License
Tidepush is dual-licensed:
- GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 only (
AGPL-3.0-only), free for everyone. The full text is in theLICENSEfile. - A commercial license, for organisations that can't or don't want to meet the AGPL's conditions. See
COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md.
Copyright © Eugene Koech.
Not legal advice
This page explains the license in plain words to help you decide. The license text is what counts. If you're unsure, ask a lawyer.
The AGPL in plain words
The AGPL is a "copyleft" license. You may use, copy, change and share Tidepush freely. In return, if you share it, or let other people use a changed version over a network, you must give them the source code of your version under the same license.
What that means for you depends on what you do:
| You… | Do you need to do anything? |
|---|---|
| Use Tidepush to ship updates to your own apps, unmodified | No. Deploy it and use it. Your mobile app is not affected: the app only talks to Tidepush over the Expo Updates protocol; it doesn't include Tidepush code. |
| Use the hosted Tidepush service | No. The AGPL applies to the Tidepush software, not to your app or to your use of the service. |
| Self-host it for your company, with your own configuration | No. Configuration isn't a modification of the program. |
| Modify it and use it only inside your organisation | Usually no. The AGPL's sharing duty is triggered by distributing it, or by letting people outside your organisation interact with your modified version over a network. Your own employees using the dashboard is generally treated as internal use. |
| Modify it and let others interact with it over a network (e.g. clients use your dashboard or API) | Yes. Offer those users the complete source of your modified version, under the AGPL. A link to a public repository is the usual way. |
| Offer Tidepush as a hosted service (an OTA platform for other companies), modified or not | Yes. Your users must be able to get the full source of what you run, including your changes, under the AGPL. If you don't want to publish your changes, you need a commercial license. |
| Distribute it (give copies to others, ship it inside a product) | Yes. Include the license and the source, and keep it under the AGPL. Embedding it in a proprietary product needs a commercial license. |
In every case: keep the copyright and license notices, and don't add restrictions on top of the AGPL for the people you share it with.
Commercial license
A commercial license lets you use, modify and embed Tidepush without the AGPL's conditions. Typical reasons:
- running a closed-source hosted OTA service built on Tidepush,
- shipping Tidepush inside a proprietary product,
- a company policy that doesn't allow AGPL software.
To ask about a commercial license, contact the copyright holder, Eugene Koech: yugenecodes99@gmail.com
Contributions
Contributors agree that their contributions may be distributed under both the AGPL and commercial licenses (a contributor license agreement in CONTRIBUTING.md). Contributors keep the copyright to their work. This is what keeps dual licensing possible. See Contributing.
Third-party software
Tidepush depends on open-source packages (Hono, Zod, React, VitePress and others) under their own licenses, mostly MIT. Expo and expo-updates are separate projects under their own licenses.