If you've landed on Rork's pricing page and felt unsure which plan to pick, you're not alone. When I first started using Rork, I spent a while on the free tier trying to figure out exactly where the ceiling was — and then hit it at the worst possible moment, mid-build, right before I wanted to submit my first app.
The short answer: your ideal plan depends on what you're building and how serious you are about shipping. The feature comparison table on the official site tells you what's included, but it doesn't tell you what running out of generations at 11pm feels like. Here's the version I wish I'd read before deciding.
The Three Plans at a Glance
Before the details, here's the whole picture in one table, current as of this writing. Prices and limits change, so confirm the latest numbers on the official pricing page before you commit.
| Aspect | Free | Pro | Max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price (at writing) | $0 | ~$25+ | $200 |
| Generations | Capped (runs out fast) | Greatly increased | Pro-level and up |
| EAS Build (device builds) | Restricted | Included | Cloud Mac, end-to-end |
| App output | React Native | React Native | Native Swift |
| Best for | Trying it out / learning | Indie devs shipping apps | Apps where native is the core |
The single most important thing this table shows: Max is not a higher tier of Pro — it's a different product line. Get that backwards and you fail in both directions: paying $200 when Pro was enough, or hitting a wall on Pro when you actually needed Max. The sections below unpack each plan.
What the Free Plan Actually Gives You
The free plan is a genuine starting point — not a bait-and-switch. You can generate apps, preview them in the Rork editor, and save your projects. For learning what Rork is capable of, the free tier works.
The friction shows up when you start iterating. Apps built through conversation — "now add this," "change that," "make this screen work differently" — consume generations faster than you'd expect. On complex projects, a day of focused development can use up a week's worth of free generations.
The bigger structural limitation for anyone trying to publish: EAS Build access is restricted on the free plan. You need a build to submit to the App Store or Google Play. Hitting that wall after days of development is demoralizing — that 11pm moment I mentioned at the top was exactly this build limit. If publishing is the goal from day one, starting on the free plan and hoping to squeeze through is a frustrating strategy.
The free plan is the right choice for: exploring Rork before committing, building quick prototypes you don't intend to ship, learning the prompt-driven development workflow, and one-off experiments.
When Pro Makes Sense
Paid plans start at roughly $25 per month as of this writing, and for most indie developers that Pro tier removes the most common friction points: generation limits are significantly increased, and EAS Build access opens up. For anyone building apps they intend to release, Pro is the practical entry point.
My own switch to Pro happened when I was ready to build my first EAS build and discovered I couldn't on the free tier. After switching, the development loop became what I'd hoped Rork would feel like — iterative, fast, low-friction.
Pro is the right fit if you're working on apps you plan to publish, running multiple projects in parallel, or iterating frequently on a single project. If you're building seriously enough that you're looking up pricing, you probably need Pro.
One nuance worth knowing: if your development pace is slow — maybe one app touched per month — you may be able to stay on the free tier longer. Be honest with yourself about your actual usage pattern rather than your aspirational one.
What Rork Max Adds (and Who Actually Needs It)
This part deserves precision, because it's often misunderstood: Rork Max isn't simply "Pro with more generations." It's effectively a separate product that generates native Swift apps instead of React Native, launched in February 2026 at $200 per month. Because compilation happens on a cloud Mac fleet, you can go from generation to App Store submission without owning a Mac or touching Xcode.
Generating native Swift means direct access to Apple frameworks that React Native + Expo struggles to reach: ARKit (including LiDAR), Metal-based graphics, Live Activities, HealthKit, and on-device Core ML. I've tested how far the generation actually goes on a physical device — the details are in How Far Can Rork Max's SwiftUI Generation Go? Possibilities and Limits from Real-Device Testing.
The scenarios where Max becomes necessary tend to be specific:
Building a game that needs Metal-level graphics control. Implementing camera features that hit Expo's API limitations. Integrating deeply with HealthKit for a wellness or fitness app that needs to read sensor data at the framework level. Building anything that leans on platform-specific surfaces like Live Activities or widget configurations.
For a substantial portion of apps — productivity tools, social features, content apps, e-commerce — Pro handles everything needed. The test I'd suggest: build your app to a near-complete state on Pro, and if you hit a native API wall you can't work around, that's when $200 a month starts to be justifiable.
