Infrahub has officially shifted its open-source licence to Apache 2.0. Previously, Infrahub was available through an AGPL licence.
Both Apache 2.0 and AGPL are recognized open-source licenses. Apache 2.0 is more permissive because it doesn’t require users of any products licensed under it to share modifications they make to the code with the community.
It’s worth noting that most Infrahub users don’t need to modify the core code, which would then require sharing under the AGPL licence. Infrahub is a comprehensive platform built so that users can leverage its features without delving into its underlying architecture.
Nevertheless, we’d been hearing some grumblings about the licensing at events and in discussions. Some of our enterprise users were running into blocks from legal, finance, or operations leadership because of the AGPL licence. In these cases, company policy prevented them from using the platform.
To see how widespread such concerns with AGPL licensing might be, I ran a quick poll on Linkedin.
Nearly 50% of respondents expressed concerns about AGPL, and 30% mentioned they often avoid it altogether. Although it was a small sample set and the responses may contain some biases, the significance of these numbers was undeniable to me.
We want Infrahub to be as widely accessible and usable as possible so it makes sense to remove any barriers to adoption that we can.
As a result of the change to Apache 2.0, we no longer need each contributor to sign a Contributor License Agreement.
Bottom line: We’re committed to developing Infrahub in the open, and with our community. You told us an Apache 2.0 licence would serve you better—so we changed it. Thank you for your feedback, and we look forward to continuing to build with you.
