ThingsBoard Community Grant License Agreement

Revision Date: October 16, 2026

This Agreement governs the no-charge, perpetual license granted under the ThingsBoard Community Grant Program to organizations already running ThingsBoard Community Edition before Version 4.4. It is entered into between ThingsBoard, Inc. (“Licensor”, “we”) and the organization that registers (“Licensee”, “you”) — together, the “Parties”.

You accept this Agreement in the ThingsBoard License Portal when you register for the Program. The Portal records what you accepted and when, and keeps a copy of your Grant Record in your account.

How this Agreement is put together. The ThingsBoard License Agreement (current revision) sets out the general terms on which the Software is licensed. Those terms apply to your Community Grant license, as modified by this Agreement. Where the two differ, this Agreement prevails.

Terms defined in the License Agreement have the same meaning here. We may update the License Agreement from time to time. Any new version will apply to your Community Grant license 30 days after notice is provided through the Portal, provided that no revision reduces your Granted Scope or the guarantees in Section 8 herein.

1. Background

1.1 Effective from Version 4.4, we unified the legacy ThingsBoard Community Edition and Professional Edition into a single platform (the “Software”), licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with the Additional Use Grant set out in the LICENSE file. The separate Community Edition distribution is discontinued from Version 4.4 onward.

1.2 Your Apache 2.0 rights are untouched. Every release of Community Edition published before Version 4.4 remains licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, irrevocably and in perpetuity. Nothing in this Agreement alters, revokes or restricts those rights. Those releases continue to run under Apache 2.0 indefinitely, with or without further updates from us.

1.3 Purpose of the Program. The Program exists so that an organization already running Community Edition in production can move to the unified Software and keep operating at its existing scale, permanently and at no charge.

2. Definitions

• “Grant Record” means the record of your registration: the Granted Scope determined under clause 4, the instance identifier it applies to, and the date of registration. It forms part of this Agreement.
• “Granted Scope” means the Devices, Assets, Production Instances and Edges granted to you under clause 4, as stated in your Grant Record.
• “Instance Check Report” means the report produced by our verification tool when run against your deployment, as described in the License Portal Terms of Use.
• “Legacy Instance” means a self-hosted ThingsBoard Community Edition installation that was already running, under its own instance identifier, before the day we announced Version 4.4.
• “Professional Pack” means the Add-on described in clause 5.4, available only to Program participants.
• “Registered Devices” means the number of Devices in your Legacy Instance on the day we announced Version 4.4, as evidenced by your Instance Check Report.
• “White-Labeling” means modifying, hiding, suppressing, removing, replacing or overlaying the default ThingsBoard name, logo, copyright notice, product identity, or the visible “Powered by ThingsBoard” badge in the user interface or system outputs.

3. Eligibility and registration

3.1 Who may register. An organization operating a Legacy Instance may register that instance for the Program.

3.2 Registration window. Registration closes on 20 July 2027, the end-of-life date for the Version 4.3.x LTS line. We will not accept registrations after that date.

3.3 The Instance Check Report is always required. Every registration requires submission of an unaltered Instance Check Report generated by the instance being registered. Its generation, contents and submission are governed by the License Portal Terms of Use. Registration is not complete, and no Grant arises, until we have accepted a valid Report.

3.4 Verification. We may verify any registration before accepting it, and may decline a registration we cannot verify or that, in our reasonable determination, does not meet requirements of this Agreement. Submitting an Instance Check Report is your representation that it was generated by, and originates unchanged from, the instance named in it.

3.5 One Grant per instance. A Grant attaches to the instance identifier registered. Where an instance identifier is already registered to another account, we will notify you and set out how to resolve it.

4. The Grant

4.1 What we grant. Subject to clause 3, we grant you a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, royalty-free license to install, run and use the Software within your Granted Scope, at no charge, for as long as you comply with this Agreement.

4.2 Including every later release. The license covers Version 4.4 and every later release of the Software, indefinitely, at no charge within your Granted Scope. No Update Fee is payable on your Granted Scope, ever.

4.3 How Granted Scope is calculated.

• Devices — your Registered Devices plus a growth bonus of 10%, the bonus rounded up to the nearest ten. The bonus is never less than 10 Devices and never more than 1,000. Every Grant carries a minimum of 100 Devices, whatever the registered count.
• Assets — at parity with your granted Devices.
• Production Instances — as registered, with no bonus.
• Edges — as registered, with no bonus.

