Open Source
$0 /forever
Self-hosted on your infrastructure
- All features included
- Unlimited sites
- Unlimited users
- Full source code access
- Community support
- MIT License
Pricing
Aether is open source and free forever. You only pay for the infrastructure you choose to run it on.
Static Hosting
~$35 /month
Recommended for most sites
- S3 or CloudFlare Pages
- Global CDN delivery
- Automatic SSL
- 100K+ AI requests
- Unlimited bandwidth*
- 99.99% uptime
Enterprise Scale
~$310 /month
High-volume, high-performance
- GPU-accelerated AI
- 10M+ AI requests
- Multi-region deployment
- Custom SLAs
- Priority support
- Dedicated infrastructure
*Within typical CDN fair-use policies. Actual costs depend on your cloud provider.
AI Cost Comparison
The CHAI architecture delivers enterprise AI at a fraction of API costs.
| Monthly AI Requests | Aether (CHAI) | GPT-4 API | Claude API | Your Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $35 | $30 | $45 | -15% to 22% |
| 100,000 | $35 | $300 | $450 | 88% to 92% |
| 500,000 | $85 | $1,500 | $2,250 | 94% to 96% |
| 1,000,000 | $85 | $3,000 | $4,500 | 97% to 98% |
| 10,000,000 | $310 | $30,000 | $45,000 | 99% |
How does CHAI save so much?
CHAI uses specialized Small Language Models running on your own infrastructure instead of external API calls. Each model is fine-tuned for one task, delivering better results with smaller, cheaper models. Fixed infrastructure costs mean you pay the same whether you make 100K or 1M requests.
Infrastructure Cost Breakdown
Typical monthly costs for running Aether on AWS.
| Component | Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static Hosting (S3) | $5 | $10 | $25 |
| CDN (CloudFront) | $10 | $25 | $75 |
| Admin API (Lambda) | $5 | $15 | $50 |
| AI Compute (CPU) | $15 | $35 | - |
| AI Compute (GPU) | - | - | $160 |
| Database | $0* | $0* | $0* |
| Total | ~$35/mo | ~$85/mo | ~$310/mo |
*Aether uses static JSON files for content storage by default. No database required.
Compare to Traditional CMS
Enterprise CMS platforms charge per-seat, per-site, or percentage-of-revenue fees.
| Platform | Typical Annual Cost | Per-Site Fees | AI Included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aether | $420 - $3,720 | None | Yes (CHAI) |
| Contentful | $3,600 - $100,000+ | Yes | Extra cost |
| Sanity | $1,188 - $18,000+ | Dataset limits | Extra cost |
| Sitecore | $40,000 - $200,000+ | Yes | Extra cost |
| Adobe Experience Manager | $250,000+ | Yes | Extra cost |
No License Fees. Ever.
Aether is MIT licensed. Use it for any purpose, commercial or otherwise. Your only costs are the infrastructure you choose to run it on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Aether really free?
Yes. Aether is open source under the MIT license. You only pay for the cloud infrastructure you choose to host it on.
What about support?
Community support is available through GitHub. Enterprise support options are available from Senu Media and partners.
Can I use external AI APIs?
Yes. CHAI supports multiple providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and local models. Mix and match as needed.
What about scaling?
Static output scales infinitely on CDNs. The admin layer scales horizontally with Simplex's distributed architecture.