Posit’s commercial server products form a chain. Posit Workbench hosts development sessions for data scientists, Posit Connect publishes and shares the resulting applications, reports and APIs, and Posit Package Manager serves the R and Python packages. The Software License Descriptions (SLD) say Workbench lets data scientists develop in RStudio Pro, Jupyter Lab and Code OSS user sessions and is licensed on the number of Named Users and Servers.[1] The licensing basis differs by product, and so do the capacity limits.
Editions
All three products come in Basic, Enhanced and Advanced tiers. Posit Team is the bundle of the three, bought as Team Enhanced or Team Advanced.[1]
| Product | Basic | Enhanced | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workbench | One Server, one Disaster Recovery and one Staging Server activation[1] | Two of each[1] | Unlimited Server activations[1] |
| Connect | One Server, one DR, one Staging activation[1] | Two of each; API content types[1] | Unrestricted Servers, Staging Servers and DR activations[1] |
| Package Manager | Per Server: one Server, DR and Staging activation; three Repositories[1] | Two Servers, two DR, two Staging; ten Repositories[1] | Unrestricted Servers and Staging Servers; unlimited Repositories[1] |
The pricing page puts user capacity beside those tiers: Basic supports up to 10 developers and 50 viewers, Enhanced up to 100 developers and 500 viewers, and Advanced as many as needed, with pricing based on the number of named users the organization requires.[2] The individual-product pages say Workbench Basic is for up to 10 users and Enhanced up to 100, and Connect Basic for up to 50 consumers and Enhanced up to 500.[3] The SLD itself states entitlements in Named Users and servers and not in these capacity figures, so a licence manager should check the Order Form for the contracted Named User count. Catalog SKUs: Posit Workbench Basic, Posit Workbench Enhanced, Posit Workbench Advanced, Posit Connect Basic, Posit Connect Enhanced, Posit Connect Advanced, Posit Package Manager Basic, Posit Package Manager Enhanced, Posit Package Manager Advanced, Posit Team Enhanced and Posit Team Advanced. Catalog rules: Tier pages state capacity in developers and viewers, Workbench is licensed on Named Users and Servers and Package Manager tiers cap servers and repositories.
Metrics
Workbench and Connect are counted in Named Users: a particular individual given server credentials who must log in, with Anonymous Users excluded.[1] Package Manager is licensed per server and bounded by Repositories. Server counts are expressed as Server activations of three kinds: production Server, Staging Server and Disaster Recovery.[1]
Counting on Posit Connect
Connect’s licensing turns on who can see what. Connect is licensed on a Named User basis up to the number in the subscription, and Anonymous Users cannot upload data or content but may use Connect and access content that is not Server-Controlled Content.[1] The SLD defines the content types as follows.
| Content type | SLD definition |
|---|---|
| Static Content | Content with no hosted server component for a viewer, such as plots, pins, HTML and documents published without server-executed code[1] |
| Rendered Content | Content with no hosted server component for a viewer, published with source so it can be re-executed on Connect, for example Quarto documents, R Markdown documents and Jupyter Notebooks without a Shiny component[1] |
| Interactive Content | Content with a hosted server component, including interactive applications and request-based API frameworks[1] |
| Server-Controlled Content | Content that can only be made available to Named Users[1] |
| Network-Controlled Content | Content that can be shared openly on an internal or private network with Anonymous Users[1] |
| Public-Access Content | Content accessible to anyone on the public internet with no authentication[1] |
In Basic and Enhanced, Static and Rendered Content may be set to Network-Controlled so that Anonymous Users can view it; Basic applies “Powered by Posit Connect” branding to such content and Enhanced does not. Interactive Content is always Server-Controlled and may be accessed only by Named Users.[1] Enhanced adds publishing of API content types.[1] These rules are why a viewer count is not simply a headcount: an employee who only opens interactive content needs a Named User licence, while anonymous viewing of static reports on a private network does not consume one.
Public Access
Basic, Enhanced and Advanced are not intended for Public-Access Content. Posit sells Enhanced Public Access and Advanced Public Access, which add the entitlement to designate content as Public-Access Content, subject to Public-Access Content Verification.[1] Under verification, Connect sends an electronic message to Posit and the content is made public once confirmation arrives; without it the content does not render for Anonymous Users.[1] Catalog: Public-Access Content needs a Public Access licence and verification, Anonymous Users may view non-server-controlled Connect content but not upload, Posit Connect is licensed on a Named User basis up to the subscription number and Connect Basic includes one set of activations; Enhanced two; Advanced unrestricted. The SKUs are Posit Connect Enhanced Public Access and Posit Connect Advanced Public Access.
Posit Team bundles
Posit Team Enhanced bundles Workbench Enhanced, Connect Enhanced and Package Manager Enhanced; Team Advanced bundles the Advanced versions. The same licence terms apply whether bought as a bundle or separately, and the bundle allows the identical entitlements, Named User counts and Server counts as the underlying products. Software in a Team subscription must be purchased on the same Order Form with the same term and start and end dates.[1] Catalog: Posit Team components must share one Order Form and term.
Virtualization and partitioning
The EULA lets the Software run in virtual machines on hardware the customer owns, leases or controls, including a third-party host, and bars using virtualization to circumvent licence terms.[4] Basic Staging and Disaster Recovery activations are included for non-production use, but a staging server is for testing only and a Disaster Recovery licence may not be used for active-active operation or business continuity.[1] Production load balancing or high availability needs the higher tiers; the pricing page lists two production and two staging instances for Enhanced.[2] Catalog: Disaster Recovery licences are not for business continuity or active-active use.
Cloud and BYOL
Posit’s licensing documentation says marketplace offers not explicitly marked Bring Your Own License are licensed differently from direct purchases, BYOL offers follow the regular activation steps, and Workbench purchased for Google Cloud Workstations or AzureML uses platform-specific keys.[8] Activating Posit Team products in the Posit Team Native App in Snowflake needs an Advanced tier license file.[8] Workbench on Amazon SageMaker is licensed per named user with licences not returned to a pool, and Positron on SageMaker needs a Workbench Advanced licence.[9] Catalog: Marketplace purchases not marked BYOL are licensed differently, The Posit Team Native App in Snowflake needs an Advanced tier licence file and Workbench on Amazon SageMaker is licensed per named user and seats are not pooled.
Programs
Posit’s academic page describes free professional products for instructors in a classroom setting, 25% off annual subscriptions for instructors, researchers or staff, and academic pricing by quote for institutions that install commercial products on their own servers.[5] The SLD’s Education License limits use to educational purposes.[1] The small and medium business page offers discounts on Workbench, Connect, Package Manager and Team bundles for businesses up to USD 5 million annual revenue and operating budgets of USD 10 million or less, subject to documentation, displaying “Powered by Posit and Shiny” on public Shiny sites, accepting the click-through licence, ordering online by credit card and repeating annually.[6] Customers may also buy the Posit Team Dedicated Service Offering, a managed service run by named Posit staff for software in the customer’s own cloud, which requires a separate software licence and renews for successive 12-month periods unless the Order Form says otherwise.[7] Catalog: Posit academic pricing, Posit small and medium business discount and Posit Team Dedicated Service Offering.
Lifecycle
Posit discontinued support for Shiny Server Pro on March 31, 2026, and advises customers to consider migrating to Posit Connect; Shiny Server Open Source remains available.[8] Catalog: Shiny Server Pro support ended on 2026-03-31.
Out of scope
This article does not cover licence key and file mechanics, which are in Posit license activation, keys and files, the open-source IDEs, or the Posit Cloud and Connect Cloud hosted services. It does not give prices for the server tiers, which Posit does not publish.