Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsYes. Chromatic’s standard free plan can publish private Storybooks. Published Storybooks are private by default and available to signed-in users with access to the project. Publishing alone does not use billed snapshots when UI Test and UI Review are disabled. The free plan also includes 5,000 billed snapshots per month for review and testing.
What Chromatic’s free plan includes
Chromatic separates hosting a published Storybook from its visual testing and review features. You can use the free Publish Storybook service without billed snapshots if you disable UI Test and UI Review. If you enable those features, the standard free plan includes 5,000 billed snapshots per month. The free plan is not a time-limited trial; Chromatic says it can be used indefinitely. Chromatic’s billing documentation and free-plan FAQ explain the allowance and billing behavior.
Are private Chromatic Storybooks actually private?
Published Storybooks are private by default: viewers must sign in with a profile that has access to the project. Check two settings before publishing sensitive work, however:
- Repository visibility: projects linked to public repositories publish public Storybooks.
- Storybook visibility: a project’s Storybook can be set to public, which lets anyone with the link view it.
Making a Storybook public exposes the published Storybook, not the Chromatic Library, tests, settings, Git-provider details, or other project metadata; those remain private, according to Chromatic’s visibility documentation. A private Git repository alone is not a guarantee of private Storybook visibility, so verify the repository and project settings.
Recommended Free Tools
What happens when you use all included free snapshots?
When the monthly 5,000-snapshot allowance is exhausted, UI Test and UI Review pause until the allowance resets or you upgrade. Upgrading resumes those features immediately. Snapshot consumption is counted across projects at the account level and varies with tests, builds, browsers, modes, and test types. See Chromatic’s billing documentation for current details.
Ways to reduce snapshot use
Chromatic’s TurboSnap analyzes code changes and dependencies to focus new captures on affected stories. Its documentation assigns 1 billed snapshot to a captured snapshot, 0.2 to a copied snapshot, and 0 to a bypassed snapshot. These values describe Chromatic’s documented billing model; the total used still depends on your project’s builds and test configuration. Read about TurboSnap.
Open-source sponsorship is a separate offer
Some eligible open-source design systems and UI component libraries may qualify for a sponsorship plan with 35,000 snapshots per month. The documented offer is Chrome-only and requires publicly visible Open Source Storybooks; eligibility depends on specified contributor, npm-download, GitHub-star, or organization criteria. Chromatic directs applicants to ask through in-app chat. This is not the standard free plan, and its stated public-Storybook terms do not provide private hosted Storybooks. Details are on Chromatic’s open-source page.
When to use Chromatic hosting or host Storybook yourself
If you do not want Chromatic’s hosted service, its comparison article names Heroku, Netlify, Vercel, and Surge as hosting approaches, and S3, GCP, and DigitalOcean as infrastructure or storage options. Evaluate access controls, CI and Git integration, review and comment workflows, and the setup and maintenance your team would own. Chromatic’s comparison is vendor-authored, so treat its recommendations as the company’s perspective rather than an independent evaluation. See Chromatic’s hosting comparison.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →ScreenshotNeo as an alternative for capturing web pages
If your need is to capture rendered web pages rather than publish and review a Storybook, ScreenshotNeo is a separate screenshot API and MCP server for developers. It is not a replacement for Chromatic’s Storybook hosting or visual-review workflow. It may fit a different task, such as generating clean screenshots or PDFs from URLs; its API details are in the ScreenshotNeo documentation.
Sign up for ScreenshotNeo: 1,000 screenshots per month free, with no card.
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