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ModPageSpeed 2.0: AVIF, WebP, and critical CSS — up to 69% less page weight on the live demo

Pricing: licensed per site. Never locked out.

Production use requires a commercial license — but the software never locks you out.

Run it unlicensed and it optimizes everything from the first request, adding one X-PageSpeed-Warn: unlicensed response header. On day 1000 the behavior is identical to day 1: the warning never escalates. We never degrade your site to push you toward a purchase.

Every tier runs the same fully functional software — a license changes what use is permitted and what support you get, not what the software does. One ladder covers both engines: every tier applies to mod_pagespeed 1.15 (Apache, nginx, IIS) and ModPageSpeed 2.0 (worker and ASP.NET Core) alike.

Plans

Unlicensed

$0

Fully functional without a key, adds an X-PageSpeed-Warn: unlicensed response header.

No key, no signup. Covers evaluation, development, and testing on any number of servers.

Download

Community

$0

Self-attested, renew every 365 days.

Production use for non-commercial sites and registered not-for-profits; the warning header clears.

Get a Community key

Starter

$99 /site/year, or $12 /month (annual billing saves 31%)

One site, up to two servers.

Commercial production use for one site. Community-level support.

Buy Starter

Business

Recommended

$948 /site/year, or $99 /month (annual billing saves 20%)

Unlimited servers per site.

Autoscaling, containers, and HA replicas all covered. Priority email support.

Buy Business

Enterprise

from $5,000/year

Organization-wide: unlimited sites, servers, and engines.

Service-level agreement, invoicing under a master services agreement, SBOM and signed-artifact attestations, and a direct support line.

Talk to sales

Hoster

about $35 /host/month

For hosting providers, billed per host, contact sales.

Covers every site on the host. How the Hoster tier works →

Contact sales

What counts as a site: one registrable domain — example.com and its subdomains together are one site. Servers, containers, and instances don't change the price. The one fence is Starter, which covers a site on up to two servers; Business removes the fence with unlimited servers per site. Full license terms: we-amp.com/licensing/.

Starter and Business prices localize at checkout. VAT or GST is included where FastSpring, our Merchant of Record, is registered to collect it; elsewhere local tax is added at checkout. You're charged immediately for the term you pick — cancel any time, billing stops at period end. FastSpring handles the checkout and billing; the license itself is granted by We-Amp B.V., registered in The Netherlands (KvK 57898138). Enterprise and Hoster figures shown in a local currency are approximate conversions of the USD anchors; final pricing for those tiers is set in the agreement.

You're licensing the optimization core behind 231,341 live sites (BuiltWith, May 2026), developed and supported by a maintainer of the open-source mod_pagespeed project.

Comparing against a CDN or image-optimization service? Run your numbers in the savings calculator or read Image Optimization Cost: Self-Hosted vs CDN.

What if I cancel?

It keeps optimizing when your license expires — it never locks you out. The installation returns to the unlicensed state (an X-PageSpeed-Warn: unlicensed response header, an admin-console notice, and a startup-log warning); production use then requires a license. Your cache and config aren't touched, so re-activating later picks up where you left off.

Will it break my site?

Transforms are deliberately conservative — JS minification strips whitespace and comments, no variable renaming — and the design falls back to your original content when an optimization step fails. Edge cases exist: test on staging first. Any path or transform type switches off with one line of config. More in the FAQ.

One small company — what's the risk?

Source publication under the Business Source License 1.1 is on our roadmap — it converts to Apache 2.0 on a fixed change date. License validation runs offline; there's no kill switch in the request path. How licensing works.

How to get started

Install it, run it, and watch it optimize. License it when you go to production.

  1. Step 1

    Install

    Server module — Apache on Debian/Ubuntu: 

    curl -fsSL https://packages.modpagespeed.com/install.sh | sudo sh
sudo apt install mod-pagespeed

    nginx, IIS, or Envoy — see the install guide. On ASP.NET Core, add the NuGet package instead: 

    dotnet add package WeAmp.PageSpeed.AspNetCore

    View on NuGet →

  2. Step 2

    Run it unlicensed

    It fully optimizes out of the box — nothing is gated. Unlicensed responses simply carry an X-PageSpeed-Warn: unlicensed header, with a matching notice in the admin console and a startup-log line. Evaluate it against your real traffic for as long as you need.

