Why UnoLock isn’t entirely free

We’ve made as much of UnoLock free as we responsibly can, and we want to make more free over time. But UnoLock operates under a hard constraint: every Safe we offer must remain secure and accessible for its full guaranteed lifetime.

Free Safes are not free to operate

A free Safe consumes the same core infrastructure as a paid Safe:

• Encrypted storage and replication
• Authentication and key management
• Abuse prevention and brute-force resistance
• Ongoing maintenance and security updates

UnoLock is deliberately more expensive to run than typical services

UnoLock is designed around security guarantees that impose real compute and operational costs. Data and API calls processed through multiple independent encryption layers. This increases CPU and operational overhead, but it is required to achieve the properties described in our Technical Details and Threat Model.

Why we expand the free tier cautiously

Today, paid Safes cover not only their own costs, but also help fund the free tier. Because we cannot reliably predict how the ratio of free to paid Safes will change over time, we plan conservatively. Offering more for free than we can sustain would risk breaking the one promise that matters most: that a Safe will exist, securely, until its expiry date.

• We only offer what we know we can support long-term
• Paid Safes ensure continuity for everyone
• Free features grow when sustainability is proven, not assumed

No venture capital (by design)

UnoLock is developed and operated without venture capital. That choice is intentional: it allows security and correctness to remain the primary design constraints, rather than revenue growth, engagement metrics, or data monetization. The tradeoff is that infrastructure and security costs must be funded directly and transparently.

Bottom line

This isn’t about limiting access. It’s about keeping guarantees. If you’re evaluating tiers, the Pricing section shows what each plan includes.