Free to self-host. Commercial if you need it.
z4j's default path is free, open source, self-hosted. Commercial licensing exists for orgs whose policies exclude AGPL. Same software, different license.
Open source
Self-hosted. Full feature set. AGPL-3.0 brain, Apache-2.0 adapters. Run it on your own infrastructure.
- ✓ Every feature z4j has, no paywalled edition
- ✓ Unlimited projects, unlimited users, unlimited tasks
- ✓ Community support via GitHub Discussions
- ✓ Security advisories on the same cadence for OSS + commercial
- ✓ No telemetry, no 'phone home'
- ✓ No CLA. DCO (git commit -s) only
Commercial license
For organizations whose policies disallow AGPL. Same software, different license; keeps the brain's network-copyleft clause out of your compliance stack.
- ✓ Commercial (non-AGPL) license for the brain
- ✓ Agent packages remain Apache-2.0 (no license needed)
- ✓ Same software; no feature differences
- ✓ Priority bug reports
- ✓ Security embargo coordination
- ✓ Optional SLA-backed support add-on
Managed (cloud)
Hosted z4j on our infrastructure. Agents still run in your cloud. Conditional on community traction; no launch date.
- ✓ Fully managed brain
- ✓ Agents still run in your cloud (tasks stay private)
- ✓ Automatic upgrades
- ✓ SLA on the control plane
- ✓ Billing per-project / per-task-volume (TBD)
License commitments
Since z4j will eventually have commercial offerings, we spell these out to avoid ambiguity.
- ✓
Every shipped release keeps its license permanently. No retroactive re-licensing.
- ✓
90-day announcement before any future license change, with public reasoning. Previous releases remain on their original license.
- ✓
No CLA. DCO sign-off only (git commit -s). You own your contributions.
- ✓
Security fixes ship in the open-source release on the same cadence as any commercial release, never delayed, never gated.
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We do not promise "free forever" or "no paid features ever," and we'll be honest about that. Shipped versions stay shipped; future commercial features are a possibility we'll announce transparently.
Questions about licensing?
We answer AGPL questions in plain English. No legal boilerplate.