Best Plastic plan for a solo game dev?

[NettleBroth]

I'm a solo indie game developer trying to gain a better understanding of which subscription plan would best for my needs should I decide to go with Plastic for my VCS (in the process of comparing different programs at the moment). I don't come from a super technical background and, while not new to using VCS, am new to having to set it up myself, so apologies if these questions are super noobish.

1) Does the Free Personal Edition for "Hobbyists and individuals" work for me if I'm planning to eventually sell my game (e.g. on Steam)? I ask because the Free "Community" edition specifies non-profits only, and I couldn't find a clear definition on the site of what, legally speaking, constitutes a "hobbyist". 

2) What happens if I'm the sole dev for most of the project, using the Personal Edition, but let's say towards the end I decide to commission someone to compose a few music tracks for the game. Would that mean I now need to upgrade (or worse, back-pay) to one of the Team Editions?

3) The Cloud Edition says it's for "teams who only need a Cloud server." There is where my lack of technical background comes in -- what would be the benefits (or lack thereof) of a cloud server to me as a solo developer?

4) The Cloud Edition plan also says "optional local repo clones supported too". Does this mean the Personal Edition does not support local repos and you work entirely from the cloud? And if so wouldn't that mean it's not actually free because you're basically obligated to subscribe to the "cloud extension" in order to actually do any work?

5) As I will be working on game projects, I expect to be managing some art assets, but these will be small projects. Would Gluon really add value for someone like me?

TIA for any advice!

[Angel Mañas]

Hello. Let me answer your questions:

1) As a solo user, you can apply to the Personal Edition at https://www.plasticscm.com/download/request/requestpersonal. It has some limitations compared with the commercial editions, but it you don't need those features, you can use to develop and sell your game. On the other side, Community Edition is only available for OSS projects and Non-profit Organizations (NPOs).

2) If you collaborate with users that only do updates/reads, and not check-in's/writes, that users doesn't count as active users, and are free. Otherwise you will need to move to a commercial edition (Team or Cloud). 

3) For a solo user, Cloud Edition gives you the advantage of the cloud storage, that depending on the size of your repos can be something to consider or not.

4) The Personal Edition is an on-premise edition. Therefore your repos are local. You can combine with Cloud Extension, to move or replicate them to the cloud. That extension is not free.

5) Gluon GUI is designed for artists and not professional developers. It is only available in commercial editions (Team or Cloud). 

You can test a free-trial for 30 days (Team, Cloud or both) at https://www.plasticscm.com/download and determine if the Personal Edition is enough or you need to move to a commercial edition,

Regards,

Angel

Plastic SCM Team

[NettleBroth]

Thank you for the info!