According to Pillowfort’s site it is indeed free to demo users, except they are only able to VIEW the site and content created by beta users. They can’t post anything at all. Beta users can use the site fully and post as much as they want, but unless they backed the kickstarter before launch they have to pay a $5 PayPal fee for a key (you can buy multiple at once and give some out) to unlock the site. So it is free to access but pay to use and I swe no window for when they will leave closed beta

iopele:

I didn’t pay anything to get my account? and I wasn’t part of the kickstarter either and I just made a test post on there that seemed to go fine so I don’t know what to tell you… I did have to sign up to get an invitation to make my account a few months ago, but that was it. anyone else who knows more about the inner workings of @pillowfort-io have anything helpful to add?

I think you need to either donate or get an invitation code. Unclear on how to get an invitation code. They’re definitely trying to get people joining at a relatively slow pace while still in beta stage, which seems sensible to me.