Plotara alternatives
What to use when your university Prism licence runs out
Most people meet this problem at the worst possible moment: submitting a thesis, revising a paper after your access has lapsed, or starting a postdoc somewhere with a different site licence.
The part nobody warns you about
Your figures are inside .pzfx files. When the licence goes, so does your ability to open, edit or re-export them. A reviewer asks you to change one axis label eighteen months later, and you cannot.
This is not unique to Prism. It is true of any tool where the file format is the only record of what you did.
What to do about it now
Before your access ends, export everything as vector PDF or SVG rather than PNG, and write down the exact test you ran for each figure, including the post-hoc correction.
Longer term, keep your analysis as code. Code is plain text. It opens in anything, forever, and it re-runs. It is the only genuinely durable format for an analysis.
Where Plotara fits
Plotara costs £10 a month on the student plan, or £84 for the year, and it does not expire with your enrolment. You can also pause the subscription without limit, so a year where you only analyse data in two months costs you two months. There is a 30-day free trial and no card required.
Every analysis and every figure comes with the Python code that produced it. Even if you stop paying, the code is yours and it still runs.
You get the full suite either way: 50+ statistical tests across 12 categories, 22 graph types, multi-panel figures at journal column widths, and 300 DPI, SVG and PDF export.
Side by side
| Plotara Student | Prism student licence | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost, monthly | £10 | $50 |
| Cost, annual | £84 | $142 |
| Term | Monthly or annual, cancel anytime | Annual subscription |
| Pausing | Unlimited, pay only for months you use | Not offered |
| Eligibility | Verified university email address | Proof of student status at a degree-granting institution |
| Free trial | 30 days, no card | 30 days |
| Your work if you stop paying | Python code, PNG, SVG and PDF all still yours | Exported figures remain; .pzfx project files need a licence to open |
*Prism student price, licence terms and eligibility from [graphpad.com/how-to-buy](https://www.graphpad.com/how-to-buy/), checked 20 August 2026.*
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Last reviewed: 20 August 2026