Dual License
Free for noncommercial use under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. A separate commercial license from Ferrum Edge LLC is required for businesses and other commercial use.
Use, modify, and distribute Ferrum Edge for any permitted purpose, subject to the license's notice and other conditions. The license defines permitted purposes as follows.
- Any noncommercial purpose
- Personal research, experiment, and testing for the benefit of public knowledge
- Personal study, private entertainment, hobby projects, amateur pursuits, or religious observance, without any anticipated commercial application
- Use by charitable organizations, educational institutions, and public research organizations
- Use by public safety or health, environmental protection, and government institutions, regardless of funding source
The license contains no evaluation, startup, or internal-use exemption for businesses. See the FAQ below for how Ferrum Edge LLC handles evaluations.
A separate agreement with Ferrum Edge LLC, not part of the PolyForm license. Required for use that is not a permitted purpose under PolyForm Noncommercial, including all of the following.
- › Commercial products and SaaS services
- › For-profit companies, including internal tools and pre-revenue evaluation
- › Managed API gateway services
- › Bundling in commercial software or hardware
- › Cloud provider offerings
License Comparison
The PolyForm column reflects how Ferrum Edge LLC applies the license's permitted purposes; the license text governs. The Commercial column describes Ferrum Edge's own offering.
| Use Case | PolyForm Noncommercial | Commercial License |
|---|---|---|
| Personal projects with no anticipated commercial application | ✓ Free | ✓ Included |
| Academic research and education | ✓ Free | ✓ Included |
| Charitable, public research, public safety or health, environmental, and government institutions | ✓ Free | ✓ Included |
| Internal company tools (for-profit company) | ✗ Requires commercial | ✓ Included |
| Pre-revenue startup evaluation or proof of concept | ✗ Requires commercial or written evaluation permission | ✓ Included |
| For-profit company production use | ✗ Requires commercial | ✓ Included |
| SaaS product integration | ✗ Requires commercial | ✓ Included |
| Managed gateway service offering | ✗ Requires commercial | ✓ Included |
| Bundling in commercial software | ✗ Requires commercial | ✓ Included |
| White-label rights | ✗ Not included | ✓ Enterprise tier |
| SLA support | ✗ Community only | ✓ Commercial tier |
| Security patch backports | ✗ Latest only | ✓ Extended support |
| Roadmap input | ✗ Via GitHub issues | ✓ Direct input |
Licensing FAQ
These answers explain how Ferrum Edge LLC applies the license. Where an answer describes something Ferrum Edge LLC offers rather than something the license says, it says so. They are not legal advice.
Can I use Ferrum Edge for my startup?
Not under the noncommercial license alone. The PolyForm Noncommercial license has no startup or evaluation exemption: its personal-use grant applies only "without any anticipated commercial application", and building or evaluating a product for a company is a commercial purpose even before the first customer pays. A startup therefore needs either a commercial license or written evaluation permission from Ferrum Edge.
That permission comes from us, not from the license. Contact us and we will set up a time-boxed evaluation and discuss startup-friendly pricing for when you go to production.
What about my personal side project that makes a little money?
The license permits personal use "without any anticipated commercial application". A side project that earns money through ads, subscriptions, or paid work has a commercial application, however small, so it needs a commercial license. Contact us; we have reasonable pricing for small-scale commercial use.
Can I use it for an open source project?
Yes, when the project's purpose is noncommercial: the license permits any noncommercial purpose, and hobby projects are named explicitly. If the project is maintained by a company for its business, or the project itself is the commercial product, that is a commercial purpose and needs a commercial license.
Can I use it internally at my company for non-customer-facing tools?
Not under the noncommercial license. The license lists its permitted purposes: noncommercial purposes, the personal uses it names, and use by charitable, educational, public research, public safety or health, environmental, and government organizations. Running a for-profit company's own operations is not among them, so internal tools at a for-profit company need a commercial license even when no customer traffic touches Ferrum Edge. This is how Ferrum Edge LLC applies the license's permitted-purpose list; the license does not separately enumerate exclusions.
What does the commercial license include?
This describes Ferrum Edge LLC's commercial offering, which is a separate agreement from the PolyForm license. It grants use in commercial contexts, with tiers based on usage scale. Higher tiers include SLA support, security patch backports, roadmap input sessions, dedicated engineering advisory hours, and white-label rights. Contact us for pricing details.
Enterprise Licensing Benefits
Part of Ferrum Edge LLC's commercial offering; not part of the PolyForm license.
The License Text
Ferrum Edge ships under the unmodified PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. The full text is the LICENSE file at the release tag (raw text), and the same text is published by the PolyForm Project. Nothing on this page changes it.
Quoted from the license
Selected sections, reproduced verbatim from the shipped LICENSE. Section names are the license's own headings.
Acceptance. In order to get any license under these terms, you must agree to them as both strict obligations and conditions to all your licenses.
Copyright License. The licensor grants you a copyright license for the software to do everything you might do with the software that would otherwise infringe the licensor's copyright in it for any permitted purpose. However, you may only distribute the software according to Distribution License and make changes or new works based on the software according to Changes and New Works License.
Notices. You must ensure that anyone who gets a copy of any part of the software from you also gets a copy of these terms or the URL for them above, as well as copies of any plain-text lines beginning with
Required Notice:that the licensor provided with the software. For example:
Required Notice: Copyright Ferrum Edge LLC (https://github.com/ferrum-edge)Noncommercial Purposes. Any noncommercial purpose is a permitted purpose.
Personal Uses. Personal use for research, experiment, and testing for the benefit of public knowledge, personal study, private entertainment, hobby projects, amateur pursuits, or religious observance, without any anticipated commercial application, is use for a permitted purpose.
Noncommercial Organizations. Use by any charitable organization, educational institution, public research organization, public safety or health organization, environmental protection organization, or government institution is use for a permitted purpose regardless of the source of funding or obligations resulting from the funding.
Plain-English summary (not license text)
Written by Ferrum Edge LLC for orientation. It is not part of the license, does not add or remove any permission, and is not legal advice.
- You may use, copy, modify, and distribute the software for any permitted purpose: any noncommercial purpose, the personal uses the license lists, and use by the noncommercial organizations it lists.
- Whenever you give someone a copy, include the license terms (or their URL) and any "Required Notice" lines that ship with the software.
- The license also grants a patent license, which ends if you make a written claim that the software infringes a patent.
- The software is provided as is, without warranty or liability, as far as the law allows.
- If you are notified in writing of a violation, you have 32 days to come into full compliance before your licenses end.
- The license does not cover commercial use. Commercial use is licensed through a separate agreement with Ferrum Edge LLC, described above; the PolyForm license itself says nothing about commercial licensing or contact details.
Ready for a Commercial License?
Reach out to discuss pricing, terms, evaluation permission, and enterprise features tailored to your organization.
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