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Evolving our self-hosted offering and license model

What you need to know about the upcoming changes to CockroachDB Enterprise arriving this November.

As CockroachDB enters its 10th year, we are updating our licensing model to better serve our diverse community of users — from individual developers to the global enterprises that entrust their most mission-critical workloads to our database every day. On November 18, 2024, we will eliminate our Core offering and consolidate on a single, robust CockroachDB Enterprise license. This change will create a simplified, seamless, and comprehensive experience for everyone, by allowing us to:

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Provide all customers 
with the full breadth of CockroachDB’s enterprise capabilities

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Allow businesses that are still building towards scale to use CockroachDB for free

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Keep our code source available to foster innovation across the ecosystem

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Encourage a fair exchange of value to continue the rapid evolution of CockroachDB

This change reflects our dedication to fostering innovation, supporting growth, and delivering unparalleled resilience and performance in your data architecture. You can learn more about the broader context for and thinking that inspired these changes by reading this blog post by our CEO, Spencer Kimball.

Simplifying our license structure

CockroachDB Enterprise

CockroachDB Enterprise Free

Features
Full-featured, self-hosted CockroachDB with all enterprise capabilities
Full-featured, self-hosted CockroachDB with all enterprise capabilities
Who it's for
Larger commercial businesses (over $10M in annual revenue) and government use
Individuals and businesses, under $10M in annual revenue, can use CockroachDB Enterprise for free
Trials
30-day self-service trial (with community support)
Not applicable
License terms
Annual term or as negotiated
Annual term. Can be renewed subject to meeting the then-current eligibility requirements
Support
Enterprise or Essential support available
Community support (Docs, Forum, Slack)
Telemetry
Required only during the trial period. Businesses that cannot accommodate telemetry may contact sales to request an exception. Paid use does not require telemetry.
Required (excluding ephemeral clusters of 7 days or less)
Availability
November 18, 2024
November 18, 2024 Find the current binary here

Enabling enterprise features for all users

When Core is retired on November 18th, in its place users will gain the decidedly more capable CockroachDB Enterprise Free Tier — enhanced with a wealth of robust features previously unavailable to users of our free offering.

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Cluster Optimization

Experience enhanced performance with follower reads and row-level data control

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Disaster Recovery, Backup, and Streaming

Benefit from enterprise-grade backup, restore, and replication capabilities

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Security and IAM

Ensure your data is secure with encryption at rest, SSO, role-based SQL audit logging, and more

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Staying free for those that need it

Even by conservative estimates, the vast majority 
of the world’s businesses will meet the eligibility requirements for the Enterprise Free Tier license. This means that with the enablement of new enterprise features (detailed above), CockroachDB now offers even more capabilities and resources for individual users and startups to learn, experiment, and scale—all still at no cost. 

Making your transition smooth

We’re committed to supporting our customers at every turn. Reach out to our team today to start the conversation about how CockroachDB Enterprise can transform your data strategy toward a more resilient future.

Contact us
For more information or to discuss your specific needs, please contact our sales team.

FAQs

1. My organization is currently using Core and will not qualify for the Enterprise Free tier when these changes occur on November 18. What will happen if I take no action?

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2. From which release version onward will the new licensing changes apply?

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3. Do I need a license key for my ephemeral development clusters?

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4. Does this mean CockroachDB is no longer open source?

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5. How will the new licensing model affect my existing support agreements?

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6. What telemetry data will be collected?

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7. How can I extend my 30-day trial period?

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8. Will there be any accommodations made for customers currently using Core for enterprise-scale workloads?

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9. I am a CockroachDB Cloud user, do these license changes impact me as well?

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10. Who should I reach out to with additional questions?

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11. Where can I review the updated license terms?

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