Licensing
On this page
dembrane is open source under the Business Source License 1.1 (BSL 1.1). The BSL is a source-available licence designed to keep the code open and learnable while protecting the project’s ability to fund its own development. This page explains what that means in practice - what you can do for free, when you need a commercial licence, and who to talk to.
Note
This page summarises the licence so you can make a decision. It is not legal advice and
it is not the licence text. The LICENSE file in the repository is the authoritative
source; read it before deploying, and take your own legal advice if your situation is at all
borderline.
What you can do for free#
Non-production use is unrestricted. Read the code, run it locally, fork it, experiment, learn from it, build prototypes, contribute back - none of that is gated. This is the open part of “open source”: the source is right there and you’re welcome to use it.
Production use is free below a finance threshold. You may run dembrane in production at no cost provided your organisation’s total finances are at or below €1,000,000 over any rolling twelve-month period. For most individuals, small teams, non-profits, and early-stage projects, that means production use is free.
If you cross that threshold and want to run dembrane in production, you need a commercial licence.
The Change Date - conversion to GPLv3#
Each release of dembrane carries a Change Date of its release date plus three years. On that date, that release’s licence automatically converts from BSL 1.1 to GPLv3.
In other words: every version of dembrane becomes fully GPLv3 open source three years after it ships, regardless of the finance threshold. The BSL restriction is a rolling three-year window that always eventually opens. Newer releases reset the clock for their code; older releases keep converting on schedule.
Tip
If you only need an older release and you're happy to wait, the GPLv3 conversion means the restriction is time-limited by design. For current releases in production above the threshold, the commercial licence is the path.
Commercial licence#
If your organisation is above the €1M threshold and wants to run a current release in production, or you want terms the BSL doesn’t grant (support, warranties, bespoke compliance, managed hosting), dembrane offers a commercial licence. Bespoke compliance arrangements and self-hosting support are available alongside it.
The managed service at dembrane.com is the turnkey alternative - see tiers & billing. Changemaker and above is where most teams land; the EU-sovereign Guardian tier is coming soon.
At a glance#
| Your situation | Under BSL 1.1 |
|---|---|
| Local dev, prototyping, learning, forking | Free, unrestricted (non-production). |
| Production, organisation finances ≤ €1M / 12 months | Free. |
| Production, organisation finances > €1M / 12 months | Needs a commercial licence. |
| Using a release ≥ 3 years after its release date | GPLv3 (the Change Date has passed). |
Who to contact#
| Topic | Contact |
|---|---|
| Pull requests, security | sameer@dembrane.com |
| Legal, licensing, stewardship | bram@dembrane.com |
| Mission, press | jorim@dembrane.com |
| Hosting, commercial arrangements | evelien@dembrane.com |
For commercial-licence and self-hosting-support enquiries, evelien@dembrane.com (hosting / commercial) or bram@dembrane.com (legal / stewardship) are the right starting points.
Related#
- Contributing - the CLA and how to send changes.
- Building on dembrane (overview) - what’s open source.
- Self-hosting - running it yourself.
- Tiers & billing - the managed alternative.
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