Changes to Strapi Enterprise plans
Tags: strapi, rbac
Published: 2023-03-01 13:41:01

## What you need to know:
-   We are sunsetting the Strapi Enterprise Bronze or Silver plans as of today, March 1st, 2023. 

-   The Strapi Enterprise Gold plan is renamed Strapi Enterprise. 

-   The [Role Based Access Control](https://strapi.io/features/custom-roles-and-permissions) (RBAC) feature currently available in all Enterprise Edition plans will be available for free in a future release of Strapi Community Edition.

-   Current customers have until their renewal date to transition to Strapi Cloud (our new managed platform to boost your team velocity), Strapi Enterprise or the future release of Strapi Community Edition. 

-   If your subscription period ends soon and you absolutely need the RBAC feature, please send an email to <support@strapi.io>. 

-   We are introducing the concept of "[Seats](https://support.strapi.io/support/solutions/articles/67000715036-what-is-the-definition-of-a-user-seat-and-environment-)" in our pricing model to align with our Strapi Cloud offering and avoid current confusion around the definition of Admin Users.

In July 2020, we introduced [Strapi Enterprise Edition](https://strapi.io/enterprise), an extension of the Strapi open source project (Community Edition, under MIT License) to bring more value to customers running Strapi in production while making Strapi, Inc financially sustainable through an open core business model.

One of the disadvantages of the open core business model is the confusion and mistrust that results from the lack of transparency around what features should be released as open source or proprietary. To overcome that challenge and default to transparency (one of our core [company value](https://handbook.strapi.io/strapi-values)s) we decided to follow the [buyer-based open core framework](https://opencoreventures.com/blog/2023-01-open-core-standard-pricing-model/) popularized by Sid Sijbrandij from GitLab and Open Core Ventures. In short, "Features that appeal most to an individual contributor are open source and free. Features that appeal most to management or executives are proprietary and not free."

Today, with the release of our [Strapi Cloud plans](https://strapi.io/pricing-cloud) and the future move of RBAC to Strapi Community Edition, we're taking another important step towards finding the right balance between providing value to the Strapi community and building a sustainable business model based on our new Cloud offering.

Strapi Cloud is a fully managed, composable, and collaborative platform to boost your team velocity by:

1.  Reducing the time it takes to go to production and scale your Strapi projects

2.  Providing a frictionless experience for both developers and marketers

3.  Preserving Strapi's unique developer experience and customization capabilities

Please refer to this [Strapi Cloud announcement blog post](https://strapi.io/blog/strapi-cloud-is-now-available) for more information about Strapi Cloud plans and their value proposition.

## Why are we releasing the Role Based Access Control feature in the Community Edition? 
Today, the RBAC feature is divided between a basic and advanced implementation.

The basic RBAC feature available in Strapi Community Edition includes an unlimited number of admin users and 3 default roles (Super Admin, Editor, Author) with customizable access to specific Collection & Single Types.

The advanced RBAC feature available in Strapi Enterprise Edition Silver and Gold plans allows you to create an unlimited number of custom roles (add a new role, edit, delete an existing role) and a high level of granularity (down to the field level) for a series of specific actions (Create, Read, Update, Delete, Publish).

This situation was [frustrating for many Strapi community members](https://forum.strapi.io/t/rbac-role-based-access-control-feature-discussion/433/17?u=dmehaffy+or+https%3A%2Ffeedback.strapi.io%2Ffeature-requests%2Fp%2Ffree-rbac-community-edition) and made the development of applications and plugins difficult. These are the reasons why we're excited to make this fundamental change to Strapi for the benefit of the broader community.

## Are we also sunsetting Strapi Enterprise Gold?
No, our Gold plan is a key pillar to sustain the Strapi open-source project.

This plan will remain the only self-hosted tier available for purchase as of today. With the release of our Pro & Team Cloud plans we are renaming the Gold plan "Enterprise". Strapi Enterprise includes features such as Single Sign On, Audit logs and higher levels of [support services with SLA](https://support.strapi.io/support/solutions/articles/67000680833-what-is-supported-by-the-strapi-team). If Enterprise is not right for you, you can continue to self host Strapi Community Edition wherever you see fit. Please refer to the following [how-to guides for deploying Strapi on various hosting providers](https://docs.strapi.io/developer-docs/latest/setup-deployment-guides/deployment.html#hosting-provider-guides).

## What does this mean for you?
Strapi is offering multiple options for you to choose which one is best suited for your business:

1.  Migrate to Cloud. Save time and unlock new collaboration features by migrating to Strapi Cloud. We're offering a special 25% discount for three months to the Bronze & Silver customers who wish to upgrade to one of our Cloud plans. Please send an email to support@strapi.io to get a coupon code.

2.  Upgrade to Strapi Enterprise. Fill out the form on our [pricing page](https://strapi.io/pricing-self-hosted) to get in touch with our sales team.

3.  Enjoy our free Community Edition plan. Want to continue self-hosting your project but don't need other Enterprise features? Stay tuned for the upcoming version of Strapi Community Edition that will include the ability to create unlimited custom roles (tentatively scheduled for Strapi v4.9).

4.  Contact us. We understand this decision may be surprising, especially if you bought a license recently, which is why we are willing to be flexible with customers who won't / can't upgrade to Strapi Cloud, Strapi Enterprise or the upcoming Strapi Community Edition. If your subscription period ends soon and absolutely need the RBAC feature, please send an email to <support@strapi.io>.

## What is the difference between the concept of Seats vs Admin users?
A Strapi "admin user" is anyone who has the ability to login to your Strapi admin panel, this is not limited to the role of the user. Historically, we've been looking at the number of admin users in production as our main pricing variable. We realize that this definition was confusing to our customers as it applied to all admin users regardless of their roles or can be misunderstood with end users. In order to clear out that confusion and align pricing variables across both Strapi Enterprise with Strapi Cloud, we're moving away from this "admin user" definition in favor of "Seats".

"Seat" means a registered account on the Software, which may be occupied by a single active User at any given time on any given instance of the Software in any given Environment. The number of Seats authorized in a Project is equal to the number of Seats purchased by the Customer and corresponds to the total number of Users able to access the Environment. Please refer to[ this support article for more information on the definition of seats.](https://support.strapi.io/support/solutions/articles/67000715036-what-is-the-definition-of-a-user-seat-and-environment-)

## When are these changes effective?
As of today, the Strapi Enterprise Bronze and Silver plans are no longer available for purchase or renewal. All customers should have already received multiple email communication about this change and the options available to them. 

## Still have questions about these changes? Get in touch: 
-   [Contact sales](https://strapi.io/contact) to learn more about the Enterprise Edition
- Customers can contact <support@strapi.io> directly