Pricing
Start free. Pay monthly or yearly. No per-seat math.
Build the whole integration on the free Developer tier before you enter a card. When it works, go live from $59/month — or prepay the year and save about 15%.
Developer
Free
No credit card · renewable
The complete SDK for evaluation and local development. Up to 50 end-user licenses on one build machine, so you can build a working prototype in a branch before anyone asks for a purchase order. Non-production use.
Get the free license →No credit card required.
Basic
$59/ month
or $599/year — save $109 (15%)
For solo developers and early-stage startups shipping a single-tier product. Node-locked licensing, local offline validation, unlimited end-user license generation from one build machine.
Buy Basic →Monthly or annual. Cancel any time.
Premium
$189/ month
or $1,899/year — save $369 (16%)
For growing software companies. Everything in Basic, plus the floating license server and client for concurrent-seat licensing, multi-seat build-machine management, fingerprint-policy tuning, and priority support.
Buy Premium →Monthly or annual
Monthly billing exists so the first payment is small enough to be a decision you make on your own. Cancel any time; annual prepaid is the cheaper option once you know RockyGuard is staying in the build.
| Monthly | 12 × monthly | Annual prepaid | You save | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $59 | $708 | $599 | $109 (15%) |
| Premium | $189 | $2,268 | $1,899 | $369 (16%) |
USD. Prices are per company, not per developer. Multi-year and launch discounts below apply to annual prepaid.
What's included
| Developer | Basic | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| C++17 library (Windows x64, Linux x64) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Signed license files (Ed25519 / RSA-SHA256) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Node-locked licensing (per-machine fingerprint) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hardware fingerprinting (4-component, threshold) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-layer anti-tampering (clock + integrity) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Load-bearing license binding (LicenseAsset + rg_bind_asset) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLI tools: keygen, create, verify, fingerprint, bind-asset | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full documentation, code examples, source samples | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free updates for the license term | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Production / commercial use | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| End-user license generation | Up to 50 | Unlimited | Vendor-configured limit |
| Build machines per vendor license | 1 | 1 | Multiple (DeveloperSeats) |
| Floating license server (concurrent-seat pools) | Evaluation only | — | ✓ |
| Floating license client library | Evaluation only | — | ✓ |
| Support | Docs + email, best effort | Email, 1 business day | Priority email + onboarding call |
The library binary is identical in every tier — fingerprinting, anti-tamper and the CLI tools are not degraded in the free or Basic tiers. Floating licensing is the one capability the code itself gates on tier; the rest of the differences above are packaging and support terms carried in your vendor license.
Multi-year discount
Commit to multiple years of annual prepaid and pay less per year. Discounts compound with the launch promo below if you buy in the first 50.
- 2-year prepaid 10% off
- 3-year prepaid 15% off
Launch promo
The first 50 customers — either paid tier — receive 25% off the first year. Stacks with the multi-year discount.
Worked example
Premium, 3-year prepaid, first-50 customer:
$1,899 × 3 × 0.85 × 0.75 = $3,631
($1,210/year effective)
Frequently asked
What exactly is free in the Developer tier?
The whole SDK. Same library, same CLI tools, same docs, same signing algorithms — nothing is stubbed out or crippled. We issue you a free vendor license bound to one build machine, good for 50 end-user licenses, valid for 12 months and renewable at no cost. That is enough to wire RockyGuard into a branch, sign test licenses, run them against your own hardware fingerprints, and see how verification behaves — including the failure paths — before you talk to anyone in sales. The floating license server is unlocked too, so you can prototype concurrent-seat licensing. One thing worth knowing up front: the 50 is counted cumulatively over the life of the license, not concurrently — a license you mint and throw away still counts. Test licenses are the exception: anything you issue with an expiry inside 7 days, including something already expired, is metered separately and does not spend your 50. That covers the licenses an evaluation actually burns — the pre-expired one you make to watch the expiry path, the mismatched-fingerprint one you make to watch node-locking refuse. The count is also per vendor license, so a renewal starts fresh. 50 long-dated licenses is far more than proving an integration takes; if you somehow need more while still evaluating, ask and we will raise it. The Developer tier does not grant the right to ship licenses to paying end users; that needs Basic or Premium.
Do higher tiers protect my software better?
