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Apache 2.0 vs BSL: Why True Open Source Wins

· 8 min read
Christophe Aboulicam
Founder & CTO at HLFH

In 2024, HashiCorp switched Terraform from MPL to BSL. In 2023, Redis moved from BSD to SSPL. Elastic, MongoDB, CockroachDB — all followed the same playbook: build community with open source, then change the license when the business needs it.

We understand why they did it. We chose a different path anyway.

STOA Platform is licensed under Apache 2.0 — one of the most permissive open-source licenses that exists. No source-available tricks. No "open core" where the useful features are paywalled. No license change planned for when we hit a revenue target.

Here's why — and why this matters for every developer choosing an open-source API gateway today.