Why BSL 1.1 Over Open Source

One of the first questions we get from developers evaluating Forge is about our license. We chose the Business Source License 1.1 (BSL 1.1), and this article explains why, what it means for you, and how it compares to the alternatives we considered.

What BSL 1.1 Actually Means

The Business Source License was created by MariaDB and later adopted by companies like HashiCorp, Sentry, CockroachDB, and Confluent. The core idea is straightforward: the source code is fully visible and available, but there are restrictions on using it to offer a competing commercial service. After a defined period — in our case, four years — the license automatically converts to a permissive open source license (Apache 2.0).

For the vast majority of users, BSL 1.1 works exactly like open source. You can read every line of code. You can run Forge on your own infrastructure. You can modify it to suit your needs. You can build commercial products on top of it. The only thing you cannot do is take Forge and offer it as a competing managed service — which is the business model that would make it impossible for us to sustain the project.

Why Not MIT or Apache 2.0?

MIT and Apache 2.0 are excellent licenses for libraries, frameworks, and developer tools where adoption is the primary goal and the business model does not depend on the software itself. React, Next.js, and Tailwind CSS thrive under MIT because their creators monetize through employment, consulting, or adjacent products.

Forge is different. It is infrastructure software that requires continuous investment in security updates, provider integrations, performance optimization, and compliance certifications. The history of infrastructure open source is littered with projects that were strip-mined by cloud providers: Elasticsearch, Redis, MongoDB, and Terraform all changed their licenses after watching their work get repackaged as managed services by companies that contributed nothing back. We decided to learn from their experience rather than repeat it.

Why Not AGPL?

The GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) is the traditional defense against cloud strip-mining. It requires that anyone who runs AGPL software as a network service must release their modifications under the same license. This is effective, but it creates a chilling effect on enterprise adoption. Many corporate legal departments have blanket bans on AGPL software because the copyleft obligations are considered too risky and too ambiguous in practice.

We want enterprises to use Forge without triggering a six-month legal review. BSL 1.1 achieves the same commercial protection as AGPL without the copyleft burden. You use Forge, you modify it, you deploy it internally — and you do not need to open-source your proprietary application code.

The Four-Year Conversion

Every version of Forge released under BSL 1.1 automatically converts to Apache 2.0 after four years. This is not a promise or a roadmap item — it is a legally binding term of the license itself. Version 7.4, released today, will become Apache 2.0 on the same date in 2029. This guarantees that even if Optima Forge ceases to exist as a company, the code lives on as fully open source software.

This conversion mechanism also keeps us honest. If we stop innovating and maintaining the platform, the community does not have to wait for a license change — they get open source access on a fixed schedule regardless of what we do.

What This Means for You

If you are a developer building applications with Forge: nothing changes. Use the API, self-host if you want, read and learn from the source code. BSL 1.1 has no impact on your day-to-day work.

If you are an enterprise deploying Forge internally: you are fully covered. BSL 1.1 explicitly permits internal production use, modifications, and integration with proprietary systems.

If you are a cloud provider thinking about offering "Forge as a Service": that is the one use case BSL 1.1 restricts. If you want to offer a managed Forge service, talk to us about a commercial license. We are happy to partner — we just want it to be a partnership, not a unilateral extraction.

The Broader Context

The open source sustainability crisis is real. Maintainers burn out. Companies built on open source struggle to capture enough value to fund continued development. BSL 1.1 is our answer to that tension: full transparency, strong protections for the people doing the work, and a guaranteed path to open source for every line of code we write.

We believe this is the right trade-off for infrastructure software in 2025. And in 2029, when today's code converts to Apache 2.0, we expect to still be here — shipping new features, maintaining security, and earning your trust through the quality of our work rather than the restrictions of our license.