A plain boundary: free, paid, or a separate agreement.
Free for individuals, noncommercial use, and small companies (under $1M revenue, internal use); paid for larger companies; resale, hosting, or OEM would require a separate agreement.
Editions
Local and Commercial License describe the same current software under the in-force PolyForm Noncommercial License with the Small-Entity Commercial Exception. Hosted and Enterprise are planned and require a future control plane, with no announced prices or timelines.
Local
Individuals, noncommercial use, and small companies under $1M aggregate gross revenue (internal use)
Available
Free for qualifying use
Run the current local build under the in-force PolyForm Noncommercial License with the Small-Entity Commercial Exception.
Local CLI and engineAvailable
Local dashboardLocal-only
Signed ledger provenanceAvailable
Manual SOC2 evidence ZIPLocal-only
MCP stdio toolsPublic release smoke pendingBeta
GitHub Action setup pathPublic install docs and release smoke pendingBeta
Local team sync foundationRequires a build compiled with --features syncBeta
Commercial License
Companies at or above $1M aggregate gross revenue running Ledgerful internally
Available
Commercial license required
The same local-first CLI, dashboard, ledger, and evidence export as Local, under a commercial license. The base license is in force; commercial pricing is not yet announced.
Local CLI and engineAvailable
Local dashboardLocal-only
Signed ledger provenanceAvailable
Manual SOC2 evidence ZIPLocal-only
MCP stdio toolsPublic release smoke pendingBeta
GitHub Action setup pathPublic install docs and release smoke pendingBeta
Local team sync foundationRequires a build compiled with --features syncBeta
Planned hosted portfolio, GitHub App workflow, signed summary ingestion, billing, and retained audit state. Requires a future hosted control plane — no live feature claims until it ships.
Planned enterprise identity, audit export, retention controls, support SLA, and optional self-hosted control plane. Described as roadmap — never sold today.
SAML / OIDC SSOEnterprise planned
SCIMEnterprise planned
RBACEnterprise planned
Custom retention and support SLAEnterprise planned
Contact usInbox is provisioned; delivery is verified.
License boundary
Who qualifies for what
A plain-English read of the free/paid boundary, plus concrete examples matching the Small-Entity Commercial Exception text.
Plain-language summary — not legal advice. The summary and examples below explain the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 plus the Ledgerful Small-Entity Commercial Exception v1.0 in plain terms. The license text governs; where this summary and the license differ, the license controls.
Free
Individual use, on your own machine.
Noncommercial use, at any organization size.
Internal business use by companies under $1M aggregate gross revenue.
Requires a license or agreement
Internal business use once a company reaches $1M aggregate gross revenue — commercial license.
Hosting Ledgerful for third parties — separate agreement.
Reselling Ledgerful, or bundling/embedding it into another product (OEM) — separate agreement.
A 3-person consultancy runs Ledgerful internally to review its own commits.
Free. Qualifies as a small entity under the noncommercial + small-entity exception terms.
A $50M-revenue company runs Ledgerful in CI across its engineering org.
Commercial license required. Company revenue exceeds the $1M small-entity threshold for internal use.
A hosting provider offers Ledgerful as a managed service to its customers.
Separate agreement required. Hosting for third parties is outside both the free and commercial-license internal-use terms.
A vendor bundles Ledgerful into a product it sells to customers.
Separate agreement required. Reselling or OEM bundling is outside both the free and commercial-license internal-use terms.
Comparison
Feature matrix
Every row carries an explicit state. Planned features require a future hosted control plane and have no announced timeline.
Scroll the table →
Ledgerful feature comparison across Local, Commercial License, Hosted, and Enterprise editions.
Feature
Local
Commercial License
Hosted
Enterprise
Core Engine
Local CLI and engine
Available
Available
Available
Available
Local dashboard
Local-only
Local-only
Local-only
Local-only
Signed ledger provenance
Available
Available
Available
Available
SOC2 evidence ZIP export
Local-only
Local-only
Local-only
Local-only
Collaboration
Local team sync (sync-enabled build)
Local-only
Local-only
Local-only
Local-only
Team signatures and devices
Beta
Beta
Beta
Beta
Portfolio reports
Beta
Beta
Hosted planned
Hosted planned
GitHub and Release
MCP stdio toolsPublic release smoke pending
Beta
Beta
Beta
Beta
GitHub Action setup pathPublic install docs and release smoke pending
Beta
Beta
Beta
Beta
GitHub App
—
—
Hosted planned
Hosted planned
Hosted (planned)
Hosted portfolio dashboard
—
—
Hosted planned
Hosted planned
Hosted audit log
—
—
Hosted planned
Hosted planned
Billing portal
—
—
Hosted planned
Hosted planned
Enterprise (planned)
SAML / OIDC SSO
—
—
—
Enterprise planned
SCIM
—
—
—
Enterprise planned
RBAC
—
—
—
Enterprise planned
Custom retention and support SLA
—
—
—
Enterprise planned
Ledgerful (the engine and dashboard) is source-available under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 plus the Ledgerful Small-Entity Commercial Exception v1.0, which permits qualifying entities under US$1M aggregated gross revenue to use Ledgerful internally at no charge. The license is in force: Ledgerful, LLC formed (FL, effective 2026-07-01, doc L26000356073); individual→LLC IP assignment executed; COMMERCIAL-EXCEPTION.md counsel-reviewed; FL + USPTO trademark search clear. This web repository is separate and proprietary (all rights reserved, no license granted). No paid commercial price is announced.
GitHub App, hosted portfolio, hosted audit log, and billing portal require a future hosted control plane. No timeline is announced.
SAML / OIDC SSO, SCIM, and RBAC are enterprise planned and require a future hosted control plane with enterprise identity infrastructure. No timeline is announced.
MCP stdio tools and GitHub Action setup paths are beta. @ledgerful/mcp-server is published on the public npm registry at version 0.1.10. It downloads the prebuilt binary from the v0.1.8 GitHub release. npx and npm install instructions are actionable. The GitHub Action is a planned feature (track 0047). No action.yml exists in the public repository yet. The workflow YAML on the docs page is a reference for the planned shape, not an installable action.
Source upload is never required for local editions. The local daemon does not implement SSO, RBAC, or tenant isolation.
No Commercial License, Hosted, or Enterprise price is announced.
FAQ
Common questions
Threshold definition, contractors, hosting, and OEM — plain-English answers pending the same counsel review as the license examples above.
What counts toward the $1M revenue threshold?
The Ledgerful Small-Entity Commercial Exception measures a company's aggregated gross revenue across all its operations, not just the team running Ledgerful. Once a company crosses that threshold, continued internal use requires a commercial license.
I'm a contractor or consultant — do I qualify?
It depends on whose revenue is measured. Running Ledgerful on your own consultancy's behalf is evaluated against your company's revenue. Running it while embedded in a client's engineering org is evaluated against that client's revenue.
Can I host Ledgerful for my customers?
No — hosting Ledgerful as a service for third parties is not covered by the free or commercial-license internal-use terms and requires a separate agreement.
Can I bundle or resell Ledgerful (OEM)?
No — bundling Ledgerful into a product you sell, or reselling it, requires a separate agreement rather than the free or commercial-license internal-use terms.
Review the draft source terms, then run locally. No account required.