Skip to content

Billing & Pricing

This topic explains PyLocket's billing model, pricing tiers, and how charges work.

Billing Model

PyLocket is a B2B developer tools platform. Billing is between PyLocket and the developer. PyLocket never processes end-user payments.

Developer ──pays──→ PyLocket (protection + licensing service)
End-User  ──pays──→ Developer's Storefront (Stripe, Gumroad, etc.)

Free Tier

Every app gets a free tier with no credit card required:

Feature Free Tier
Account creation Free
App registration Free
Protection builds Unlimited
Build downloads 10 per app
License creation Included

The free tier lets you test the complete workflow — protect, download, distribute — before paying anything.

What Happens After 10 Downloads

After the 10th build download for an app:

  1. The app is marked as "published"
  2. Further download requests return HTTP 402 Payment Required
  3. Add a payment method in the Developer Portal to continue
  4. Once a subscription is active, downloads resume immediately

Pricing

Fee Amount Frequency Trigger
Base fee $9.00 per app Annual After free tier exhausted
License fee $4.00 per license Per event When a new end-user license is created
Storage fee Variable Annual Based on artifact storage size

Base Fee

  • Charged annually per registered app
  • Covers: protection pipeline, licensing infrastructure, delivery pages, CDN hosting
  • Billed on the anniversary of the app's first paid download

License Fee

  • Charged per end-user license created
  • Billed via Stripe metered billing (invoiced monthly)
  • Only charged when you create a new license — renewals and extensions are free
  • Covers: license validation, device activation, token signing, delivery page generation

Storage Fee

  • Proportional to the size of your protected artifacts stored on PyLocket's CDN
  • For a typical 50 MB application: approximately $0.02/year

Billing Examples

Example 1: Small Developer

  • 1 app, 50 licenses/month
Item Cost
Base fee $9.00/year
License fees 50 x $4.00 = $200.00/month
Storage (50 MB) ~$0.02/year
Monthly total ~$200.75

Example 2: Growing Business

  • 3 apps, 500 licenses/month total
Item Cost
Base fees 3 x $9.00 = $27.00/year
License fees 500 x $4.00 = $2,000.00/month
Storage (500 MB) ~$0.20/year
Monthly total ~$2,002.27

Example 3: Testing / Pre-Revenue

  • 1 app, 0 licenses, within free tier
Item Cost
Everything $0.00

Payment Processing

All billing is handled through Stripe Billing:

  • You are the Stripe customer
  • Invoices are generated monthly
  • Payment methods: credit/debit cards
  • View invoices in the Developer Portal → Billing

Metered Billing

License fees are tracked as metered events in Stripe:

  1. You create a license via CLI, API, or Portal
  2. PyLocket records a usage event in Stripe
  3. At the end of the billing cycle, Stripe invoices for all usage events
  4. Events are idempotent — creating the same license twice does not double-charge

Managing Billing

Developer Portal

The Billing page in the Developer Portal shows:

  • Current subscription status
  • Usage for the current billing period
  • Invoice history
  • Payment methods

Adding a Payment Method

  1. Go to Developer Portal → Billing → Payment Methods
  2. Click Add Payment Method
  3. Enter your card details (handled securely by Stripe)

Viewing Invoices

  1. Go to Developer Portal → Billing → Invoices
  2. Click any invoice to view line items and download a PDF

Fraud Controls

PyLocket includes built-in fraud prevention:

Control Description
Activation rate limiting Limits rapid activation requests per license
Download rate limiting Limits rapid download requests
Chargeback monitoring Stripe webhook integration for dispute detection
Metered billing idempotency Duplicate events are not double-charged

Pricing Adjustments

Pricing is managed by PyLocket. If you need custom pricing for high-volume use:

  • Contact sales@pylocket.com
  • Enterprise pricing is available for teams with 1,000+ licenses/month

Marketplace Licenses

Licenses created through third-party marketplace integrations (AppSumo, Gumroad, Paddle, LemonSqueezy, etc.) follow the same $4 per license pricing as Stripe-sourced licenses.

Method When Charged Amount
Redemption codes (Option A) When the end user redeems a code $4 per redemption
API provisioning (Option B) When your backend calls POST /v1/marketplace/licenses $4 per license

There is no charge for generating redemption codes — you only pay when a code is actually redeemed by an end user. This means you can generate thousands of codes upfront for an AppSumo launch and only be billed for the codes that customers actually use.

All marketplace billing events appear on your monthly Stripe invoice alongside direct-channel license fees.

For the full marketplace integration guide, see Marketplace Distribution.

Key Points

  • No upfront costs: Start for free, pay as you grow
  • No per-seat developer pricing: One developer account covers your whole team
  • No charge for protection builds: Only downloads and licenses are metered
  • No charge for code generation: Redemption codes are free to create; billing occurs at redemption
  • End-user payments are yours: PyLocket never touches end-user revenue

See Also