ownCloud

Details

The project is provided under an AGPLv3 license for the core offering, GPLv3/GPLv2 for the clients, and a non-FOSS commercial license, for their “Enterprise” edition of the software, which limits redistribution. There is also a “ownCloud Online” offering with its own apps, which does not appear to be FOSS.

There’s also “ownCloud Infinite Scale” which seems to be the future direction of the platform, with this their homepage marketing this is “The new and most secure version of ownCloud […]”. The source code for this is provided under an Apache license, but built binary releases are provided under a non-FOSS license agreement which limits use and distribution. These are also distributed with their web client included, under the AGPLv3 according the license guidance provided with the release, which introduces conflicting licensing concerns.

The project provides a clear comparison of what’s in the FOSS offering compared to their enterprise and online editions, although this omits the strongly marketed “Infinite Scale” version so it’s not clear how that offering compares as-is, or how it’s planned to fit in here in the future.

On their main downloads page, “ownCloud Infinite Scale” is provided first under the non-FOSS license agreement. Then “ownCloud 10 Source packages” are provided as compressed archives which, when opened, contain a seemingly conflicting mix of licenses since the AGPLv3 is provided at root level but this archive also contains their enterprise features under their commercial license (some of which provide that commercial license text within the archive). Then lastly a docker image is provided which, when downloaded and explored, did also contain the enterprise features with the same mix of licenses included as per the archive package.

On various prominent pages of their website they generally market as open source, such as in the hero banner on their product page:

ownCloud is an open-source file sync, share and content collaboration software that lets teams work on data easily from anywhere, on any device.

On the same page there’s no mention of the enterprise edition outside the website footer, yet many enterprise-edition-only features are advertised such as theming, document classification, file lifecycle, auditing, “Secure View”, and Office integration. They do however provide an indicator of community edition support when you click through to specific pages for each feature.

The project appears to have raised at least $7.5m in funding from investors which include Devonshire Investors and General Catalyst Partners. In late 2023 ownCloud was acquired by Kiteworks.

The project appears to gain revenue from its online hosted service, selling support packages, partner services and from selling its enterprise version of the software.