Licensing
Carbon is dual-licensed: AGPLv3 for Community Edition (CE), and a commercial license for Business features or for keeping your changes private.
Carbon uses open-source and commercial licenses. The applicable license depends on the code and deployment model. This page is a summary; the LICENSE file contains the governing terms.
Editions
| Edition | What it is | License |
|---|---|---|
| Community Edition CE | The open core: ERP, MES, MRP, and QMS, plus accounting and the product configurator, self-hosted on your own infrastructure. | AGPLv3 |
| Enterprise Edition EE | Self-hosted Carbon with a commercial license: unlocks the Business features and lifts the AGPL copyleft obligation. | Commercial |
| Cloud Edition | Carbon run for you at app.carbon.ms, on the Starter, Business, or Enterprise plan. | Commercial |
Self-hosting (the Docker + Caddy recipe or the AWS with SST recipe) runs Community Edition (CE) by default. A commercial license turns the same hardware into Enterprise Edition (EE).
What each plan unlocks
Carbon Cloud offers three plans. Starter runs the AGPLv3 open core outside packages/ee, equivalent to self-hosted Community Edition (CE).
Business and Enterprise add code under packages/ee and in .ee. files, which self-hosted Enterprise Edition (EE) also unlocks. Enterprise adds SSO, controlled and self-hosted deployment options, and implementation services.
| Cloud plan | What it adds | Code it runs | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | The open core, hosted and kept up to date for you | CE only: everything outside packages/ee | Self-signup, month to month |
| Business | The Business features, plus technical support | CE + EE: adds packages/ee and .ee. files | Self-signup, month to month |
| Enterprise | Everything in Business, plus deployment options, compliance, and services | CE + EE, plus capabilities gated to the Enterprise edition | A signed Enterprise Subscription |
The Starter plan covers ERP, MES, MRP, and QMS, accounting with general ledger, financial reports, fixed assets, and multi-currency, the product configurator with rules-based BOMs and routings, unlimited records, self-onboarding, and community support.
The Business plan adds technical support; API, webhooks, integrations, and MCP; workflow automation with custom triggers; demand forecasting; shop floor console mode; customer portals with live order status and files; email and Slack notifications; custom roles, permissions, and approval rules; and audit logging, 2FA enforcement, and backup/restore.
The Enterprise plan adds a forward deployed engineer; customizations, training, and integrations; full setup and migrations; SSO/SAML; CMMC Level 2 compliance; air-gapped and ITAR deployments; and unlimited functional support. It runs on Carbon Cloud, or on your own infrastructure under a commercial license as Enterprise Edition.
Enterprise plan, or Enterprise Edition?
The Enterprise plan is a managed Carbon Cloud subscription with a service level. Enterprise Edition (EE) is a commercially licensed self-hosted installation. Both unlock Business features through different deployment models.
carbon.ms/pricing carries the current prices and the side-by-side comparison.
How to buy
Choose a license path based on who operates Carbon. Use Carbon Cloud for a managed deployment. A self-hosted deployment uses AGPLv3 unless covered by a commercial license.
Carbon Cloud — we run it
Carbon Cloud is the managed deployment at app.carbon.ms. It is available through self-signup or an Enterprise Subscription.
Self-signup provides month-to-month Starter or Business access under clickthrough terms with card billing. See Cloud plans.
An Enterprise Subscription is a signed agreement for larger deployments. Terms are one, three, or five years, billed annually, semi-annually, or quarterly, with unlimited users and no mid-term overage. Every Enterprise Subscription includes Business features and separate environment and service-level choices.
Environment — where it runs.
- Commercial Cloud is the default multi-tenant cloud, hosted in the US or EU.
- GovCloud is a US GovCloud, ITAR-controlled environment.
- BYOC (bring your own cloud) runs in your own AWS account and on your data, operated by Carbon.
Service level — how much comes with the software.
- Standard is the software, run well: self-guided onboarding through the docs, Carbon Academy, and the Self-Serve Onboarding Hub, plus the same technical support as the Business plan. It does not include a dedicated implementation team, custom training, integrations, or custom builds.
- Flagship adds a forward-deployed engineer (FDE) inside the subscription, with no hour counting, along with implementation, guided onboarding, training, hypercare, and a written scope exhibit. The FDE can be fractional (shared), dedicated (full-time and remote, working only for you), or on-site at your facility.
Add-ons sit on either service level
Custom features, integrations, data migrations, additional forward-deployed engineers, and training beyond onboarding are add-ons that layer on top of Standard or Flagship. Anything that doesn't fit the standard shapes becomes a custom agreement.
Self-hosted — you run it
Self-hosted Carbon uses Community Edition (CE) under AGPLv3 by default. A commercial license is required for Business features or private modifications.
Community Edition (CE) is the AGPLv3 open core and requires no commercial agreement. A business can run and modify CE for its own use. If users access a modified version over a network, you must offer them its source under AGPLv3. CE excludes Enterprise Edition code, Carbon support, and an SLA.
A commercial license is required the moment any one of these is true:
- You use anything under
packages/eeor any.ee.file. - You want to keep your changes private from the people who use your modified version.
The Carbon Commercial License Agreement provides full codebase access, including Business features, and replaces AGPL copyleft requirements so modifications can remain private. Terms are one, three, or five years. Internal deployments are licensed per user per year and renew.
For partners who sell Carbon with Business features or without AGPL obligations, the same commercial license covers three models:
- Reseller — you sell Carbon under Carbon's name.
- White-label — you sell it under your own brand and take first-line support, so your customers never see Carbon.
- OEM embedded — Carbon ships inside the machines you sell.
The AGPL obligation
AGPLv3 is a network copyleft license. If users access a modified Carbon deployment over a network, you must offer those users the complete modified source under the same license.
How the agreements fit together
A few rules span both paths, whichever way you buy:
- Software, not services. The license covers the software; implementation, data migrations, and custom builds ride inside your agreement or an attached statement of work.
- One agreement per side. You can hold one Cloud subscription and one self-hosted commercial license at once, but they're never blended into a single document.
- The bridge. An Enterprise Subscription can carry a written option to convert to a self-hosted commercial license later, so starting on Cloud doesn't lock you out of running it yourself.
Portal users are free
A commercial agreement covers the signer and its named affiliates. Customer-portal users don't count against it.
When you need a commercial license
Get a commercial license, or just use Carbon Cloud, if you want to:
- Keep your modifications private from the people who use them, instead of offering them the source under AGPLv3.
- Use Business features: the integrations and other capabilities in
packages/ee. See Integrations for the catalog.
Carbon Cloud (the Business plan or an Enterprise Subscription) is the managed path; a commercial license is the self-hosted path. Either one unlocks the Business features.