Monthly vs Annual: The Practical Math
Both Pro and Max are available as monthly or annual subscriptions, with annual pricing being more economical per month.
If you're confident Rork will be a primary tool for the next year, annual is straightforwardly better value. If you're still figuring out whether Rork fits your workflow, monthly lets you test without committing.
One practical point: most subscription services, including Rork, don't offer prorated refunds on annual plans if you cancel mid-year. If there's meaningful uncertainty about whether you'll use it consistently, monthly is the lower-risk choice even if it costs more over twelve months. My own rule of thumb after years of tool subscriptions: switch to annual only after three consecutive months of real use.
How Plan Costs Fit Into Your App's Economics
It's worth thinking about Rork's subscription cost in the context of what your app makes — or what you're hoping it will make.
Years of running ad-supported apps taught me to price every tool in ad impressions rather than dollars. With AdMob, typical eCPMs sit in the range of $1–5 for most categories. At those rates, a $25 Pro subscription equals roughly 5,000–25,000 impressions per month. A single app with a few hundred daily active users covers that comfortably. Max at $200 is a different conversation: that's 40,000–200,000 impressions' worth, which is why I'd only commit to it once native capabilities are central to the app's value, not a nice-to-have.
If you're building a paid app or subscription product, the math is simpler: Pro costs the equivalent of a handful of app sales per month. Once your first app starts generating consistent revenue, the plan cost becomes a rounding error in your development budget.
This framing matters because it changes how you think about the decision. Rork's plan cost isn't primarily a financial decision — it's a commitment decision. Paying for Pro is committing to the work of shipping something. That commitment often does more for productivity than any specific feature.
Switching Plans: What to Know Before You Upgrade
Upgrading from free to Pro (or Pro to Max) is straightforward within the Rork interface. Your projects and existing work carry over without any migration friction.
A few things to be aware of:
Timing your upgrade: If you're approaching a critical development milestone — like needing to build for TestFlight submission — upgrade a day or two before rather than the moment you need the feature. That gives time to resolve any account/billing edge cases without deadline pressure.
Downgrading: Moving from a higher tier to a lower one typically takes effect at the end of your current billing cycle. Until then, you retain access to the higher tier's features. If you're downgrading, plan your remaining builds and exports before the cycle ends.
Annual plan lock-in: As mentioned, annual plans generally don't offer prorated refunds. If you upgrade to annual and then decide Rork isn't the right fit, you'll have paid for a year. This is a reasonable bet if you're committed to the workflow; it's a real cost if you're still experimenting.
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Choosing
Rather than mapping features to plan tiers in the abstract, here are the questions that actually clarify the decision:
Am I building something I plan to submit to the App Store or Google Play? If yes, you need EAS Build access, which means at minimum Pro.
Am I going to work on Rork projects consistently, or just occasionally? Heavy usage favors Pro or higher. Occasional use might work on free.
Do any of my planned features require native Apple frameworks not available through React Native + Expo? If you already know the answer is yes — ARKit scenes, HealthKit data, Metal shaders — Max is probably where you're headed.
What's my time horizon? Planning to use Rork for 12+ months? Annual is a reasonable commitment. Testing whether Rork fits your workflow? Monthly keeps the downside small.
If you've answered these honestly and still aren't sure, start on the free plan for a week and build something real. You'll hit the friction points quickly enough to make the Pro decision obvious — or confirm that the free tier does what you need.
Teams and Multi-Person Use
Rork was designed primarily with solo PoCs and indie development in mind, but if you want to manage projects with more than one person, the handling varies by plan. If team use is on your roadmap, check seat counts and collaboration features in the official plan details ahead of time.
For solo work you don't need to worry about this, but if you're a freelancer managing client projects, it can become a deciding factor.
Starting Point for Most Indie Developers
For anyone building apps with the intention of publishing them: start with Pro. The free tier is for exploration; Pro is for building.
Max is genuinely powerful, but the delta between Pro and Max only matters when you're building features that require native API access. Most apps don't need that, and you'll know quickly if yours does. Start on Pro, build your first app, ship it, then assess whether Max would have meaningfully helped — that ordering usually leads to better decisions than upgrading speculatively.
Start where your goals are, not where your budget is most comfortable. If publishing is the goal, Pro is the cost of doing business — and in my experience, I regret the tools I hesitated on far more than the ones I paid for.