When a new engineer joins your SaaS team to help with releases, they'll need access to the platform that hosts your app. On a plan that charges for each person who can deploy, giving them that access raises the bill while the app keeps running on the same servers and serving the same customers.
We think that is the wrong incentive for a cloud platform. A team should be able to give people the access they need without adding a fee for each name on the account.
Forte will never charge seat fees. We charge for the resources your app uses and the work it does at our published rates, with no required advance credit purchase.
This is a choice about how we want to earn our revenue. We want customers to spend more with Forte when they use more of the platform, rather than when they invite someone to help run it.
What a seat fee changes
A seat fee is what a platform charges for giving someone a particular level of access. Some plans charge for everyone, while others let people view the app for free and charge for the ability to edit or deploy it. Check which roles your team needs before you compare prices.
Say two engineers can already deploy the app and a third joins to help with releases and production support. The new engineer needs access in their first month, even though traffic, database size, and hosting needs stay the same.
Under a per-seat model, adding that engineer can raise the bill before the app uses any more infrastructure. Under Forte's model, inviting that person does not add a seat charge. If the team runs more builds or adds capacity, those activities can still change its usage bill.
If the new engineer is covering releases, they need enough access to investigate a failed deploy. We want the team to be able to grant that access based on the engineer's responsibilities, without buying another seat.
Access should follow responsibility
A small team often needs several people to help with one app. One engineer owns the code, another handles an incident, and someone else needs to check a bill. They do not all need the same access.
The team should give each person their own account and the permissions their work requires. It should also be able to remove access when that work ends. Check the available roles and permissions for the resource you are sharing. Free seats do not mean everyone should become an administrator.
When each account carries a fee, some teams may be tempted to leave someone out or share a login to save money. We want our pricing to make it easy for everyone who helps run the app to have their own account and the right permissions.
The same reasoning applies to a contractor helping with a migration or a teammate covering a holiday. The cost of asking for help should not start with buying another place in the console.
Metered usage needs a clear meaning
“Pay for what you use” needs an explanation. It does not mean that everything becomes free while your app has no traffic.
For a Forte backend Service, you pay a provisioned charge to keep the instance ready even during quiet hours. When requests arrive, you also pay for the compute the Service uses to handle them.
Builds have their own charges. Database pricing depends on the tier and can include provisioned storage or dedicated capacity. Choosing a larger resource can increase the bill even if you have not filled it or kept it busy. The pricing guide explains those units and limits.
The distinction is that these charges relate to the setup you choose and the work it performs. Adding a teammate is a separate action. We do not turn that action into another billing meter.
For our example team, a useful monthly review asks which instances ran, which builds happened, and what database capacity was provisioned. It should not need a second calculation for the number of people allowed to help.
You do not need to buy usage before you know it
Required advance credits add another decision before the customer has learned their normal usage. How much should the team buy? What happens to an unused balance? Will someone need to top it up before a release?
Forte does not require you to purchase a credit pack before using the platform. A valid payment method and the applicable account setup still matter. Usage charges, invoices, and payment obligations remain real.
A free welcome credit reduces a qualifying bill under its stated terms. Once the offer ends, you can continue using the same billing model without buying more credits. Check the current credit and account limits when planning your first month. Forte pricing
This also leaves you a clearer way to evaluate the platform. Try a suitable app, inspect the units it uses, and estimate a normal month. You can make that choice without first guessing how much prepaid currency to buy.
Judge the whole bill
No seat fees does not prove that Forte is the cheapest option for every app. A different provider may include something your workload needs or price a particular resource differently.
Compare the same app, traffic, capacity, builds, and database requirements. Include outside services that would remain on either setup. Keep any plan fees and required minimums visible, and distinguish them from charges for people. The total cost guide gives you a way to make that comparison.
Also check which kind of charge a competitor actually uses. Railway's current Pro plan includes unlimited workspace seats, but has a minimum spend. Vercel's paid deploying seats are a different pricing choice. Read why Forte rejects monthly minimums and our Vercel seat-fee guide for those comparisons.
Our commitment is simpler than a claim about winning every quote. Forte will never charge you a seat fee. Give your team the access it needs, choose the resources your app needs, and judge the resulting bill on those resources.