Plugins: switching one on, and finding where it went

A plugin is a coherent slab of product — its own screens, its own API, sometimes its own tables. It is off until an admin switches it on, and removing it hides its screens without deleting anything. There is no default-install set: a workspace that has never turned anything on has only the teaching and selling core.

What is in the catalog

Eleven, as of this page's date. Seven are free on every plan including Starter, one needs a paid plan, and two are bought once.

• University — Degree programs, proctored exams and academic records. One-time purchase.
• Proctoring — Proctor any online test — identity, environment and evidence. One-time purchase.
• Storefront — Sell courses, bundles and digital products from your own shop. Free on every plan.
• Certificates — Design, issue and verify completion certificates. Free on every plan.
• Docs — A collaborative editor for handouts, notes and shared plans. Free on every plan.
• Presentations — Generate branded slide decks from a prompt or an outline. Free on every plan.
• Brain Arena — Practice games for students — English speaking, vocabulary and mental maths. Free on every plan.
• Offer letters — Issue and verify offer and internship letters. Free on every plan.
• Nursery & kids deck — Decks that teach themselves to children who cannot read yet. Monthly add-on.
• Developer tools — Webhooks and API access for wiring Prolaud into your own systems. Needs a paid plan.
• Branded app — Your academy installs on a student's home screen, under your name. Free on every plan.

What the two paid ones cost

Both are one-time licenses, not subscriptions. There is no renewal and no per-student fee. Proctoring is ₹19,000. University is ₹1,49,000 for a single domain and ₹3,99,000 for five; optional updates and support are ₹30,000 a year, and the license stays valid whether or not you take them.

The comparison worth making on Proctoring is per-seat: remote proctoring vendors charge roughly ₹250–450 a sitting, or ₹4,200–5,000 a year per candidate. One 300-candidate entrance test costs more with any of them than this license does once.

Switching one on

1. Open Plugins in the sidebar. Everything on offer is on that one screen — filter by category, or search it. Search matches words you might use rather than only ours: typing "SGPA" or "convocation" finds University, typing "invoice" finds the storefront.
2. Open the card you want. Before you install anything it lists exactly what appears afterwards, what it costs, and what stays behind if you remove it.
3. Press install — or, on the two paid ones, start the 14-day trial.
4. Read the banner that appears. It names the sidebar group the plugin just created and gives you a button straight to the first screen worth opening.

Where it went

This is the one thing people get stuck on, and it is worth stating plainly: switching a plugin on changes the sidebar silently. The new group arrives collapsed, and it is added near the bottom — below the fold on a laptop. Nothing animates, nothing scrolls to it. Somebody who starts a trial, sees "Trial running — 14 days left", and then looks at an apparently unchanged product will reasonably conclude that nothing happened.

So the banner after install names the group in words — "It lives under Examinations" — rather than only linking to it, because "look for X" survives a page refresh and a link does not. If you have lost a plugin you know you installed, scroll the sidebar to the bottom and look for a collapsed group you do not recognize; the sidebar is its own scroll container, so scrolling the page will not move it.

Trying a paid one

One click starts a 14-day evaluation of the full plugin. No card, no call. One trial per workspace; if you need longer, ask and we will extend it.

Use it properly — set up a real program, a real cohort, a real test — because nothing you build during the trial is deleted when it ends. If you buy afterwards it is all still there exactly as you left it. When a trial expires the screens close and the API stops, exactly as if the plugin had been removed: an examination already in progress finishes, students keep seeing their own results, and any document you issued during the trial keeps verifying.

Removing one

Uninstall is reversible by design. It hides the screens and closes the API; it deletes nothing. Every card says in advance what stays behind — for Proctoring, for example, every sitting, event and captured still is kept, because a contested result can be appealed long after the term ends. Reinstalling brings the workspace back as it was.

Removing a plugin also never reaches a student or a buyer. Anything already issued keeps verifying, anyone already enrolled keeps their access, and a checkout in progress completes. The switch controls your screens, not their entitlements.

What this is not

It is not a third-party plugin API. Nothing is loaded from disk at runtime, nothing is sandboxed, and no code arrives from outside our own repository. These are first-party modules with an install switch — which means there is no marketplace to browse, no plugin to vet, and no supply chain to worry about. If third parties are ever admitted, it will be because we have an isolation story worth trusting, and we will say so in as many words.

Do plugins cost extra on top of my plan?

Seven of the eleven are free on every plan, Starter included. Developer tools needs Pro or above. Proctoring (₹19,000) and University (₹1,49,000) are one-time licenses — bought once, no renewal, no per-student fee.

I installed a plugin and nothing changed. What happened?

It almost certainly did change: the plugin added a collapsed group near the bottom of the sidebar, below the fold on a laptop. Scroll the sidebar itself — it is its own scroll container, so scrolling the page will not move it — and look for a group you do not recognize. The banner on the Plugins page names the group and links straight to the first screen.

Can an instructor install a plugin?

No. Only a workspace admin sees the install and remove controls. Everybody else simply sees the screens once they exist.

What happens to my data if I remove a plugin?

Nothing is deleted. Removing hides the screens and closes the API; every record the plugin created stays exactly where it was, and reinstalling brings it all back. Each plugin's card states what it retains before you install it.

Is there a trial for the paid plugins?

Yes — 14 days, one click, no card and no call, one per workspace. Nothing you build during the trial is deleted when it ends, so build with real data rather than throwaway data.

Can I write my own plugin?

Not today. These are first-party modules with an install switch, not a third-party extension API — nothing loads from disk at runtime and no outside code runs. For wiring Prolaud into your own systems, the Developer tools plugin gives you webhooks and API access.

• The University plugin, in full — Programs, admissions, proctored exams and academic records.
• Proctoring, in full — Identity, room scan, lockdown — and what each one does not prove.
• How the Brain Arena works — The gamified speaking and vocabulary arena.
• Create your first doc — The collaborative editor, from blank page to published.