We are updating Dokploy’s Open Source license

Today marks a big change to the Dokploy’s licensing. We’re replacing our adapted open source license with an industry-standard open source license. Paired with that, we’re releasing a source-available enterprise license for future paid functionality.

Replace Old License: Our old license was an adapted version of the Apache License 2.0, which caused confusion. We are replacing it with a non-adapted version.
Apache License 2.0: All current features of Dokploy are now officially licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
Dokploy Source Available License: We have created a source-available license where, in the future, we’ll publish advanced paid functionality.

Why we’re doing this

We want to make Dokploy’s licensing clearer and easier to navigate. To date, the repository has been primarily Apache 2.0, but also included additional terms for certain components that were not always easy to interpret. As a result, people have naturally asked questions such as:

Which parts of Dokploy are truly open source?
Which parts are restricted, and do those restrictions apply to my use case?
How should contributors think about licensing when submitting PRs?

Since our license was not standard, the answers to those questions were open to interpretation – which isn’t ideal for users, contributors, or the project itself. Moving to an unmodified Apache 2.0 license resolves those questions. Everything under this license can be used, modified, and distributed freely.

We’re also introducing the Dokploy Source Available License, which will enable us to publish future functionality that requires a paid license to use in production. This step follows the example of other commercial open source companies by introducing a licensing model often referred to as Open Core or Dual Licensing.

Organizations looking for advanced features, whitelabeling, or dedicated support have a way to work with us. If that’s you, we’re excited to start working together! Please reach out to us via our contact form.

What this will mean for Dokploy

Apache License 2.0

The entire current codebase is now open source under the Apache License 2.0. This major upgrade means more of the product is truly open source.

We’re not removing any existing features or moving current open-source code into the Dokploy Source Available License. Additionally, we commit to never moving functionality from our open source license to our paid license.

Dokploy Source Available License

Future complex features used by larger organizations will be published as source-available components.

Since it’s source-available, anyone will still be able to see the code, test it, and contribute to it. Using it in production requires a paid license.

This business model will provide us with the resources to accelerate product investments that benefit all Dokploy users – both open source and paid!

Licensing & repository structure

Our model is intended to clarify boundaries, not move them backward. Anything that is open source today will remain open source.

Open Source code

All code outside of the directories named proprietary/ will be:

Open source
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0
Freely usable, modifiable, redistributable, and resellable

This will continue to be the foundation of Dokploy.

Source-Available proprietary code

Features will live under directories named proprietary/ will be:

Paid functionality – contact us to license it
Source-available, not open source
Licensed under LICENSE_PROPRIETARY.md

Our open source philosophy

Dokploy open source is a fully functional platform that makes it easy for anyone to deploy and manage applications. We want this to remain true over the long term, and we want the open source product to grow with the support of the community.

It should be the best in class product for anyone to use, for free. Proprietary features will focus on non-core advanced functionality or enterprise workflows.

In general, proprietary features will focus on:

Larger team and enterprise use cases
Customization and branding
Large-scale deployments and reliability
Advanced monitoring and integrations
Enterprise compliance, security, and data residency requirements
Whitelabeling

Examples may include:

Single Sign-On (SSO) and advanced access controls
Custom branding and login experiences
High availability, auto-scaling, and disaster recovery
Advanced monitoring and exporting data to enterprise tools
Integrations with enterprise or paid third-party services

If a feature is primarily useful to individual developers, we strongly prefer keeping it free and open.

In closing

This change is about being clear and intentional as Dokploy grows. If you are an active Dokploy user, this is a significant improvement! You can feel confident continuing to use and contribute to Dokploy open source.

We’re grateful to everyone who uses, contributes to, and supports the project. As we move forward, we’ll continue to communicate openly and listen to feedback from the community.