Open edX Pricing: What Does It Really Cost?
Understand the true cost of running Open edX — and why a managed service changes the equation.
Two ways to run Open edX
Self-Hosted
You manage everything. This approach gives you full control but comes with significant hidden costs:
- ✗DevOps / SRE team salary: USD 3,000–6,000/mo
- ✗AWS or cloud infrastructure: USD 500–2,000/mo
- ✗Ongoing updates & version upgrades
- ✗Security patches & compliance
- ✗24/7 monitoring & incident response
- ✗Analytics setup & maintenance
- ✗Custom integrations & plugin support
Total hidden cost: USD 3,500 – USD 10,000+/month
Not counting your team's time and opportunity cost.
Fully Managed (Aulasneo)
We handle everything. You focus entirely on creating great learning experiences.
- ✓Hosting on AWS — fully managed
- ✓Automatic Open edX updates
- ✓Daily backups & disaster recovery
- ✓Technical support (Gold plan and above; Silver includes community support)
- ✓Panorama Analytics dashboard (Gold plan and above)
- ✓Custom branding & domain
- ✓LTI & third-party integrations
- ✓Setup in 24 hours
Plans starting from USD 499 with Unlimited Users and Unlimited Courses.
See all our plans →What's included in Aulasneo's managed Open edX plans
Frequently asked questions about Open edX pricing
Q: Is Open edX free?
A: The Open edX software is open source and free to download, but running it requires cloud infrastructure, DevOps expertise, and ongoing maintenance. A managed service like Aulasneo eliminates those hidden costs.
Q: How much does Open edX hosting cost?
A: Aulasneo's fully managed Open edX plans start at USD 499 per month billed annually (USD 599 month to month), with unlimited users and courses. Silver, Gold and Platinum plans differ in infrastructure capacity, support and included services such as Panorama analytics. Contact us for a custom quote for enterprise scale.
Q: What is the difference between self-hosted and managed Open edX?
A: Self-hosted means your team installs and maintains the platform. Managed means a provider like Aulasneo handles everything — infrastructure, updates, security and support.
Q: Does Aulasneo offer a free trial?
A: Yes. You can book a one-day sandbox session to explore the platform before committing to a plan.
Open edX
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What is Open edX?
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Success stories
ICdeBA
ICdeBA: 75 courses. One week.
When lockdown closed classrooms in March 2020, ICdeBA needed to bring its psychoanalytic training online without losing the academic year. Working with Aulasneo, it launched a virtual campus with all 75 of its courses in one week, and built a foundation for continued growth.
Read the story →
Holcim Academy
Holcim Academy: one platform, two audiences
Holcim, the Swiss building materials leader, wanted to share sustainable construction knowledge with professionals worldwide. Aulasneo built and runs the Holcim Sustainable Construction Academy on a managed Open edX platform that serves external professionals and Holcim employees in one place.
Read the story →
Ready to get started?
Tell us about your project and we'll put together a custom Open edX plan for you.