Licensing
Four axes, each licensed independently and billed only when it changes. Start on the free plan and stay there for as long as it fits — there is no trial clock.
The four axes
| Axis | From | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Per server | $180 | An engine instance on your infrastructure — cloud, bare metal, or air-gapped. |
| Per core | $55 | CPU cores the runtime may use. Your first 8 are free, forever. |
| Per developer seat | $30 | A named account in Cipher with its own permissions, login rules and audit trail. |
| Per environment | $22 | Dev, staging, production — each isolated, each with its own servers and push rules. |
Server and core rates step down with scale, applied automatically as you grow. Current rates are on the licensing page; this page is about how the model behaves.
Cores float across the fleet
This is the part worth understanding, because it is not how most per-core licensing works.
Licensed cores are not bound to any single machine. They are a pool. The runtime assigns them across active workloads, and you decide the split per server when you register or edit one.
Practically: capacity added for a launch can be removed afterwards. A fleet that needs 24 cores in December and 8 in February pays for what it holds, not for its peak.
The free 8 cores carry over
Going paid does not forfeit them. The eight free cores stay yours and join the pool, to split across as many servers as you like. A paid account with 16 licensed cores has 24 in total.
The free plan
1 server · 8 cores, free forever. No card, no expiry, no feature restrictions — same encryption, same runtime, same deployment pipeline as every paid plan. Create the account inside Cipher and start deploying.
The only architectural difference is where your encrypted build is stored. See Editions.
Where your encrypted code lives
On the free plan the AES-256-GCM encrypted build lives on each LockFlare Engine server — the machines you install the engine on. LockFlare retains no copy.
Enterprise adds Cipher repositories, so a build is also held centrally and can be promoted to any environment without being pushed again. It is encrypted identically in both cases; only the location differs.
Watching your usage
Cipher’s Licensing screen shows all four axes as live gauges — servers, cores, endpoints and seats — against what your plan allows. A gauge turns red at the ceiling, so you can see you are about to run out before an action fails.
Capacity is added from your LockFlare account on the web, not inside the app. Manage licences on that screen hands off to it, and changes appear the next time Cipher loads.
Enterprise arrangements
Beyond the published axes, enterprise agreements cover unlimited servers and cores, dedicated infrastructure, custom service levels, air-gapped and government deployments, and priority support.
Self-hosted artifact storage — which removes LockFlare from artifact custody entirely — is available on request, and is the recommended configuration for regulated workloads.