Pricing that adds capability, never gates access.
The Apache 2.0 OSS layer is structurally complete. Pro, Pro Plus, and Launch Service add speed and hands-on help — not access you're missing.
Which AILK tier fits how you ship?
Deploying it yourself? Free covers that. Standardizing across client work? Pro or Pro Plus carries it. Want the foundation deployed for you in two weeks instead? Book Launch Service. Fleet management for a portfolio of sites is planned as a future Enterprise entitlement, not shipped yet.
Price
Best fit
Schema registry, peer surfaces, audit CLI, scaffolding
Per-user seat licensing
Hands-on deploy help
You own the codebase
Fleet management, cross-site rollup, and white-label are planned as a future Enterprise entitlement — not shipped yet.
What ships free, under Apache 2.0?
Everything structural ships free. Clone the repo, deploy on Vercel, and you have the same substrate a paying customer gets — no crippled tier, no feature flags waiting behind a paywall. Developers and indie hackers pick this tier when they'd rather run the build themselves than pay someone else to run it.
Typed schema registry
60 page types, per-type Zod validation, JSON-LD emitted from frontmatter. Not a plugin bolted on later.
Peer surfaces — web, MCP, API
The same capability, exposed three ways, with CI-enforced parity. Agents get a first-class surface from day one.
`ailk audit` CLI
Scores AEO structure before launch and in CI. Free, in the OSS — not a $295/month add-on.
Agent-assisted scaffolding
`create-ailk` plus the `.claude/` skill bundle. Reference brand to deployed site in days, not weeks.
What does Pro add for $249 per user per year?
Pro adds per-user licensing on top of the same OSS substrate — nothing in the free layer gets held back. It's self-serve, billed through Stripe, priced per person on your team rather than per project.
Per-user seat licensing
Every teammate working across client projects gets their own seat, priced annually.
Self-serve billing
Start or scale seats through Stripe. No sales call required to begin.
Continued access to every OSS update
Schema registry, audit CLI, and scaffolding stay current. Pro adds seats to use the substrate across a team — it doesn't gate access to any of it.
When do you need Pro Plus at $449 per user per month?
Pro Plus is Pro with care — everything Pro ships, plus a direct support cadence with the Working Theory team. It suits agencies running several client sites who want a person to call, not just software to run.
Everything in Pro
Per-user licensing and every OSS update, unchanged.
Direct support cadence
Ongoing hands-on help instead of self-serve-only — for teams managing multiple client sites at once.
Priced monthly, not annually
$449/user/month reflects the ongoing support relationship, not a one-time software purchase.
What do you get from the $2,495 Launch Service?
Launch Service is a fixed-scope, two-week deploy — you don't build it, we do. Onboarding takes a day; the site is live in two weeks. Agencies and SMB owners book it to get the foundation live without spending their own two weeks building it.
Fixed two-week scope
A single fixed price and a two-week deadline. Not an open-ended engagement.
Onboard in a day, live in two weeks
The setup work that usually costs a senior developer's time is handled for you.
You own what ships
The resulting codebase is Apache 2.0, same as the OSS layer. Nothing about Launch Service creates lock-in.
We run a portfolio of client sites — where's fleet management?
We manage a portfolio of client sites. Where's the fleet-management entitlement?
Deferred. Fleet management (cross-site rollup, white-label, per-seat licensing) is planned as a future Enterprise multi-tenant entitlement, not a separate tier, and not shipped yet. At launch, agencies deliver on OSS plus Pro, priced per user. Multi-site management today is per-site, not fleet.
Common questions about AILK pricing
Why isn't the free OSS layer crippled to push Pro?
Because AILK is Apache 2.0 — complete, not source-available or feature-flagged. The schema registry, peer surfaces, audit CLI, and scaffolding all ship free. Pro and Pro Plus add per-user seats and support, not access to capability you'd otherwise lack.
Can I move from Pro to Launch Service later?
Yes. Pro and Launch Service aren't sequential tiers you graduate through — they solve different problems. Start on Pro if you're building it yourself; book Launch Service any time you want a fixed-scope deploy handled for you, whether or not you're already a Pro subscriber.
What happens to my site if I stop paying for Pro?
Nothing breaks. The codebase is Apache 2.0 — you keep it, deployed or not, whether or not you're a Pro subscriber. Pro pays for per-user seats and continued updates, not for the right to keep what you already built.
Is there a trial before I commit to Pro?
Start with the free OSS layer first — clone the repo, run `pnpm create ailk@latest`, and see the substrate directly. Because Pro adds seats and support rather than gating capability, evaluating the free tier is effectively your trial.
How is Pro Plus different from just hiring a freelancer?
A freelancer is a one-off relationship you have to re-onboard every time. Pro Plus is an ongoing support cadence with the team that built the substrate — the people who wrote the schema registry and the audit CLI are the ones answering when something breaks.
Pick the path that matches how you ship.
Self-serve on Free or Pro. Get ongoing support on Pro Plus. Or book Launch Service and have the foundation deployed for you in two weeks.