Open source, and free for almost everything.
Read bext, modify it, run it, self-host it, and build and distribute your apps — for free. A license only comes into play if you embed the engine itself in another product. And every release becomes fully open source (Apache-2.0) after three years.
Free — no license required
- Run bext, in production, at any scale
- Self-host it on your own hardware
- Build, sell, and distribute apps made with bext
- Read, modify, and redistribute the source
- Internal use, agencies, client projects
License required
- Embed the engine in your own product
- Offer the engine as a hosted / managed service
- Redistribute it as a platform component
- Remove or hide attribution
- Commercial guarantees: support, SLA, indemnity
Every release becomes Apache-2.0 after 3 years
The source-available model protects the ability to license the engine today — but it has an expiry date. Three years after it ships, each release converts to fully permissive Apache-2.0. You're never locked in.
What the license says, without the jargon
You own what you build
Your apps, your code, your data are yours. The license is about the engine, not what you make with it.
Distribution stays open
Distributing an app built on bext is always free — that's the core of the model. Only embedding the engine is licensed.
Offline validation
No phone-home. Keys are verified locally with an Ed25519 public key baked into the binary. No network requests, ever.
One license for the engine, not gated features
The pivot: we no longer gate features. We license the right to embed a production-grade render & execution engine.
This is a plain-language summary, not the binding legal text. The final license text (and any OEM agreement) is being finalized and will be reviewed by counsel before publication.
Need to embed the engine?
Platforms, OEMs, AI: let's talk license, scope, and terms.