Product Tier Model — Public Overview

Date: 2026-07-18 Status: Active

Context

QKDpy is distributed as a permissively-licensed open-source library (Apache-2.0) so the research and education community can use, study, and extend it freely. At the same time, organizations that need compliance tooling, audit trails, and migration planning require capabilities that go beyond what an open-source release is meant to carry.

Decision

The library ships with a single, cumulative three-tier model:

Tier	Audience	Distribution
FREE	Researchers, students, educators, open-source users	Apache-2.0
ENTERPRISE	Companies running internal QKD modeling, compliance & audit teams, labs	Commercial license
PREMIUM	Vendors, large research consortia	Commercial license + support agreement

The default experience on import is FREE.
Each higher tier includes everything in the tiers below it.
Enterprise / Premium activation is a runtime switch; the same wheel serves all tiers.
Opt-in license verification is available for deployments that want to enforce entitlement; without it the gate remains informational.

Consequences

Open-source users get the full simulation core, all protocols, satellite modeling, ML optimization, and visualizations at no cost.
Enterprise customers gain compliance automation, HSM integration, and audit logging under a separate commercial agreement.
Premium customers additionally receive the quantum-safe migration toolkit and priority support.

Public capabilities by tier

Capability	FREE	ENTERPRISE	PREMIUM
All QKD protocols	Yes	Yes	Yes
Satellite QKD simulation	Yes	Yes	Yes
ML optimization	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compliance reporting (ETSI / NIST / FIPS / ISO)	—	Yes	Yes
HSM integration (PKCS#11)	—	Yes	Yes
Audit logging	—	Yes	Yes
ML-based attack detection	—	Yes	Yes
Key escrow	—	Yes	Yes
Quantum-safe migration toolkit	—	—	Yes
Crypto inventory assessment	—	—	Yes
Priority support	—	—	Yes

See the README’s Product Tiers section for the authoritative matrix and runtime activation instructions.