Self-hosted document rendering. Flat annual pricing, no per-render meter.

Is the free evaluation really free?

Yes — no credit card, no time limit. The only constraint is that the evaluation licence is for non-production use. Build proofs-of-concept, run tests, show it to your team. When you're ready to ship to customers, you need a commercial licence.

Does evaluation output have a watermark?

Yes. Every PDF, DOCX, PPTX, HTML, and XLSX rendered without a commercial licence key carries a small, italic "Pulp Engine · Evaluation Licence" footer. It's unobtrusive in internal PoCs and obvious the moment a document reaches an external viewer — which is exactly the signal we want. The watermark disappears when you install a licence key via the PULP_LICENCE_KEY environment variable. The gate is an Ed25519-signed token verified offline against a public key baked into the build; the watermark returns when the key is missing, expired, or otherwise invalid. See Licence key format for the wire format and operator runbook. Removing or suppressing the watermark is a licence breach regardless of technical means (see §4 of the Evaluation Licence).

What does "non-production" mean, concretely?

Any deployment that doesn't serve real external traffic: local dev, staging, CI, internal demos, architecture evaluations. If end-customers or paying users are consuming renders, that's production — time for a commercial licence.

What does the Early Adopter licence cost?

Individual Early Adopter licences start at USD $399/year for one production deployment (the founding rate; this rises to about USD $699/year at GA). Team deployments typically start at USD $2,500/year. The SaaS & Resale tier — for products that resell renders or bill end-customers per document — starts at USD $5,000/year. Dev, staging, and CI use are included at no extra cost. Early Adopter licences are annual-only before GA, and the founding rate is guaranteed for 12 months from first purchase.

Which track should I choose?

Choose Individual if one person owns the rollout and email support is enough. Choose Team if several engineers are involved, you want a private Slack channel on request, or you expect a tighter bug-fix and onboarding loop. If you're unsure, apply anyway and I'll place you in the right track.

Choose SaaS & Resale if document generation is something you sell — you bill your own customers per render, or rendered documents are a paid feature of your product. Serving your own internal users, or embedding renders in a product where document generation isn't the billed offering, stays on Team.

Choose Enterprise if you're running Pulp Engine across multiple logically-independent production environments, multiple business units, separate regulated/regional environments, or you need custom procurement/MSA terms. Enterprise is a contracting path — the product itself is the same; the difference is deployment scope and procurement complexity, not features or support uplift (pre-GA support stays best-effort email per the support policy).

When do I need the SaaS & Resale tier?

When document generation is part of what you sell: you bill your own customers per render, or rendered documents are a paid feature of your product. You keep everything that makes Pulp Engine flat — one deployment can still serve unlimited downstream customers, and there's no per-render fee back to us. SaaS & Resale is the commercial right to resell renders, starting at USD $5,000/year. If document generation is internal-only, or embedded in a product where it isn't the billed offering, you stay on Team.

What happens at GA?

GA pricing will be published publicly and will include annual licences plus a monthly subscription option. New customers will pay GA pricing. Existing Early Adopters keep their founding rate for the remainder of their 12-month guarantee window.

What's the Enterprise tier?

A contracting path for organisations running Pulp Engine across multiple logically-independent production environments, multiple business units, or separate regulated / regional environments; or buyers who need custom procurement/MSA terms. Pricing starts at USD $15,000/year and is quoted per engagement. Typical onboarding is a 6–12 week hardening engagement (HA topology validation, tenant provisioning, region-by-region cutover) scoped in the SOW; multi-region runs as independent deployments per region, so cross-region orchestration stays with your infrastructure team. Reselling renders or billing end-customers per document is the SaaS & Resale tier (from USD $5,000/year), not Enterprise — it does not by itself push you into Enterprise. The product itself is the same across tiers — Enterprise is about deployment scope and contracting complexity, not feature gating or support uplift. Pre-GA support remains best-effort email per the support policy. Email troy@tksolutions.co.nz with your deployment shape and procurement constraints.

How "new" is new? Should I be worried?

The product is still in its first external production cohort. That means you should expect a fast-moving product, direct access to the founder, and occasional rough edges being found in real use. Early Adopters get release candidates and a direct line for blockers. If you need something proven across hundreds of teams today, wait for GA. If you want influence and close support, this is the right phase to join.

What about support?

Evaluation: self-serve via public docs, no private channel. Early Adopter: email support (best-effort 1 business day NZ hours), with a private Slack channel for Team and SaaS & Resale tiers on request. At GA: the same email support shape, with broader self-serve onboarding and billing. Full terms, including release cadence and the 12-month founding-rate guarantee, are in the Support & release policy.

Do you offer managed hosting?

Not yet. Pulp Engine is self-hosted today — you run it on your infrastructure. Managed hosting is on the roadmap for post-GA. Early Adopters will be told first.