A promise to educators: stable pricing, and an offline safeguard if AR Works ever changes hands

AR Works started as a tool for classrooms - a way for students to build real augmented reality from a client brief without wrestling with app builds, SDKs or app-store accounts. Schools have been part of the project from the first version, and the way we build reflects that. This post exists to make one specific guarantee to education - a promise designed to protect the work your school builds, no matter what happens to us.

Teachers plan in terms of years, not release cycles. A resource you make for a scheme of work needs to still open next September. A tool you introduce to a department needs to still be affordable when the next budget lands. So rather than ask you to take that on trust, we want to be specific - including about the one scenario schools worry about but rarely have a clear answer for: a change of ownership.

Our guarantee if AR Works ever changes hands

Here is the commitment this post is really about. For as long as AR Works is owned by Qode LTD - the company that builds it today - we run it the way we do now, with the plannable pricing described below. But ownership of software can change, and a school deserves a guarantee that does not depend on that never happening.

So this is our promise: if ownership of AR Works ever passes from Qode LTD to anyone else, that handover will include releasing the full offline standalone version to education accounts - the complete editor, running on your own computers, with a licence that never expires. Building it into the handover matters: the safeguard does not depend on us acting after the fact, so it holds even at the moment ownership changes. A change of hands cannot take the tool out of your hands - you keep the offline editor and your .works project files on your own machines, and your school carries on building. That is the safety net that makes an AR Works project safe to build a whole scheme of work around.

What that offline version is

That standalone exists today: AR Works Studio, included with the Pro and Education plans - so schools know exactly what the guarantee delivers. It is a Windows version of the same editor you already use - scenes, 3D models, animation, the drag-and-drop logic nodes, both tracking modes - running entirely on the computer in front of you. Projects are saved on disk as .works files: a single file that holds the whole project and all of its assets, which you can open, edit, copy onto a memory stick, or hand to a colleague.

Because it runs locally, it does not need an internet connection to build with, and it keeps working on its own - your projects keep opening, licence and all. The same .works files move between the desktop app and the website, so a project built offline in the classroom can still be published to a phone-friendly link later, when you want an audience to view it.

And while we run it: pricing you can plan around

The safety net matters most because of what it protects: a service schools can settle into without fear of the ground shifting. The single most useful thing a school tool can be is predictable, so you should be able to introduce AR Works this year and trust that it is still affordable when you build it into next year's planning. For as long as AR Works is owned by Qode LTD, our commitment is stable, plannable pricing - not a number that climbs once you have lessons and student work depending on it. You can always see the current plans on the pricing page.

Why we are putting this in writing

Schools carry risk that most software buyers do not. A department adopts a tool, staff learn it, students build a term of work in it, and it quietly becomes part of how a subject is taught. That investment deserves a guarantee in return - not just for as long as it happens to suit us, but through a change of hands too. Writing it down is the point: a promise you can plan around is worth more than one you have to hope for.

What you can do today

Nothing about this guarantee asks you to wait. The browser-based editor is live now on the free plan, with the full editor, both tracking modes and publishing to a shareable link and QR code, so a teacher can build a real classroom activity this week. AR Works Studio itself is included with the Pro and Education plans today - your licence key is on your account page, and the app activates offline - with the ownership safeguard sitting behind it all. If you are looking at a wider rollout, talk to us on the for-schools page, and for classroom ideas to steal, the augmented reality in education guide is a good place to start.