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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 guaranteeing the following:

• ✅ Open source: 100% MIT License
• ✅ Accessible: everyone can use Vike (for free if limited financial resources)
• ✅ Community oriented: Vike's financial incentives aligned with users' interests

We designed it to preserve Open Source values, make Vike a sustainable tool you can trust and confidently build upon, and enable us to design the DX of the future.

Pricing

FAQ

How does it work?

The idea

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

As a large team, you will see a pesky toaster Get your license key at ... in development (it's never shown in production). You can remove it by purchasing a license key and adding it to +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 just apply for a free license key instead.

100% offline

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

• Asymmetric encryption to validate license keys.
• Reads your Vike configuration (e.g. number of +Page.js files) and Git history (e.g. number of Git commits) to distinguish small apps from larger apps.

Your privacy is fully preserved: no telemetry, no server requests. The only information Vike collects about you 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?

If 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, leaving you with a hefty, unexpected 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.