  3. Step 3

    License for production

    Production use requires a commercial license — but the software never locks you out. Buy one from the admin console or the ladder above, paste the key, and the warning header clears. You're charged immediately for the term you pick.

Billing: evaluate it unlicensed for as long as you need, then buy a license for production. Subscriptions are charged immediately on purchase — cancel anytime, billing stops at period end. Billing & cancellation FAQ →

Which edition should I choose?

Choose 1.15 if…

For a native in-process module on Apache, nginx, IIS, or Envoy: the same mod_pagespeed directives, the classic filter set, and a built-in admin console, with no extra worker or proxy hop. Drop-in for an existing open-source mod_pagespeed install, and a clean fit for a new one.

Choose 2.0 if…

For new deployments and teams that want the reverse-proxy / worker model: a C++23 worker with variant-aware caching and zero-copy serving. Two integrations: a Docker / nginx reverse proxy in front of any HTTP origin, and an ASP.NET Core middleware.

The license is the same either way — one tier covers both engines, so you can switch or mix without buying twice.

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a site?
A site is one registrable domain — the name you registered, like example.com — together with all of its subdomains. www.example.com and shop.example.com are the same site; example.co.uk is a different one. Licensing is per site on every tier and every engine — mod_pagespeed 1.15 and ModPageSpeed 2.0 share one ladder. A multi-domain storefront or a white-label setup serving many customer domains needs one license per registrable domain; if your setup doesn't map cleanly onto domains, talk to us about Enterprise terms.
What happens if I run unlicensed?
It keeps optimizing — it never locks you out. Unlicensed installs add an X-PageSpeed-Warn: unlicensed response header, show a notice in the admin console, and write a warning to the startup log. Production use requires a commercial license.
Does the unlicensed warning escalate over time?
No, never. Day 1000 looks exactly like day 1: the same X-PageSpeed-Warn: unlicensed response header, the same admin-console notice, the same startup-log line. Nothing throttles and nothing expires. Production use requires a commercial license — but the software never locks you out.
If it never locks me out, what does a license actually buy?
Four things. The right to run it in production — the license terms permit production use only under a license. A clean response: the X-PageSpeed-Warn header, admin-console notice, and startup-log warning all clear. Support: community-level on Starter, priority email on Business, an SLA and a direct line on Enterprise. And security patches and version upgrades, which every paid subscription includes. The software itself is identical on every tier — we sell the license, not the features.
Do I need a license for development, staging, or CI?
No. The Unlicensed tier covers evaluation, development, and testing on any number of servers — no key, no signup, fully functional. A license is needed when a site goes to production: commercial sites pick a paid tier, and non-commercial or not-for-profit sites qualify for a $0 Community key.
What happens after I cancel?
It keeps optimizing after your license expires — it never locks you out. The installation returns to the unlicensed state (the X-PageSpeed-Warn: unlicensed header, an admin-console notice, and a startup-log warning). Re-activate any time — your cache contents and configuration aren't touched.
Is there a $0 tier?
Yes. Community is a $0 license for non-commercial sites: you self-attest that the site qualifies and receive a license token for that one site. Even with no license at all, the software optimizes fully and adds only the X-PageSpeed-Warn: unlicensed header. Production use requires a commercial license. Starter, Business, and Enterprise license a site, not a server; Hoster is priced per host for multi-tenant platforms. See the pricing ladder.
How does the Community tier work?
Community is a $0 license for non-commercial sites. You enter your email and the site's domain, attest that the site qualifies (the licensing terms define what counts as non-commercial; we don't audit, but the attestation is binding), and receive a license token for that one site. A key lasts 365 days and renews by re-attesting — the same one step, still $0. The Community grant is part of the license text that ships inside each release, so it covers releases published after the grant landed; it is not retroactive to earlier releases.
Do containers, replicas, or autoscaling count against my license?
