Plans and licences
A self-hosted server runs on the Free plan until you add Team or Enterprise. Prices are on stirling.com/pricing. For Stirling Cloud plans, see Plans, credits and billing.
What each plan unlocks#
| Feature | Free | Team | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Users | 5 | 100, more in blocks of 100 | Set by your contract |
| All PDF tools, REST API, OAuth2 / OIDC single sign-on, server certificate signing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| External database and clustering | - | Yes | Yes |
| S3 or database file storage | - | Yes | Yes |
| Prometheus metrics (usage monitoring) | - | Yes | Yes |
| Custom PDF metadata | - | Yes | Yes |
| SAML2 single sign-on | - | - | Yes |
| Audit logging and Usage Analytics | - | - | Yes |
| Database backup and import email notifications | - | - | Yes |
| Offline activation with a certificate file | - | - | Yes |
Processor automation and AI tools draw on a monthly processing allowance, except on Enterprise. PDF tool calls made with an API key also count, unless the server has a Team licence key. See Processing allowance.
Licences need a login-capable build (latest, latest-fat or Stirling-PDF-with-login.jar). The latest-ultra-lite image and the other JARs have no plans or admin settings.
User limits#
- Free: 5 users. A server upgraded from V1 keeps its existing user count as the limit if that is higher.
- Licence key: the key sets the limit.
- Linked Cloud team: the team's purchased users.
When the server reaches its limit, no more users can be added and admins see a notice such as Team plan needed or Your server has more users than your plan covers. To add a block of users to a Team licence, email [email protected].
Get Team or Enterprise#
In the app, only the organization owner can buy or activate a plan, and login must be on. There are three ways to get Team:
- Buy in the app: open Settings → Workspace → Usage & Billing, select Upgrade on Team and pay in the Stripe checkout. The licence key is fetched and activated for you, or the app asks you to paste the key from your email.
- Link to Stirling Cloud: a server linked to a Cloud team that has the Team plan runs as Team with no key. See Connect to Stirling Cloud.
- Licence key: if you bought Team outside the app, activate the key from your email as below.
Enterprise is sold by the Stirling team: book a demo or email [email protected]. You get a licence key, or a certificate file for servers without internet access. Linking to Stirling Cloud never grants Enterprise.
Activating your license#
- Sign in as the organization owner and open Settings → Workspace → Usage & Billing.
- Select Got a license key or certificate file?
- Choose License Key and paste your key, or choose Certificate File, select Choose License File and pick your
.licor.certfile. - Select Save Changes.
The plan applies straight away, with no restart. Replacing an existing key can't be undone, so keep a copy of it.
A licence key is checked online. A certificate file works offline: it must start with -----BEGIN LICENSE FILE-----, and the server saves it in configs/, keeping a copy of any file it replaces in configs/backup/.
Set the licence in settings.yml#
For scripted deployments, set the key and restart:
premium:
enabled: true
key: your-licence-keyPREMIUM_ENABLED=true
PREMIUM_KEY=your-licence-keyFor a certificate file, put it in the config folder and point to it with the file: prefix, for example key: file:configs/licence.lic.
Billing and the organization owner#
- Invoices, payment method and cancelling: on Settings → Workspace → Usage & Billing, select Manage on your current plan to open the Stripe billing portal. Stripe may email you a sign-in link first.
- Team through a linked Cloud team: manage the plan in Stirling Cloud. See Plans, credits and billing.
Only the organization owner can manage Usage & Billing and the link to Stirling Cloud. The owner is the first admin account. To hand it over, open Settings → Workspace → Users, set another user's role to Org Owner and confirm Transfer ownership. The new owner becomes an admin.
