Async protocols, runtime licensing, the AI-native verification layer, and engineering-grade support — every commercial component of Karate Labs, governed by a single enterprise agreement.
Featured in the Gartner® Market Guide · API & MCP Testing ToolsIncluded in Enterprise
Async Protocol Pack
Kafka, gRPC, WebSocket — runtime licensed for CI/CD
IDE Enterprise Tier
IntelliJ + VS Code, license server, team management
Karate Agent
Self-hosted AI verification, BYO LLM, air-gap ready
Commercial Support & SLA
Dedicated Slack with engineers, response SLAs, escalation
Single license · single contract · single point of contact
By design
No outbound calls.·No telemetry.·No hosted control plane.
Every Karate Enterprise component runs inside your perimeter. We don’t know what you’re testing (unless you tell us).
What's in the box
Each piece can be deployed standalone. Bought together, they're priced, contracted, and supported as a single Karate Labs Enterprise relationship.
Kafka, gRPC, and WebSocket — the same Karate DSL you already write. Author tests in any IDE; the runtime license covers execution in shared environments and CI/CD pipelines, priced per environment, not per user.
Explore async testing
IntelliJ and VS Code with the full Karate authoring experience — debug, autocomplete, OpenAPI import — plus enterprise-only license server, offline activation, and centralised team management. Floating licenses available.
AI-native browser verification. Display-text locators that survive UI refactors, BYO LLM (Claude, GPT, Llama, Qwen), air-gap deployable end-to-end with Ollama. Docker-native, CI/CD ready, with session video for audit.
See Karate Agent
A dedicated Slack channel with Karate Labs engineers — not a ticket queue. Response SLAs tied to your support tier, escalation path for production incidents, and access to the Karate Labs roadmap.
Talk to sales
Open Source vs Enterprise
| Capability | Karate Open Source | Karate Enterprise Commercial |
|---|---|---|
| Framework | ||
| Karate DSL — REST, GraphQL, SOAP | ||
| Built-in API mocks & simulators | ||
| Browser & desktop UI automation | ||
| Performance testing via Gatling | ||
| Async protocols | ||
| Kafka, gRPC, WebSocket — dev-time | Local only | |
| Async runtime in CI/CD pipelines | — | Runtime license |
| Avro & schema-registry support | — | |
| IDE plugins (IntelliJ & VS Code) | ||
| Plus tier — syntax, run, OpenAPI import | ||
| Pro tier — debug, autocomplete, references | Per user | Included |
| License server & offline activation | — | |
| Floating / concurrent licenses | — | |
| Karate Agent — AI verification | ||
| Display-text locators, BYO LLM | Open core | |
| Self-hosted Docker deployment | Open core | |
| SSO via SAML 2.0 / OIDC | — | |
| RBAC & multi-tenant license server | — | |
| Security & deployment | ||
| Self-hosted — no SaaS dependency | ||
| Air-gap deployable end-to-end | ||
| Identity provider integration | — | SAML / OIDC |
| Audit logs & access controls | — | |
| Support | ||
| Community — GitHub, Stack Overflow | ||
| Direct Slack channel with engineers | — | |
| Response SLAs & escalation path | — | Tier-based |
| Roadmap access | — | |
| Licensing & procurement | ||
| License | MIT, perpetual | Commercial, annual |
| Pricing | Free | Custom |
| Procurement | Self-serve | Single contract / PO |
Karate Open Source remains MIT-licensed and free forever.
Customer stories
Insurance
Zachary Griesbach · Director of Product Management
On why API tests provide broader functional and architectural coverage than UI tests for complex insurance platforms.
Read the story
Financial Services
Anthony Staffier · Principal SDET
How a 20-year QA veteran with no programming background led the adoption of Karate across the entire organisation.
Read the story
Software & Cloud
Venkatesh Venkataraman · Director of Engineering & QA
Shift-left component and contract testing for a complex microservices platform, with code coverage gates in the build pipeline.
Read the story
Tier-1 Banking
Alberto Ceballos · Tier-1 US Bank programme
Shift-left component testing framework for a Tier-1 US bank's core banking migration — 50+ microservices, Kafka, AWS.
Read the story
How procurement works
Review the public Enterprise Evaluation guide — 95 answers to the questions technical and procurement teams typically ask. Most blocking questions are already answered in writing.
Open the guideA 30-day scoped PoC against your real test flows, with deployment support, a Karate Labs engineer on Slack, and weekly check-ins. Most PoCs measurably reduce maintenance effort within the first two weeks.
Scope a PoCAnnual agreement covering the components and seats you've validated. One PO, one renewal, one support relationship. Add or scale components mid-term — we prorate.
Talk to salesFAQ
The Karate framework is MIT-licensed and free forever — that doesn't change. Karate Enterprise is the commercial edition that adds the async protocol pack (Kafka, gRPC, WebSocket runtime), the IDE Enterprise tier, Karate Agent for AI verification, and engineering-grade support, all under a single contract. Open source remains the foundation; Enterprise adds the components that procurement, security, and operations teams require.
Pricing is custom based on which components you need, team size, environment count, and support tier. IDE plugins are priced per user, the async runtime is priced per environment, and Karate Agent is priced by execution volume. We consolidate all components into a single annual agreement so you have one renewal, one PO, and one support relationship. See the pricing page for IDE seat costs.
Yes. Every component is self-hosted. Karate Agent runs in Docker on your infrastructure; pair it with a local LLM via Ollama and the entire pipeline — browser, agent, model — runs inside your network with zero outbound calls. Used in production by financial services, insurance, and healthcare customers with strict data-residency requirements.
A dedicated Slack channel with Karate Labs engineers, response SLAs tied to your support tier, an escalation path for production incidents, and access to the Karate Labs roadmap. Enterprise customers also get architecture review, deployment support, and hands-on assistance during PoC and rollout.
IDE Enterprise licenses cover individual developers writing and debugging tests locally. Runtime licenses cover execution of async (Kafka, gRPC, WebSocket) tests in shared environments such as CI/CD pipelines. Most enterprise customers buy both: IDE seats for the team plus runtime licenses for their pipelines. We model the bundle for you during scoping.
Yes. Many teams start with the IDE Enterprise tier or the async pack, then add Karate Agent once they're ready to introduce AI verification. Components can be added at any time — pricing is prorated to your contract term, and the support relationship carries across the whole stack.
Via SAML 2.0 or OIDC against any major identity provider — Azure AD / Entra ID, Okta, Ping, Auth0, Google Workspace. Role-based access control determines who can run tests, view reports, and manage configurations. No per-seat installs; teams share a single deployment governed by your IdP.
Three steps. First, evaluate using the public Enterprise Evaluation guide — 95 answers to the questions technical and procurement teams typically ask. Second, run a scoped 30-day PoC with engineering support and weekly check-ins. Third, sign an annual agreement covering the components and seats you've validated. Most evaluations close in 4 to 8 weeks.