The CobolStack price book and partner programme in one place: list prices for SteelFrame, SteelFrame X, AI credit, MCP and API use, VS Code seats, courses, editions, expert services and staged mainframe and IBM i (AS400) modernization; how each product is licensed; and what partners earn when they refer, resell or deliver.
//* LEARN SteelFrame Explorer and the Free course plan cost nothing //* BUILD Developer seat $99 a month · Team instance $12,000 a year //* AI prepaid credit: the model's list price, no markup, + $0.01 an action //* AGENTS MCP reads free · $0.03 a write, compile or run · $0.99 a core-hour //* MODERNIZE fixed price per stage · Assess from $4,900 · no runtime fee, ever //* PARTNERS 10 % referral · Silver 20 % · Gold 30 % · + 5 points on a registered deal
SteelFrame (z/OS-compatible) and SteelFrame X (IBM i-compatible) have the same plans and the same list prices. Individuals start free. Professionals take a named-user seat. Teams take an instance. AI and agent use is billed from the prepaid wallet.
| Plan | List price | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| Explorer | $0 | Your own SteelFrame ID. The 3270 terminal, Studio and jobs by hand. A shared VS Code seat when one is free. $5 of AI credit when you sign up. |
| Developer seat | $99 a month $990 a year | A named user. A reserved VS Code seat. The Studio workbench with debugger, unit tests and SQL views. $10 of AI credit each month. Standard support. |
| Training seat | $29 a seat a month $15 a seat a week | A private, resettable environment for one learner, with lab telemetry. No reserved VS Code seat. Minimum 10 seats. |
| Team instance | $12,000 a year | One dedicated, single-tenant instance. 10 developer seats. Unlimited training and test users on it. Release and upgrade path. Standard support and maintenance. |
| Department | $30,000 a year | Two instances (for example development and test). 25 developer seats. One shop-standard image. |
| Enterprise | from $75,000 a year | Four instances. 60 developer seats. Shop-standard images. Premium support. Larger estates are quoted. |
| Extra developer seat | $79 a month | On a dedicated instance. |
| Project test environment | $6,000 a year $600 a month | An extra instance with no named seats, for integration, UAT, CI and rehearsal. Monthly for a project term. |
| Managed hosting | $199 an instance a month | We run your dedicated instance: monitoring, snapshots, upgrades. Infrastructure is charged at cost plus 20 %. |
| Your cloud or on-premises install | $2,500 once $5,000 air-gapped | Install in your own cloud account or on your premises, the entitlement file and the first upgrade rehearsal. No hosting fee. |
| Premium support | + 25 % of the licence fee | 24 × 5 cover, a named engineer and a faster Sev 2 target. |
On SteelFrame X, Developer seats are sold on a dedicated instance. Support response targets are on the licensing page.
One prepaid wallet per user, in US dollars. Every AI assistant turn and every agent call draws on it. Everything you do by hand in the terminal, Studio or VS Code is free.
| Item | Price | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| AI tokens | The model's list price | Passed through with no markup. |
| Platform fee | $0.01 an action | Each action the assistant performs in a turn. |
| Your own key | $0.01 an action | Tokens are billed to your own key; we charge only the action fee. |
| Credit packs | $10 · $50 · $100 | Prepaid top-ups. |
| Signup credit | $5 | Once, for a new SteelFrame ID. |
| Organisation wallet | Arranged with us | One wallet for a team. Ask us. |
Agents pay per working call from the same wallet; reads are free. The full price list per tool is on the MCP page.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Reads, lists, status, job output | Free |
| A write, compile or run | $0.03 a call |
| Core time on runs | $0.99 a core-hour after the first 10 seconds |
| Compile and run in one call | $0.06 + core time |
| Screen action | $0.01 |
| Failed calls; an identical retry within 60 seconds | Free |
| Daily cap per API key | $5 by default; you can change it |
| Agent Pro plan | $49 a month |
| Committed blocks for organisations | $1,000 (+10 % usage) · $5,000 (+15 % usage) |
| On a dedicated, cloud or on-premises instance | Unmetered |
Agent Pro includes $60 of usage a month and a daily cap of up to $25. Unmetered means inside the instance licence, under fair use; AI tokens still draw on a wallet or your own key.
| Seat | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shared seat | Free | First come, first served; it stops when idle and queues when all seats are busy. |
| Reserved seat for an Explorer | $29 a month | A seat kept for you. |
| Reserved seat in a Developer seat | Included | |
| Seats on a dedicated, cloud or on-premises instance | Included | As many as your hardware runs. |
Free to learn. Pay for review, grading and the graded certificate; subscribe for everything; cohorts are priced per trainee. The course catalog lists every course.
