Creating a paid contest

Paid contests let you charge participants an entry fee. To be able to publish them you need two things: the association must have Stripe connected, and you pay the salon license at the moment you publish.

Step 1 — Connect Stripe (if not done yet)

Before publishing a paid contest, the association must have its Stripe account connected. If it isn't, a notice will appear when you try to publish, with a direct link to the Payments screen.

To connect it, go to Settings → Payments and follow the steps in Billing and payments. It's one click: there's no need to copy any keys.

Step 2 — Create the contest

Go to My associations → gear icon → Create contest and fill in:

• Name — e.g. Spring contest 2026
• Description — free text about the contest
• Poster — the contest's poster image, shown on its public page; it can have any proportions
• Dates — start of entries, end date and verdict date
• Price — enter the entry fee amount (e.g. €5). The form will show a notice: when you publish, you'll be asked to choose the salon license tier and complete the payment at that moment.
• Contest rules — PDF with the official rules
• Scope — Social (members only), National or International. If you choose Social, you can also restrict visibility to members and administrators; this is explained in Creating a contest
• Categories — one or more, with the number of photos allowed per category
• Voting — salon chairman, jurors and mode (remote or in-person)
• Awards — name, description and amount for each award, or Honorable mention, which has no amount

Save the draft and keep working on it until everything is ready.

Step 3 — Publish the contest and pay the license

1. Click Publish
2. The Salon license dialog appears: choose the tier based on the authors you expect
3. Complete the payment on Stripe. When you return, the contest is published automatically

⚠️ A published contest cannot be deleted, and the only settings you can still change are the poster, the sponsors, the jury, the salon chairman and which categories are active. See Creating a contest for details.

There's no harm in choosing a lower tier: it gets settled once the contest ends. And if you close the tab after paying, the publication completes anyway.

If you have a promo code

In the Salon license dialog, below the tiers, enter the code in the Promo code field and click Apply. If it's valid, you'll see the reduced price of each tier and what the code gives you: the discount on the license and, if included, a lower commission on that contest's entry fees. If the code makes the license free, the button changes to Publish and the contest is published without going through payment.

• Only one code per contest can be used.
• Some codes are single use: they're used up by the first contest published with them.
• If the code isn't valid (it doesn't exist, has expired or has already been used), you'll see it below the field.
• If a settlement is needed at the end, the difference gets the same discount as the license.

Settlement at the end

When the contest ends, Picstar counts the authors who actually took part:

• Within the paid tier's cap → the license is up to date, no further charge.
• Above the cap → a higher tier applies and only the difference between tiers is charged (e.g. from Salon to Grand Salon: 295 − 145 = €150 + VAT). You'll receive an email with the payment link, and the contest screen shows a Settlement pending notice with a button to pay it.
• Below the cap → nothing is refunded: the license was bought for the declared capacity.

⚠️ While a settlement remains unpaid, no new paid contests can be published. The notice includes a direct link to the pending salon.

How users participate

Once the contest is published and started, participants see it on the home page. When they click Participate:

1. The entry fee and taxes (if applicable) are shown
2. The user accepts the terms and conditions
3. They are redirected to Stripe to complete the payment
4. Once paid, they're registered for the contest

The payment goes directly to the association's Stripe account, with Picstar's 6% commission already deducted (on the base amount excluding VAT). From My associations → Contests the administrator can see registered participants and total revenue in real time.