Your service is your licence.
ErgoSphere is free for serving members of the Australian Defence Force and APS employees of the Department of Defence. Not a discount and not a cut-down edition: the same Windows build practitioners licence at $4,900 a seat, with all 53 tools, and the requirements, registers, compliance and deliverables modules that carry them into an HSI programme. And the entire verification is your defence.gov.au email address. No forms of ID. No paperwork. No chain of approvals.
Eligibility checkRuns in your browser · nothing is sent
If your work address ends in defence.gov.au, you qualify. Type it and watch.
Read by a person - a veteran, as it happens. Usually answered within two business days.
From one who served
I spent ten years in the Royal Australian Air Force. Defence gave me a trade, a profession, and a standard of work I have carried into everything since - including the software this website is about.
Ergonomics Engineered exists because of what the Air Force taught me about how people, machines and procedures behave when it matters. Every method in ErgoSphere - the workload assessments, the human reliability analysis, the task decompositions - is the kind of work Defence people do every day, usually with less tooling than they deserve.
So this page is the debt being paid the only way a software company can pay it. If you are serving now - Navy, Army, Air Force or Defence APS - ErgoSphere is free for as long as you serve. The full build. Every tool. Every update.
You do not need to prove anything to me beyond an email address. I know what the uniform asks of the people wearing it. Consider this one small thing back.
Ergonomics Engineered is a veteran owned and operated business, and a member of the Veteran Business Chamber.
The full build. Nothing removed.
A free tier usually means the useful parts have been taken out. This one is the shipping application, byte for byte - the same seat a consultancy pays $4,900 for. The only difference is who it is issued to.
Included in every Defence licence
- All 53 tools - the 37 published methods and the 16 ErgoSphere Originals
- Task Analysis, Physical, Cognitive, Human Reliability, Usability & Risk, and Systems families
- Method guides built in - what each method is, when it applies, how to run it, and the literature behind it
- Project Management, Compliance, Registers and Deliverables modules
- Report generation - hand your chain a document, not a screenshot
- Export interactive .ergview files anyone can open free - no licence needed to read your work
- All work stays local on Windows 10 and 11 - no cloud account, no analytics, and an offline activation option for disconnected machines
- Every update released while your licence is active
- Renews each year with one reply from your Defence address, for as long as you serve
- Support by email, same queue as everyone else
Built for where you work
Your data never leaves.
ErgoSphere is a native Windows application. Your project files are local files on your machine - no cloud account, no sync, no analytics. We never see your work, and neither does anyone else.
And because your ICT assessor will ask, here is the entire network story: the standard licence revalidates its key online about once a week - the key and a machine hash, never your data - and updates arrive through Windows App Installer. Deployed or disconnected? An offline activation removes even the licence check - just mention it in your request.
HSI methods, in one file
Workload, human reliability, task analysis, usability, risk - the methods Defence human factors and safety work leans on are all here, feeding off one task decomposition instead of a folder of disconnected spreadsheets.
Decompose the task once, and THERP, SHERPA, NASA-TLX and the rest run against the same structure. The compliance and registers modules keep the paper trail your chain will ask for.
The Role Register allocates that work to positions rather than people, and then reports on the allocation: role coverage of the Task Register by mode of operation, which tasks nobody owns, and which sit with a single role. Rate a task's difficulty and how often each role performs it and you have the DIF triple - importance already sits there as the screening band - so the training priority a Training Needs Analysis is looking for falls out of the register you already keep.
You have worked in the folder this replaces. Here is one, twelve weeks into a project, and the same project as a single file →
Four steps, no paperwork
Fill in the request
The form below composes the whole email for you. Name, service, what you plan to run. About two minutes.
Send it from your Defence address
The address it arrives from is the entire verification. That is why there is no upload, no ID and no attachment.
Your key arrives
Sent back to that same address with the download link and setup instructions. Usually within two business days.
Renew while you serve
Once a year we ask if you are still in. One reply from your Defence address and the licence rolls over.
Compose your request
Nothing on this page is submitted anywhere. The form writes the email; you send it from your Defence account - from your work machine or Defence webmail - because the address it comes from is the proof. It goes to one inbox at Ergonomics Engineered and nowhere else.
Where the line sits
The Defence licence is for the people in uniform and the APS beside them. We are direct about the boundary because it is the whole basis of the offer.
- Your Defence duties and your own professional development: yes. Unit work, studies, courses, staff work, your own practice - anything you do as a serving member or Defence APS.
- Commercial work: no. Consulting on the side, work for a Defence contractor, or anything invoiced needs a commercial seat - even if the client is Defence.
- Contractors and Defence industry are not covered, including those holding a defence.gov.au address. This offer is for ADF members and Defence APS. Industry seats are how the free ones get paid for - talk to us.
- The licence is issued to you, not your unit. Everyone applies individually - it takes two minutes each. A directorate wanting managed seats should get in touch instead.
- Your ICT rules still apply. On your own machine, install away. On Defence systems, that is a decision for your chain and your ICT authority, not for us - though "all data local, no cloud, no analytics" tends to make that conversation shorter, and we will hand your assessor the full System Architecture Document and Security & Data Privacy whitepaper, licence check and all.
What you are agreeing to
In plain terms, so you can read it in a minute. The full End User Licence Agreement applies as well, and it governs if the two ever disagree.
