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Open Source Pricing

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The Open Source Pricing isn't implemented yet (everyone can use Vike for free in the meantime). Questions welcome at #1932.

The Open Source Pricing is a novel business model:

• ✅ Open source: Vike stays 100% MIT licensed (see How does it work?).
• ✅ Accessible: Vike is free for small organizations, and affordable for larger ones.
• ✅ Community-driven: Vike's priorities are and remain aligned with users' interests.
• ✅ Transparent: Vike has clear, transparent incentives.
• ✅ Innovative: Vike has resources to improve the JavaScript ecosystem.

It makes Vike a tool you can trust and rely on over the long term. We designed it with meticulous care to preserve Open Source values.

Pricing

FAQ

How does it work?

The idea

As a small team, you use Vike like any other open-source tool — 100% free and without any license key.

As a larger team, you will see a pesky toaster Get your license key at ... in development. You can remove it by purchasing a license key and adding it to your +config.js (or by setting the VIKE_KEY environment variable).

100% Open Source

The npm package vike will adopt a proprietary license requiring companies to get a license key when they see the pesky toaster. Vike's Git repository stays 100% MIT-licensed.

In theory, since Vike is 100% open source, you could fork it, remove the pesky toaster, and publish your own npm package. But maintaining a fork requires non-negligible effort — you might as well apply for a free license key instead.

100% offline

The implementation is 100% offline (no server requests):

• Asymmetric encryption to validate license keys.
• Offline heuristic: the vike npm package analyzes your Vike configuration (e.g. number of +Page.js files) and Git history (e.g. commit count) to distinguish small apps from larger ones.

Your privacy is fully preserved: no telemetry, no server requests. The only personal information Vike collects is when you purchase a license — just like a SaaS.

Is Vike still Free Software?

Vike is still free as in "free speech" (not as in "free beer"), see explanations by the Free Software Foundation and by Wikipedia.

We believe in Libre Software: we invented the Open Source Pricing precisely because other business models contradict the values of Libre Software.

Code remains not only 100% open source, but also 100% accessible: we believe money (and the lack thereof) should never prevent anyone from using code.

Why not another business model?

We believe other business models are flawed in fundamental ways.

The Open Source Pricing means:

• As an engineer, a much better software while everything stays 100% free.
• As a company, a transparent and sustainable relationship with a tool that is foundational to your stack.

Compared to other business models:

Values:

• Transparent: anyone can read the code.
• Forkable: anyone can modify the code and publish its own version.
• Accessible: anyone can use the code, no matter how much money at disposal.
• Sustainable: the project's developers are financially supported.
• Independent: the project isn't influenced by outside interests.

Business Models:

• Open Source | Donations: some projects, due to their very high number of users and low developing cost, can sustain solely on donations.
• Open Source | Company Backed: a company open sourcing some of its internal tool.
• Open Source | Open Core: the code is open source but some extensions/features are proprietary.
• Proprietary | Public Source: proprietary but the code is publicly available to be read.
• Proprietary | Closed Source: closed sourced, not forkable, usually expensive.

Why zero investors?

When a project accepts investor funding, it will eventually have to take radical decisions to generate massive amounts of revenue — typically aiming for $100 million annually which is the kind of return investors hope for when they invest.

This is often achieved through aggressive tactics, like hidden vendor lock-in and/or sudden fee hikes — you'll inevitably end up with a hefty bill.

In contrast, the Open Source Pricing introduces a transparent and stable business relationship.

Do sponsors have to pay?

No, Vike stays free for companies sponsoring Vike — reach out to get your free license key.

How does it apply to monorepos?

It only applies to apps.

For example, in the following, it applies only to my-app/ and my-other-app/.

/packages/my-own-framework/
/packages/my-app/
/packages/my-other-app/
/packages/some-vike-component-wrapper/

See also: Build Your Own Framework.