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NGINX server is under the BSD license. Does anyone know how to find information about the costs of BSD license, I mean, how much is paid to apply this license to NGINX, and how much does a user has to pay that goes to the license usage, when using NGINX (even if it's near zero cost)?

E. AMARAL
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  • Although I answered your question, you probably want to be more clear next time. You should state what are you trying to accomplish, and linking the sources for your question is always a good idea. Ps. subjective questions are usually not recommended. – Leo Sep 08 '18 at 06:15

2 Answers2

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The BSD license is a Free Software license, approved by the Open Source Initiative group, and so NGINX is Free software.

It does not cost you anything to create software and apply the BSD license to it. Just like it does not cost you anything to apply the GPL, MIT or any other Open license. Applying a restrictive license only costs because you have to get a lawyer to write the license.

See https://opensource.org/licenses

And https://opensource.stackexchange.com/

ivanivan
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NGINX has a dual license model, where you can use the free software version (commonly referred as "NGINX" or "NGINX.ORG") or the subscription based version (commonly referred as "NGINX PLUS").

And as a matter of fact, the NGINX license is based on the FreeBSD license, not the BSD license, which has four clauses instead of two, and as such, is Free Software as per the Free Software Foundation Classification, and even compatible with the GPL.

As a side note, the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative are not the same thing. The first follows the Free Software principles as drafted by Richard Stallman, while the later is less "strict" regarding the freedoms available to the user/developer. Also there is a bit of history related to "marketing conflicts" with the Free term and the "free beer" or "freedom" interpretation, this was one of the reasons that lead to the Open Source definition. In general terms, every Free Software license is included in the Open Source definition, but not always the other way around.

Here is the Free Software Foundation commentary on the Free vs Open issue. And here is the Open Source Initiative on the same issue.

So, summing it up: You don't have to pay to use NGINX unless you wish to have support services or extra features available in the PLUS version.

PS. I'm answering the question to clear the confusion regarding the license terms. Note that serverfault does usually recommend staying away from asking licensing costs, as they are subjective and vary depending on several factors.

Leo
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