docs/faq.html at main · startoneai/docs · GitHub

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<title>FAQ — StartOne Docs</title>
<meta name="description" content="Straight answers about StartOne — pricing, licensing, requirements, and what each edition can and cannot do.">
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  <h4>Start here</h4>
  <a href="index.html" >Overview</a>
  <a href="index.html#which">Which edition?</a>

  <h4>Community &mdash; free</h4>
  <a href="community.html" >Quickstart</a>
  <a href="community.html#config">Configuration</a>
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  <h4>Developer &mdash; Web</h4>
  <a href="developer-web.html" >Quickstart</a>
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<h1>FAQ</h1>
<p class="lede">Straight answers.</p>

<h2>Buying</h2>
<h3>Can I try it before I buy?</h3>
<p>Yes, and you should. <a href="community.html">Community</a> is free, open source, and runs in minutes. It is the same architecture &mdash; just without auth, a database, the full media studio, or billing. Read the code, run it, then decide.</p>

<h3>Is this a subscription?</h3>
<p>No. Each Developer edition is a one-time purchase and you own the source. You pay your AI providers directly for the API calls you make; StartOne takes nothing per call.</p>

<h3>Why are the two Developer editions sold separately?</h3>
<p>Because most developers build either a web app or a bot, not both. Bundling them would mean charging you for a codebase you never open. If you genuinely need both, buy both.</p>

<h3>Do you offer refunds?</h3>
<p>No &mdash; this is downloadable source code, and it cannot be returned once you have it. That is precisely why Community exists: evaluate the architecture for free, at length, before spending anything.</p>

<h2>Technical</h2>
<h3>What do I actually need to run it?</h3>
<p>Node, and an API key from at least one AI provider. Developer &mdash; Web also uses Postgres and Redis (a docker-compose file is included) and Clerk for auth. Every edition boots with <em>zero</em> keys configured, so you can explore before setting anything up.</p>

<h3>Which AI providers are supported?</h3>
<p>OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, GLM (z.ai), DeepSeek, and Qwen for chat; fal.ai and Replicate for media. Providers sit behind a single contract, so adding another is a contained change.</p>

<h3>Can I swap out Clerk / Postgres / fal.ai?</h3>
<p>Yes. Each is behind a seam &mdash; auth in <code>lib/auth/</code>, media providers in <code>lib/media/providers.ts</code>. That is the point of owning the source.</p>

<h3>Is there really no billing in Developer?</h3>
<p>Correct, and it is deliberate. Developer is unmetered: no credits, no limits, no payment code to rip out. If you want billing, that is <a href="business.html">Business</a>.</p>

<h2>Licensing</h2>
<h3>Can I build commercial products with it?</h3>
<p>Yes &mdash; unlimited products of your own, including commercial ones, on unlimited projects you own.</p>

<h3>Can I resell it?</h3>
<p>No. You may not resell or redistribute the StartOne source, modified or not, as a competing boilerplate, template, or starter kit. Build products with it; do not sell it as a product.</p>

<h3>What about the StartOne name?</h3>
<p>The licence covers the code, not the brand. See <a href="licensing.html">Licensing</a>.</p>

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