Operating Systems · pricing
Qubes OS pricing
Qubes OS publishes a single tier. Below is what it costs, what it covers, and how that compares with the operating systems tools listed alongside it.
As of 31 August 2026, Qubes OS pricing is free. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Open source, no licence fee
- Tiers
- 1
- Free tier
- Yes
Qubes OS 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.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qubes OS | Free | 4 | Entry tier |
Where Qubes OS stops being free
Qubes OS, Free
- No licence fee
- All templates and features included
- Community support via forum and mailing lists
- Certified hardware sold by third-party vendors at their own prices
No paid tier on record
Qubes OS lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.
What the product covers
The full Qubes OS 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.
Other
- Compartmentalisation by VM
- Disposable qubes
- Template model
- Isolated device drivers
- Whonix integration
- Anti-evil-maid
People bring Qubes OS in for journalists opening attachments and documents from sources who cannot be verified, security researchers detonating samples on the same machine they use for ordinary work, consultants and lawyers who must keep several clients cryptographically separate on one laptop, people whose threat model includes targeted attacks rather than commodity malware. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Qubes OS are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Operating Systems
Too few operating systems 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.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qubes OS (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | |
| Alpine Linux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Qubes OS |
| Rocky Linux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Qubes OS |
| AlmaLinux | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Qubes OS |
| NixOS | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Qubes OS |
| openSUSE | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Qubes OS |
| OpenWrt | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Qubes OS |
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 Qubes OS badges page.
Before you pay for Qubes OS
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: a single tier at Free. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Qubes OS runs on x86-64 laptops and desktops with vt-d or amd-vi, and is published by The Qubes OS Project of Warsaw, Poland. The full record is on the Qubes OS review, and the rest of the category is under best operating systems tools.
Qubes OS pricing questions
- How much does Qubes OS cost?
- Qubes OS publishes a single tier, Qubes OS, at Free.
- Does Qubes OS have a free plan?
- Yes. The Qubes OS tier costs nothing and covers no licence fee, all templates and features included, community support via forum and mailing lists.
- Which operating systems tools can I use without paying?
- 7 of the 8 operating systems tools listed alongside Qubes OS have a free tier: Alpine Linux, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, NixOS, openSUSE.
- What am I actually paying for with Qubes OS?
- The record lists 6 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for journalists opening attachments and documents from sources who cannot be verified, security researchers detonating samples on the same machine they use for ordinary work, consultants and lawyers who must keep several clients cryptographically separate on one laptop.
- Does Qubes OS charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 1 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 Qubes OS 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 Qubes OS against before paying?
- The closest operating systems tools in this directory are Alpine Linux, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, NixOS. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Qubes OS covering price, platforms and features.