Granted Devices calculation examples:

4.4 Granted Scope is fixed. Your Granted Scope is determined once, at registration, from your Registered Devices. It does not grow with your deployment. The 10% bonus in clause 4.3 is the only headroom the Grant provides.

4.5 Operating your deployment for your users. You may provide access to a deployment you operate to your employees, contractors, customers and other users, including through the Software’s multi-tenancy features and including as a hosted service. Providing such access is not sublicensing, and you remain responsible for their use and for compliance with this Agreement.

This does not permit another legal entity to operate its own deployment under your license key. Distributing, reselling or embedding the Software for another entity to operate its own deployment requires a separate written agreement with us. Reseller, distributor and OEM arrangements are available; contact us to discuss one.

5. What the Grant includes, and what it does not

5.1 Features. Your Granted Scope includes every feature of the former Community Edition, plus all security features of the Software — including advanced role-based access control, Single Sign-On and OAuth2, and Secrets Storage, which were previously available only in Professional Edition. They are granted to you at no charge.

5.2 Community Support only. A Community Grant license carries Community Support — the public documentation and community forums we make generally available. We give no response times and no support commitment. Help Desk access requires a Commercial License.

5.3 Everything else must be purchased. Features of the Software, not directly specified in clause 5.1, are not included in the Grant, and holding a Commercial License does not by itself include them. The remaining features are purchased through the Professional Pack (clause 5.4). Any other extensions are purchased separately. Nothing is included unless granted or ordered.

5.4 The Professional Pack. The Professional Pack unlocks all remaining features of the Software — that is, everything not already granted to you under clause 5.1, including White-Labeling. It is available only to Program participants, at a flat fee of USD 2,999.

The Pack is defined by what it adds to clause 5.1, not by a list of named features, so it covers any capability of the Software, however our editions change over time.

Buying the Pack converts your license. The Pack is a purchase, so buying it converts your Community Grant license into a Perpetual Commercial License under clause 6.1, governed by the License Agreement and the Order recording the purchase. Your Granted Scope comes with you at no charge (clause 6.2), our guarantees in clause 8 survive, and you may revert to the Grant at any time under clause 7.

The Pack does not change your Granted Scope: your Device, Production Instance and Edge counts under clause 4.3 are unaffected by it. It is not time-limited — you may purchase it at any time, including after the registration window in clause 3.2 has closed.

5.5 White-Labeling is not included in the Grant. The default product branding and the visible “Powered by ThingsBoard” badge must remain unmodified unless you hold the Professional Pack, or your Order otherwise authorizes White-Labeling under clause 2.5 of the License Agreement.

Buying scope does not unlock branding. Purchasing additional Devices, Production Instances or Edges is a purchase under clause 6.1, but it does not authorize White-Labeling.

Deployments already rebranded. This clause does not apply if your registered deployment was already rebranded on the day we announced Version 4.4 — in that case your existing branding may remain, at no charge, under the Grant. This permits you to keep the branding as it then stood; it does not grant access to the Software’s White-Labeling features, which remain part of the Professional Pack. This paragraph applies only if your deployment was in fact already rebranded, and by relying on it you represent that it was. The permission survives a purchase under clause 6 and reversion under clause 7, as clause 8.3 provides.

6. Commercial License Purchase

6.1 If you purchase the Professional Pack, additional Devices, additional Production Instances, additional Edges, or any other Add-on, such a purchase is made under a Perpetual Commercial License, governed by the License Agreement and the Order recording it. From that point the License Agreement governs your purchase, and this Agreement applies only to the Granted Scope.

Scope and features are priced separately. You may buy additional scope without the Professional Pack, and you may buy the Professional Pack without additional scope. Neither requires the other.

6.2 Your Granted Scope comes with you, at no charge. Your Grant Record continues to identify your Granted Scope alongside whatever you purchased. Your Grant Record is retained, so your Granted Scope remains identifiable for the purposes of clause 7. We will not retroactively reduce, restrict or impair it.

6.3 What you pay maintenance on. The Update Fee under the License Agreement is calculated on the purchase (fees you actually paid) — not on your Granted Scope. The Professional Pack alone therefore carries an Update Fee of USD 509.83 per twelve-month update period. While you hold purchased items, New Versions are provided under clause 4.4 of the License Agreement. If you do not pay the Update Fee, you keep your then-current version; your Granted Scope is unaffected and continues on that version at no charge.

6.4 Growing beyond your Granted Scope. Additional Devices, Production Instances, Edges and Add-ons are purchased at the prices in Appendix A to the License Agreement, and become part of your Licensed Scope in the ordinary way. Once you hold a Perpetual Commercial License, later purchases for that license are priced at the Appendix A revision that applies to it — the revision you accepted — under clause 4.7 of the License Agreement.

