What counts as commercial use

Runbay is free for personal use and needs a paid seat for commercial use. Every feature works either way — the line is who you are and why you're using it, not what you get. This page is the plain-language version so you don't have to guess. The binding definitions live in the EULA (shipped with every download) and the Licensing page; if anything here and the EULA ever disagree, the EULA wins.

The one-line test

Are you using Runbay in the course of — or for the benefit of — a business, an employer, or paid work? If yes, that's commercial use and each person needs a seat. If it's just you, for yourself, not for pay and not for an employer, it's personal use and it's free.

Personal use — free, no key

You don't need to pay (or even enter a key) for any of this:

Learning containers, Apple's runtime, or Runbay itself on your own time.
A hobby or side project that isn't a business and isn't paid work.
Personal experimentation — trying ideas, running a home lab, tinkering.
Student coursework — using Runbay for a class or a degree is personal use.
Evaluating whether Runbay fits you, before any commercial use.

Commercial use — one seat per person

You need an active subscription, with one seat per user (seats are per person, not per device — each seat allows up to three device activations):

Using Runbay as part of your job, for your employer.
A freelancer or contractor using it for client or paid work.
A sole proprietor or business using it to build, ship, or operate its product.
A side project that is a business — i.e. you're operating it for paid work or for the benefit of a business, not as a hobby.
Use by a company, government body, or other organization for its work.

Gray areas — the principle, then ask

A few honest edges, resolved by the one-line test above:

My side project makes a little money. If it's a genuine hobby and not a business, it's personal. Once you're operating it as a business or for paid work, buy a seat.
I'm an open-source maintainer. Working on your own OSS project in your personal capacity — not paid for it, not for an employer — is personal use. Doing it as paid work or for a company is commercial.
I'm at a company but just learning on my own. Genuinely personal learning on your own time is personal use; the moment it's for your job, it's commercial.

If you're honestly unsure, ask before you worry about it — we'd rather answer than have you guess. (A contact address is being set up; until then, the Licensing page and the in-app Help ▸ Send Feedback reach us.)

How it's enforced — the honor system

Runbay never locks, disables, or nags based on whether you've paid. Every feature runs regardless. The obligation to hold a seat for commercial use is a legal one, not a technical gate — we trust you to buy the seats you're required to have. There's no Runbay license server and no usage reporting: a commercial seat is validated straight against Polar (our Merchant of Record) using a public organization id, with an offline grace window so you're never locked out on a bad connection. See Licensing for the full mechanics.

Why it's paid at all

The free tier has to beat every free open-source alternative outright, so nothing is held back — which means the paid line has to sit somewhere, and "use at a company" is the honest, familiar place for it (the same model OrbStack uses). Personal use stays free, forever, with every feature. Paying for commercial use is what funds keeping up with a young runtime, a moving macOS, and a fast-changing agent protocol — instead of funding it with telemetry or a data business, of which Runbay has neither.