Can I offer Percona Server for MongoDB as DBaaS without licensing fees?"

MongoDB
1

Hi everyone,

I have a question about licensing. I know that MongoDB Community moved from AGPL to SSPL, which introduced restrictions for providing it as a service

In the case of Percona Server for MongoDB, i’d like to confirm:

Am I allowed to use it to provide Database as a Service (DBaaS) publicly without paying any additional licensing fees?

Are there any commercial limitations or differences compared to MongoDB Community Edition that I should be aware of?

2

Hi @Daniel_Hatz ,

Thanks for joining our Percona Community and congratulations on your first post!

You are correct that both MongoDB Community Edition and Percona Server for MongoDB are licensed under the Server Side Public License (SSPL). This license has specific implications for anyone wanting to offer the database as a service.

In direct answer to your question: Yes, you are allowed to use Percona Server for MongoDB to provide a public Database as a Service (DBaaS) without paying any additional licensing fees to Percona or MongoDB Inc. However, SSPL forces you to make the source code of your entire service stack publicly available under the SSPL. This includes not just any modifications to the database itself, but also all the management software, user interfaces, APIs, automation, monitoring, and backup software that you use to provide the service. This, in practice, prevents commercial usage as DBaaS. It’s important to note that this is a requirement of the SSPL itself and not an additional fee or restriction imposed by Percona or MongoDB Inc.

Section 13 of the SSPL reads as follows (read for details and strict letter of the license)

a. “If you make the functionality of the Program or a modified version available to third parties as a service, you must make the Service Source Code available via network download to everyone at no charge, under the terms of this License. Making the functionality of the Program or modified version available to third parties as a service includes, without limitation, enabling third parties to interact with the functionality of the Program or modified version remotely through a computer network, offering a service the value of which entirely or primarily derives from the value of the Program or modified version, or offering a service that accomplishes for users the primary purpose of the Software or modified version.”

b. “Service Source Code” means the Corresponding Source for the Program or the modified version, and the Corresponding Source for all programs that you use to make the Program or modified version available as a service, including, without limitation, management software, user interfaces, application program interfaces, automation software, monitoring software, backup software, storage software and hosting software, all such that a user could run an instance of the service using the Service Source Code you make available.”

A full copy of the SSPL is here.

Regarding your second question about commercial limitations and differences compared to MongoDB Community Edition, this is where using Percona Server for MongoDB offers significant advantages, especially for a DBaaS offering:

  • Percona does not add any commercial limitations on top of the SSPL. You get the full functionality of their server without any restrictions on its use for commercial purposes, as long as you adhere to the SSPL.
  • Percona Server for MongoDB includes a number of enterprise-grade features that are only available in MongoDB’s paid Enterprise Advanced edition - audit log, in-memory engine, encryption at rest, LDAP, OIDC, File copy-based initial sync, and more. By using Percona’s server, you can offer a more robust and secure DBaaS without incurring additional licensing costs for these features.