Which Soniteq Product Should I Buy First?
Direct answer: Kora — it is the only thing you buy. Export Flow and Key Shift Pro are not separate purchases; they ship inside Kora and run on every plan, including Local at $7 a month. So the real decision is not which product, but which of the three Kora plans: Local at $7, Creator at $12 or Pro at $25.
Why Export Flow and Key Shift Pro are not separate purchases
They have their own pages because they are distinct parts of the workflow — the delivery half and the pitch-shift tool — not because they are separately sold. Neither is restricted by plan: Key Shift Pro’s tier requirement in the code is the lowest plan, and Export Flow’s delivery workflow has no tier gate at all.
Cloud sync is the third assumed upgrade that is not one. It is gated by authentication rather than plan, and is opt-in and off by default on all three tiers, including Local.
Which Kora plan should I start on?
Two hard stops first. Kora is a native macOS app needing macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon or Intel — no web app, no Windows, no Android. And Kora for iPhone is in development, not on the App Store, with no announced date. If either is a blocker, no plan is the right plan yet.
Past those, choose by the first row that describes you:
| If this is true of you | Start on | Because |
|---|---|---|
| You want naming templates, folder recipes, watch folders and delivery preflight | Local $7 | Export Flow’s working half is ungated |
| You want to pitch-shift key variants for delivery | Local $7 | Key Shift Pro has no tier gate on any plan |
| You want cloud sync across machines | Local $7 | Sync is an authentication gate, not a plan gate |
| You want Kai answering questions through a working day | Creator $12 | Local’s allowance is 0 chat turns and 0 advanced-reasoning runs a month |
| You need finance import, agreements, custom automations or a public portfolio page | Creator $12 | All four switch on at Creator |
| You need entity sharing, portfolio branding, or 64 retained conversation threads | Pro $25 | These three are the only Pro-only unlocks that work today |
| You are buying primarily for review links | Wait | Review links are Pro-gated and blocked for everyone today — see below |
| Your projects live on a NAS or network volume | Not supported | Watch folders have no mount-state detection for network volumes |
| You genuinely cannot tell | Trial on Pro | The 21-day trial grants full Pro access; pick the tier that matches what you actually used |
That last row is the honest default.
What actually changes between Local, Creator and Pro?
This is the complete list of plan-gated capabilities. The enforcement column matters: server-enforced limits are hard, client-side ones are the interface following your plan.
| Capability | Local $7 | Creator $12 | Pro $25 | Enforced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI chat turns per month | 0 | 1,000 | 2,000 | Server |
| Advanced reasoning per month | 0 | 10 | 30 | Server |
| AI reply length (characters) | 620 | 1,500 | 4,000 | Server |
| AI actions per month | 20 | 60 | 100 | Server |
| Review links | — | — | Yes | Server (403) |
| Entity sharing | — | — | Yes | Client |
| Finance import and agreements | — | Yes | Yes | Client |
| Custom automations | — | Yes | Yes | Client |
| Public and portfolio pages | — | Yes | Yes, plus branding | Client |
| Conversation retention (threads) | 8 | 24 | 64 | Client |
Nothing else is gated. Watch folders, the naming engine, contact records with 19 roles and five tiers, Focus Flow’s five timing methods, whiteboards, Export Flow’s delivery workflow and Key Shift Pro are the same software on all three plans. What the higher tiers mostly buy you is more Kai.
What should I not pick a plan for yet?
- Export Flow’s audio-processing engine is disabled in shipping builds. Format conversion, loudness analysis, metadata embedding and MP3 rendering are all off; the in-app notice reads “Enhanced Export Flow is coming soon.” What works today is the organisational half — delivery profiles, naming templates and folder recipes with live preview, required-deliverable and required-metadata checklists, preflight with duplicate-output and illegal-character detection, and Mark Delivered.
- Review links are not usable on any plan. They need a version record, which only the disabled export path produces. The Deliverable Ledger stays empty on a fresh install for the same reason, and the fully built Dropbox and Google Drive delivery integrations are unreachable today.
- Key Shift Pro has no formant preservation, and works within ±6 semitones, WAV or AIFF in, WAV out, macOS only.
- Whiteboards are single-user. Presence is shown, but multi-user live editing does not work.
Frequently asked
Do I need a credit card to start the trial?
Yes. A payment method is required to begin the 21-day trial. Nothing is charged until the trial ends and cancelling before then costs nothing, but the card goes in first. The trial grants full Pro access and is limited to one per account.
Should I test the idea of Kai on the Local plan first?
No. Local’s AI chat and advanced-reasoning allowances are zero and the limits are enforced on the server, so there is nothing to test. If a conversational assistant is a main reason you are buying, start on Creator.
Should I wait for the iPhone app before subscribing?
Kora for iPhone is in development and is not on the App Store, and there is no announced date. Treat the macOS app as the whole product when you decide.
Related pages
- How much does Kora cost?
- What platforms does Kora support?
- What is Export Flow for music delivery?
- What is Key Shift Pro for sync delivery?
- Is Kora local-first and offline?
- How do I get started with Kora?