Licensing — Free & Pro
The Free tier runs on your machine with pip install stacksage — no sign-up, no Docker, no secrets. Pro unlocks all findings, remediation plans, and scheduled GitHub Actions audits.
Free
- ✓ No license key — no sign-up
- ✓
pip install stacksage+ your AWS creds - ✓ Full infrastructure scan (all detectors)
- ✓ Top 50 findings by estimated savings
- ✓ Security & posture checks — always full
- ✓ HTML, JSON, and CSV output
- ✗ Remaining findings hidden (see total count)
- ✗ No remediation plan
- ✗ No per-resource fix commands
- ✗ No scheduled CI audits
Pro — $99/mo
- ✓ All findings — no cap
- ✓ Full remediation plan with fix commands
- ✓ Per-resource remediation steps
- ✓ Security posture details
- ✓ Schedule via GitHub Actions (pip-based, 2 secrets)
- ✓
stacksage auditfor CI/CD pipelines - ✓ Email support — 48h response
- ✓ Cancel anytime
Free Tier
The free tier is the fastest way to see what StackSage finds in your AWS account. No account, no Docker, no secrets needed beyond your own AWS credentials.
Getting Started (Free)
- Install —
pip install stacksage - Authenticate — any standard AWS credential method (profile, env vars, IAM role)
- Run —
stacksage scan --profile <profile> - Open report — HTML report opens automatically in your browser
See the Quick Start Guide for full setup instructions.
Free Tier Limits
What's capped in the free report:
- Top 50 findings shown (ranked by estimated monthly savings)
- Remaining findings hidden — count and estimated waste shown in the banner
- No remediation plan or per-resource fix commands
All detectors still run; the gate is only on the output, not the scan itself.
Pro License
Pro removes the output cap and adds remediation plans. It also enables stacksage audit for scheduled CI/CD runs.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| All detectors run | ||
| Security & posture checks | ||
| HTML, JSON, CSV output | ||
| Finding limit | Top 50 | Unlimited |
| Savings estimates & ROI | Top 50 only | |
| Remediation plan | ||
| Per-resource fix commands | ||
| GitHub Actions scheduling | ||
| Support | Community | Email 48h |
Setting Up Pro
After purchase you'll receive a license key by email. To activate:
- Set the env var —
export STACKSAGE_LICENSE=<your-key> - Run audit —
stacksage audit --profile <profile> - For scheduled CI — add two GitHub secrets:
STACKSAGE_LICENSEandAWS_AUDIT_ROLE_ARN
No Docker image, no GHCR credentials, no additional tooling — just pip and your license key. See the GitHub Actions guide for a complete workflow example.
How Licensing Works
StackSage uses offline-verifiable time-limited licenses:
- Offline verification — license is validated locally; no phone-home
- Time-limited — licenses expire after a fixed period; renewal is automatic via Paddle
- Ed25519 signatures — cryptographically signed to prevent tampering
- Customer-specific — each license is issued to your organisation
- Single env var — stored as
STACKSAGE_LICENSE
License Format
Licenses are encoded strings in the format:
STACKSAGE1.<payload>.<signature>The payload contains:
customer- Your organization nameplan- License tier (e.g., "standard", "enterprise")expires_at- Expiration timestamp (ISO 8601)issued_at- Issue date
License Renewal
Renewals are handled automatically by Paddle for active subscriptions. If you need to update manually, set the new value in STACKSAGE_LICENSE (env var or GitHub secret).
Grace Period: Licenses include a small grace period (60 seconds) to prevent failures at the exact expiration boundary.
Privacy Guarantee
Both Free and Pro respect your privacy:
- All audits run on your machine or CI environment
- AWS credentials never leave your environment
- No data transmission to StackSage infrastructure
- License verification is fully offline (no phone-home)
- Reports stay on your machine or in your GitHub artifacts
See our Privacy Policy for complete details.
Ready to Get Started?
Run the free tier now — no sign-up. Upgrade to Pro when you need all findings and remediation plans.