Your licence
Katari is free while it is in beta. A beta build needs no licence and does not ask for one.
After the beta it is R350 a year — about $20, billed in rands because that is the currency we charge in and therefore the only number we can promise. Every feature is included, there is no per-seat multiplier and no tier with the useful half held back, and we will not raise it.
Buying one
Go to katari.nimbitlabs.com/licence.
- Enter your email address. We send a six-digit code — there is no password to choose or remember.
- Enter the code.
- If this is your first NimbitLabs product, name your account. Your own name is fine.
- Pay. Payment is handled by Paystack; we never see your card.
Your key appears on that page straight after payment, and the same page shows it again any time you come back and sign in.
Buying needs an account; using Katari does not. The licence belongs to a NimbitLabs account, so there is one sign-up when you pay — on the website, once. The application itself never signs in to anything.
Activating it
Katari asks for the key when it needs one. Paste it in and press Activate, and the window opens immediately — there is no restart.
You can also paste it under Settings → Licence at any time, including before your current one runs out.
A key looks like this, and is about 240 characters on one line:
KAT1.eyJwIjoia2F0YXJpIiwiZSI6...
Copying it out of an email usually picks up a leading or trailing newline. That is fine — Katari trims it.
How checking works
Your key is a signed file. Katari verifies the signature on your own machine against a public key built into the application, and makes no request to do it.
That has consequences worth knowing:
- It works offline, indefinitely. A laptop that has not seen a network in a month opens normally.
- There is no device limit and no activation count. One key, on every machine you own.
- We cannot tell whether or when you use it. There is nothing to phone home with.
- Reissuing is free and unlimited. Lost your key? Sign in at katari.nimbitlabs.com/licence and it is there. Reissuing does not invalidate the one you already have.
When it expires
A key is valid until the end of the period you paid for, plus a small allowance for a clock that is slightly off.
After that Katari shows the licence screen instead of opening, and says when the licence ran out. Renewing takes you back to the same page; renewing gives you another year at the same price.
Cancelling works the same way: your key stays valid to the end of the term you already paid for, because a cancellation never has to reach your machine for the expiry to do its job.
If something is wrong
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Katari needs a licence | No key is stored yet. Paste one, or buy one. |
| Your licence has expired | The term ended. Renew for another year. |
| That licence could not be read | The key is damaged, or this build verifies against a different signing key than the one that issued it. The second is our fault. |
Anything that keeps you out of your own work is worth an email rather than a retry: support@nimbitlabs.com.