The best way to try Binions is the free tier — and it is also the simplest. There is no separate evaluation build and no countdown: you run the complete platform on one host, free forever, for non-commercial use. This page walks through what the free tier gives you and how to get it running.
The trial is the free tier. Binions has no time-limited “30-day trial” and no cut-down demo version. Trying it simply means using the permanent free tier: one full set on one host, non-commercial, at no cost.
The free tier is the complete platform, not a sample of it. When you install it, you get the whole set — every native daemon (currently 13) running together on one machine. Nothing is locked behind a paid edition.
| What you get | The full set — every native daemon, the same software paying customers run |
| Where it runs | One host — a Raspberry Pi*, a virtual machine, or a server you control |
| What it costs | Free — no credit card, ever |
| How long | Free forever — no expiry and no automatic downgrade |
| The catch | Non-commercial use only, on one host (see below) |
Not a countdown. Once your free set is activated it stays free — there is no clock ticking down and nothing switches off at the end of a trial period. Use it for a weekend or for years; it costs nothing either way.
Getting the free tier running takes you from your account to a working set on your host:
apt. For the full procedure and the exact commands, see Install via apt (single host).One account, one free host. The free tier is one set on one machine. To run Binions on a second host — even for non-commercial use — you add a paid set; see the set licensing model for how hosts are counted.
The free tier is for use that isn’t part of a business or revenue-generating activity. In practice that covers:
Using Binions to run or support a business is commercial use, and that needs a paid licence from the first host. Whether your use is commercial is governed by the licence agreement, on an honour system — Binions does not monitor what your automations do. For where the line sits, see Commercial vs non-commercial use.
Two things move you from free to paid: using Binions commercially, or running it on more than one host. Both are handled the same simple way — you buy a set.
For the free and paid options laid out side by side, see the Plan comparison.
* Raspberry Pi and other 64-bit ARM hardware are supported from the public 1.0 release. Binions is currently in alpha, and the alpha packages are for 64-bit x86 (amd64) only.