License FAQ
Airbyte Connectors are open sourced and available under the MIT License.
Airbyte Protocol is open sourced and available under the MIT License.
Airbyte CDK (Connector Development Kit) is open sourced and available under the MIT License.
Airbyte Core is licensed under the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2).
Airbyte Cloud & Airbyte Enterprise are both closed source and require a commercial license from Airbyte.
ELv2 is a simple, non-copyleft license, allowing for the right to “use, copy, distribute, make available, and prepare derivative works of the software”. Anyone can use Airbyte, free of charge. You can run the software at scale on your infrastructure. There are only three high-level limitations. You cannot:
In case you want to work with Airbyte without these limitations, we offer alternative licenses. These licenses include maintenance, support, and customary commercial terms. If you need a different license, please get in touch with us at: contact@airbyte.io.
If you are an Airbyte Cloud customer, nothing changes for you.
For open-source users, everyone can continue to use Airbyte as they are doing today: no limitations on volume, number of users, number of connections…
There are only a few high-level limitations. You cannot:
We are releasing Airbyte Cloud, a managed version of Airbyte that will offer alternatives to how our users operate Airbyte, including additional features and new execution models. We want to find a great way to execute our mission to commoditize data integration with open source and our ambition to create a sustainable business.
ELv2 gives us the best of both worlds.
On one hand, our users can continue to use Airbyte freely, and on the other hand, we can safely create a sustainable business and continue to invest in our community, project and product. We don’t have to worry about other large companies taking the product to monetize it for themselves, thus hurting our community.
Our own connectors remain open-source, and our contributors can also develop their own connectors and continue to choose whichever license they prefer. This is our way to accomplish Airbyte’s vision of commoditizing data integration: access to data shouldn’t be behind a paywall. Also, we want Airbyte’s licensing to work well with applications that are integrated using connectors.
We are continuously investing in Airbyte's data protocol and all the tooling around it. The Connector Development Kit (CDK), which helps our community and our team build and maintain connectors at scale, is a cornerstone of our commoditization strategy and also remains open-source.
Airbyte’s projects are available here. Anyone can contribute to any of these projects (including those licensed with ELv2). We are introducing a Contributor License Agreement that you will have to sign with your first contribution.
ELv2 will apply from the following Airbyte core version as of September 27, 2021: version 0.30.0.
You can use software under ELv2 for your commercial business, you simply cannot offer it as a managed service.
You can continue to use Airbyte, as long as you don’t offer it as a managed service.
You can continue to use Airbyte, as long as you don’t offer it as a managed service.
Yes, you can customize ELv2 software. ELv2 is similar in this sense to permissive open-source licenses. You can modify the software, integrate the variant into your application, and operate the modified application, as long as you don’t go against any of the limitations.
We want to provide developers with free access to our Airbyte Core source code — including rights to modify it. Since this wouldn’t be possible with a closed-source license, we decided to use the more permissive ELv2.