We're shipping the binary publicly while we finish the Stripe integration, run more benchmarks, and listen to early users. Anyone who registers during beta - Free or Pro - locks in $5/mo Pro forever. Pro features stay free during beta and for a full month after v1 launches, so nobody gets caught out by the switch. This page tells you the rules in plain language - no asterisks, no fine print.
We're shipping early. Earlier than is comfortable. There are rough edges, the dashboard is missing graphs we want, and the Stripe flow isn't even live yet. We're doing this because the only way we ship a v1 that just works is to get it in front of devs who will tell us, brutally, what's broken.
The locked rate is how we pay you back for trusting an unfinished product. Whether you end up paying us $5/mo or never paying us anything, the deal is the same: register during beta, get the rate forever, decide later. We're betting that if Hydrate is genuinely useful, you'll subscribe; and if it isn't, your feedback during beta is what stops us from shipping the wrong v1.
Locking the rate for everyone - Free or Pro - removes the "should I pick Pro just in case?" friction. Pick Free. Try it. If you ever want unlimited projects and the portability features, your $5/mo seat is sitting there waiting. No upsell tricks, no "limited window" emails. Just register once, and you're covered.
hydrate sync for one project at a time.Free Personal stays free forever. If you register during beta you also get the $5/mo Pro lock - so if you ever decide you want unlimited projects later, the rate is honoured. No expiry.
hydrate decrypt - plaintext export of your fact store.The retail price for Pro after beta is not yet guaranteed - it might end up at $9/mo, $12/mo, or higher. If you register during beta - as Free or Pro - you pay $5/mo forever if and when you subscribe to Pro. Your registration timestamp is the entitlement; the edition you pick is just your default.
During beta, every Pro feature is unlocked in the binary regardless of which edition you register for. The registration step records that you were here during beta; both commands lock in the $5/mo Pro rate forever.
# Pick whichever feels right. Both lock the $5/mo Pro rate.
hydrate register --edition=free --email=you@example.com
# Or, if you already know you want Pro features:
hydrate register --edition=pro --email=you@example.com
If you don't run hydrate register at all, the binary
still works - it'll prompt you once on first use to make a
choice. Your email is used for one thing only: emailing you when
Pro launches with a one-click link to subscribe at your locked-in
rate. We will never spam you, sell your address, or send marketing
newsletters. You can opt out of the email any time by running
hydrate register --unsubscribe.
Switch any time. Three paths, same outcome:
hydrate register --edition=pro --email=same@addr. Your registration is updated; the lock is preserved./upgrade on the site. We look up your email, see your beta lock, send you to a Stripe checkout at $5/mo.We're not announcing a fixed date because we want to be ready, not rushed. When we're a week out from leaving beta, the homepage and this page get a one-week countdown banner. That's your last chance to register and lock the $5/mo rate. After launch, new installs pay the retail price.
Grace window: when v1 ships, Pro features stay free for a full month for everyone with a beta registration. Nobody gets caught out by the switch. After that grace window, Pro features check for a subscription - and if you registered during beta, yours is the locked $5/mo rate when you decide to subscribe.
Anyone who has registered before that countdown ends keeps the $5/mo Pro rate forever, regardless of when they actually start paying or which edition they registered for. If you register today as Free and don't subscribe until 2027, your rate is still $5/mo. If you subscribe at launch and never cancel, your rate is still $5/mo ten years later.
Free Personal is unaffected by the beta-to-launch transition. It stays at $0 forever. The 2-active-project cap stays. All the hooks, the dashboard, the runway KPI, the canon system - all stay free. Pro is purely additive: it removes the cap and adds the portability features (backup, restore, decrypt). If you never need those, Free Personal is the right choice - and your $5/mo Pro seat is waiting if you ever change your mind.
Yes. The lock is set by your registration timestamp, not the edition you picked. Every registration during beta gets it. If you ever decide you want Pro - this year, next year, in 2030 - the rate is $5/mo when you subscribe.
Two reasons. First, we want devs to install Hydrate without agonising over which edition to pick. Second, the people who register Free during beta are still trusting an unfinished product, and that's worth the lock either way. We're paying for your honest feedback in future-proofed pricing, not in vaporware promises.
Yes, any time. While in beta:
hydrate register --edition=pro --email=you@example.com.
After launch: hit /upgrade on the site or click
the launch email link. Your $5/mo rate is honoured.
Nothing happens to you. You're not pre-charged, your card isn't on file (we don't even ask for one), and you can decline the Pro launch email when it arrives. If you change your mind a year later, your $5/mo rate is still there waiting.
Run hydrate register --edition=pro --email=new@example.com
and we'll merge your registration. The locked-in rate is tied
to the registration record, not the email address; the email
is just our way of finding you.
No - the $5/mo lock-in is for individual Pro only. Team and Enterprise pricing will be announced separately. Beta registrants who later move to a Team plan can still use their personal Pro Beta seat at $5/mo if they leave the team.
Nothing for the first month after launch. Pro features stay free
for everyone with a beta registration during a 30-day grace window
- so even if you forget about Hydrate for a few weeks and only
notice the launch email afterwards, you have time to decide. After
the grace window, Pro features check for an active subscription
(or a registered beta record). Free Personal users will find
hydrate decrypt and the unlimited-projects flag
disabled - exactly the behaviour you'd expect for a Free tier.
The hooks, dashboard, runway, and canon all keep working as they
do today.
brew install work the same way?
Yes. When the Homebrew tap ships, it'll point at the same
release tarballs and ask the same registration question on
first run. curl gethydrate.dev/install | sh will
keep working too - brew is an addition, not a replacement.
Install Hydrate, then register. The whole flow takes under a minute and locks the $5/mo Pro rate even if you pick Free.
curl -fsSL gethydrate.dev/install | sh
hydrate register --edition=free --email=you@example.com