You can read the source
It's available at git.embernet.ai with every install.
Technical · Licensing
Everything in one subscription. Clear on what you own.
EmberNET is a Platform as a Service. One monthly fee covers the platform, the App Store, and the apps in it. Here's exactly what that means for licensing.
01 · EmberNET as a PaaS
What is Platform as a Service, and why does it matter?
Platform as a Service means you subscribe to a fully managed environment instead of buying, installing, and maintaining software yourself. EmberNET handles the operating system, runtime, updates, security patches, and the App Store, all for a single low monthly cost.
You don't manage servers. You don't negotiate individual software licenses for every tool you deploy. You subscribe to EmberNET, and everything runs. That's the point.
EmberNET handles
- The operating system
- The runtime
- Updates
- Security patches
- The App Store
One subscription, one monthly fee.
At a glance
Three kinds of app, and the license each one carries.
Every app in the App Store falls into one of three groups. Who built it decides the license.
| Group | What's in it | License | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireball Industries apps | EmberOPS modules, add-ons, screens, and orchestration code | BSL 1.1, converting to GPL-3.0 four years after each release | Read the source and run it for internal operations. No redistribution, and production runs on EmberNET. |
| Vendor apps | Inductive Automation (Ignition), CODESYS, SORBA, and others | The vendor's own commercial license | An existing agreement with the vendor applies. If you don't have one, our sales team connects you. |
| Open source apps | Node-RED, Grafana, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, Mosquitto, Prometheus, and others | Each project's own license | Shipped unmodified, with its license file, and no restrictions beyond the project's own terms. |
02 · EmberNET BSL 1.1
Apps built by Fireball Industries: source-available, platform-bound.
Everything Fireball Industries develops internally, including EmberOPS modules, add-ons, screens, and orchestration code, ships under the Business Source License 1.1.
You can run it
For internal business operations and for evaluation.
You can't redistribute it
Redistributing it, or running it in production outside the EmberNET platform, requires a separate commercial agreement.
It converts to GPL-3.0
Automatically, four years after each version's release.
The restriction is narrow: don't redistribute it, and keep it on EmberNET. That's the whole constraint.
03 · Vendor apps
Commercially supported apps from vendors you already know.
The EmberNET App Store includes apps from established industrial software vendors: Inductive Automation (Ignition), CODESYS, SORBA, and others. These ship under their own commercial licenses.
If you already have a license agreement with a vendor, it applies. If you don't, reach out to sales and we'll connect you. These are products with their own support organizations, documentation, and commercial terms.
04 · Open source apps
Open source apps under their own licenses.
Many App Store apps are unmodified open source projects: Node-RED, Grafana, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, Mosquitto, Prometheus, and others. They ship exactly as their upstream projects release them, under their own licenses.
| License | Apps |
|---|---|
| Apache 2.0 | Node-RED, Prometheus, Alertmanager, GoRules Engine |
| AGPL-3.0 | Grafana, Grafana Loki |
| MIT | Telegraf, ChirpStack |
| PostgreSQL License | PostgreSQL (permissive, similar to MIT) |
| EPL-2.0 | Mosquitto |
Each app package includes its license file. Fireball Industries does not modify these projects, so no additional restrictions apply beyond each project's own terms.
Licensing questions?
For commercial agreements, vendor app access, or anything outside standard subscription terms, talk to us.