Pricing and monetization
How free, one-time, and subscription pricing work — plus private-repo selling, payouts, and listing review.
Turn what you've built into revenue — without giving away your source. When you publish to the Marketplace you set the price, keep your code in your own GitHub repo (public or private), and get paid when people install your work. This page explains the pricing models, how private repos stay protected, how payouts work, and how a listing goes from draft to published.
Pricing models
Every listing — Skill, Agent, or Team — uses one of three models:
| Model | Buyer experience | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Install immediately, unlimited | Open-source skills, community building |
| One-time purchase | Pay once, then install anywhere on your account | Standalone tools and templates |
| Subscription | Recurring access, billed monthly or yearly | Continuously updated skill packs |
A paid purchase unlocks the listing for your whole account: a buyer completes checkout the first time they install, and later installs into other agents don't charge again.
You can offer both a free and a paid version of the same work — publish the free edition as one listing and the premium edition as a separate listing from the same repo.
Selling from private repositories
Most marketplaces require you to open-source your work. Buda doesn't.
- Your repo stays private on GitHub — only you have access to the source.
- Buda reads only the listing's metadata (name, description, source URL). It does not copy or store your code.
- When a buyer installs, Buda fetches the content on demand through your GitHub App installation token.
- You control access — revoke the Buda GitHub App at any time to stop distribution.
- Buyers never see the full Skill instructions before purchase; your listing detail page shows only what you choose to present (ideally a
README.md).
This lets you sell proprietary workflows, internal tooling, and specialized domain knowledge without ever exposing your source. Connecting the repo is covered in Connect a GitHub repo to publish and the GitHub App.
Listing review and publishing
Buda uses a company-level review model. Listings follow the status of the company they belong to, rather than being published one at a time.
| Company status | What happens to its listings |
|---|---|
pending | Hidden from the Marketplace, awaiting admin review |
published | All pending listings become visible; draft listings stay excluded |
rejected | All listings stay hidden |
A Buda admin approves or rejects at the company level — typically within 24 hours. When a company is approved, its pending listings go live. Listings that became draft (because their source file was removed from GitHub) are intentionally excluded until the file is restored and they return to pending for re-review.
Because Buda fetches content at install time, a listing's source file must exist on GitHub for installs to succeed. Always sync your repo after removing content so affected listings are marked draft.
Payouts
Payouts are processed monthly. Buda takes a platform fee and the remainder goes to you. Free listings have no payout — they're for distribution and community building.