Is Mongodb Community Edition Free For Commercial Use !new! -

MongoDB has had a controversial licensing history. So, let’s cut through the noise. But the long answer involves lawyers, the AGPL, the SSPL, and what "commercial use" actually means for your specific architecture.

MongoDB used to be licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPLv3). The AGPL was strong: if you modified MongoDB itself and offered it as a service to the public, you had to release your source code. However, a loophole existed. Large cloud providers (AWS, IBM, etc.) could take vanilla MongoDB, wrap it in their own management layer, and sell "MongoDB as a Service" without contributing anything back to MongoDB, Inc.

It is a fair question. In the world of databases, "free" often comes with landmines. Some databases are free only for development. Others are free until you use clustering. Others are "open source" but restrict cloud usage.

Under the SSPL, if you distribute MongoDB as part of your commercial software, you must make the entire source code of your software available under the SSPL (or a compatible license). Unless you want to open source your $5,000/month backup tool, you cannot embed MongoDB Community Edition inside a commercial product you ship to customers.