Is Unity not free anymore?
As a passionate game developer and Unity expert, I get asked this question a lot: "Is Unity not free anymore?"
It‘s an important question for indie devs with tight budgets. The short answer is yes, Unity still has a completely free Personal edition! But once your revenue hits $100K, you need to purchase a Plus or Pro license.
In this detailed guide, I‘ll break down exactly how Unity is licensed and monetized now, so you can make the best choice for YOUR games. Buckle up for some juicy analysis!
Unity Personal Edition
The Personal tier has everything you need to develop and publish commercial 2D/3D games, up to a $100K annual revenue limit. Meaning if your games make less than 100K each year, you pay nothing to Unity. Nada. Zilch!
Even mega-hits like Escape from Tarkov and CrossCode were made with Personal. Here are the key capabilities you get:
- Full editor and engine features for building 2D/3D/AR/VR games
- Develop for web (WebGL), mobile and desktop platforms
- No royalties – keep 100% of game earnings
- Limited to $100K max revenue/funding each year
As you can see in the chart below, Personal has nearly identical core features to Plus/Pro, with some limitations on platforms and services:
| Personal | Plus | Pro | |
| Editor & Engine | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| WebGL Export | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| iOS/Android Export | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Console Platforms | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Given those generous free capabilities, Unity Personal remains widely used by small studios like Vlambeer (Nuclear Throne) and individual developers.
As long as your team revenue stays under 100K/year, you can use Personal to make commercial games forever without paying Unity a dime!
What Happens After You Hit $100K?
Now this is where it gets slightly more complicated. Once your gross revenues or external funding pass $100K over a rolling 12 month period, the Personal license expires.
At this point, you have a few options if you want to continue publishing games legally:
- Upgrade to a Plus or Pro license
- Plus = $400/user/year
- Pro = $1500/user/year
- Negotiate custom Enterprise licensing
- Switch to a new engine like Unreal or Godot
Upgrading to Plus or Pro essentially "resets" your revenue allowance. It lifts the $100K restriction so now you can keep earning and publishing commercially on these tiers forever.
Plus gets you basic Multiplayer, Dark Theme, and expanded platform exports. While Pro has optimized rendering, simulated physics, and premium support.
For massive teams and studios earning mega-bucks, negotiating an Enterprise license directly with Unity unlocks additional capabilities, dedicated support engineers, and custom solutions tailored to your team‘s needs.
Unity‘s good faith estimate of fair pricing at each tier
Switching engines is also an option if you‘ve outgrown Unity‘s fees. However you‘d have to rebuild your projects from scratch.
So in summary – once you pass $100K with Personal, you must upgrade your license to legally publish games commercially.
Monetizing Their Free Users
Giving away a robust free tier while monetizing at scale is brilliant from a business perspective. Unity continues to dominate the gaming market with this approach.
Over 60% of all new mobile games are made with Unity according to AppMagic. And Asset Store sales have surged to $120 million annually as of 2022!
With a huge free user base, Unity upsells components like premium tutorials, 3D assets, services and now licenses to paying users when needed. It leads developers gently down the "marketing funnel" from free to full-featured Pro.
And the strategy is clearly working looking at their >50% YoY growth rates!
Should You Use Free Unity in 2024?
If you‘re just starting out making indie games solo or with a small team, Unity Personal Edition is still an incredibly capable free tool for launching commercial products.
Just remember to budget for an upgrade once you hit $100K in sales!
For larger studios that expect rapid growth, starting with Pro may be worth it from day one.
Either way, Unity‘s licensing model is very accommodating to developers at any stage and budget. That‘s why it remains the world‘s #1 real-time 3D development platform 5 years running!
So rest assured, Unity is still free for now and the foreseeable future in 2024 and beyond!
Let me know if you still have any other questions around Unity licensing or wants tips on getting started!
