Camunda 8 SaaS is the Camunda 8 platform hosted and operated by Camunda. Customers create an organization in the Camunda Console and deploy clusters in it. The documentation lists two plans in Console: a free trial, described as creating a free account to try Camunda in Camunda’s cloud, and an Enterprise plan described as made for high-volume automation and hosted by Camunda.[10] The contract set is broader than the plan list. The Trial and Free Terms cover the trial and a free plan, the Starter Terms cover a monthly plan paid by credit card, and the General Terms for Camunda Enterprise, Exhibit C, cover the Enterprise subscription.[1][2][3] Camunda’s pricing page lists SaaS with a 30-day free trial and says the Console and Modeler components are hosted in the EU, with clusters creatable in other regions.[9] See subscription and consumption licensing for the general models.
Plans
| Plan | Terms | Use | Fee basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camunda Trial | Trial and Free Terms[3] | Internal, non-productive; 30 days from registration[3] | None; usage during the trial is never billed[9] |
| Camunda Free | Trial and Free Terms[3] | Internal, non-productive, BPMN and DMN modeling only[3] | None |
| Camunda Starter | Starter Terms[2] | Production in SaaS within the licence scope, Usage Metrics and Hosting Packages[2] | Monthly Base Fee plus Monthly Consumption Fee[2] |
| Camunda SaaS Enterprise | General Terms, Exhibit C[1] | Production within the Permitted Usage and Hosting Packages[1] | Annual fees in advance[1] |
Trial and Free
The evaluation period is thirty days from and including the registration date, unless otherwise agreed. A user who has used the trial and not bought Starter or Enterprise is automatically granted Camunda Free when the trial expires, using the same trial account.[3] Both grant a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right for internal and non-productive purposes, and for Free the right is further limited to BPMN and DMN modeling. The terms prohibit use in a production environment or on any deployed system, including commercial, for-profit or publicly accessible systems and revenue-generating use, and they bar benchmarking, penetration testing and building a competing product. The pricing page describes the free account after the trial as limited to modeling.[9] Alpha Offerings can be offered at no charge for evaluation only. They are unsupported, may carry additional terms, and clusters running them cannot be updated; they must be deleted and replaced to receive later versions.[3]
Starter
The Starter Terms define four Usage Metrics, organized in tiers: process instances, decision instances, task users and general users. They also define Hosting Packages as reserved CPU cores, gigabytes of RAM and gigabytes of storage.[2] The customer pays a Monthly Base Fee in advance, and pays a Monthly Consumption Fee in arrears for Usage Metrics used or Hosting Packages reserved beyond those included in the base fee. The base fee and fees for extra Hosting Packages follow the subscription purchased and the reservations made, not actual usage. The consumption fee for additional Usage Metrics follows actual usage.[2] Payment is by credit card, and fee changes take effect from the next Renewal Term after prior written notice. The included quantities and the technical limits are in a Price List and a Technical Limits and Fair Usage Policy that the terms reference but do not reproduce.
