:PROPERTIES:
:CREATED:  [2026-05-24 Sun]
:ID:       1a2b38df-20ba-58ca-ba55-a072be67bd0d
:END:
#+title: Personal Data Store as a Service
#+filetags: :passepartout:agora:revenue:pds:saas:

Classic open-core SaaS model (GitLab, Sentry, PlanetScale). The Merkle fact store exposed on [[id:1d074690-a279-59cb-b91d-e9a22ae104ad][Agora]] can be self-hosted (free, AGPL) or hosted by the early player.

- **Free tier (self-hosted):** full AGPL PDS, runs on any Lisp host, full control, no cost
- **Basic hosted tier:** $10-$20/month, 10GB fact store, 10M queries/month, automated backup, automatic upgrades
- **Business hosted tier:** $100-$500/month, 100GB+ fact store, unlimited queries, SLA, dedicated relay, compliance logging
- **Enterprise hosted tier:** $1,000-$10,000/month, air-gapped appliance management, dedicated support, regulatory-compliant data residency, SIEM integration

The free self-hosted version drives adoption and trust (you can inspect every line). The hosted version captures value from users who value convenience over control. Bluesky already demonstrated demand at ~$10/month for a simpler PDS.

Target: 100K subscribers at $15/month average = $18M/yr recurring, near-zero marginal cost per additional subscriber (the symbolic engine is CPU-bound, not per-user metered).

Combined with [[id:2e390c1d-65f3-5fb3-b898-ac3fc4291ee7][premium usernames]]: $28M/yr from Agora services alone before [[id:3c6b0449-a8fb-5b89-b82a-34efb21ef5b5][compute marketplace]] revenue. The hosted model also creates [[id:2f783eb4-638e-5afa-9b59-6224d086a712][infrastructure lock-in]] as users build their Merkle fact stores on the platform, making migration costly. The AGPL [[id:67faf52f-9126-50a7-b87e-2bedc610dac7][licensing]] model is described in [[id:67faf52f-9126-50a7-b87e-2bedc610dac7][Licensing]].