# Plans & Limits

ALTCHA Sentinel is self-hosted software: you run it on your own infrastructure, and hosting is never part of the license. What a license *does* is lift capacity limits (instances, accounts, users) and unlock tier-gated features. This page goes deeper than the [pricing page](/pricing/#sentinel) on exactly where those lines fall.

## Trial

Sentinel runs on a **30-day trial automatically** when no license key is configured — nothing to sign up for. The trial exists for evaluation, so it's deliberately constrained:

- **Up to 3 instances** — enough to test a clustered setup. See [Clustering](/docs/sentinel/operations/clustering/).
- **A single account and a single user.**
- **Not for production traffic** — the [EULA](/legal/sentinel/eula/) restricts the trial to testing and evaluation.
- **One trial per IP address within any 60-day window.**

Every protection feature and every API is available during the trial — it's the capacity and the account/user model that are limited, not the detection capability.

## Plan comparison

| | Trial | Professional | Enterprise | Enterprise Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Price** | Free, 30 days | €99 / month<br />(€990 / year) | €799 / month<br />(€7,990 / year) | On request, one-time |
| **Instances** | Up to 3 (testing only) | Up to 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| **Accounts** | 1 | Up to 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| **Users** | 1 | Up to 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| **Domains** | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| **Verifications** | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| **Production use** | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **All protection features & APIs** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Clustering / high availability** | Up to 3, testing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, LibSQL, Turbolite** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle** | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| **ClickHouse** (logs & analytics) | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| **Single sign-on (SSO)** | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| **Audit logs** | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| **OpenTelemetry** | — | — | Yes | Yes |
| **Software updates** | — | Yes | Yes | Yes |

**Enterprise Multi-Tenant** is a separate arrangement for running one deployment across several organizations — including offering Sentinel-backed protection as a service to third parties. [Contact us](/contact/) for terms.

## Understanding the limits

### Instances

An *instance* is one running Sentinel process (one container / pod). The limit is enforced **per cluster**, not across your whole estate — a separate staging cluster and a production cluster each get the full instance allowance. See [Clustering](/docs/sentinel/operations/clustering/#staging-and-development-clusters).

Exceeding the licensed instance count doesn't fail immediately: the license server allows a **grace period** to absorb normal churn like pod rescheduling. Stay over the limit and the **oldest instances beyond your allowance are shut down automatically**. In a clustered deployment the license key must be set via the `LICENSE_KEY` environment variable — it can't be entered through the admin UI.

### Accounts and users

- An **account** is a tenant boundary inside one Sentinel deployment — its own API keys, Security Groups, and settings. See [Users & Accounts](/docs/sentinel/configure/users-accounts/).
- A **user** is a person who signs in to the dashboard, with a role (Root, Admin, …) governing what they can do.

When you hit the account or user cap you simply can't create more until you upgrade — nothing already running is affected, unlike the instance limit.

### Domains and verifications

There is **no metering** on either. Sentinel runs entirely on infrastructure you control, so there's no per-verification billing and no domain count to manage — every tier, including the trial, is unlimited here.

## Feature gating

Detection and enforcement are **identical across every tier** — [Adaptive Captcha](/docs/sentinel/features/adaptive-captcha/), [Threat Intelligence](/docs/sentinel/features/threat-intelligence/), the [Classifier](/docs/sentinel/features/classifier/), [Human Interaction Signature](/docs/sentinel/features/human-interaction-signature/), [Autopilot](/docs/sentinel/features/autopilot/), [Phishing Detection](/docs/sentinel/features/phishing-detection/), [Rate Limiters](/docs/sentinel/features/rate-limiters/), the [Email Spam Filter](/docs/sentinel/features/email-spam-filter/), and the full management API all work on the trial.

What a paid tier unlocks is operational scale and enterprise integration:

| Capability | Minimum plan | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| More than one replica / HA | Professional | [Clustering](/docs/sentinel/operations/clustering/) |
| PostgreSQL / MySQL / MariaDB / LibSQL / Turbolite main DB | Professional | [Databases](/docs/sentinel/databases/#main-database) |
| External Redis / Valkey KV store | Professional | [Databases](/docs/sentinel/databases/#kv-store) |
| Microsoft SQL Server / Oracle main DB | Enterprise | [Databases](/docs/sentinel/databases/#main-database) |
| ClickHouse for logs & analytics | Enterprise | [ClickHouse](/docs/sentinel/operations/clickhouse/) |
| Single sign-on (SAML / OIDC / LDAP) | Enterprise | [SSO](/docs/sentinel/security/sso/) |
| Audit logs | Enterprise | [Monitoring & Logging](/docs/sentinel/operations/monitoring-logging/) |
| OpenTelemetry tracing export | Enterprise | [OpenTelemetry](/docs/sentinel/operations/monitoring-logging/#opentelemetry-enterprise) |

## Database support by tier

| Backend | Trial | Professional | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQLite (embedded default) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PostgreSQL 15+ | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MySQL 5.6+ / MariaDB 10.6+ | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LibSQL / Turbolite (S3-backed) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Redis 7+ / Valkey 7+ (KV store) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2022+ | — | — | Yes |
| Oracle 21c+ | — | — | Yes |
| ClickHouse 22.6+ (logs & analytics) | — | — | Yes |

The embedded SQLite default needs no configuration and is fine for evaluation or a single small instance. Any multi-replica deployment needs a networked main database plus a shared KV store — see [Databases](/docs/sentinel/databases/#choosing-a-backend).

## Support plans

**Basic support** — email, best-effort response — is included free with every license, including the trial. Paid support is a separate add-on that only changes your response-time SLA and channels; it never unlocks product features, and the tier you can buy depends on the license you hold.

| Support plan | Requires license | Channels | Response SLA | Typical resolution | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Any (incl. trial) | Email | Best-effort | — | Free |
| Standard | Professional | Email | &lt;&#8202;12h | Within a day | €39 / month |
| Standard Enterprise | Enterprise | Email | &lt;&#8202;6h | Within hours | €300 / month |
| Priority Enterprise | Enterprise | Email, live chat | &lt;&#8202;4h | Within hours | €600 / month |

Enterprise support engagements also include an integration review and periodic health checks. See the [Support Policy](/legal/sentinel/support/) for scope and definitions.

## Choosing a plan

- **Evaluating, or a single non-production instance** — the trial covers it; no license needed.
- **Production, one or a few instances, one team** — **Professional**. Covers up to 3 instances, 10 accounts, 10 users, and every external database except MS SQL / Oracle / ClickHouse.
- **Large or multi-team deployment, SSO, audit logs, OpenTelemetry, MS SQL / Oracle / ClickHouse, or unbounded instance count** — **Enterprise**.
- **Long-term deployment where a one-time cost beats a subscription** — **Enterprise Lifetime**.
- **One deployment serving multiple organizations, or reselling protection** — **Enterprise Multi-Tenant** ([contact us](/contact/)).

## Related

- **[Pricing](/pricing/#sentinel)** — current prices and the buy flow.
- **[License](/docs/sentinel/security/license/)** — configuring `LICENSE_KEY`, and offline (`LICENSE_JSON`) verification.
- **[Clustering](/docs/sentinel/operations/clustering/)** — how the instance limit is enforced across replicas.
- **[Databases](/docs/sentinel/databases/)** — the full backend matrix and connection setup.
- **[Users & Accounts](/docs/sentinel/configure/users-accounts/)** — what accounts and users are, and roles.
- **[EULA](/legal/sentinel/eula/)** and **[Support Policy](/legal/sentinel/support/)** — the binding terms.