Pricing

Priced for indie studios.

You pay per monthly active player, meaning a player who queued at least once. Not per API call, so you never have to design your integration around our invoice. Or you buy the thing outright and run it yourself. Billing isn't built yet and these numbers can still move.

Now
Invite-only
The site is up and the pre-alpha is invite-only. Tell me what you're building and I'll send you a key.
Soon™
Pre-alpha
Nobody pays anything. Steep daily limits. The point is to find out what breaks.
After that
Pricing switches on
The tiers below are what we intend to launch with.
Free
$0
no card, no expiry
  • 1,000 monthly active players
  • Every formation and rating mode, nothing is held back
  • REST + SSE, and the Unity SDK
  • 30,000 write calls per month, up to 1,000 in a day (reads are free)
  • Up to 5 active queues
  • Support: Discord, best effort
  • Free during pre-alpha: nobody pays anything yet
Request an invite
Indie
$29
per month
  • 10,000 monthly active players
  • No cap on queues or game modes
  • Searchable match history + stats API
  • Per-key usage metering
  • Support: email
Request an invite
Studio
$199
per month
  • 50,000 monthly active players
  • Then $4 per additional 1,000 players
  • Everything in Indie
  • Usage analytics in the dashboard
  • Support: email, best effort, usually within a business day
Request an invite
Scale
Contact us
  • 250,000+ monthly active players
  • Optional dedicated server: your own instance, not the shared pool
  • Quotas and rate limits set per account
  • Whatever support and uptime terms we agree, in writing
  • Support: a shared channel with us
Talk to us
Self-hostedContact usone-time perpetual license

The same build we run, on your hardware. No metering means we can't see your usage, throttle you, or take the service away from you, which is the entire point. Buy 1.x and every 1.x release after it is yours: patches, fixes, features, no renewal, no expiry. When 2.0 lands you can stay where you are indefinitely, or pay a small upgrade fee to move.

  • Docker Compose: API, dashboard, Postgres, Redis, Kafka
  • Offline Ed25519-signed license, no phone-home
  • No metering, no usage caps, no active-player counting
  • Every update to the major version you bought, free and forever
  • Next major version is a small upgrade fee, never a re-purchase
  • Player data never leaves your servers
Email us for a license

Frequently asked

What counts as an active player?
One player who queued at least once in the calendar month. Queue twice or two hundred times, you're counted once. Registering players costs nothing, and a player who never queues never counts, so a dormant account you're holding onto isn't billable.
Why bill on players and not on matches or API calls?
Because per-call billing makes you architect around our invoice instead of around your game: batching joins, skipping subscriptions, holding state client-side to save a request. Players is the unit that tracks your revenue, so we grow when you do. Paid tiers carry a fair-use match ceiling as an abuse backstop, but it's a backstop, not the meter. Free is the exception: it's bounded by call caps instead, because any match ceiling we set there sat behind them and could never fire.
What's actually enforced today?
The free tier's limits, per account: 30,000 write calls (POST/PUT/DELETE) per month, no more than 1,000 of them in a UTC day, and 5 active queues. Reads, auth, and API-key management don't count against any of it. The month is what the tier gives you; the day just stops one runaway loop from spending it in an hour. Overage, invoices, and anything involving a card land with billing, and that isn't built yet.
What does the dedicated server on Scale get me?
Your own instance rather than a slot in the shared pool: no noisy neighbours in the matcher's scheduling, quotas and rate limits set for your traffic, and a maintenance window we agree with you instead of one you find out about. It's an option on Scale, not a requirement, and plenty of games at that size are fine on shared.
Can I change plans later?
There are no plans to change yet. When billing ships you'll switch tiers from the dashboard. Nothing you build against the free tier gets stranded: same endpoints, same keys, higher ceiling.
Can I run MatchKit on my own servers?
Yes: a one-time perpetual license and a Docker Compose stack of API, dashboard, Postgres, Redis, Kafka. The license is an Ed25519-signed file, checked locally. It doesn't call home, so we can't see your usage, revoke your build, or take the service away from you. There's no list price: mail sales@matchkit.dev and tell us what you're running.
What do I get when a self-hosted update ships?
Every release inside the major version you bought. Buy 1.4 and 1.5, 1.9 and every patch in between are yours. No renewal, no subscription, no expiry date. Major versions are the only paid step: when 2.0 ships you can keep running 1.x for as long as it serves you, or pay a small upgrade fee to move.
Who is behind MatchKit?
One developer, in their spare time, alongside a day job. No company, no team, no investors. Support is best-effort and it comes from the person who wrote the code. If the project stops, the hosted service will eventually go away, because servers cost money. Self-hosted installs keep running, and we'll help you migrate if you'd rather not wait and see.