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Pricing Principles
This page sets out the concepts that we license and what units are measured across both FlowFuse Cloud and Self-managed. Commercial decisions outside the scope of this document.
We have three primary tiers: Starter (Open-Source when self-managed), Pro, and Enterprise. The value and features provided within each tier correspond to the specific persona, acknowledging that a higher placement in the organizational chart typically implies different requirements.
Buyer-Based Open Core (BBOC) Principle
The Buyer-Based Open Core (BBOC) principle is a fundamental guideline in our product development and monetization strategy. It's a framework we employ to discern which features should be open source and which should be proprietary. BBOC aligns features into tiers based on their target users or 'buyers' — individual contributors, management, or executives.
Features that are most beneficial to individual contributors, such as PLC engineers and line workers, fall within our Starter tier. On the other hand, features that have broader organizational relevance, like Edge Connectivity or high availability, are offered in our Pro tier or Enterprise tier, targeted towards IIoT managers and plant managers who need to manage multiple Node-RED instances.
This buyer-based approach helps us focus our efforts on the value to the end-user, rather than technical specifications or development effort. It aligns our pricing strategy with the value each tier provides, ensuring that the cost is justified by the capabilities offered and the user persona it serves.
Value Layers
| Tier | Objective | Problem it Solves | Persona |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Enable professional Node-RED development for individuals and small teams |
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| Pro | Build applications with Node-RED across distributed environments with more advanced management and full-stack features |
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| Enterprise | Establish Node-RED as enterprise-wide standard with mission-critical capabilities |
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Tier Descriptions
Starter Tier
The Starter tier is designed to introduce individuals to Node-RED development with FlowFuse. This tier provides the essential foundation for getting started with professional Node-RED hosting and development workflows.
Purpose: Enable individual contributors and engineers to quickly deploy and manage Node-RED applications with professional-grade hosting and basic collaboration features.
Key Capabilities:
- Hosted Node-RED instance with reliable infrastructure and FlowFuse editor enhancements
- Snapshot backups for version control and recovery
- Basic team collaboration for up to 2 members
This tier allows users to move beyond local Node-RED development to a cloud-hosted environment with backup and security features, making it ideal for proof-of-concepts, learning, and small-scale deployments.
Pro Tier
The Pro tier is built for central IT, business teams, and SIs who need to build full-stack applications using Node-RED across multiple instances, manage edge devices effectively, and utilize more advanced Node-RED management features.
Purpose: Enable organizations to build industrial applications and scale their Node-RED rollout with advanced device management, enhanced security, and team collaboration features for managing 5 or more instances across distributed environments.
Key Capabilities:
- Multiple hosted Node-RED instances (up to 5 included)
- Edge Device Management with FlowFuse Device Agent
- Advanced security features and access controls
- Enhanced team collaboration for up to 20 members
- DevOps pipelines for automated deployments
- Persistent context and shared libraries
- Priority support with faster response times
This tier empowers organizations to implement Node-RED as a scalable solution across plants and facilities, with the tools needed to manage distributed deployments, ensure security compliance, and maintain operational efficiency.
Enterprise Tier
The Enterprise tier, built on Node-RED, is a comprehensive industrial application-building platform that sets a company-wide standard with enterprise-grade features for high availability, compliance, and integration.
Purpose: Enable central IT departments and enterprise organizations to deploy full-stack industrial applications using Node-RED at scale with the reliability, security, and integration capabilities required for mission-critical purposes.
Key Capabilities:
- Unlimited hosted Node-RED instances (20+ included)
- High availability and disaster recovery features
- Comprehensive audit logging and compliance reporting
- Database feature
- Enterprise integration with SSO, LDAP, and corporate systems
- Advanced monitoring and observability tools
- Custom domains and white-label options
- Dedicated support with SLA guarantees
- Professional services and custom development options
This tier transforms Node-RED into an enterprise-ready platform that meets the stringent requirements of large organizations, enabling them to standardize on FlowFuse for industrial automation, data integration, and digital transformation initiatives across their entire operation.
Teams
Teams are the basic unit within FlowFuse Cloud and the entity to which bills are charged. A team can create zero or more applications, and one or more user can be members. Subject to access controls, some users can add cloud instances and remote devices (agents) to applications, and invite other members.
The number of teams for the open source offering of FlowFuse is limited to 50.
Applications
A project has one or more Node-RED instance associated with it. The team is billed based on the number of Node-RED instances consuming resources inside applications.
Cloud instances
On the FlowFuse Cloud, different levels of pricing is offered based on the CPU and memory resources that the instance has available. The price point is defined by the instance type which allows for an abstraction of stacks and billing. Additional features may also be defined by the instance type, for example: Custom Domains support.
Self-managed FlowFuse installs are licensed based on the number of Node-RED instances, regardless of available resources for each. Open source installs are limited to 50 instances per FlowFuse installation, and some features for instances aren't available, for example Persistent Context.
Devices
Devices are owned by the team and are charged for when they are created regardless of if they are assigned to a project or their connection state. The team is billed per device at the same rate regardless of tier or number of devices.
Devices are part of the licensed instances.
Licenses
From the perspective of licensing the there's an unlicensed edition: open-source. This version is always self-managed. There's also a licensed version of FlowFuse, this can be self-managed or FlowFuse Managed. For FlowFuse managed properties there's 3 tiers; Starter, Pro, and Enterprise. The open source edition doesn't require a license key to be uploaded. Without a valid license a basic set of features and quantity of instances(5), users(5), teams(5), and devices(5) are available. When a license is purchased it provides all of the functionality of the higher plans. It's then licensed for a number of Node-RED instances on an annual basis.