6.5 What else changes. Upon purchase of a Perpetual Commercial License, You gain Help Desk support under clause 8.3 of the License Agreement, and the liability cap in clause 9.5(b) of that Agreement applies to you, measured on the fees you paid. Feature access follows what you purchased.

7. Cancellation of the Commercial License

7.1 You may always revert. At any time, you may give up everything you purchased and return to your Granted Scope under this Agreement, at no charge. There is no penalty and no deadline. If you stop paying the Update Fee, you may continue on your then-current version, or revert under this clause 7 and resume receiving every later release at no charge within your Granted Scope.

7.2 How. Reduce your Devices, Production Instances and Edges to within your Granted Scope, and stop using the features that clause 5.1 does not grant — including restoring the default product branding, unless clause 5.5’s exception applies to you. Tell us, and we will reissue your license key at Granted Scope. Clause 4.2 then applies again: every later release, at no charge, with no Update Fee. Your support reverts to Community Support under clause 5.2.

7.3 This overrides the no-reduction rule. Clause 4.7 of the License Agreement provides that a Perpetual License cannot be reduced. That does not apply to the terms under this clause 7. Cancellation of the Commercial License and reverting to your Granted Scope under this clause 7 is permitted.

7.4 Reverting does not consume the Grant. You may purchase a Commercial License and revert as often as you wish. Any purchase or cancellation after the registration window does not require re-registration, and the closing of the Registration Window in clause 3.2 has no effect on your ability to purchase extensions, or revert.

7.5 Fees already paid are not refunded. Fees paid for any purchases are non-refundable. While you may transition back to your Granted Scope without incurring additional charges, no fees previously paid will be refunded, credited, or prorated under any circumstances.

8. Our guarantees to you

8.1 No back-payment, ever. We irrevocably covenant that we will never seek retroactive license fees, historical licensing penalties, or past-use damages from any organization that registers for the Program, except if You or Your Organization provide a false, deceptive, or manipulated Instance Check Report, which shall constitute a material breach of this Agreement, and any resulting no-charge permission, grant, or license shall be rendered null and void ab initio (from the inception of use). Consequently, all actual use of the Software during such period shall be legally deemed unauthorized and unlicensed, subjecting You or Your Organization to full retroactive commercial license fees for the entire duration of use, without prejudice to any other remedies available to the Licensor at law or in equity.

8.2 The Grant does not expire. Your Granted Scope is perpetual and no-charge. We will not withdraw it, reduce it, or make it conditional on any purchase. It ends only if this Agreement is terminated under clause 9.3.

8.3 These guarantees survive a purchase. Clauses 5.5 (deployments already rebranded), 7, 8.1 and 8.2 continue to apply while you hold a Commercial License purchased under clause 6, notwithstanding clauses 2.5 and 4.7 of the License Agreement.

9. Non-transferability, term and termination

9.1 Personal to you. The Grant, your license key, and your Granted Scope are personal to the registering organization. You may not assign, sublicense, transfer, sell, lease, pledge or encumber them, whether voluntarily, involuntarily or by operation of law.

9.2 Corporate transactions. Clause 9.1 does not prevent transfer of the Grant to a successor in a merger, acquisition, consolidation, change of control, or sale of all or substantially all of your assets. Upon notification accompanied by documentary proof of such transfer, we will transfer the Grant Record to the successor.

9.3 Termination. Either Party may terminate this Agreement on thirty (30) days’ written notice if the other materially breaches it and fails to cure the breach within that period. An attempted transfer in breach of clause 9.1 is a material breach.

9.4 Your Apache 2.0 rights survive everything. Clause 1.2 survives termination. Nothing in this Agreement, including its termination, affects your rights under the Apache License, Version 2.0 in releases published before Version 4.4.

9.5 Miscellaneous. Except as expressly modified herein, all terms and conditions of the License Agreement remain in full force and effect and shall govern all matters not specifically covered in this document. Where the same subject is addressed by more than one of the documents listed in clause 13.2 of the License Agreement and the terms genuinely conflict, the order stated in that clause controls. Nothing in this Agreement reduces the rights the LICENSE file grants you. As the Grant is provided at no charge, the Software under this Agreement is provided “as is”. Clauses 9.1 (warranty) and 9.3 (IP indemnity) of the License Agreement do not apply to a Community Grant license. Upon purchase of a Commercial License, clauses 9.1 and 9.3 of the License Agreement shall apply to Your purchase.