Why three tiers, not two.
2026-05-24 · ~5 min read
A simple "free trial → paid subscription" split fails three audiences at once. The three-tier structure exists because each audience has a different shape, and a one-size-fits-all distribution model serves none of them well.
The three audiences
- The curious developer. Wants to try Borz from their terminal without giving a credit card. The classic SaaS trial works here — but giving the binary away anonymously gives us no visibility into who is using it for what. That's bad for us as a small EU vendor, and bad for the developer too — they end up using a tool whose upstream has no idea they exist.
- The medium business. Think of an EU-Mittelstand-shaped customer: Hungarian e-procurement vendor, DACH SaaS, Italian industrial system integrator. They want the offline binary because their security review will not allow source code to leave their network. They also do not want a large enterprise contract on day one. They want a free, identified, accountable tier.
- The regulated enterprise. Bank, government department, defence contractor. They want the offline binary, the air-gapped delivery, and contractually disabled telemetry. They also want an NDA, a DPA, and a signed order form before installation. Self-serve does not fit them.
The three tiers, mapped
Each tier is a different point on the curve of identity disclosure ↔ deployment freedom.
Online Compiler API
Sign up with an email. Get an API key in seconds. Hit the endpoint. Get a compiled binary back. 100 compiles per day free; early access pay-as-you-go pricing on request after that. Every compile passes through our infrastructure, which is the trade — we see what you're building. This is by design, and it's explicit in the EULA. Low identity disclosure; constrained deployment (your source touches our servers).
Community Offline
Apply with a short KYC form: name, organisation, country, intended use. We review within one business day. Once approved, you install the compiler locally with a one-year, hardware-bound activation. Free. Telemetry is always-on (compile counts + source corpus go back to us at handshake time); that's the trade for the free offline binary. Medium identity disclosure; medium deployment freedom.
Enterprise Offline
Contracted. NDA, DPA, order form. Custom seat counts. Air-gapped delivery option. Telemetry is contractually configurable — including fully off. Pricing starts in the low five figures and reflects the level of compliance wrapping we're committing to. High identity disclosure (contractually); maximum deployment freedom (your code never touches our infrastructure).
Why we lead with KYC, not credit card
Borz is a compiler. Compilers shape the software that ends up running in production systems. The European AI Act, NIS2, and DORA all push enterprises toward suppliers who can answer "who is using our tooling and for what" — and a credit-card-only signup gives us nothing to put in that answer. The Community KYC step is a defensive measure for both directions: the customer's procurement review will eventually ask the question, and we'd rather have the answer ready.
It is also why we're a small EU company building this. The same conversation in a US-based startup would default to "ship to anyone, ask later." We default to "know who, ship to them."
How telemetry actually works
The cert carries a telemetry_corpus_enabled flag. Community-tier certs
have it set to true and the compiler refuses to operate without a
handshake at least once per 24 hours. Enterprise certs can be issued with the flag
set to false per the signed order form. Air-gapped Enterprise certs
skip the handshake entirely. The mechanism is the same hardware-bound licensing
system across all tiers; the configuration differs.
What "hardware-bound" means in practice
The Community and Enterprise tiers are bound to your machine's TPM 2.0 fingerprint and CPUID. The compiler refuses to start on a different machine. The default TPM vendor allowlist is Infineon, STMicro, Nuvoton, Intel PTT, Microsoft Pluton, AMD fTPM, and Atmel; Enterprise customers with proprietary HSMs can negotiate their own allowlist. There is no online-activation step that depends on us being available — once the cert is on disk, the compiler runs offline.
What we will not do
- We will not introduce a fourth tier. Three is already two more than most compiler companies offer.
- We will not silently re-tier customers between releases.
- We will not exfiltrate compiled binary content; only compile counts + source corpus, per the cert flag.
- We will not ship a "phone home or you can't use the compiler today" mode at the Enterprise tier. Air-gapped means air-gapped.
Move between tiers
Start on the Online API. Outgrow it (rate limits, need offline) — apply for Community. Outgrow Community (need contractual terms, customer hardware, telemetry off) — contract Enterprise. The model assumes most developers stay on the Online API forever; some move to Community; a handful move to Enterprise. We're fine with that distribution.