Free while you serve, and it is a licence
You are granted the right to use ErgoSphere, not ownership of it. No fee is charged and none becomes payable while the Defence licence is in force.
A published program, not a personal gift
This is a published program, open on identical terms to every serving ADF member and Defence APS employee. It is not a personal gift, is not offered at anyone's discretion, and confers no obligation of any kind on the recipient or on Defence.
It is issued to you, personally
Named to one serving person, tied to your Defence email address, and not transferable. You may not share, sell, sublicence or pass on your key. Anyone else who serves gets their own the same way you did.
Your address is the verification
Requests are accepted only from an address ending in defence.gov.au, and the key is sent back to that address. We keep no copy of anything else - there are no documents because none are asked for.
Service and self-development, not commerce
Use it for your Defence duties, your studies and your own professional development. Commercial use is not permitted: no consulting, no contractor deliverables, no work you are separately paid for - whether the client is Defence or anyone else.
It runs for a year at a time
The licence is issued for a fixed term and renews on request while you are still serving and the programme remains open. Renewal is one reply from your Defence address. When you separate, the Defence licence ends - talk to us before you go.
The programme can close; your licence cannot be cut short
We expect to run this programme indefinitely, but we are a small business and reserve the right to pause, cap or close it to new requests at any time. Two things hold regardless: any licence already issued runs its full term - we will never end a serving member's licence early because the programme changed - and any closure applies to everyone equally, never to individuals.
Your ICT policy is yours to follow
ErgoSphere keeps every project file local and collects no analytics; its only routine connections are a periodic licence check and Windows-managed update checks, and an offline activation removes the licence check. What may be installed on Defence systems is governed by Defence, not by us. Installing it on your own equipment is entirely your call; installing it on Defence equipment is your chain's.
Honest requests only
Requesting a licence from an address that is not yours, or while not serving, voids the licence immediately and permanently. This offer works because the address means what it says.
Same software, same support, no warranty of results
You get the full application and email support. ErgoSphere is a tool for qualified analysis, not a substitute for competent judgement - the outputs are yours, and so is professional responsibility for them. We may decline a request or withdraw a licence used outside these terms, and if we decline, we will tell you why.
The ones people ask
Is it actually free, or free-then-billed?
Free. No card, no trial clock, no invoice at the end, and you will not be moved onto a paid plan without asking for it. The licence simply ends when you stop serving, and we will tell you before it does.
Why would you give this away?
Because I served ten years in the RAAF, and Defence gave me the trade this company is built on. Commercial and industry seats pay the bills; this page is the part where I pay a debt. That is the whole reason, and it is enough.
Do I need to declare this as a gift or benefit?
Your declaration obligations are yours, and we will not advise you on them. What we can do is tell you - and your delegate - exactly what this is: a published program, open on identical terms to every serving ADF member and Defence APS employee. It is not a personal gift, is not offered at anyone's discretion, and confers no obligation of any kind on the recipient or on Defence. That statement is term 02 above, and it is written there precisely so an approval can take thirty seconds instead of a trip up the chain.
I am a reservist. Am I covered?
If you hold an active defence.gov.au address, yes - send your request from it like everyone else. If your service category does not give you one, write to us from your personal address, tell us your situation, and a person will sort it out with you.
My address ends in dst.defence.gov.au or another subdomain.
Anything ending in defence.gov.au passes, subdomains included. The check is on the domain, not the format of the address.
I am a contractor with a defence.gov.au address.
Then you have our respect and our honesty: this offer is for ADF members and Defence APS, and contractor work is exactly the commercial use the terms exclude. Your employer should licence seats - commercial seats are what make the free ones possible. Point them at the pricing page.
I have discharged. Is there anything for veterans?
This offer rides on the Defence address, which you hand back at the door - we know. But this business is veteran owned, and we would rather talk to you than turn you away. Write to us, tell us what you served and what you are doing now, and we will see what we can do.
Can I install it on Defence systems?
On your own machine: immediately. On Defence ICT: that is a decision for your chain and your ICT authority, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can tell you is exactly what it does on the wire, because your assessor will check: every project file stays local and is never transmitted, there are no analytics, the standard licence revalidates its key against our server about once a week (the key and a machine hash, nothing else), and updates arrive through Windows App Installer. Where even the licence check is unacceptable, an offline activation removes it. And for the paperwork: a full System Architecture Document and Security & Data Privacy whitepaper are available to your ICT authority on request - the same engineering documentation we hand any client IT department.
Does it work deployed, at sea, or somewhere without internet?
Yes - arrange one thing up front. The application itself needs no connection: every tool, file and report works without one. The standard licence, though, revalidates its key online about once a week, and a ship does not oblige. Tell us the machine will be deployed or disconnected when you request your key and we will issue an offline activation instead - once applied, the software makes no licence connections at all.
What happens to my project files when the licence ends?
They are local files on your machine and they remain yours - we never held them. Exported .ergview files stay readable by anyone, forever, with the free viewer.
Can my whole cell or directorate get it?
Everyone who serves can apply individually - it takes about two minutes each, and each licence is personal. If you want it managed formally - seats tracked, a point of contact, documentation for an ICT assessment - email us and we will set it up properly.
In Defence industry rather than Defence? Commercial seats are how this page stays free for the people in uniform.
