HeliosDB pricing depends on the edition. HeliosDB Nano and HeliosProxy are free to self-host under Apache 2.0, and managed Nano Cloud offers a Free plan at $0/mo, Starter at $9/mo, Pro at $49/mo and an Enterprise plan. HeliosDB Lite self-hosted licensing is quoted by sales, and HeliosDB Full is custom-priced on an annual contract; both are licensed SSPL-1.0.
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Embedded database with full SQL, vector search, and PostgreSQL compatibility. Available as Cloud managed service.
The shared SQL core, vector search, branching and time travel, plus HeliosProxy and HeliosCore. Connection pooling, load balancing, and advanced routing.
Enterprise platform with seven database wire protocols plus an HTTP gateway with vector stores and agent memory. GPU acceleration (NVIDIA CUDA) in builds on request; in-database ML, clustering and multi-primary replication are planned.
Nano Cloud costs $0/mo on the Free plan, $9/mo on Starter and $49/mo on Pro, with an Enterprise plan through sales. Nano Cloud is HeliosDB Cloud, the managed service for HeliosDB Nano. Cloud accounts use a business email address, and Starter and Pro have no trial period.
| Feature | Free | Starter $9/mo | Pro $49/mo | Enterprise Contact sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Databases | 3 / 4 | 5 | 20 | Custom |
| Storage | 500 MB / 1 GB | 1 GB | 10 GB | Custom |
| Connections | 5 / 10 | 20 | 100 | Custom |
| Vector Storage | 50K / 100K | 100K | 1M | Custom |
| API Requests/mo | 50K / 100K | 100K | 1M | Custom |
| Time-Travel Retention | 7 / 14 days | 30 days | 90 days | Custom |
| Encryption | AES-256-GCM encryption at rest + zero-knowledge encryption | AES-256-GCM encryption at rest, all encryption modes | AES-256-GCM encryption at rest, all encryption modes | AES-256-GCM encryption at rest, all encryption modes |
| SLA | — | 99.5% | 99.9% | 99.99% |
| Support | Community | Priority | Dedicated |
Free column: a Cloud account after email verification / after a product feedback session. Accounts that agents create through the BaaS API start at the Instant level below.
The Free plan has three levels. Accounts that agents and scripts create through the BaaS API start at the Instant level; verifying the email address and completing a product feedback session unlock the next two. Cloud accounts at cloud.heliosdb.com are for business email addresses (personal mailbox domains such as gmail.com, yahoo.com and outlook.com are not accepted) and start at the Verified level once the email address is verified.
| Free level | Instant (API signup) | Verified | Feedback given |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlock by | BaaS API signup | Verify email | Give feedback |
| Storage | 100 MB | 500 MB | 1 GB |
| Databases | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Connections | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| Vectors | 10K | 50K | 100K |
| API Requests/mo | 10K | 50K | 100K |
| Time-Travel Retention | 7 days | 7 days | 14 days |
Provision instantly with a single quick-start API call. Explore the BaaS API →
All three editions share the SQL core and vector search (in Full through the HTTP vector-store API); Nano and Lite run time-travel queries and branches, which are planned for Full. Lite adds HeliosProxy and the HeliosCore storage engine, and Full adds the multi-protocol enterprise platform. The table compares Nano, Lite and Full at a high level.
| Feature | Nano | Lite | Full |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Database | |||
| Full SQL (DDL/DML/DQL) | |||
| PostgreSQL Wire Protocol | |||
| ACID Transactions (MVCC) | |||
| JSONB Support | |||
| Time-Travel Queries | Planned | ||
| Database Branching | Planned | ||
| Vector & AI | |||
| HNSW Vector Index | HTTP vector-store API; SQL indexes planned | ||
| Product Quantization | Planned | ||
| NL-to-SQL / AI Query | Planned | Planned | |
| GPU Acceleration | — | — | CUDA builds on request |
| AI-Native Retrieval | |||
CREATE EXTENSION hdb_code · SQL-callable LSP | Source build | Planned | Planned |
WITH CONTEXT SQL clause · Graph-RAG | Source build | Planned | Planned |
| Native MCP server (HTTP / WS / SSE; stdio via CodeKB MCP) | Source build | Planned | Planned |
| Eight ingestion adapters (incl. Docling: PDF / Office / audio / image) | Source build | Planned | Planned |
| In-process embedder (fastembed-rs + BGESmallENV15) | Source build | Planned | Planned |
helios_lsp_rename_apply · write-side refactor | Source build | Planned | Planned |
| Security & Encryption | |||
| AES-256-GCM TDE | Off until enabled with a key | Planned | |
| Zero-Knowledge Encryption | Planned | — | |
| FIPS 140-3 build mode | Opt-in build | Opt-in build | Planned |
| Row-Level Security | Embedded API / REPL; wire and REST planned | Planned | |
