Our pricing is kinda complicated as discussed before[0]. We're working on simplifying things.

Here's a list of features[1] which hopefully are clearer about what you get on what plans.

Where things get complex is that we sell both features/support and hosting, and you can buy both, either or neither from us. Our hosting isn't multi-tenant SaaS, but rather dedicated infrastructure providing network and database level isolation. That means what we offer is different than say a Stytch that offers a multi-tenant logical isolation.

Most folks that are price conscious run it themselves on EC2 or Render or elsewhere[2].

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41269197

1: https://fusionauth.io/feature-list

2: Here's render instructions: https://fusionauth.io/blog/fusionauth-on-render

However, the paywall (for all of these auth services) ends up being quite steep for the couple features that matter for a non-hobby app, such as custom domain name and MFA (totp or hooking up to an external SMS service). Unfortunately it makes these features expensive when you are starting out (paying ~$40 a month for only a handful of users, sort of thing...).

It is nice to see more and more of these services allow you to take out your data and migrate though - including the self-hosted options. Being vendor-locked for your user account data is a really big deal in my opinion. It often means having zero good options if the vendor decides to rake you over the coals one day.