Funding and Infrastructure Costs
Nekotopia costs real money to run. This page explains where that money comes from, where it goes, and why the tier model exists.
The Short Version
Basic accounts are free and always will be. Plus and Pro subscriptions fund the infrastructure. The maintainer covers the rest out of pocket. Nobody takes a salary.
What It Actually Costs
Nekotopia runs across five WireGuard hubs on three continents (London, Ohio, Oregon, Frankfurt, Singapore), a FreeBSD web server, a Docker host for wiki/forum/monitoring, NAT and routing infrastructure, load balancers, WAF, and Transit Gateway peering.
On top of AWS, we pay RIPE NCC annual membership fees for our IPv4 address blocks. We hold a /23 (193.143.16.0/23, acquired December 2024), a /24 (185.65.116.0/24, allocated from the RIPE NCC last /8 waiting list in February 2026), and a /22 (185.24.72.0/22, acquired from the RIPE NCC transfer market in March 2026).
The total monthly infrastructure cost is typically $1,500-1,800/mo. You can see the live breakdown, pulled directly from AWS Cost Explorer, on the sponsor page and the funding model page.
Where the Money Comes From
| Source | Details |
|---|---|
| Plus subscriptions | From $5/mo via Ko-fi. Funds bandwidth and general infrastructure. |
| Pro subscriptions | From $15/mo via Ko-fi. Funds dedicated IP allocation and routing infrastructure. |
| nSolo add-on | $5/mo for Plus users who want a dedicated public IPv4. Included for Pro. |
| nColo pricing | /32 = $5/mo, /31 = $9/mo, /30 = $12/mo, /29 = $20/mo. Covers address space and routing costs. |
| One-time donations | Occasional Ko-fi donations from community members. |
| The maintainer's pocket | Everything else. Richard has funded the entire deficit since 2022. |
The Passion Deficit
The cumulative difference between what the infrastructure costs and what subscriptions cover is tracked publicly as the "passion deficit" on the sponsor page. This number represents how much the maintainer has personally invested to keep the platform running. It updates automatically from AWS Cost Explorer and Ko-fi payment data.
Why Not Just Make Everything Free?
We tried. It doesn't work.
When everything is free, two things happen. First, people who could easily afford $5/mo decide they shouldn't have to contribute anything, even while using the platform daily. They'll argue that open-source means free, that community projects shouldn't charge, that someone else will pay for it. Nobody else pays for it.
Second — and this is the one that really stings — when you give people free accounts with all features unlocked, they don't use them. The account sits idle. The same person who spent weeks lobbying for free access logs in once and never comes back. Turns out when something costs nothing, people assume it's worth nothing.
The tier model isn't about gatekeeping. Basic is genuinely free and always will be. The paid tiers exist because running five WireGuard hubs across three continents, maintaining RIPE NCC membership, and keeping BYOIP prefixes advertised costs real money every single month. If you benefit from that infrastructure, contributing to its costs is reasonable. If you don't want to pay, Basic still works.
The Tier Model
| Feature | Basic (Free) | Plus ($5+/mo) | Pro ($15+/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| VPN + shared IPv4 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Community (wiki, forum, sgAi) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bandwidth scaling | - | Up to 1280 kbps | Up to 1280 kbps |
| nSolo (dedicated IPv4) | - | +$5/mo | Included |
| nColo (BGP routed prefix) | - | - | From $5/mo |
| Port mapping + hosted services | - | - | Yes |
| LAN Extension networks | - | - | Yes |
Subscriptions are managed through Ko-fi. Link your Ko-fi email in your dashboard settings, and your tier and bandwidth are applied automatically on each payment.
nSolo and nColo
nSolo gives you a dedicated public IPv4 address from our 193.143.16.0/23 block with bidirectional NAT. Simple — no router config needed. London hub only.
nColo allocates you a routable IPv4 prefix that you advertise via BGP from your own router over your WireGuard tunnel. No NAT, pure L3 routing. Available from our 185.65.116.0/24 and 185.24.72.0/22 blocks.
| Prefix | IPs | Price | Per IP |
|---|---|---|---|
| /32 | 1 | $5/mo | $5.00 |
| /31 | 2 | $9/mo | $4.50 |
| /30 | 4 | $12/mo | $3.00 |
| /29 | 8 | $20/mo | $2.50 |
Full Transparency
All income and expenses are tracked and published. The cost data on the sponsor page is pulled live from AWS Cost Explorer — not estimates, not aspirational figures. The RIPE NCC annual invoices are a matter of public record.
If you have questions about any of this, ask on the forum or email signup@nekotopia.io.
See also: Fund Nekotopia | The Funding Model