Alokai’s Licensing and Open Source Changes: What You Need to Know

When we first launched Alokai in 2017, we were just a small group of developers with a simple vision: to create an open source storefront starter for Magento that would make building eCommerce solutions easier and more flexible for everyone. 

What started as a modest project, quickly gained traction, with most of the thanks to the incredible community that rallied around it. Fast forward to 2021, and Alokai, which you might have previously known as Vue Storefront, has become a key player in the digital commerce space. Our entry into the Y Combinator lineup was a significant milestone, but there was still so much opportunity in the market.  

Over the years, we've expanded our technology stack, supported new backends and frameworks, and secured nearly $40 million in funding. Through it all, our community has been the backbone of our growth, helping us improve and iterate on our offerings.

Why we’re making changes: The need for a sustainable model

Our mission has always been clear: to help ecommerce businesses build the best experience for their customers. We firmly believe that the reality of the industry is that only those open source projects with a robust business model behind them can truly thrive. 

When we started this project we were first to the market with this type of product. Headless space was still immature and composable, as a term, was non-existent. Over the years we learned that our tool is best-suited to solve problems of large and complex enterprise setups. We’ve built our business model to serve these types of customers.

As we've seen from our peers and competitors, without a sustainable approach to funding development and operations, even the most promising open source initiatives can falter. This is why we're making some necessary changes to our licensing model.

We understand that this news might raise concerns, and that's why we want to be as transparent as possible about what these changes mean for you and how they will affect the future of Alokai.

What will change: License updates and product changes

In our continuous effort to enhance the quality and sustainability of Alokai, we have decided to transition our open source license from MIT to BSD-3. This change won’t affect the open source community and other vendors maintaining existing integrations with Alokai (Odoo, Sylius, Shopify, Spree, Presta) but will allow us to protect our brand name from being used without our permission. This way we will also be able to validate who is building integrations with our software in the Open Source space and ensure their high quality and effectiveness.

What will change?

1. The following repositories will change their license from MIT to BSD-3: Alokai Middleware, SKD repository, Nuxt/Next SDK wrappers.

2. The Next.js and Nuxt.js Storefront boilerplate repositories will no longer be publicly available. Originally intended to support our community in building custom integrations, these projects have, at times, been used in ways that overlap with our enterprise offerings. However, we will continue to provide access to these resources for Open Source integration maintainers with whom we collaborate, ensuring their integrations remain aligned with Alokai’s latest developments and best practices.

3. Middleware and SDK parts of Magento integrations will remain Open Source so its current adopters can still receive updates and get support but there will be no Open Source storefront available for the new Magento projects. We will shift our attention toward covering Adobe Commerce features that will be exclusive to our enterprise offering.

What the BSD-3 License Change Means for You

The transition from the MIT license to the BSD-3 license introduces a few key differences in how you can use and distribute Alokai’s products. While the BSD-3 license remains permissive, it includes additional conditions that affect commercial use and distribution. Here’s what you need to know:

Use and Distribution: You can still use, modify, and distribute Alokai’s software for both personal and commercial purposes. However, you must include the original BSD-3 license and copyright notices in any distribution.

No Endorsement Without Permission: You cannot use Alokai’s name or its contributors' names to promote products derived from our software without explicit prior permission. This applies to pitching accelerators or promoting your projects.

→ Read more about BSD-3 license

What remains unchanged:

• Storefront UI stays MIT: The Storefront UI library will remain open source with no changes to its licensing or availability.

• Continued Core support: Alokai’s Middleware and SDK are a common part of our Open Source and enterprise offering. They will remain publicly available and supported.

• Sustained open source integrations: Existing integrations with open source vendors, such as Odoo and PrestaShop, will continue to function as before. These integrations will be supported by their original creators, with the potential for new ones to be developed.

Supporting agencies and Solution Integrators

We understand that many agencies and solution integrators depend on our open source software to deliver projects to their clients. As we transition to this new licensing model, we want to ensure you still have the tools and support you need to succeed. 

If you’re currently using Alokai’s open source products in your projects, we invite you to reach out to us. We’re committed to exploring opportunities for collaboration, including potential partnerships or providing access to our enterprise sandbox. Our goal is to work together to ensure that you can continue delivering high-quality solutions to your clients, even as we adapt to these changes. → Click here to contact us

Join us on this journey

We believe these changes will allow us to continue innovating and providing the best possible tools for building digital commerce experiences, while also ensuring that our business model is robust enough to support ongoing development. Although we are shifting some resources towards our enterprise offerings, we remain committed to the principles of open source where it makes sense for our community and partners.

Our vision for the future of Alokai is one where we can offer a sustainable, scalable platform that meets the needs of both enterprise customers and the open source community. We will continue to support and foster open source integrations, and we encourage developers and solution integrators to engage with us to explore new opportunities for collaboration.

Filip Rakowski - Co-founder and CTO of Alokai