Atlas is a platform for structuring your business data, and it’s sold in three tiers: Basic, which is free; Advanced; and Enterprise. Each tier includes everything in the one before it, so you can start small and grow into Atlas as your business grows.
This guide follows the same path as the Getting to know Atlas episode of the video series. Watch it above, or read on for the written version.
Basic (free): schemas and printable forms
Basic is built on the two ideas at the heart of Atlas.
Data schemas
A data schema defines a set of form fields that belong together. Contact Details is the classic example: a full name, an email address and a phone number. Each field has a type — text, a number, a date — plus rules, like whether it’s required or must be a valid email address.
You can define as many data schemas as your business needs: contact details, a service address, an insurance policy, a vehicle, an emergency contact.
Record schemas and forms
A record schema is a collection of data schemas. A Service Request might combine contact details, a service address and a description of the work. Any data schema can be added to any record schema, so an address defined once can be reused in every form that needs one.
Atlas versions your schemas, so information you’ve already collected keeps its original shape as your forms evolve.
Printable forms
From your schemas, Atlas generates a finished form, with the fields and layout laid out for you. On Basic, you print that form. That’s a great fit for clipboards, front desks and job sites — anywhere people still fill things out by hand. Because every form comes from your schemas, each printed copy asks for exactly the same information, in exactly the same way.
Start here: Build your first form in Atlas.
Advanced ($5 / month): collect submissions online
Paper works, but sooner or later you’ll want forms filled out online. Advanced adds exactly that.
- Public submission links. Any form with fields can be published with a public link. Share it wherever your customers are: on your website, in an email or in a text message. The people filling it in don’t need an Atlas account. If your organization is split into teams, you can publish a form for a specific team, so whatever comes in goes straight back to them.
- A guided respondent experience. Customers see a step-by-step form. First they enter their name and email, so you always know who a submission came from. Then they answer your questions, and before submitting they review their answers.
- Submissions arrive in Atlas. The moment a customer submits, their answers are available in Atlas, connected to the form they came from.
Start here: Collect your form online with a public link.
Enterprise ($99 / month): organize the whole business
Enterprise is for businesses that want Atlas to organize not just their forms, but the whole business. It adds two big capabilities.
Your own classifications
A classification describes something your business keeps track of: customers, the properties you service, employees, equipment. Classifications can be nested inside one another, and each holds the individual customers, properties or crews within it, along with their records. Together, they form a network of connected data structures that mirrors how your business actually works: a customer connects to their properties, and each property connects to its service history.
For a business, that organization pays off quickly. Your data lives in one place instead of scattered across spreadsheets and inboxes. Every record follows the same structure, so reports and handoffs are reliable. Security policies control who can see and manage each part of your data. And as the business grows, you add classifications instead of starting over.
Atlas as your backend
Enterprise also opens Atlas up to developers. Atlas can act as the backend for your own web applications, giving each of them the same centralized data. A customer portal, an internal dashboard and a mobile app can all read and write the same records, with the same validation rules. Atlas includes an API client and an SDK for managing the data stored in Atlas, from classifications and schemas to individual records.
Enterprise includes 10,000,000 platform requests a month, then $1 per 100,000 after that — see Understanding Enterprise platform requests.
Start here: Create your first data classification.
The same example across all three tiers
Following one example through the tiers makes the differences concrete. Evergreen Landscaping, the example business in the Atlas tutorials, needs to handle service requests.
On Basic, Evergreen defines Contact Details and Service Address as data schemas, builds a Service Request form from them, lays it out and downloads a print-ready copy. Crews carry it in the truck; the front desk keeps a stack on a clipboard. Every copy asks the same questions.
On Advanced, the same Service Request form gets a public link. Evergreen puts it behind a “Request service” button on its website and texts it to customers who call. Submissions arrive in Data Collection with the customer’s name and email, already structured.
On Enterprise, Evergreen creates a Service Properties classification. Each property the company looks after becomes a topic with a Property Profile record built from the same Service Address schema plus Site Details. A security policy decides which crews can see which properties, and a user group answers for each one. Later, Evergreen’s developer builds a customer portal on the Atlas API Client so customers can see their own properties and requests.
At no point did Evergreen rebuild what it had already built.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Basic forever? Yes. Basic is free and includes data schemas, record schemas and printable forms.
Is Advanced priced per user? Atlas lists Advanced at $5 a month per subscribing account.
What does “platform requests” mean on Enterprise? Enterprise includes 10,000,000 platform requests a month, then $1 per 100,000. It’s usage-based metered pricing that matters mostly when you build your own applications on Atlas. See Understanding Enterprise platform requests.
Do respondents to my public forms need an Atlas account? No. Anyone with the link can fill in the form. Atlas asks for their name and email before the form starts.
Can I split submissions between teams? On Advanced, if your organization is split into teams, you can publish a form for a specific team so whatever comes in goes straight back to them.
Where do I learn each tier in depth? The video series has an episode for each tier, and each episode has a written guide on this blog.
A checklist before you choose
- List the forms your business uses today and where their answers end up.
- Note which forms customers would rather complete online.
- List the kinds of things you keep track of beyond forms — customers, locations, equipment.
- Decide whether anyone on your team will build applications on your data.
If you checked only the first item, start on Basic. The second points to Advanced. The third and fourth point to Enterprise.
How to choose
A simple way to decide:
- Do people still fill in your forms by hand? Start on Basic. You’ll get consistent, reusable forms for free.
- Do customers need to submit forms online? Choose Advanced. Every form you built on Basic gets a public link without being rebuilt.
- Do you need to organize customers, properties, equipment or jobs — or build your own applications on your data? Choose Enterprise.
Because each tier includes the one before it, there’s no wrong place to start. You can upgrade whenever your business is ready, and everything you’ve built comes with you. Start free, grow into Atlas goes deeper on planning that path.