No. A license covers the site, not the machines serving it. On Business, run the licensed site on as many servers, containers, or autoscaled replicas as you need — the count never changes what you pay. Starter has one fence: up to two servers per site. That fence is an honor-system boundary, not something the software meters; if a site outgrows two servers, move it to Business.
How does the license key work?
You receive an Ed25519-signed token via email. Set it as an environment variable. Signature validation runs offline at startup — no internet dependency in the request path. The product refreshes subscription state with our API every 12 hours; see Terms of Service for details.
How do I attach my site domain to a paid license?
The key emailed at checkout works immediately. To bind your site domain(s) to the license — one per purchased site — use the claim page with your order reference and purchase email, any time. Claiming again re-issues that site's key, and the same page lists all keys on your order.
The original mod_pagespeed costs nothing. Why should I pay?
The original mod_pagespeed and ngx_pagespeed are no longer actively developed. We-Amp maintains both mod_pagespeed 1.15 (the drop-in continuation of the open-source project — CVE patches, modern nginx, IIS support) and ModPageSpeed 2.0 (the ground-up rewrite with zero-copy serving, variant-aware caching, and an out-of-process worker). Both come with direct email support.
What's your refund policy?
Subscriptions are billed immediately on purchase via FastSpring (our Merchant of Record). Cancel anytime through the FastSpring customer portal — billing stops at the end of the current period. Refund requests are handled by FastSpring under their standard refund policy. EU/EEA consumers have a 14-day right of withdrawal under EU Directive 2011/83/EU; see Terms of Service for details.
Where do the license terms live?
At we-amp.com/licensing/. That document governs every tier; pricing pages and this FAQ summarize it. If a summary and the terms ever disagree, the terms win.
Which integrations are supported?
Two first-class integrations: a Docker / nginx caching reverse proxy in front of any HTTP origin (Apache, Node.js, Caddy, IIS, your CDN's origin), and an ASP.NET Core middleware NuGet package. Same C++ optimization pipeline in both. (For an in-process nginx or Apache module on bare metal, that's mod_pagespeed 1.15.)
How does the nginx integration work?
ModPageSpeed 2.0 runs in front of nginx as a Docker reverse proxy. The prebuilt nginx module ships inside the Docker image — there is no separate bare-metal module to install. Point the reverse proxy at your origin and all optimizations apply automatically.
Does it work with Apache?
Yes — as a reverse proxy. Deploy ModPageSpeed 2.0 in front of your Apache server via the Docker Compose setup, point BACKEND_HOST at your origin, and all optimizations apply automatically. If you need an in-process Apache module instead, that's mod_pagespeed 1.15.
Does it work with Kubernetes?
Yes. The Docker distribution uses separate nginx and worker containers, designed for Kubernetes pod deployments. The license key is passed as an environment variable, making it easy to manage via Secrets. A Helm chart is included.
Does it add latency?
On cache hit, serving is sub-millisecond — just a hash lookup and an mmap pointer. On cache miss, the original content is served immediately while the worker generates optimized variants in the background. There is no synchronous processing in the request path.
Can it break my site?
ModPageSpeed 2.0 optimizes outside the request path, and its transforms are deliberately conservative: JS minification strips whitespace and comments — no variable renaming — and every image re-encode is checked against a perceptual quality metric. The design falls back to serving your original content when an optimization step fails. No software that rewrites live responses is risk-free, so test on staging before production. You stay in control either way: pagespeed_disallow skips a URL pattern, pagespeed off disables a location, worker flags like --disable-js turn off a transform type, and a PURGE drops cached variants immediately. See configuration.
Why not just use Cloudflare or another CDN?
CDN-based optimization requires routing your traffic through a third-party proxy. ModPageSpeed runs on your servers — your visitors' content stays on your infrastructure. Only a pseudonymous license heartbeat is sent to our API every 12 hours. Self-hosted by design; helps your GDPR posture and keeps you in control of caching, configuration, and data.

Running mod_pagespeed 1.15? See the 1.15 FAQ →

Download & run