Metrics
The usage documentation states which metrics apply: customers on the current pricing model are billed on process instances and tenants, and customers still on the legacy 2023 to 2025 model are billed on process instances, decision instances and task users.[4]
- Process instance (PI). The Enterprise terms define it as the technical execution of a BPMN process definition in the workflow engine, independent of status, with instances invoked by call activities not counted separately.[1] The usage documentation counts root process instances, meaning top-level executions with no parent.[4] Under Starter, executions in both productive and non-productive environments count, except those in Development Clusters.[2]
- Decision instance (DI). The execution of a DMN decision model such as a decision table. In a decision requirements diagram each evaluated decision is counted separately.[2]
- Task user (TU). A distinct string assigned to a user task in the Camunda history, counted once however many tasks it is assigned during the Subscription Term.[2]
- General user (GU). Any user who is part of the organization on the Starter plan, needed to open the web applications.[2]
- Tenant. A logically isolated environment with separate data, configuration and user permissions. The usage documentation reports active tenants and, where available, a per-tenant breakdown.[1][4]
- STP Tenant. A Straight Through Processing tenant for processes of under 30 seconds without task users, bought separately as a subscription upgrade.[1]
An Owner or Admin of the organization retrieves the figures from the Billing page under Organization management.[4] The usage history, visible only to owners and admins for Trial, Enterprise and Starter organizations, splits into a table view of production-cluster data aggregated monthly and a chart view of production and development cluster data.[7] Usage alerts apply only to production clusters. An owner or admin sets a percentage threshold between 1% and 4999% of the amount included in the plan, usage is calculated daily, and all owners and admins are alerted by email and in-app notification when it is reached.[6]
Camunda SaaS Enterprise
Exhibit C grants a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right to use Camunda SaaS Enterprise within the Permitted Usage and the Hosting Packages, during the Subscription Term.[1] The Permitted Usage is the number of PI, Tenants and STP Tenants plus any defined License Scope in the Order Form. The customer registers an account and answers for all activity under it.[1]
The use restrictions prohibit using the service for benchmarking, competitive analysis or developing competing products, making it available to a Third Party except as permitted, selling, reselling, renting or offering service-bureau or time-sharing arrangements based on it, and reverse engineering it. The customer indemnifies Camunda for third-party claims arising from violation of the restrictions on harmful code, unlawful content, and benchmarking or competing use.[1] Camunda may suspend access, or upgrade the version of the service, if it reasonably determines that the customer violated the agreement, poses a material security risk or uses an unsupported version. The Camunda 8 release policy adds that Camunda reserves the right to force an update or restart of a cluster immediately and without notice for a critical security or stability issue.[11]
Hosting Packages and reservations
A Hosting Package is the Basic, Standard or Advanced hosting capability reserved under the Order Form.[1] On the Enterprise plan the Billing page shows the process instances created in the current period, a monthly history, and how many hardware packages are included. Reservations control how many clusters can be deployed: more reservations allow more clusters.[5] The upgrade path from the free trial is a request for a quote on the Plans and pricing tab of Organization management.[12]
When creating a cluster the user selects a type and size, assigns a tag for dev, test, stage or prod, a region and a release channel. The documentation says tags have no impact on performance, and that access control defaults differ by tag.[8] The contract distinguishes Development Clusters, defined as clusters used for development and non-production purposes. They are provided as-is, without warranty, indemnification or liability, and are outside the availability targets.[1]
Availability targets and service credits
The Orchestration Cluster has an availability target set by Hosting Package, and the Management Cluster has a 99% target. Credits are a percentage of the Total Monthly Fee, defined as one twelfth of the annual fees.[1]
| Hosting Package | Availability target | Credit tiers (percent of Total Monthly Fee) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 99% | 1.5% (below 99% to 98.5%); 3% (below 98.5% to 98.0%); 4.5% (below 98.0%)[1] |
| Standard | 99.5% | 3% (below 99.5% to 99.25%); 4.5% (below 99.25% to 99.0%); 6% (below 99.0%)[1] |
| Advanced | 99.9% | 4.5% (below 99.9% to 99.8%); 6% (below 99.8% to 99.7%); 7.5% (below 99.7%)[1] |
To claim a credit the customer must log a support ticket within five calendar days after the end of the month, with the Cluster ID and a description of the downtime. Claims are ineligible if fees are outstanding. Credits are the sole and exclusive remedy for unavailability, cannot be redeemed for cash and expire twelve months after issue.[1] Targets do not apply to Development Clusters, Alpha Offerings or clusters on an unsupported version.
Data and telemetry
Under Exhibit C the service collects Telemetry Data, including information on browsers, clients and API calls, and the customer consents to its collection and use to provide and improve the service and for support. Where the Enterprise terms’ AI provisions apply, Customer Content may be disclosed to AI Service Providers that Camunda selects.[1] Where the Data Act applies, a separate addendum governs and a customer who terminates under it is refunded fees paid in advance for the period after termination, less costs Camunda saves.
Out of scope
This article does not cover Self-Managed licensing, the dollar or euro price of any plan, the Price List referenced in the Starter Terms, regions and cross-region recovery, or Camunda’s support plans (see Camunda Enterprise terms, support and partner programs).