Dual licensing OSS : 2026

Dual licensing OSS 2026 = stratégie commerciale. GPL/AGPL + commercial license parallel. MongoDB SSPL pioneer, Hashicorp BSL 2023+, Redis 2024. Africa : opportunités forks open source.

TL;DR

- Dual licensing : GPL + commercial parallel.

- MongoDB, Hashicorp, Redis recent shifts.

- Africa : forks accessibles (Valkey, OpenTofu).

- Trade-off open source pureté + monétisation.

Mécanique

Two licenses :

• Strong copyleft (GPL, AGPL, SSPL) :
• Free open source
• Derivatives must be open
• Discourages cloud providers reuse

• Commercial license :
• Paid alternative
• Allows proprietary derivatives
• For SaaS providers, embedded

Examples :

• MySQL : GPL + commercial Oracle
• MongoDB : SSPL (since 2018)
• Berkeley DB : sleepycat license + commercial
• Qt : GPL + commercial Digia

License shifts récents

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2018 : MongoDB SSPL (anti-AWS)

2021 : Elastic ELv2 + SSPL

2023 : Hashicorp Terraform BSL → fork OpenTofu

2024 : Redis SSPL/RSAL → fork Valkey

2024 : Elastic AGPL reversal (relax)

Pattern :

• Original company moves to restrictive license
• Community / cloud providers fork
• Sustainable battle for OSS soul

`

Forks Africa-friendly

OpenTofu (Terraform fork) :

• Linux Foundation
• Drop-in replacement Terraform
• Fully open source

Valkey (Redis fork) :

• Linux Foundation backed
• Compatible Redis
• AWS, Google, Oracle support

OpenSearch (Elasticsearch fork) :

• AWS led
• Apache 2.0
• Active community

Africa cost saving :

• Avoid commercial licenses paid
• Self-host without restrictions
• Cloud providers Africa support forks

FAQ

Q : Dual licensing fair ?

R : Debate community. Cloud providers freeloaders OR open source ecosystem? Pas de réponse unanimous.

Conclusion

Dual licensing OSS 2026 : MongoDB, Hashicorp, Redis pioneers. Forks (OpenTofu, Valkey, OpenSearch) thrive. Africa : alternatives free accessible. Builders : pas dual license startups Africa-native = community trust.