SkeinDB is, and will stay, Apache-2.0 open source. The database, admin console, and every research feature are free to use in production. The plans below are indicative commercial options to make support discussions concrete; exact scope, billing terms, and SLAs are agreed per engagement.
For developers, researchers, and self-hosted production teams who are happy with community support.
Your first production deployment. One project, one responsive maintainer on email.
Growing teams who need predictable turn-around and a direct line to engineering.
Regulated teams and critical workloads. Named engineer, faster clock, architecture partner.
On-prem, regulated, global, or mission-critical. Tailored SLAs including follow-the-sun pager rotation.
Prices are indicative monthly ranges for scoping. Final scope, taxes, billing cadence, annual discounts, and any 24×7 terms are agreed case-by-case in the commercial engagement.
The same open-source binary runs on every tier. Plans only change how we respond to you.
| Capability | Community | Starter | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache-2.0 binary & source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| First response SLA | None | Next business day | Same business day | 4 business hours |
| Support channels | GitHub | Email + chat | Email + chat + video | |
| Covered production deployments | — | 1 | 5 | Unlimited |
| Named engineering contact | — | — | Rotating | Named |
| Architecture / capacity review | — | 2 / year | Quarterly | Monthly |
| Roadmap input | Public issues | Public issues | Quarterly call | Prioritised |
| Security advisory pre-notification | — | — | — | Yes |
| 24×7 pager | — | — | — | Add-on |
Project-scoped engagements you can attach to any plan — or buy standalone.
Fund one of the 20 research tracks (e.g. Wasm UDFs, oblivious execution, QUIC). Your attribution appears in release notes and in the track’s documentation page.
Two-week remote engagement: schema review, compatibility telemetry run, application dry-run on SkeinDB, and a migration playbook with rollback procedure.
Hands-on training for your engineering team on SkeinDB internals, SkeinQL, MVCC, MySQL compat layer, or any research track. Travel expenses billed at cost.
Single-tenant SkeinDB instance operated by us for your evaluation period. Intended as a bridge to Enterprise self-host or to the upcoming managed SkeinDB offering.
On-call rotation with 1-hour acknowledgement target. Only available as an add-on to the Enterprise or Custom plans with a documented runbook in place.
Upstream-friendly feature work scoped as a fixed-fee engagement. Default outcome is a merged Apache-2.0 contribution; private forks available on request.
No. Every capability — MVCC storage, MySQL + PostgreSQL wire, SkeinAdmin, all 20 research tracks, clustering, audit WAL — ships in the open-source binary under Apache-2.0. Paid plans only change our response time and channels.
Yes. Apache-2.0 grants you commercial use, modification, redistribution, and an explicit patent grant. See the Licensing page for details. A support plan is only useful if you want a defined SLA and a direct contact.
Yes. Short, scoped engagements are possible when that is the best way to de-risk adoption. The pricing page lists example add-ons such as a migration sprint or workshop, but the exact scope is agreed through the commercial inquiry.
SkeinDB is built by Michél Nguyen (ORCID) with contributions from community members. Commercial engagements are currently operated as an independent practice; invoicing details are provided on signature.
Start with the contact page or the public commercial inquiry issue. Once the workload is understood, the engagement is scoped and quoted directly. GitHub Sponsors and PayPal remain the easiest options for public support.
SkeinDB is currently a self-hosted open-source database, so compliance is primarily a property of the environment you run it in. Enterprise and Custom engagements can include architecture review, security hardening guidance, and audit-WAL setup, but there is no separate managed-service compliance program today.
Not generally available yet. A private hosted pilot is offered as an add-on for Enterprise and Custom customers. General availability is on the roadmap after the 1.0 on-disk format freeze.
Yes, commercial work can prioritize items that fit the project direction. What it cannot do is fragment the open-source core, hide correctness fixes, or turn shared infrastructure into a private fork by default.
Anything helps: GitHub Sponsors, PayPal, starring the repo, filing high-quality issues, or sponsoring a single research track. See the Licensing & sponsorship page for the full list.
Tell us about your workload and we’ll route it through the project’s commercial inquiry path or direct email. The goal is a scoped, pragmatic conversation rather than a generic sales funnel.