Cannelle is source-available — the full source code is public, forkable, and modifiable. But the licence covering it is not a traditional open-source licence. It is the Business Source License 1.1, which places some restrictions on production use until each version ages into Apache 2.0.
The distinction matters. With Cannelle you can read every line of code, run it locally, fork it, and modify it to suit your needs. What BSL 1.1 restricts is offering the software as a commercial hosted service to third parties — so that companies cannot take the codebase and sell it as a competing product without a commercial licence.
For the overwhelming majority of users — teams self-hosting Cannelle to run their own business — none of these restrictions apply. You can install it, customise it, and use it in production free of charge.
// in plain terms
Reading and auditing the source code: Fully available. No restrictions.
Self-hosting for your own business: No commercial licence required.
Modifying the code for internal use: No commercial licence required.
Offering Cannelle as a hosted service to others: Requires a commercial licence.
Four years after a version's release: That version becomes Apache 2.0 — fully open source.
| Licensor | Cannelle.io |
| Licensed Work | Cannelle Community Edition |
| Change Date | Four years from each release date |
| Change Licence | Apache License, Version 2.0 |
The Licensor hereby grants you the right to copy, modify, create derivative works, redistribute, and make non-production use of the Licensed Work. The Licensor may make an Additional Use Grant permitting limited production use.
Effective on the Change Date, or the fourth anniversary of the first publicly available distribution of a specific version of the Licensed Work under this Licence, whichever comes first, the Licensor hereby grants you rights under the terms of the Change Licence, and the rights granted in the paragraph above terminate.
If the Licensor elects not to specify a Change Licence, the Change Licence shall be the Apache License, Version 2.0, as published by the Apache Software Foundation.
The Licensed Work is provided on an "as is" basis. Licensor makes no warranties, either express or implied, regarding the Licensed Work. This Licence does not grant you any right in any trademark or logo of Licensor or its affiliates.
The Business Source License is not an Open Source licence as defined by the Open Source Initiative. However, it is designed with a built-in sunset: each version of Cannelle automatically becomes fully open source under Apache 2.0 four years after its release. No action is required — the transition happens by the terms of the licence itself.
For the full text of the Business Source License 1.1, please refer to the MariaDB BSL 1.1 reference.