EMQX's Next Chapter: Adopting Business Source License to Accelerate "MQTT + AI" Innovation

Today marks a pivotal moment in the journey of EMQX! We're excited to announce a significant evolution: starting with version 5.9, we are unifying our Community and Enterprise editions into a single, powerful EMQX Platform. Concurrently, this unified platform will adopt the Business Source License (BSL) 1.1.

This strategic move is driven by our commitment to accelerating innovation at the intersection of MQTT and AI. We envision MQTT as the essential nervous system connecting the physical world to artificial intelligence, and this change positions EMQX to lead that future.

Recap: The Dual-Edition Model (Community & Enterprise)

For years, EMQX has operated under a dual-license model with two distinct editions:

• EMQX Community Edition: Licensed under the permissive Apache License 2.0, it became a widely embraced open-source MQTT broker used by developers and organizations worldwide for a vast range of projects.
• EMQX Enterprise Edition: Built upon the Community core, it offered advanced features for commercial deployments, including enhanced data processing, data integration, enterprise security (like SSO, RBAC), advanced clustering, and dedicated support.

Why This Evolution? Fostering Innovation and Community

While the dual-edition model served us well—with EMQX Enterprise earning the trust of over 1,000 global customers—it presented long-term challenges hindering our innovation pace:

• Development Complexity: Managing two separate codebases and licensing models consumed significant resources, slowing down innovation and release cycles across the board.
• Community Limitations: Community users lacked access to powerful, production-ready features already available in Enterprise (like advanced data integrations and reliability enhancements), often forcing them to reinvent the wheel.
• Accelerating the Vision: To fully realize the potential of “MQTT + AI”, we need to consolidate our efforts and resources for maximum impact.

Moving to a unified platform under BSL allows us to:

• Streamline Development: Focusing all engineering efforts on a single codebase means faster feature delivery, quicker bug fixes, and more robust releases for everyone.
• Boost Investment: Provides a sustainable model to significantly increase our investment in core MQTT technology and the development of cutting-edge AI integrations.
• Preserve Openness: BSL remains a source-available license. You can still view, modify, and redistribute the code freely under its terms, maintaining transparency.

Understanding the Business Source License (BSL 1.1)

Pioneered by companies like MariaDB and embraced by others in the open-source ecosystem, the BSL 1.1 is a source-available license tailored for today's software landscape. Key aspects include:

• Source Code Access: Grants rights to freely view, download, modify, and compile the source code.
• Free Usage: Allows free usage, including production, under specific conditions (see below).
• Commercial Restriction: Typically limits the right to offer the software commercially as a managed service or embed it directly in a competing product.
• Open Source Conversion: Automatically converts to a true open-source license (Apache 2.0 in our case) after a predefined time period.

BSL represents a modern approach, balancing the transparency and collaborative benefits of open source with the need for a sustainable business model to support long-term investment and innovation, especially in the fast-moving cloud and AI era.

What This Means For You: Benefits Across the Ecosystem

This transition brings significant benefits to all EMQX users:

• For Our Community Users: This is a major upgrade! You now gain access to the full suite of EMQX features, including previously Enterprise-exclusive capabilities like advanced data integration (50+ connectors), enhanced security (SSO, RBAC), the visual Flow Designer, and more, directly within the core platform. The primary difference lies in the licensing terms for specific production scenarios..
• For Our Enterprise Customers: By consolidating our efforts and streamlining our development pipeline, you’ll receive new features, enhancements, and updates faster. This model directly fuels the accelerated innovation, dedicated support, and robust reliability essential for your mission-critical deployments.

How the BSL License Model Works for EMQX v5.9+

We’ve structured the new license to remain flexible and accessible for a wide range of users. Here’s a breakdown of the usage grants under BSL 1.1 for EMQX version 5.9 and later:

Free Usage Under BSL:

You can use the unified EMQX Platform (v5.9+) for free under the following conditions:

• Single-Node Production Use: Running EMQX on a single node instance in production environments is permitted, provided you’re not offering EMQX itself as a commercial hosted service or embedding it directly within a commercial product you sell.
• Educational & Non-Profit Use: Accredited academic institutions and registered non-profit organizations can use EMQX in production without node restrictions, provided the usage is non-commercial and does not involve providing EMQX as a service. (Please refer to the full license text for precise definitions)
• All Non-Production Use: You can use EMQX v5.9.0+ freely for development, testing, and non-production purposes.

Commercial License Requirement:

A commercial EMQX license (available by contacting our sales team) is required if your production use case involves any of the following:

• Multi-Node Clustering Deployments: Running EMQX in a cluster (two or more nodes) for production workloads.
• Commercial SaaS or Hosted Offerings: Offering EMQX, or a service directly based on EMQX, as part of a commercial hosted service to third parties.
• Commercial Product Embedding/Distribution: Embedding EMQX within a software or hardware product that is sold or commercially distributed to end-users.

For complete terms and conditions, please refer to the official BSL 1.1 license text accompanying EMQX 5.9 and later versions.

One Unified Platform, Four Editions for Every Need

With the unification, the core EMQX Platform forms the foundation for all our offerings. We deliver this platform with flexible deployment and management options, tailored for our entire user base, through four distinct editions:

• EMQX Serverless: A multi-tenant, pay-as-you-go MQTT service that auto-scales. Ideal for rapid development, prototyping, and smaller applications, with a generous free tier to get started quickly.
• EMQX Dedicated: A fully managed, dedicated EMQX cluster on major public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP). Offers guaranteed resources, enhanced security, predictable pricing, and is suitable for business-critical applications.
• EMQX BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud): A dedicated EMQX cluster deployed within your own public cloud account (AWS, Azure, GCP), managed by the EMQ team. Combines managed service convenience with maximum data control and security compliance.
• EMQX Enterprise (Self-Hosted): The self-hosted software package licensed under BSL 1.1 (requiring a commercial license for multi-node production, SaaS, or embedding). Provides maximum deployment flexibility on your own hardware, private cloud, or public cloud platforms.

Looking Ahead: The Future is MQTT + AI

We believe that MQTT is the cornerstone technology for connecting the physical world to artificial intelligence. This move to a unified platform under BSL is a crucial step, enabling significant investment in this vision, building the “MQTT + AI” platform needed to power the next generation of intelligent applications, from connected vehicles to industrial automation and beyond.

We are excited about this new chapter and committed to supporting our community and customers through this transition. We believe this change will lead to a unified, more innovative, and more capable EMQX Platform for everyone.

Get Involved & Learn More

• Have questions? Join the discussion on our community forum or check out our FAQ page.
• Explore the unified EMQX Platform features on our product page.
• Ready to discuss commercial licensing? Contact us here.

Thank you for being an essential part of the EMQX journey.

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