Today we're excited to announce the launch of Root Sudo, our personal subscription plan.

Sudo is more than a subscription. It's a substantial stepping stone toward our bigger mission of creating the first community sandbox platform. Our goal is to help every community succeed by giving them the tools to achieve whatever they set out to do. Root Sudo moves us toward that goal by laying the foundation for developers to release their apps in our store, putting the tools communities need right within reach.

What is Sudo?

Sudo is Root's personal subscription. We're starting small and intentional, launching today with the feature you've asked for most: high-framerate HD streaming. So many of you spend hours at a time in calls, and we want your experience there to feel as crisp and smooth as possible, so it was the obvious place to begin. Every subscriber also gets a Sudo badge, our way of recognizing the people who are supporting us early on.

And this is only the start. In the near future, Sudo will evolve to include what we're calling Cores. Each month you'll receive one Core to spend on a community of your choice, powering it up with new capabilities, like the ability to add apps. Cores will keep growing over time, and we have a lot of exciting things planned for them.

Our philosophy on monetization

I know a paid subscription can come across as a bad thing, and I don't take that lightly. I grew up on these platforms, and along the way I learned exactly how it feels to pay for something that offers no real value. That's why it matters so much to me that Root never becomes that, today or as we grow.

So as a promise, the purely cosmetic touches that make Root feel like yours, emojis, animated profile pictures, animated banners, are free today and always will be. We're never putting self-expression behind a paywall.

What we charge for is different by design. We charge for things that cost us real money to provide, like HD streaming, for things that deliver genuine value beyond decoration, and for things that reward our developers for building great experiences on Root.

We want to hear from you

This is just the beginning of Sudo, of Cores, and of everything they'll grow into. The best way to shape what comes next is to build it with you, so tell us: what would you want from Sudo, and what should a Core unlock when you give one to a community? If you've got early ideas, we want to hear them.

To our community, and to all of our future Sudo subscribers: thank you. Thank you for supporting us and for helping us continue building the best possible communication experience.

Jesse Dietrichson
CEO & Founder, Root

‍