Confluent Community License 1.0
Source-availableSPDX identifier:
LicenseRef-Confluent-Community-1.0OSI ✗Data updated Sep 26, 2026In plain words
Source-available: use, modify and distribute freely, except to offer a SaaS product that competes with Confluent.
Analogy: Use the recipe in any restaurant except one that competes with the author's.
Pros
- + Narrow restriction
- + Most users are unaffected
Cons
- - Not open source
- - Excludes cloud competitors only by description
Well-known projects using it
5 well-known projects in our map use this license.
Permissions
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Private use
Conditions
- Keep copyright notice
- Keep the limitations
Limitations
- No liability
- No warranty
- No managed service
Extreme scenarios · Code licenses
- A1Blocked by licenseA cloud vendor sells your project as a managed service
- A2With conditionsSomeone forks it and distributes a closed-source competitor
- A3AllowedEmbedded in a closed-source SaaS backend (not distributed)
- A4AllowedLinked into a closed-source app or firmware and distributed
- A5Not addressedSomeone promotes a modified version with your name or trademark
- A6AllowedSomeone sells unmodified copies
- B1Not addressedA user sues you for patent infringement and keeps using the code
- B2Not addressedA contributor asserts patents on their contributed code
- B3Not addressedA cross-border dispute: governing law and venue
- C1With conditionsYou later relicense or sell commercial licenses (contributors signed no CLA)
- C2Blocked by licenseYour code is merged into a GPL-3.0 project
- C3Blocked by licenseYou use a GPL-3.0 dependency and still ship under this license
- C4With conditionsThe project is abandoned and someone forks it to continue
- C5With conditionsYou want to block only big companies or competitors
- C6Not addressedKey code was written by an employee and the employer objects
- D1Blocked by licenseSomeone removes copyright or attribution notices
- D2Under reviewSomeone modifies files without marking the changes
- D3AllowedInternal modification, no distribution and no external service
- D4AllowedUsed for military, surveillance or other uses you object to
- D5Not addressedUsed by a sanctioned entity
- D6Not addressedYour code is used to train an AI model
Worst-case radar
- 1Stops free-riding33
- 2Stops closed forks25
- 3Patent protection0
- 4Adoption friction25
- 5Hard to relicense50
Computed from the scenario matrix. Higher means more of that property, not "better".
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Official text
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