Publishing Custom Questions and plan limits
Publishing makes a Custom Question available to attach to Forms and Live Intake templates. Each plan has a cap on how many published Custom Questions you can have at once. Drafts and archived questions don't count against the limit.
In short: Publish to make a Custom Question usable; archive or unpublish to free a slot. Drafts don’t count. Limits: Propel 10, Propel+ 20, Middle Market 40, Custom negotiated.
What publish does
Until you publish, a Custom Question is a draft:
- Not visible to consumers
- Not selectable when adding questions to a Form
- Not selectable when building a Live Intake template
- Doesn’t count toward your plan’s limit
Publishing flips all of that. The question is now available, attachable, and counts as one of your published slots.
Plan limits
| Plan | Published Custom Question limit |
|---|---|
| Propel | 10 |
| Propel+ | 20 |
| Middle Market | 40 |
| Custom | Negotiated |
The limit is on published Custom Questions specifically. Drafts and archived questions don’t count.
Publish a Custom Question
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1
Open the draft Custom Question.
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2
Click the publish action.
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3
SALT checks against your plan limit. If you’re under the cap, the publish succeeds.
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4
The Custom Question becomes available everywhere.
When publish is blocked
Publish blocks when you’ve hit your plan’s limit. The error tells you the limit and your current count.
To unblock:
- Archive an unused Custom Question. Browse your published list, find ones that are old, low-usage, or no longer relevant, and archive them. Their slot frees up.
- Upgrade your plan. Higher tiers have higher limits.
- Replace, don’t add. If you’re publishing a new version of an existing question, archive the old one first.
Unpublish vs archive
Two ways to remove something from circulation:
- Unpublish (where supported) — return the question to draft state. It’s still in your active list, can be edited, but isn’t on any Form. Frees the slot.
- Archive — move the question to an archived state. Removed from the active list. Past Submissions retain its answers. Free the slot. Can be restored later.
Archive is the most common path. Unpublish is useful when you’re actively iterating on a Custom Question and don’t want it live during edits.
What happens to existing answers
Both unpublish and archive preserve past answers. The Custom Question’s data on existing Submissions stays as captured. What changes is forward behavior:
- The question doesn’t appear on new Submissions.
- It can’t be added to new Forms or templates.
If you re-publish or restore later, it’s back in circulation immediately.
Common questions
I archived a Custom Question, but my limit count didn’t go down. Refresh the page. If still wrong, the count cache may need a moment to update — check again in a minute. If persistent, contact support.
Can I have draft Custom Questions exceeding my plan limit? Yes. Drafts don’t count. Only published questions consume the slot.
Will my Forms break if I unpublish a Custom Question they reference? The Forms keep working — the question just won’t appear on new submissions. Existing Submissions retain their answers.
Is there a “test mode” to publish without consuming a slot? Not directly. The closest is publishing during a slow period, gathering test answers, and archiving immediately to free the slot.