Torus tiers¶
Three membership levels: basic, plus, pro. Same Torus network, same hubs — the differences are bandwidth, what you can do with the tunnel, and which add-ons you can run on top.
There's no "free" tier — every member is a member. Basic is community-level, no money required. Plus and Pro are paid via Ko-fi.
At a glance¶
| basic | plus | pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Community | from $5/mo | from $15/mo |
| Base bandwidth | 256 kbps | 512 kbps | 768 kbps |
| Bandwidth upgrades | — | $5 = +256 kbps | $5 = +256 kbps |
| Peer-to-peer mesh | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| DNS — edge (mesh, auto-managed) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| DNS — dist + reverse PTR (nSolo) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| DNS — core + reverse PTR (nColo) | — | — | ✓ |
| Join LAN Extensions | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Forum, wiki, sgai | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Outbound internet egress | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Teleport ZTNA gateway | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Host shell apps via Teleport | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| nSolo dedicated IPv4 | — | $5/mo add-on | included |
| nColo BGP routed prefix | — | — | from $5/mo |
| nSolo Inbound | — | — | ✓ |
| Neko Pages | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Create LAN Extension networks | — | — | ✓ |
| Gallery submissions | — | — | ✓ |
| Sponsor badge on profile | — | ✓ | ✓ |
Basic — community¶
What it is: you're on the mesh. You can talk to other Nekotopia members, use community services (forum, wiki, sgai), publish custom DNS hostnames in the edge.nekotopia.io zone (resolves to your mesh IP), and join LAN Extension networks that someone else creates.
What it isn't: outbound internet. The Torus tunnel doesn't carry your public traffic — only mesh + infra. Browsing the public internet still uses your home/ISP connection.
256 kbps is enough for chat, low-bandwidth peering, and pulling small files from community services. It is not enough to download a .iso image — that's not the point.
Plus¶
Plus adds internet egress through your hub — your public traffic exits at your hub's geographic location. The "Outbound Internet Access" toggle in your dashboard controls this; turn it off to use Torus as overlay-only (mesh + community services) while your internet still goes via your home ISP. That's useful when:
- You're on a hostile network (hotel WiFi, conference WiFi, cafe captive portal) and want a clean exit
- You want to appear to be in the UK / US / etc. depending on which hub you sit on
- You need to NAT through Nekotopia for service-specific reasons
512 kbps base, bumpable in 256-kbps steps for $5 each. Plus also unlocks Teleport — our ZTNA gateway — so you can SSH into community shell hosts and host shell apps yourself.
Plus members can pay an extra $5/mo to add nSolo (one dedicated public IPv4) — useful for nSolo Inbound or jumphost tunnel flows that need a stable inbound address.
Pro¶
Pro is "I want to run things here." It includes:
- nSolo by default (one
193.143.16.xof your choosing) - Access to nColo — pick a whole
/29,/30,/31, or/32BGP-routed prefix and route a subnet through your tunnel. You run the routing inside, we announce the prefix upstream. - nSolo Inbound and Neko Pages — publish TCP/UDP ports from your local network through nSolo, or list HTTP/HTTPS apps in the community directory
- Creating LAN Extension (VXLAN) networks — bridge layer-2 between multiple Pro members
- Gallery submissions — share images on the public catalogue
768 kbps base. Same $5 = +256 kbps upgrade ladder.
Changing tier¶
Top-right of any tier card: Compare opens the tier modal. From there:
- Upgrade: subscribe on Ko-fi at the new tier's price. The integration auto-flips your tier on the next payment cycle (usually within minutes of payment landing). No tickets, no waiting.
- Downgrade: click
Downgradeon the target tier. Confirm. Effective immediately.
Bandwidth upgrades work the same way — change your Ko-fi subscription amount, and the platform reads the new amount and adjusts your QoS queue automatically.
If your tier doesn't flip
Most often: the Ko-fi email on your Nekotopia profile doesn't match the email you used on Ko-fi. Settings → Profile → Ko-fi email. They have to match.
What stays the same regardless of tier¶
- Your Torus IP (
10.254.x.y/32) does not change when you change tier - Your custom DNS hostnames keep working
- Your existing LAN Extension memberships remain (Plus → Basic loses the ability to create a new one, but you keep the ones you're already in)
Downgrading is non-destructive for everything you don't need the tier for. nSolo / nColo / nSolo Inbound / ZTNA-hosted apps that require the tier are released, but core mesh access (and your Neko Pages listings) is unchanged.