The SDK is free and source-available, the device does the work. The hosted backbone starts free too, then scales with what you actually use. No charge for an idle mesh.
hop-core SDK, iOS & AndroidPricing structure shown for shape; specific allowances and rates are being finalized. The SDK is free forever underFSL-1.1-ALv2.
You pay for active devices, your app's actual reach. Messages of any size come included and generous. Large ones split into chunks and reassemble for the recipient, so usage tracks the data actually carried, a photo simply counts as more chunks than a chat line, never a flat per-message surprise. We meter overage only on what genuinely scales with cost, always on the sealed envelope, volume, never content.
The headline metric, your monthly reach. Predictable, with a generous data allowance included per device.
The sum of all chunks the backbone stores and forwards for you, so a 5 MB image is billed as the many chunks it is, not as one cheap "message."
Internet egress and durable mailbox retention, both byte-based, metered only past your allowance.
Every connection to the hosted backbone carries a signed access key, including the free tier. The key isn't a paywall, it's how the backbone knows which tenant to meter, which limits to apply, and which traffic to trust.
The design: unkeyed traffic is rejected at the edge, so it can't reach a relay or wake one. That protects your fleet from abuse and keeps a scale-to-zero backbone affordable for everyone on it. Key enforcement lands with the hosted backbone at general availability; the open SDK runs peer-to-peer without it.
A short-lived, signed credential issued per app or tenant, verified statelessly at the entrance. Free or paid, every byte is attributed, and a lost key expires on its own.
Self-hosting the open SDK? You set your own policy, keys are a property of the hosted backbone, not the protocol.