Paying a subscription grants you full access to everything they list; character creation, operations, flashpoints, cargo hold, inventory, death, login etc., while F2P is ”limited” everywhere except story.
Those who want play for free aren’t kept from anything in the game but are instead severely limited by comparison. For example death in F2P gives just 5 field revivals.
Everyone has full access to the game’s story content taking characters from level 1 all the way to 50. Everything outside of that is split between the two tiers of citizenship in The Old Republic. The official TOR website lists the free-to-play differences, but a quick summary is below:
● Limited character creation
● Weekly pass needed to unlock Operation access
● Three Warzones per week or purchase weekly pass
● Three Flashpoints per week with full rewards or purchase weekly pass
● Three Space Missions per week or purchase weekly pass
● Expand cargo hold with Cartel Coins
● Expand inventory slots with Cartel Coins
● One Crew Skill or purchase more with Cartel Coins
● Quick Travel cooldown lengthened or purchase to reduce
● No access to Emergency Fleet Pass unless purchased
● Revive at nearest Med Center or 5 total in field, purchase more with Cartel Coins
● No priority in queue login
● Cannot equip most purple items unless license purchased with Cartel Coins
Making a purchase also unlocks the ‘Preferred Status’ which grants the Sprint ability at level 1, Cargo Hold access and higher login priority, and an increase to Chat and Secure Trading. They warn that characters must be at least level 6 though to ”unlock access to their ship’s Cargo Hold, full General Chat, and Secure Trading.”