Individuals, students, hobbyists
Free
Use Open Satchel Community Edition under AGPL-3.0-only. No contract, no purchase, public docs and issues.
Open Satchel Community Edition is AGPL-3.0-only. If AGPL works for your use case, you can use it. Commercial licenses are available for organizations that need non-AGPL terms, proprietary embedding, private modifications, redistribution/OEM rights, procurement paperwork, signed builds, or support.
Last updated: 2026-05-12Anyone may download, run, study, modify, and redistribute Open Satchel under AGPL terms. Personal, hobby, research, academic, nonprofit, and AGPL-compliant company use can be free.
Commercial licensing is for organizations that need rights or business terms AGPL does not provide. It is not a tax on ordinary company use.
The first paid-license question is simple: can your organization use Open Satchel under AGPL-3.0? If yes, use the public release. If no, choose the commercial lane that matches your actual use.
| Use case | Likely lane |
|---|---|
| Using the PDF editor personally, for school, research, or hobbies | AGPL Community Edition |
| Using the desktop app inside a company that accepts AGPL | AGPL Community Edition |
| Your policy prohibits AGPL, or you need signed builds/procurement docs/support | Commercial app license |
| Keeping private modifications without AGPL share-alike obligations | Commercial license or source access |
| Embedding the engine in a proprietary product or private SDK | Binary engine SDK or source engine license |
| Shipping Open Satchel technology to your customers | OEM / redistribution license |
| Requesting custom legal terms, security portal work, BAAs/DPAs, live calls, or special indemnity | Enterprise/source/OEM lane |
These lanes are meant to make the answer obvious before anyone books a call, opens a procurement portal, or asks legal to guess.
Use Open Satchel Community Edition under AGPL-3.0-only. No contract, no purchase, public docs and issues.
Ordinary internal use is allowed when your organization can comply with AGPL. Paid licensing is not required just because you are a company.
For verified schools and nonprofits that need non-AGPL terms. Application-based — apply via the form, we verify status against public records, you receive a checkout link within 48 hours.
Apply →Under 100 employees, internal app use, non-AGPL rights, signed builds, standard procurement package, and email support.
Buy now →100-499 employees using the desktop app internally and needing commercial terms, standard docs, and invoice/payment flow.
Buy now →500+ employees, internal commercial app use, standard agreement, signed builds, offline license certificate, and support.
Buy now →Standard documents first. Custom paperwork, portal work, BAA/DPA requests, special indemnity, calls, or questionnaires move to enterprise/source/OEM.
For embedding the engine without source. Closed-source embedding requires commercial terms unless the full embedding product is AGPL.
Apply →For private review and modification of the licensed engine. The customer owns their fork; Open Satchel support is upstream and email-only.
Apply →Customer-facing redistribution is not app/business pricing. OEM scope, platforms, users, attribution, support, and future modules are contracted separately.
Apply →Commercial app tiers are based on organization size and business needs, not seats. Engine, source, and OEM rights are separate from app/business pricing.
| Buyer / use case | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals / students / hobbyists | Free under AGPL | No commercial license needed. |
| AGPL-comfortable companies | Free under AGPL | Use the Community Edition if AGPL works for your policy and use case. |
| Nonprofit / education needing non-AGPL | $2,500/year | Application-only. Verified against public nonprofit records; 48-hour reply. |
| Small org under 100 needing non-AGPL | $7,500/year | Fixed price, no negotiation for standard license. |
| Mid-market, 100-499 needing non-AGPL | $20,000/year | Standard business license. |
| Large org, 500+ needing non-AGPL | $50,000/year | Standard business license. |
| Binary PDF engine SDK | From $50,000/year per module | Form plus signed standard engine terms. |
| Source PDF engine | From $130,000/year per module | Signed source terms plus private repo or versioned archive. |
| OEM / redistribution / white-label | From $150,000/year | Custom contract; this is the tier most likely to need a call. |
| Full document engine suite | $150,000-$250,000/year | Future Word, Excel, and PowerPoint modules count only when generally available and listed in the agreement. |
A module is one independently licensed document engine or premium capability. Each commercial agreement lists the modules it covers. Active customers receive updates for the modules named in their agreement.
