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Posted on Nov 8

Trying Sakupa before paying: what the 30-day free preview actually lets you do

#sakupa #mcp #ai #staticsites

A note up front: I am not a Sakupa developer. I found this MCP server while looking into how AI agents publish websites, and this post is based only on public information from the official site and the official manual. It is not a hands-on review.

Sakupa is an MCP server that lets an AI agent publish and operate a static site with no account registration. Its pricing mentions a "30-day free preview" and plans "from ¥200 a month." This post walks through what you can actually do during the free period, and where the money starts.

The starting point: no account, per-site billing

Sakupa has no user registration. Publishing happens by asking an AI agent. The scope is static sites only — it is not for web apps with databases or login features.

Billing is per site. Paid plans start at ¥200 a month, and as far as the official information goes, there is no automatic upgrade to a higher plan. Per-site billing is the starting point for reading the pricing.

The free preview is normally 30 days

The free preview normally lasts 30 days. It exists so you can publish a site and see how it actually looks. Free sites have an expiry date, and the refresh tool extends it before it runs out.

The interesting part is that the free period is not a watered-down demo. The publishing flow during the preview is the same as under a paid plan, including the confirmation steps. In other words, the free period is a chance to try the publishing flow itself, not just the finished page.

The flow, step by step

Following the official manual, getting started looks like this.

1. Setup runs locally only

The first step, init, is a one-time preparation that runs locally only, with no network traffic. There is no account to create; instead, the first preparation happens on your own machine.

2. A read-only check before anything is published

analyze is a read-only check of whether a site is ready to publish. If it finds an inappropriate file, it warns you and publishing does not proceed. Nothing about the site or the contract changes at this stage — it only reads and verifies.

3. Publish after a preview and confirmation

deploy publishes the site only after a confirmation step. It is not published the moment you ask. A preview and a confirmation come first. Free preview sites go through the same flow.

4. Attach your own domain if you need one

bind connects a custom domain. But attaching a domain alone is not treated as "published." Only after the DNS check passes, the status is active, and an HTTP 200 is returned is it presented as published. "Attached" and "actually reachable" are treated as two different things.

What the free period covers — and what it doesn't

During the free preview, you can publish a site and check how it looks in practice. The publishing flow is the same as under a paid plan, and the "confirm before publishing" step is the same too.

When the free period ends, you choose whether to keep the site. Keeping it means subscribing per site, from ¥200 a month. Payment does not go through the AI: subscribe creates a Stripe signup link, and you complete the payment yourself on Stripe's page. What you actually subscribed to can be checked with billing, which matches the real contract and usage against the public plan catalog.

If you don't keep the site, the free site can be deleted with delete. That operation requires a preview and cannot be undone. Irreversible operations carry heavier procedures — a pattern that shows up across the tool list.

Three things the flow makes visible

Reading the 30-day preview as a flow, three design choices stand out:

Trying comes before paying. The 30 days of trying and the period of paying are separate. You try first, then subscribe only for what you keep.
The free flow is the real flow. The confirmation-before-publishing step is the same during the free period.
Money decisions stay with the person. Payment happens on Stripe's page, and the contract is verified with billing.

Many services offer a free trial. In Sakupa's case, the free period is notable because it is a period for trying the publishing flow itself, not just the output.

Caveats (within the official information)

Static sites only. It is not for web apps with databases or login features.
A relatively new service (first published on npm in July 2026, per the official timeline). If you are considering it, starting small with the free preview (normally 30 days) is the safe way in.

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