--- title: "Licence FAQs | SurrealDB" description: "Source code for SurrealDB is variously licensed under a number of different licences. A copy of each licence can be found in each repository on GitHub." url: https://surrealdb.com/license --- # SurrealDB licence FAQs How our repositories are licensed and what that means for using SurrealDB in your applications. 1. ![Babcock](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/babcock.lo4rnVg1.svg) 2. ![ING](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/ing.X3I6S3_V.svg) 3. ![British Airways](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/british-airways.KEsZiwV-.svg) 4. ![Nvidia](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/nvidia.DaIEuMil.svg) 5. ![Apple](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/apple.D5pq4flY.svg) 6. ![SpaceX](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/spacex.CQJEk-IL.svg) 7. ![Samsung](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/samsung.CH-vQgnb.svg) 8. ![adidas](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/adidas.DdTC5qhk.svg) 9. ![Tencent](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/tencent.paQmLxyy.svg) 10. ![Alibaba](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/alibaba.B16idgfM.svg) 11. ![PolyAI](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/poly-ai.c3w_fAg6.svg) 12. ![Later](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/later.Ds736jFO.svg) 13. ![Verizon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/verizon.BI7CajdX.svg) 14. ![Liberty Mutual](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/liberty-mutual.B7qOU1pd.svg) 15. ![Walmart](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/walmart.BjDg_Sr8.svg) 16. ![Carrier](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/carrier.D21gC6NX.svg) 17. ![Saks Fifth Avenue](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/saks-fifth-avenue.COIDpLSb.svg) 18. ![San Francisco Compute Company](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/sfcc.B7jlImq4.svg) 19. ![Shield AI](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/shield-ai.pINZ0KJr.svg) 20. ![Wix](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/wix.DvHhmoBi.svg) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ## SurrealDB licence FAQs How is SurrealDB source code licensed? How open is the Business Source License? How does the Business Source License work? Do I need to purchase a SurrealDB licence? Is SurrealDB trusted and certified for enterprise security? GET STARTED ## Need a commercial DBaaS or enterprise agreement? SurrealDB is free for development and production in your own applications. If you plan to offer SurrealDB as a commercial managed database service, or you want enterprise licensing, security, and support, we can help. ![Samsung](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/4c58b81e7b3c9466.C_Hv0eml.svg)![NVIDIA](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/nvidia.DaIEuMil.svg)![Apple](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/f7dc2519e0d212bc.Cn8MYAK7.svg)![Verizon](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/18b99996c689000f.B5PQ-nI9.svg)![Tencent](https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/401d8346058682c8.DqM87mst.svg) SOC 2 Type 2 GDPR Cyber Essentials Plus ISO 27001 [Contact sales](https://surrealdb.com/contact/sales) [Enterprise](https://surrealdb.com/enterprise) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","name":"SurrealDB","url":"https://surrealdb.com","logo":"https://surrealdb.com/assets/static/logo.BG7_TG2b.svg","description":"SurrealDB is the unified data layer for AI. A multi-model database for documents, graphs, vectors, and time-series.","foundingDate":"2022","hasCertification":[{"@type":"Certification","name":"SOC 2 Type 2"},{"@type":"Certification","name":"GDPR"},{"@type":"Certification","name":"Cyber Essentials Plus"},{"@type":"Certification","name":"ISO 27001"}],"owns":[{"@type":"SoftwareApplication","name":"SurrealDB","url":"https://surrealdb.com/surrealdb"},{"@type":"SoftwareApplication","name":"Agent Memory","url":"https://surrealdb.com/agent-memory"}],"knowsAbout":["multi-model databases","document databases","graph databases","vector search","time-series databases","SurrealQL","Agent Memory","real-time databases","embedded databases","context layer","graph ontology","distributed database","knowledge graphs","distributed transaction protocols","highly-scalable databases"],"sameAs":["https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124316308","https://github.com/surrealdb/surrealdb","https://twitter.com/surrealdb","https://www.youtube.com/@surrealdb","https://www.linkedin.com/company/surrealdb","https://discord.gg/surrealdb","https://www.reddit.com/r/surrealdb","https://www.instagram.com/surrealdb","https://medium.com/surrealdb","https://dev.to/surrealdb"]} ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://surrealdb.com"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"License","item":"https://surrealdb.com/license"}]} ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How is SurrealDB source code licensed?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Source code for SurrealDB is variously licensed under a number of different licences. A copy of each licence can be found in each repository on GitHub. Libraries and SDKs, each located in its own distinct repository, are released under either the Apache License 2.0 or MIT License. Certain core database components, each located in its own distinct repository, are released under the Apache License 2.0. Core database code for SurrealDB is released under the Business Source License 1.1. The code licensed under the Business Source License is free to use and the source code is freely available, but users may not provide SurrealDB as a managed service, or a database-as-a-service (DBaaS), without an agreement with SurrealDB Ltd."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How open is the Business Source License?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"We have adopted a permissive version of the BSL. SurrealDB users can scale to any number of nodes, use or embed SurrealDB in their applications, and even run it as an internal service. The only restriction is offering a commercial DBaaS without an enterprise licence. Four years after each release, the licence converts to the Apache License 2.0."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How does the Business Source License work?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"SurrealDB uses MariaDB's BSL 1.1 with an Additional Use Grant that allows any usage except offering SurrealDB commercially as a DBaaS for four years from each release. After that period, the code becomes available under the Apache License 2.0. The core edition is not OSI-approved open source during this window, but the source code remains freely available for use, redistribution, and modification with that single restriction."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Do I need to purchase a SurrealDB licence?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It depends on what you're deploying. SurrealDB Community Edition is free for development, pre-production, and production use, but for fault-tolerant, horizontally scalable deployments with enterprise-grade security and compliance (e.g. audit logs), you'll want SurrealDB Enterprise Edition. Managed deployments are also available via SurrealDB Cloud. See our pricing page for details."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is SurrealDB trusted and certified for enterprise security?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"SurrealDB meets enterprise security standards including SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, Cyber Essentials Plus, and ISO 27001. For more information, see the SurrealDB Trust Centre."}}]} ```