List of Open-Core/COSS & SSPL software

The open-core model is a business model for the monetization of commercially produced open-source software. The open-core model primarily involves offering a "core" or feature-limited version of a software product as free and open-source software, while offering "commercial" versions or add-ons as proprietary software.

Examples:

  • Kafka, a data streaming service 
  • Cassandra, an open-source database is the core to the company, Datastax
  • Oracle's MySQL database software 
  • Eucalyptus, private cloud software
  • IntelliJ IDEA 
  • GitLab
  • Neo4j 
  • Seldon Core, a machine learning platform
  • Redis 
  • GitLab 
  • Odoo, suite of business management software tools

Some critics argue that the core of the product being open source, is marketing and take issue with COSS organizations that they will happily take, but not give. 

xkcd #2347 "Dependency" alt text: "Someday ImageMagick will finally break for good and we'll have a long period of scrambling as we try to reassemble civilization from the rubble."

Elastic's core, which includes Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash and Beats, was under an Apache 2.0 license, while additional plugins are distributed under Elastic's own proprietary license. In January 2021, Elastic re-licensed its software under the non-free Server Side Public License and Elastic License, which restrict use of the software as part of managed services, and circumvention of software locks on premium features. This means it is no longer open core, but source available-software.

The SSPL is not recognized as free software by multiple parties, including the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and multiple major Linux vendors, as the aforementioned provision is discriminatory towards specific fields of use.

Examples of organizations/software using Server Side Public License:

  • Elastic 
  • MongoDB
Some software packages, initially released as free and open-source, have transitioned to proprietary status or adopted licenses, including source-available licenses, which are not considered free and open source.

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