Wall Check
Directus
Core is free but hard-capped — 3 Studio seats, 25 collections, 5 flows; the Open Innovation Grant lifts the caps if you qualify, otherwise Team runs 599 USD/mo rolling monthly.
Gates 4/5 4 of the five walls fired — the score is a count, not a verdict.
Checked 2026-09-25 · re-check due 2026-11-24.
The five walls
! Price wall
The free tier ends. The limit you hit while everything still looks free.
$0 Core hard-caps at 3 Studio seats, 25 collections and 5 flows; Team is $599/mo rolling monthly or $5,988/yr on annual billing, with 10 SSO seats and 50 collections.
source · checked 2026-09-25
✕ Permission wall
You can see the setting but not touch it. Licenses and admin roles decide what you control.
SSO is unavailable on Core at any price — it cannot be added on; you need Team, Enterprise, or the grant. Extra SSO seats on Team run $50/seat/mo.
source · checked 2026-09-25
! Gate wall
A human at the vendor decides your timeline — approvals, reviews, onboarding queues.
Removing the caps for free runs through a human gate: the Open Innovation Grant — apply, qualify (under $5M revenue, under 50 employees), wait for a license key.
source · checked 2026-09-25
! Meter wall
Cost scales with your success. Per-unit, per-seat, per-message pricing that grows as you do.
The license meters seats, collections and flows; under the MSCL each release converts to GPL-3.0 only on its fourth anniversary, and reselling hosted Directus is a barred Competing Use.
source · checked 2026-09-25
✓ Exit wall
Getting out costs more than getting in. Your data, your domain, your number — who keeps them.
Wraps your existing database instead of owning it — Directus introspects the schema and keeps its own config in directus_* tables; remove it and your data stands untouched.
source · checked 2026-09-25
The twelve questions
- What is the hard number where the free tier ends?
- Free Core: 3 Studio seats / 25 collections / 5 flows
- If the vendor doubles its price next year, what breaks?
- License converts to GPL-3.0 four years after each release
Documents read for this check: pricing page, license file, docs.
We are not paid by this vendor or any vendor listed here. These are the gates we found — which ones you accept is your call, not ours.
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