Future Word, Excel, and PowerPoint engines are roadmap modules. They are not implied to exist today, and they are not automatically included in a PDF license unless the agreement explicitly lists them and they are generally available.
| Module | Status | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| PDF Engine | Current / first module | Base engine module. |
| Word Engine | Future | Separate module or listed suite add-on when generally available. |
| Excel Engine | Future | Separate module or listed suite add-on when generally available. |
| PowerPoint Engine | Future | Separate module or listed suite add-on when generally available. |
| Batch automation, compliance, server/headless runtime | Future / premium | Add-on modules when available. |
AGPL users can use the public release immediately. Small, Mid-market, and Large licenses can be purchased directly through Paddle. Nonprofit, procurement, invoice, SDK, source, OEM, and custom-contract requests use the application route.
Hospitals, government agencies, legal/financial teams, and other regulated buyers start with the standard security, privacy, accessibility, SBOM, audit, limitations, and verification documents. We publish detailed mapping documents for HIPAA (§164.312 safeguards), NIST 800-53 controls (FedRAMP-adjacent), SOC 2 Trust Service Criteria, GDPR, and US state privacy laws — see the compliance checklist. Open Satchel does not hold third-party attestations for HIPAA, FedRAMP, FIPS, or SOC 2 — those are the wrong shape of certification for a local-first desktop tool that processes no customer data on our servers, and we publish the technical equivalent (SBOM, reproducible builds, air-gap audit, NIST SSDF self-attestation) instead. Custom forms, portal entry, BAA/DPA requests, special indemnity, or live reviews move to enterprise/source/OEM terms.
Source access is permanent disclosure of the delivered version. Customers own their fork, private patches, merge conflicts, and downstream product behavior. Support is email-only and applies to the unmodified upstream release unless a separate services agreement says otherwise.
Customer-facing redistribution, white-labeling, sublicensing, managed service use, or inclusion in another product is OEM/redistribution licensing. It is not covered by standard app/business pricing.
AGPL does not expire. For commercial app licenses, the last installed version keeps working for existing licensed users after expiration, but updates, support, new deployments, and non-AGPL rights outside the active term stop. SDK, source, and OEM lapse rules are governed by the signed agreement.
A PDF customer keeps PDF rights and PDF updates during the active term. New engines can be added later as add-ons or suite renewals. Future modules are included only when generally available and explicitly named in the agreement.
Your organization can use Open Satchel under AGPL-3.0 if (a) you accept AGPL's source-disclosure obligations when you operate a covered network service or distribute modified versions, and (b) your internal compliance review approves AGPL software for the use case. Most personal use, hobby projects, academic research, and AGPL-compliant company use qualify.
If your policy prohibits viral copyleft licenses, requires every dependency to be permissively licensed, or forbids AGPL outright, you'll want a commercial license instead.
Signed builds carry a code-signing certificate that proves the binary came from us and hasn't been tampered with. Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper warn users about unsigned binaries — a signed build skips those warnings and is required by many enterprise IT policies.
Code-signing infrastructure is being put in place pre-1.0; signed builds will be available to commercial license holders at all paid tiers.
Not automatically. AGPL-3.0 permits internal company use. You only need a commercial license if (a) your policy doesn't allow AGPL software, (b) you need rights AGPL doesn't grant — closed-source embedding, private modifications without share-alike obligations, redistribution to customers — or (c) you need procurement paperwork, signed builds, or paid support.
Your current term continues at the price you paid. At renewal, we move you to the appropriate tier. There's no penalty or back-billing for size changes during an active term — just an adjusted renewal quote.
Yes, anytime. Email licensing@opensatchel.dev with your tier and we'll send terms and an invoice or checkout link. The transition is seamless — same software, different license terms.
Not as a standard tier yet. For pilot or evaluation customers committing to 2-3 year terms upfront, we can usually accommodate a discount via direct contract. Engine SDK, Source, and OEM agreements regularly include multi-year term commitments with negotiated pricing.
Buy a standard Small, Mid-market, or Large license directly through Paddle. Use the application form for nonprofit pricing, procurement, invoice, SDK, source, OEM, or custom-contract lanes.