No. Every tier ships the same library and the same two ways to protect a feature. The simple pattern is a few lines — verify the licence, then branch on the result — but that branch is one boolean, and a one-instruction binary patch can flip it. The stronger pattern is load-bearing: bind a real asset to the licence with rg_bind_asset so the feature decrypts it at runtime through LicenseAsset / unwrap_data_key(). There is no verdict to patch, and a forged or altered licence just produces the wrong key and garbage output. It is incremental — protect one high-value feature this way and leave the rest simple. Tiers differ only in floating licensing, build-machine count, end-user license volume, and support — never in how strongly you can protect your code.
Free Developer tier or 30-day Premium trial — which do I want?
Developer if you are still writing code: no credit card, renewable, but capped at 50 long-dated end-user licenses per vendor license (short-lived test licenses do not count) and non-production. Trial if you are past the prototype and want to pilot RockyGuard with real customers: 30 days, uncapped license generation, production use permitted, full Premium features. Most teams do Developer first and only ask for the trial when they are ready to ship.
Monthly or annual?
Whichever suits your cash flow. Monthly is $59 for Basic and $189 for Premium, billed month to month, cancel any time — you can be running RockyGuard in production for $59 up front. Annual prepaid is $599 and $1,899, which works out 15% and 16% cheaper than paying twelve monthly instalments. You can switch from monthly to annual at any renewal and we credit the unused remainder of the current month.
What happens to my vendor license if I cancel a monthly plan?
The vendor license stops authorizing new end-user license generation at the end of the paid month. End-user licenses you already issued keep working until whatever expiry date you put in them — your customers are never cut off because you changed plans. Resubscribe and we re-issue the vendor license against the same build-machine fingerprint.
What does "annual prepaid" actually cover?
You pay once for one year. During that year you can issue end-user licenses to your customers, run the vendor tools on your build machine, and receive every RockyGuard release as it ships. After the year ends you choose to renew or stop. End-user licenses you issued during the year stay valid for whatever expiry date you put in them.
Refund policy?
Pro-rated refund within 30 days of the original purchase if RockyGuard does not meet your needs. Practically: try it, build a small spike against the docs, and if it does not fit your stack, ask for a refund. We will not argue about it within the 30-day window. Monthly plans need no refund policy — cancel and the next month is simply not billed.
Can I upgrade from Basic to Premium mid-term?
Yes. We re-issue your vendor license at the Premium tier and credit the unused remainder of your Basic term against the Premium price — pro-rated to the day on annual, to the month on monthly. Contact us to coordinate.
Is the price per developer, per application, or per company?
Per company. One subscription authorizes your team to integrate RockyGuard into any number of products you ship. The difference between the tiers is how many build machines may run the generation tools: Basic binds the vendor license to a single build machine (node-locked), Premium uses the DeveloperSeats model so several machines — a team, or a CI fleet — can generate licenses under one vendor license. End-user licenses you issue are uncapped on Basic and capped at a vendor-configured number on Premium (the cap is set generously and can be raised by contacting us).
Which tier fits where I am?
Developer (free) while the integration is still a branch. Basic once you are shipping and selling: a solo developer or an early-stage startup that needs node-locked licenses and local offline validation, from one build machine. Premium once the company is growing: floating license servers for concurrent-seat customers, multi-seat build-machine management, help tuning fingerprint components and match thresholds for a heterogeneous fleet, and priority support with a real onboarding call.
What is the launch promo?
25% off your first year for the first 50 customers. Applies to either paid tier on annual prepaid. Multi-year discount stacks: 10% off for a 2-year commitment, 15% off for 3 years. So a Premium 3-year prepaid first-50 customer pays $1,899 × 3 × 0.85 × 0.75 = $3,631 total ($1,210/year effective).
Bulk, educational, or open-source discounts?
Open-source projects: contact us, we are friendly. Bulk and educational: contact us, we will work it out.
How do I actually start?
Claim the free Developer license on the contact page — no credit card, no call. We reply within one business day with a vendor license bound to your build machine's hardware fingerprint (you run rg_fingerprint and send us the hash). It arrives by email; you copy it next to your build tools and run license_create against it. The full integration walkthrough is in the docs Quick Start. When the prototype works, pick Basic or Premium and we re-issue against the same fingerprint.
Start with the free tier
Full SDK, 50 test licenses, no credit card. We reply within one business day.