Pricing & Licensing Explained
CiderStack is licensed as software you own — not infrastructure you rent.
There are no VM-hour charges, no usage-based billing, and no required cloud services.
You run CiderStack on your hardware — locally, privately, and under your control.
Core principles
CiderStack licensing is built around three ideas:
Local-first ownership
If it runs on your Mac, you should own it.
Predictable pricing
No per-minute billing. No surprise overages.
Scale by nodes, not usage
macOS virtualization scales horizontally, not vertically.
Important Apple limitation
Apple enforces a strict platform rule:
Only two macOS virtual machines may run concurrently per physical Mac.
This limit comes from Apple’s Virtualization.framework.
CiderStack cannot bypass this limit — and no software can.
Fleet Manager exists to help you scale across multiple Macs instead.
What licenses are tied to
Licenses are associated with:
- Physical Macs
- Enabled feature sets
Licenses are not based on:
- VM count
- CPU cores
- Memory
- Storage size
- Usage hours
You may create and store unlimited VMs on a licensed machine.
License tiers
HomeBrew — $20
For individuals who want long-term support and updates.
- Continued updates beyond evaluation use
- Long-term local usage
- Priority access to new v1.x features
Limitations: Non-commercial use only.
Commercial Use
Small Batch — $99
For consultants, freelancers, and small teams.
Includes:
- Unlimited local VMs
- Fleet Manager included
- Commercial usage permitted
- All v1.x updates
Ideal for:
- Independent developers
- Contractors
- Small internal build systems
Updates & versioning
All licenses include:
- All v1.x updates
- Bug fixes
- Performance improvements
- Feature enhancements within the major version
Major version upgrades may be licensed separately.
Trials
Paid tiers include:
- 14-day full-feature trial
- No credit card required
- No account creation required
- Trials are local and do not require internet connectivity
Offline usage
CiderStack works fully offline.
- Licenses stored locally in macOS Keychain
- No continuous validation required
- No external control plane
- Air-gapped environments are fully supported
What CiderStack will never do
CiderStack will never:
- Meter VM usage
- Charge per minute or per hour
- Throttle performance
- Restrict hardware resources
- Disable your environment remotely
If your Mac can handle it, CiderStack allows it.
In summary
CiderStack pricing is:
- Ownership-focused
- Subscription-free
- Transparent
You pay for the software — not for access to your own hardware.