--- title: Licensing & Billing description: How Sencho licensing works, including trials, activation, and subscription management. --- Sencho uses an open-core model. The **Community** tier is free forever with unlimited nodes. Paid tiers unlock advanced features: **Skipper** for solo operators and **Admiral** for teams. *Our tier names are inspired by the meaning of Sencho (船長), because you're the captain of your container fleet.* ## Plans | Tier | Price | Accounts | |------|-------|----------| | **Community** | Free | 1 admin | | **Skipper** | $5.99/month billed annually, $7.99/month, or $249 lifetime | 1 admin + 3 viewers | | **Admiral** | $41.99/month billed annually, $49.99/month, or $1,499 lifetime | Unlimited | Lifetime pricing is an early-adopter offer available for a limited time only. ### Feature breakdown **Community** includes: - Unlimited nodes, compose editor, global logs, app store, alerts, and more - Two-factor authentication (TOTP) - Custom OIDC single sign-on (works with Authelia, Keycloak, Authentik, Zitadel, Pocket ID, or any spec-compliant OIDC identity provider) **Skipper** includes everything in Community, plus: - Fleet View with drill-down - Webhooks and stack labels - Atomic deployments and fleet-wide backups - Auto-update policies - One-click Google, GitHub, and Okta SSO presets **Admiral** includes everything in Skipper, plus: - Unlimited admin and viewer accounts - Scoped RBAC (deployer, node-admin, auditor roles) - LDAP / Active Directory authentication - Audit log and host console - API tokens and private registries - Notification routing - Scheduled operations **SSO is available on every tier.** Community users can integrate any OIDC-compliant identity provider through the Custom OIDC option. Paid tiers add turnkey presets (Google, GitHub, Okta) and LDAP / Active Directory. ## Free trial Sencho offers a **14-day Admiral trial** on monthly and annual Admiral plans so you can evaluate the flagship features (Host Console, Scheduled Operations, LDAP / Active Directory, audit log, unlimited accounts) with your real infrastructure before committing. To start a trial: 1. In the Sencho dashboard, go to **Settings > License**, or visit the [pricing page](https://sencho.io/pricing). 2. Click **Start monthly trial** or **Start annual trial**. 3. Complete the Lemon Squeezy checkout. A valid card is required for verification; you are not charged until the trial ends. 4. Lemon Squeezy will email your license key within a few minutes. 5. Paste the key into the **Have a license key?** field on the License page and click **Activate**. When your trial ends, Lemon Squeezy automatically charges the card you provided and your plan continues as a paid Admiral subscription. To avoid being charged, cancel from the **Manage Subscription** button (or from the Lemon Squeezy receipt email) any time before day 14. Fresh installs land on the **Community** tier until you activate a license key. All Community features (unlimited nodes, compose editor, global logs, alerts, Custom OIDC, and more) are available immediately. ## Upgrading your plan You can upgrade directly from **Settings > License** in your Sencho dashboard. The upgrade cards shown depend on your current tier: - **Community users** see both **Skipper** and **Admiral** options with feature highlights and direct checkout links. - **Skipper users** see an **Admiral** upgrade card for when you need unlimited accounts and team features. - **Admiral users** are on the highest tier, so no upgrade cards are shown. Clicking an upgrade button opens the Lemon Squeezy checkout in a new tab. After completing the purchase, you will receive a license key by email. License settings showing Skipper and Admiral upgrade cards for Community users ## Activating your license 1. Go to **Settings > License** in your Sencho dashboard. 2. Paste your key into the **License Key** field at the bottom of the page. 3. Click **Activate**. Sencho validates the key against Lemon Squeezy and unlocks your tier's features immediately. ## License validation Active licenses are re-validated every **72 hours** against the Lemon Squeezy API. If your instance goes offline, there is a **30-day grace period** before it degrades to the Community tier. ## Managing your subscription Once your license is active, you can manage your subscription in two ways: - **From the License page:** Go to **Settings > License** and click **Manage Subscription**. This opens the Lemon Squeezy billing portal where you can update your payment method, view invoices, cancel, or switch plans. - **From the profile menu:** Click your profile icon in the top bar and select **Billing** for quick access to the same portal. This option is hidden for lifetime licenses. License settings showing an active Admiral subscription with Manage Subscription button ### Lifetime licenses Lifetime licenses do not have a recurring subscription, so the **Manage Subscription** button is not shown. Instead, the license card displays **Duration: Lifetime** to confirm your license never expires. All other features (deactivation, multi-node enforcement, validation) work the same as subscription licenses. ## Multi-node license enforcement If you manage multiple servers through Sencho's [multi-node feature](/features/multi-node), you only need a license on your **primary instance**. All remote nodes automatically inherit the primary's license tier for proxied requests. No per-node activation is required. For details on how this works, see [License enforcement across nodes](/features/multi-node#license-enforcement-across-nodes). ## Deactivating a license To transfer your license to a different instance: 1. Go to **Settings > License**. 2. Click **Deactivate License**. 3. On your new instance, activate the same license key. Deactivation reverts the current instance to the Community tier immediately. Having trouble with your license? See the [Troubleshooting](/operations/troubleshooting#license-tier-shows-the-wrong-name) page for solutions to common licensing issues.