How much does Koha cost?

Koha publishes 2 tiers, from Free for Self-Hosted up to $150/month for Hosted (via partners). The entry tier costs nothing.

What is the difference between Self-Hosted and Hosted (via partners) on Koha?

Hosted (via partners) costs $150/month against Free, and adds everything in self-hosted, managed hosting, professional support, regular updates.

Which library & archives tools can I use without paying?

5 of the 8 library & archives tools listed alongside Koha have a free tier: ArchivesSpace, CollectiveAccess, DSpace, Archivematica, Evergreen ILS.

What am I actually paying for with Koha?

The record lists 29 features across 6 areas: core, integrations, security, deployment, platform, localization. In practice it is brought in for libraries self-hosting an open source integrated library system for cataloging and circulation without vendor licensing fees.

Does Koha charge per user?

The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.

Are these Koha prices current?

They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.

What should I compare Koha against before paying?

The closest library & archives tools in this directory are Ex Libris Alma, CONTENTdm, ArchivesSpace, CollectiveAccess. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Koha covering price, platforms and features.

Library & Archives · pricing

Koha pricing

Koha publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.

Entry price: Free
Model: Open-source
Tiers: 2
Free tier: Yes

Koha plans, side by side

Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.

Koha pricing tiers
Plan	Price	Features listed	Step up from the tier below
Self-Hosted	Free	7	Entry tier
Hosted (via partners)	$150/month	6	+$150/month, 6 more features

What each tier adds

The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.

Self-Hosted

Free

The entry tier. It covers full ils functionality, circulation management, cataloging (marc21/unimarc), acquisitions module, serials management, opac.

Hosted (via partners)

$150/month

Over Self-Hosted, this tier adds:

Everything in Self-Hosted
Managed hosting
Professional support
Regular updates
Data migration assistance
Training services

Where Koha stops being free

Self-Hosted, Free

Full ILS functionality
Circulation management
Cataloging (MARC21/UNIMARC)
Acquisitions module
Serials management
OPAC
Community support

Hosted (via partners), $150/month

The first thing you pay for:

Everything in Self-Hosted
Managed hosting
Professional support
Regular updates
Data migration assistance
Training services

What the product covers

The full Koha feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.

Core

Circulation management
MARC21/UNIMARC cataloging
Acquisitions
Serials management
Patron management
OPAC with faceted search
Reports and statistics
Z39.50 support
SIP2 integration

Integrations

LDAP
SIP2
Z39.50
OAI-PMH
EDI
Shibboleth

Security

LDAP
OAuth
Role-based access

Deployment

Self-hosted deployment
Cloud deployment

Platform

Web support
Api support

Localization

English language support
French language support
Spanish language support
German language support
Arabic language support
Chinese language support
Hindi language support

People bring Koha in for libraries self-hosting an open source integrated library system for cataloging and circulation without vendor licensing fees. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Koha are worth a look before you commit to a tier.

How that compares in Library & Archives

Too few library & archives tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.

Koha entry price against other Library & Archives tools
Tool	Entry price	Model	Rated	Head to head
Koha (this page)	Free	open-source	-
Ex Libris Alma	On request	subscription	-	vs Koha
CONTENTdm	$1495/year	subscription	-	vs Koha
ArchivesSpace	Free	open-source	-	vs Koha
CollectiveAccess	Free	-	-	vs Koha
DSpace	Free	open-source	-	vs Koha
Archivematica	Free	-	-	vs Koha

Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Koha badges page.

Before you pay for Koha

Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.

What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between Free and $150/month, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.

Koha runs on web, api, and is published by Koha Community of Global (Community-driven). The full record is on the Koha review, and the rest of the category is under best library & archives tools.

Koha pricing on the vendor's own site

Koha pricing questions

How much does Koha cost?: Koha publishes 2 tiers, from Free for Self-Hosted up to $150/month for Hosted (via partners). The entry tier costs nothing.
Does Koha have a free plan?: Yes. The Self-Hosted tier costs nothing and covers full ils functionality, circulation management, cataloging (marc21/unimarc). Paying starts at $150/month for Hosted (via partners).
What is the difference between Self-Hosted and Hosted (via partners) on Koha?: Hosted (via partners) costs $150/month against Free, and adds everything in self-hosted, managed hosting, professional support, regular updates.
Which library & archives tools can I use without paying?: 5 of the 8 library & archives tools listed alongside Koha have a free tier: ArchivesSpace, CollectiveAccess, DSpace, Archivematica, Evergreen ILS.
What am I actually paying for with Koha?: The record lists 29 features across 6 areas: core, integrations, security, deployment, platform, localization. In practice it is brought in for libraries self-hosting an open source integrated library system for cataloging and circulation without vendor licensing fees.
Does Koha charge per user?: The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
Are these Koha prices current?: They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
What should I compare Koha against before paying?: The closest library & archives tools in this directory are Ex Libris Alma, CONTENTdm, ArchivesSpace, CollectiveAccess. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Koha covering price, platforms and features.