📜 LICENSE CLASS: 📖 SOURCE-AVAILABLE
Executive Summary: What is it?
The Server Side Public License (SSPL), version 1, is not an official Open Source license. Created by MongoDB, it allows you to use the software freely, but if you offer it to third parties as a service, you must publish the source code of the whole service stack (including management, monitoring, backup, storage and hosting software) under the SSPL, at no charge.
CFO / Business Impact: What does it cost/risk?
Competition Blocker. Safe for internal use. Safe for building apps on top of it. Unsafe if your business model involves hosting infrastructure for others. The condition targets service providers: they either publish their whole stack or buy a commercial license from the vendor.
Technical Reality: How does it work?
Used by MongoDB and Graylog. Elasticsearch offers it as one of three license options for its free source code, alongside AGPL-3.0 and the Elastic License 2.0. You will likely need to pay for their official Cloud offering if you want Managed SaaS.