We are working on awesome features that many of you requested (4G, precise location, fleet management) and global 24x7 support. Announcements coming soon!
For Ella Networks to sustain that pace, it requires a sane and fair commercial model. Starting with Ella Core v1.12, we're licensing Ella Core under Business Source (BUSL 1.1).
The rule is simple: If you use Ella Core in production, you will need to purchase a Production License from us at $1,199/year per instance (or 1,999$ with support).
You will need a Production License if you:
- Operate Ella Core as a live mobile network for an organization (commercial, government, military, etc.)
- Offer, host, deploy, integrate, or resell Ella Core to others
- Embed Ella Core in a hardware product you sell (OEM)
You will not need a license if you:
- Try out, evaluate, benchmark Ella Core
- Develop or test your own product against Ella Core
- Use it for research, experiment, coursework, teaching
- Run Ella Core at home for personal, non-commercial use (home lab, hobby, etc.)
Ella Core's source stays public, each release automatically becomes Apache 2.0 four years after it ships, and everything released before v1.12 stays Apache 2.0.
We think this model is fair. It allows Ella Networks to capture revenue from organizations getting real economic value from Ella Core and for a broad enthusiast community to keep on using it for free.
See our license, License FAQ, and pricing pages for more details. If you still have questions or concerns, please email me directly at [email protected].