Free self-hosted open-source use (Keystone 6, MIT license) — the only free offer; no cloud tier, trial credits, startup program, or education license exists high confidence
$0, perpetual, no feature gating. As of 2026-10-22 the official site states 'Free forever' and 'Batteries included. No limitations' (all field types, access control, session management, custom schema, Prisma DB migrations, TypeScript, automated CRUD, event hooks). The GitHub repo keystonejs/keystone ships an MIT LICENSE ('Copyright (c) 2024 Thinkmill Labs Pty Ltd'). Current line is Keystone 6, published on npm as @keystone-6/* (@keystone-6/core@8.x); active maintenance confirmed by releases through 2026-08-31 (a 8.0.0 major shipped Jul 28, 2026). Unlimited lists/content models, unlimited editors, unlimited API calls — you only pay your own hosting. Verified today: https://keystonejs.com/ , https://github.com/keystonejs/keystone (LICENSE), https://keystonejs.com/roadmap. No official pricing/startup/education pages exist on keystonejs.com — the only paid upsell is Thinkmill's enterprise support/consulting (services page, custom quotes; aggregators like apis.io list paid 'Enterprise Capacity/Capability/Advisory' service plans, all unverified generated content, none free).
- Eligibility
- Everyone, no conditions: no .edu email, no startup age/funding cap, no registration, no credit card, no region limits. Commercial use allowed under MIT.
- How to claim
- Nothing to claim or apply for: run `npm create keystone-app` (or clone keystonejs/keystone from GitHub), define your schema in TypeScript, run Prisma migrations, deploy to any Node.js host of your choice (DigitalOcean, Heroku, Render, Vercel, self-managed infra per the official site). MIT license is granted automatically by using the code.
- Expiry
- No expiry or renewal — MIT license is perpetual; project is actively maintained (releases ongoing as of 2026-08-31). Free-forever, not a trial.
- Gotchas
- (1) No managed/hosted Keystone cloud exists, so you own hosting, backups, scaling, and security — third-party reviews peg small-project infra at ~$6–20/mo VPS; that cost is the real price. (2) Old Keystone 5 (keystonejs/keystone-5, Express/Mongoose/MongoDB) has been in maintenance mode since 2021 — 'keystone' and '@keystone-6' on npm are different packages. (3) GraphQL-first API (REST not provided out of the box) and it is a framework you deploy, not a managed SaaS with autoscale/SSO/audit. (4) Beware third-party plan listings (apis.io, hostiso etc.) describing Keystone 'plans' — those are unverified generated catalogs or generic shared hosting, not offers from the KeystoneJS project. (5) A session web-search budget cap blocked one dedicated 2025–26 startup/education-offer search, but the official site + roadmap + GitHub show no such programs exist or were ever announced.
- Source
- keystonejs.com