Pricing
Tessera is source-available, not open source. It is free for personal projects, learning, open-source contribution, education, non-profits and government use under the PolyForm Noncommercial License.
If you build for paying clients, run a SaaS, or use Tessera inside a for-profit company, you need a commercial licence.
What you actually get from a build
A licence is an abstraction. Here's what tessera new produces — every tier, every stack:
Code
- Project skeleton (Laravel / Node / Go / Flutter / Static)
- Domain models, migrations, factories, seeders
- Authentication scaffold where applicable
- Admin panel (Filament for Laravel; equivalent dashboards on others)
- Frontend theme — Tailwind, custom palette, mobile-responsive
- Realistic seeded content in your project's languages — no lorem ipsum
- Passing test suite (PHPUnit / Vitest / Go testing / flutter test)
Operations
SETUP.md— junior-friendly deploy guide with every env var explained and where to obtain itcomposer audit/npm auditclean (Sprint 2 gate)- Git initialised with first commit
.env.examplewith every key Tessera generated- Production checklist: TLS, backups, queue workers, monitoring
Audit & traceability
.tessera/plan.json— versioned, hash-anchored execution plan.tessera/events.jsonl— append-only build trace, every AI call recorded.tessera/state.json— resumable build state- Three hashes per step (template, context, rendered prompt) for replay
- Every step's gates pass/fail captured forever
See an annotated example: a Croatian bakery, generated in 9 minutes 39 seconds.
Commercial tiers
- 1 Authorized Developer
- Unlimited client projects
- All stacks (Laravel, Node, Go, Flutter, Static)
- 1 year of updates
- Perpetual fallback — keep using the last version forever
- Email support, business hours
- Up to 10 Authorized Developers
- Unlimited client projects
- All stacks
- 1 year of updates
- Perpetual fallback — keep using the last version forever
- Priority email + private GitHub issue tracker
- Early access to release candidates
- Negotiated developer count
- Custom SLA & direct contact
- Private stack registry (roadmap)
- Audit log retention & compliance review (roadmap)
- White-label option for resellers
- Optional onboarding workshop
What's the same across all paid tiers
| Feature | Solo · Studio · Enterprise |
|---|---|
| Use the Software for commercial work | ✓ |
| All current and future stacks | ✓ |
| Generated Output is yours, royalty-free | ✓ |
| Updates during the active term | ✓ |
| Perpetual fallback to the last released version | ✓ |
| Source code access via the GitHub repository | ✓ |
| BYOK — uses your own AI CLI tools and plans | ✓ |
Tessera never holds your AI tokens or routes calls through our infrastructure. The CLI runs the AI tools you have installed against your own subscription. We do not bill, meter, or relay AI usage. See AI Routing and the Disclaimer.
Compare with the free tier
| Noncommercial (free) | Commercial (paid) | |
|---|---|---|
| Personal projects | ✓ | ✓ |
| Learning, OSS, school | ✓ | ✓ |
| Client work for pay | ✗ | ✓ |
| Internal for-profit tools | ✗ | ✓ |
| SaaS & revenue products | ✗ | ✓ |
| Updates | latest published version | guaranteed during term |
| Support | community (GitHub issues) | tier-defined |
| Audit confidence | none | written grant |
Read the full Commercial License Agreement before purchase.
How the purchase works (today)
The Day-0 flow is intentionally manual. We invoice and confirm by email, no third-party checkout in the middle.
- Click a Buy button. Your email client opens with the right tier in the subject line.
- Reply with your business details — name, invoice address, OIB / VAT ID if applicable, number of developers.
- Receive the invoice. PDF, payable by SEPA or wire. EU customers get a reverse-charge invoice if eligible.
- Pay and receive activation. A signed PDF copy of the Commercial License Agreement and an activation email naming the Authorized Developers.
A self-service Stripe checkout is on the roadmap; until then the manual flow keeps things deliberate and lets us answer any compliance question before money moves.
FAQ
Is Tessera open source?
No, but the source is published. Tessera is source-available: anyone can read the code, fork it, and contribute. But the right to use Tessera commercially is gated by a paid licence. Personal and noncommercial use is free under PolyForm Noncommercial.
Who owns the code Tessera generates?
You do. The Commercial License Section 5 says Licensor claims no copyright or royalty over Generated Output. Ship it however you want.
I'm a freelancer who sometimes does pro-bono work. Which licence?
A Solo licence covers everything you do, including pro-bono — the licence is per-developer, not per-project. If your only commercial activity is one client a year, that one client requires the paid tier.
What happens if I don't renew?
You keep using the version of Tessera you already have, forever. You just won't receive new features, new stacks, or future bug fixes until you renew. The CLI will not stop working, phone home, or refuse to scaffold.
We grew from 4 to 12 developers mid-year. What now?
You upgrade to Enterprise (or a custom Studio overage). We'll prorate the difference for the remaining months of your annual term. There is no penalty for outgrowing a tier — only for ignoring it.
Can I trial Tessera before paying?
Yes. Run it noncommercially on a personal project as long as you like. The Software is identical between tiers; the licence is the difference.
Refund policy?
14-day no-questions-asked for the Solo tier. Studio and Enterprise refunds are case-by-case but we have always agreed when asked in good faith within 30 days. Refunds are not available after the licence has been used to generate code for a paying client — Generated Output is yours either way and that boundary is what the licence pays for.
Why is Tessera not on a SaaS pricing page?
Because Tessera does not run AI on our infrastructure. You bring your own Claude / Codex / Gemini subscription. The price you pay is for the orchestrator — quality gates, prompt library, contract tests, resume — not for tokens. See AI Routing.
Can I redistribute Tessera bundled with my own product?
Not under the standard tiers. That's an OEM scenario — get in touch via the Enterprise contact and we'll write a separate redistribution rider.
Will pricing change?
Probably, as the orchestrator becomes more capable. Existing licences keep their original price for renewal as long as renewal is continuous. New tiers may be added, but you will not be moved to a more expensive plan against your will.