Pricing · plain English

Pick a door. Pay only for the one you use.

Vela is one platform with four homes — a hosted plan for DIY sites, the open source code for self-hosters, a developer membership for plugin authors, and a partner program for hosts. Find yours.

Vela Hosted · primary

Sites we host for you.

The simplest way to ship a Vela site. Edge cache, image pipeline, custom domain, AI credits. Free to build, paid to publish.

Free

Build

For trying Vela. Build privately with the AI, the CMS, and the full editor — publish when you're ready.

$ 0 forever
No card required
Start building
What's included
  • Full builder · CMS · AI chat
  • 1 site, vela.dev subdomain
  • 50 AI credits / month
  • Community support
  • Cannot publish to public web
  • No custom domain
Starter

Publish

For a single live site. Custom domain, edge hosting, generous AI credits — everything a small site needs.

$ 29 / month
billed monthly · cancel any time
Start with Starter
Everything in Free, plus
  • Publish to any domain
  • Edge CDN · 34 regions
  • 500 AI credits / month
  • Image optimisation pipeline
  • Static site export
  • Email support · 24h
Most popular
Pro

Grow

For makers shipping more than one site. Unlimited domains, team seats, advanced AI, priority support.

$ 49 / month
billed monthly · cancel any time
Go Pro
Everything in Starter, plus
  • Up to 5 sites, all domains
  • 3,000 AI credits / month
  • Team seats · 5 included
  • Advanced AI models · GPT, Claude, Gemini
  • Branching, previews & rollbacks
  • Priority support · 4h
  • Marketplace plugin install
Done For You

Concierge

We build the first version of your site. You take it from there. The fastest path from idea to live.

$ 69 / month
after $499 onboarding · refundable
Talk to us
Everything in Pro, plus
  • Your first site, designed & built by us
  • Custom theme tuned to your brand
  • Content migration from any platform
  • Unlimited AI credits
  • SLA · 99.99% uptime
  • Slack channel with the Vela team
Self-hosted · MIT licensed

Or build it. Host it. Own it.

Vela is open source under MIT. Clone the repo, run composer install, and you have the same CMS, AI layer, and component library that powers our hosted plan. No feature gates. No upsell.

Run it on your laptop, your server, your own private cloud — anywhere PHP runs. Your data stays where you put it.

Clone on GitHub → Read the install guide
~ composer create-project vela/vela mysite
✓ Installing dependencies (2.4s)
✓ Publishing assets · 68 components
✓ Generating .env · seeding database
 
~ cd mysite && php artisan vela:serve
▶ Vela ready · http://localhost:8000
14.2kGitHub stars
MITLicense
Self-hostForever free
For people building on Vela

Two more doors.

If you make plugins, themes, or integrations — or you're a hosting provider — there's a program built for you.

Developer Platform

Build for the marketplace.

A yearly membership for plugin and theme authors. Full SDK, sandbox sites, payouts, and a listing in the Vela Marketplace where 12,000+ builders shop.

$ 99 / year
flat · all you need to publish
  • Publish unlimited plugins & themes
  • Up to 10 sandbox sites for testing
  • Stripe-grade payouts · weekly
  • Featured placements when you ship something great
  • Private dev forum · direct line to our engineers
  • Pre-release access to new APIs
Join for $99 / year Read the SDK docs
Hosting Partners

Resell or run your own Vela.

For hosting providers and large agencies. Two paths: resell our managed hosting under your brand, or get our team's support running Vela on your own infrastructure.

"Pricing on request"
2Programs
28Active partners
Co-mktIncluded
  • Reseller: resell Vela Hosted with your brand
  • Self-managed: our team supports your team
  • Revenue share & co-marketing programs
  • Certified Vela Host badge & directory listing
  • Dedicated account team
Request partner pricing Partner overview
Pricing FAQ

Questions, asked honestly.

If yours isn't here, ask us — we're founders, not a chatbot wall.

What's an "AI credit"?
A credit is roughly one significant AI action — drafting a page, generating an image, rewriting a section. Most edits cost less than one credit. Pro plan users average ~700 credits a month; you'd have to actively try to burn through 3,000.
Can I switch between hosted and self-hosted?
Yes. Vela's the same software either way. Export from Hosted as a Laravel app and run it yourself. Or import a self-hosted site into Hosted. No proprietary export format, no lock-in.
What happens if I exceed AI credits?
You can keep building — AI just pauses for the rest of the month, or you can top up at $5 per 100 credits. We'll never auto-bill you for overages without asking.
Is there a free trial of Pro?
Free is unlimited in time — try every feature with a vela.dev subdomain. When you upgrade to publish, the first 14 days are refundable, no questions.
Do you offer discounts for nonprofits, students, or open source?
Yes — 50% off all hosted plans for verified nonprofits and students, and free Pro for maintainers of substantial open source projects. Email [email protected].
What does the Developer membership get me that Pro doesn't?
Pro is for building your own sites. Developer is for building for other people's sites — publishing rights to the marketplace, payouts, sandbox sites, the SDK, and pre-release API access. Many of our top developers have both.
Who do I contact about partner pricing?
Email [email protected] or use the request form. We reply in under 48 hours, usually with a real human.

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