badge work?
First 100 Citizen subscribers get a permanent "Founding Member #N" assignment. The number is yours for life — doesn't reset, doesn't expire, doesn't transfer, and keeps displaying on your profile and in friends' lists whether or not you stay subscribed. Once 100 are assigned, the slot stops being available to new subscribers — ever.
Is Wayfarer just Citizen with more features?
Sort of. Wayfarer is for people who actually need the day-counter or who push the upper limits of the social and trip-planning features. The day-counter audience: entrepreneurs running things from anywhere, remote workers and nomads splitting time across multiple bases, expats, and corporate travellers (regional sales, procurement, merchandisers, account managers) flying constantly for meetings. The planning audience: people who like running multiple trip wishlists in parallel and hit the 25-list cap. It's a job-to-be-done product, not "premium for premium's sake".
Can I get a refund?
7-day return guarantee. If Citizen isn't what you expected, request a refund within 7 days of subscribing and we'll process it (and cancel your subscription immediately). After 7 days, there are no refunds — but you can cancel any time and you won't be charged again. To request a refund, open your Passport → My Account → Subscription → Request a refund, or email support@farside.earth if you've already cancelled.
Where does the money go?
Servers, audio production for the podcast, paying the operators who help us research destinations, and the inevitable graveyard of features that didn't pan out. Farside is operated as a sole proprietorship from Hong Kong; there's no VC, no board, no growth-at-all-costs pressure. Citizen subscriptions are how the publication stays independent.
Is my data safe?
Your account data lives in an encrypted database we own (Turso). Payments go through Stripe; we never see your card. We don't sell or share your data, we don't run ads, and we don't load tracking scripts on the Passport itself. Details in our Privacy Policy.