| SOC 2 / HIPAA Audit Toolkit | Planned | ||
| Infrastructure & High Availability | |||
| HeliosProxy (connection pooling, routing) | Works with (separate, Apache 2.0) | Bundled | Works with (separate, Apache 2.0) |
| HeliosCore (storage engine) | — | ||
| Streaming Replication | WAL streaming, warm standby | ha-tier1 build | Planned |
| HA / Failover | Warm standby, manual switchover | Warm standby (ha-tier1 build); automatic failover planned | Planned |
| Enterprise Platform (Full Only) | |||
| Distributed MVCC | — | — | Planned |
| MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra and SQL Server listeners | — | — | MongoDB, Cassandra and SQL Server reads and writes planned |
| 7 Foreign Data Wrappers | — | — | Planned |
| DocumentStore API (MongoDB-compatible) | — | — | Planned |
| Change Streams | — | — | Planned |
| Quantum-Inspired Optimization | — | — | Planned |
| AI & Automation (Add-ons) | |||
| AI Support | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
| AI-DBA Agent | — | Add-on | Add-on |
| Deployment | |||
| Embedded Library | — (server only) | ||
| Managed Cloud | Coming soon | Coming soon | |
| Self-Hosted Server | |||
Each add-on is billed monthly: $2/mo per extra 1 GB of storage, $5/mo per extra 100K API requests, $3/mo per extra database and $10/mo for a dedicated IP. Use them to scale beyond your plan limits, pay as you go.
AI Support is free on Cloud, with on-premises use through sales; the AI-DBA Agent for Lite and Full is sold through sales. Both add intelligent support or autonomous administration to your HeliosDB deployment.
AI-powered knowledge assistant trained on HeliosDB docs. Instant answers with ready-to-run SQL examples.
Autonomous database administration with proactive monitoring, self-healing, anomaly detection, and performance optimization.
It depends on the edition. Nano Cloud, the managed service, has a Free plan at $0/mo, Starter at $9/mo, Pro at $49/mo and an Enterprise plan through sales. HeliosDB Nano and HeliosProxy are free to self-host under Apache 2.0, and Lite and Full are licensed through sales.
A Cloud account, opened with a business email address (personal mailbox domains such as gmail.com, yahoo.com and outlook.com are not accepted), starts on the Free plan after email verification with 3 databases, 500 MB of storage, 5 connections, 50K vectors, 50K API requests a month and 7 days of time-travel retention; completing a product feedback session raises it to 4 databases, 1 GB, 10 connections, 100K vectors, 100K API requests and 14 days. Accounts that agents create through the BaaS API start at 1 database, 100 MB, 5 connections, 10K vectors and 10K API requests until the email address is verified. Every level includes AES-256-GCM encryption at rest and zero-knowledge encryption.
Starter ($9/mo) gives 5 databases, 1 GB of storage, 20 connections, 100K vectors and 100K API requests a month, 30-day time-travel retention and a 99.5% SLA. Pro ($49/mo) gives 20 databases, 10 GB, 100 connections, 1M vectors and 1M requests, 90-day retention and a 99.9% SLA, with a dedicated database file per organization. Both include all encryption modes.
No. Starter ($9/mo) and Pro ($49/mo) have no trial period; you subscribe through checkout in the console. To try Nano Cloud, start on the Free plan and change plan when you need more.
Add pay-as-you-go add-ons: $2/mo for each extra 1 GB of storage, $5/mo for each extra 100K API requests, $3/mo for each extra database and $10/mo for a dedicated IP address. For larger needs, the Enterprise plan sets custom limits for databases, storage, connections, vectors and API requests.
Yes. HeliosDB Nano is licensed Apache 2.0, a permissive open-source license, so you can run the embedded library or the self-hosted server on your own infrastructure at no cost. HeliosProxy is also Apache 2.0. The paid Nano Cloud plans are for the managed service.
Both are source-available under SSPL-1.0 and licensed through sales. Lite is sold as self-hosted licensing quoted by sales@heliosdb.com, and Full has custom pricing on an annual contract. A managed cloud service for Lite and Full is listed as coming soon.
Yes. AI Support, the assistant trained on HeliosDB documentation, is free on Cloud and available for every edition; on-premises use is through sales. The AI-DBA Agent, for autonomous database administration, is available for Lite and Full through sales.
The Free plan has no SLA. Starter includes a 99.5% SLA with email support, Pro a 99.9% SLA with priority support, and Enterprise a 99.99% SLA with dedicated support. Paid plans also keep time-travel history longer than the Free plan's 7 days (14 after the feedback session): 30 days on Starter, 90 on Pro and custom on Enterprise.
Start free with Nano Cloud or contact us for Lite and Full edition licensing.