| Plan | Price | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| Free individual | $0 | The training environment, progress tracking, support and Q&A, and a completion certificate. |
| Paid individual | $249 a course, once | Code review with suggestions, extra exercises, grading of your work and priority support. |
| Paid individual, modernization track (CS500–CS550) | $349 a course, once | The same, on the modernization track. |
| All-access pass | $49 a month $399 a year | The paid features on every self-paced course. |
| Level-zero path | $499 | CS100, CS105 and CS110 on the paid plan. |
| Team learning licence | $299 a learner a year | All-access with admin reports and LMS export. Minimum 10 learners. |
| Mainframe Developer bootcamp | $2,900 a trainee | 4–5 weeks, instructor-led. Minimum 8 trainees. |
| IBM i Developer bootcamp | $1,400 a trainee | 2 weeks, instructor-led. Minimum 8 trainees. |
| One-week intensive | $900 a trainee | Seam, ISO 20022 or DevOps. Minimum 8 trainees. |
| Operations courses (CS400–CS470) | $350 a trainee a day | 2–3 days. Minimum 6 trainees. |
| Custom estate curriculum | $4,000 design fee | Then the per-trainee price. |
| Course vouchers | 20 % · 30 % · 40 % off | For partners and schools: 10 or more at 20 % off, 50 or more at 30 %, 200 or more at 40 %. |
Paid enrollment is opening soon; the Free plan is open now. The completion certificate stays free and there is no exam fee. The paid plan's graded certificate is the certification the partner programme asks for.
| Edition | Price |
|---|---|
| SteelFrame / SteelFrame X, dedicated and hosted by us | The instance plans above + managed hosting |
| SteelFrame / SteelFrame X in your own cloud account | The instance plans above + $2,500 install |
| SteelFrame / SteelFrame X on-premises, air-gapped | The instance plans above + $5,000 install, with an offline entitlement file |
| White-label / MSP (a partner hosts for its own clients, under its own name) | 40 % off list on seats and instances · $24,000 a year minimum · brand pack $10,000 a year · the partner gives first-line support |
| Shop-standard image | $8,000 once, then included in upgrades |
| Conformance bench (ISO 20022 rig) | $2,500 a month |
Fixed scope, fixed price, quoted before work starts. See engagements.
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Modernization approach assessment | The Assess stage price (below) |
| Migration verification | $15,000 for one application up to 100,000 lines · $60 per extra 1,000 lines |
| ISO 20022 conformance assessment | $12,000 · the bench at $2,500 a month |
| Pre-cutover rehearsal | $10,000 a rehearsal, plus the environment licence |
| Seam assessment | $7,500 |
| AI-assisted outsourcing, non-production only | A fixed price per work package, built from the rate card |
| Rate card for anything else | $1,400 a day (principal) · $900 a day (engineer) |
A fixed price per stage, approved by the client before the stage starts. Batch prices are re-set from the measured cost of the batches before them. Until a programme has run, these are opening ranges; each stage's price is confirmed after the Assess stage. How the stages work: the modernization guide.
| Stage | Priced by | List price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Assess | Fixed, by estate size | $4,900 up to 250,000 lines · $9,900 up to 1 million · $19,900 up to 5 million · quoted above | Sold on its own. Half is credited against the Pilot if it is signed within 90 days. A decision spike is + $2,500 each. |
| 2 Framework | Fixed, per target platform | $15,000 – $40,000 | The questionnaire, the Programme Profile and the walking skeleton. |
| 3 Tooling | Fixed, from the census | $10,000 – $35,000 | Scales with the number of layout and artefact classes. |
| 4 Pilot | Fixed, by slice | $25,000 – $60,000 for a slice up to 25,000 lines | Ends in go, re-scope or stop, with measured costs. |
| 5 Batch | Per line converted and proven, plus per screen | $0.60 – $1.50 a line · $150 – $400 a screen | Each batch is priced before it starts. |
| 6 Performance | Fixed, per round | $12,000 – $30,000 | Optional. May repeat. |
| 7 Acceptance | Fixed | $20,000 – $50,000 | Full regression, SIT, security tests, UAT support. |
| 8 Parallel run | Per cycle-month | $8,000 – $15,000 a month | Plus a test-environment licence for the period. |
| 9 Cutover | Fixed, per release | $15,000 – $40,000 | Runbook, rehearsals, final migration. |
| 10 Hypercare | Per month | $6,000 – $12,000 a month, 1–3 months | Bounded defect fixing and knowledge transfer. |
| 11 Close | Fixed | $5,000 | Archive, evidence pack, deletion of client data. |
Converted code is the client's and runs with no runtime fee. Production runtime licences are not offered. An optional Assurance subscription, 15 % of the conversion fees a year, keeps the equivalence harness live, replays the regression on each change and fixes defects in converted code.
