Solutions

Licensing & Editions

Funambol has two versions of software, the open source Community Edition and the commercial Carrier Edition, that share a body of source code. This dual license approach is common with commercial open source software. Which edition is right for you depends on your needs and usage -- see below for their differences.

Community Edition

Community Edition uses the AGPLv3 open source license that lets you offer your software to all who wish to use, modify and distribute it freely. The AGPLv3 open source license allows you to use Community Edition at no charge under the condition that if you use Funambol code in an application that you distribute or host, the complete source code for your application must be available and freely redistributable. With this license, you can download, inspect, develop and test Funambol code. Many organizations do exactly this before they contact us regarding a commercial license.

In layman's terms, Community Edition can be freely used for many purposes. The most notable exception is if you change or add to the code and you use the software as the basis of an Internet, hosted, SaaS or network-based service, you must publish your code or buy a commercial license.

Carrier Edition

Carrier Edition is available under a traditional commercial software license. Carrier Edition includes functionality, connectivity and compatibility beyond Community Edition that makes it suitable for large-scale deployment. It is available with full support, documentation and consulting services. See the following table for a comparison of the editions.

	COMMUNITY EDITION	CARRIER EDITION
Funambol Synchronization Server	YES	YES
Native SyncML Client Sync	YES	YES
Outlook Sync	YES	YES
Windows Mobile / Symbian / BlackBerry Sync	YES	YES
Java ME Email Client	YES	YES
iPhone / iPod Sync	YES	YES
Android Sync (Community Project)	YES	YES

Certified Carrier-Grade Scalability	NO	YES
High Availability and Fault Tolerance	NO	YES
End User AJAX Portal and Server API	NO	YES
Gmail & Yahoo! Mail Contacts Import	NO	YES
Over-the-air (OTA) Device Configuration	NO	YES
OTA Delivery of Mobile Apps	NO	YES
SMS Gateway Integration	NO	YES
BREW Push Email Client	NO	YES
Customer Service Rep (CSR) Web-based Interface	NO	YES
Monthly Phone Packs (Updates)	NO	YES
Funambol Technical Support	NO	YES
Funambol Training & Professional Services	NO	YES
Funambol Software Maintenance	NO	YES

As an example of the premium value provided by Carrier Edition, consider the monthly phone packs that include:

Device database updates -- up-to-date information about supported devices and client provisioning logic
HTML manual instructions -- mobile device configuration steps, for the Funambol portal and Portal API users (for their own portal)
Device GIF images
Over-the-air (OTA) device configuration profiles
Synclets, for device idiosyncracies, these are eventually available for Community Edition but not on the same frequency

In addition, Funambol's commercial license does not trigger open source obligations such as the need to publish and share your code. Carrier Edition is the basis for the Funambol solution that is provided to service providers as well as OEMs, ISVs and ODMs. To inquire about Carrier Edition, please contact the Funambol Sales team.

Which Edition is Right for You?

Carrier Edition differs from Community Edition in four primary ways -- it:

Includes a superset of functionality that makes it suitable for mass deployment. It includes several critical capabilities that are not in Community Edition such as an end user portal for auto-provisioning and management of PIM data and email settings; over-the-air (OTA) device configuration and delivery of mobile applications; SMS gateway integration; a web-based interface for customer service representatives; and monthly phone pack updates to support the latest mobile phones.
Is certified on commercial infrastructure such as commercial RDBMSs and app servers that enable it to be deployed in massively scaleable, high availability and fault-tolerant environments.
Is covered by a commercial license agreement that enables customers to maintain the privacy of their code.
Is used as part of Funambol professional service engagements and is supported by Funambol.

Here are some guidelines as to whether an open source or commercial license is right for you:

If your software is licensed under a GPL-compatible Free Software License as defined by the Free Software Foundation or approved by OSI, use our open source Community Edition.
If you plan to distribute a proprietary application or service, and you are not licensing and distributing your source code under GPL or AGPLv3, you need to purchase a commercial license from Funambol.
If you are unsure, we suggest that you contact us to discuss your situation. You can also refer to the Free Software Foundation or contact a lawyer as appropriate.