| Resell | Powered by SteelFrame | |
|---|---|---|
| Who delivers | We deliver the stages; the partner sells them | The partner delivers, running our stage engine, and signs the client |
| What the partner earns or pays | Earns 15 % (Silver) or 20 % (Gold) of the stage price; 25 % on a registered Gold deal. Registered partners earn the 10 % referral fee | Pays an engine fee of 35 % of our list stage price, plus AI usage, and sets its own price |
| Evidence pack | Ours, signed off stage by stage | Carries "Powered by SteelFrame" |
| Tier | Silver and Gold | Gold |
| Licence | Who buys it | Term | Price before partner discount | What it allows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Developer seat | Partner, for its own staff | Monthly, 1 year or 3 years | $99 a month | Development and test work for the partner and for named client projects |
| Project test environment | Partner or client | Project term (monthly) or 1 year | $600 a month · $6,000 a year | Integration, UAT, CI and rehearsal for one named project |
| Practice instance (a Team instance for a partner) | Partner | 1 or 3 years | $12,000 a year | Demos, training of the partner's staff and delivery for several clients; each client's code stays in its own instance or project space |
| Client instance (resold) | Client, through the partner | 1 or 3 years | List price | The client's own continuing use after the project |
| Modernization engine, Powered by SteelFrame | Partner | Per stage | 35 % of our list stage price + AI usage | The partner runs our stage engine and signs the client |
| Conversion runtime | — | — | $0 | Converted code is the client's; no fee to run it |
| Assurance | Client or partner | 1 year | 15 % of the conversion fees paid | The equivalence harness stays live, regression replays on each change, fixes to converted-code defects |
| MSP / white-label addendum | Partner | 1 or 3 years | 40 % off list · $24,000 a year minimum · brand pack | The partner may host for third parties under its own name |
| Demo licence (NFR) | Partner | While in the programme | Free | Demos and training of the partner's own staff only; never client work |
Three tiers. There is no programme fee. Discounts apply to list prices.
| Registered | Silver | Gold | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to join | Sign the partner agreement | Meet the requirements below | Meet the requirements below |
| Programme fee | None | None | None |
| Model | Referral | Resale | Resale, Powered by SteelFrame, MSP |
| Referral fee (first-year value of products; first stage of services) | 10 % | 10 % | 10 % |
| Resale discount: seats, instances, test environments | — | 20 % | 30 % |
| Deal registration bonus (new client, approved, 120 days' protection) | — | + 5 points | + 5 points |
| Renewal discount | — | 10 % | 15 % |
| Modernization stages and expert services, resell margin | 10 % referral | 15 % | 20 %; 25 % on a registered deal |
| Course vouchers | 20 % off from 10 | 30 % off from 50 | 40 % off from 200 |
| Certified people | 1 within 90 days | 2 | 5, with 2 on the modernization track |
| Minimum yearly business | None | $25,000 at list, or one delivered project | $100,000 at list |
| Demo licences (NFR) | 1 hosted developer seat · $25 AI credit a month | 3 seats · a demo estate · $100 AI credit a month | A dedicated demo instance · 10 seats · $300 AI credit a month |
| Staff training | 50 % off paid courses | 50 % off paid courses | Free all-access for certified staff |
| Marketing funds | — | — | 2 % of the partner's paid sales, for agreed joint activity |
| Partner manager | — | Shared | Named |
| White-label / MSP addendum | — | — | Eligible |
COBOLStack graded certificates are the certification. Graded certificates come with the paid course plan.
May: developer seats, instances, test environments, training seats, course vouchers, AI credit and agent capacity (as an organisation wallet), our modernization stages (Resell), its own modernization services built on our engine (Powered by SteelFrame) and expert services under subcontract.
May not: host our software for third parties without the MSP addendum; sell or imply production use; promise a technology that is not in the support matrix; quote a price for services before we quote; use demo licences on client work.
A Silver partner wins a bank's test project: a Team instance ($12,000), two project test environments for six months (2 × 6 × $600 = $7,200) and five extra seats for a year (5 × 12 × $79 = $4,740). List is $23,940. With 20 % plus 5 points for a registered deal, the partner pays $17,955 and keeps $5,985, and sells its own project days on top.
Custom software, Coding Tutor and the modernization of older Windows systems are sold by Agile System Software: see agilesystemsoftware.com/partners.
Tell us which tier you want, the products you sell and the clients you serve. A person answers within one business day, Manila/Singapore hours.