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One of the largest debates within our company has been balancing open source and commercialization.
Axon originally started as a research project to find ways to build better software. We decided to make it open source, to allow the community to contribute and give feedback. As it started showing its worth, we also recognized the added value of being open source. It made Axon Framework accessible.
However, I realized we could develop Axon faster if a commercial organization supported it. Founding AxonIQ as the company that backs all Axon products ensured guaranteed support and more predictable development. It made the development of Axon more stable.
Balancing open source and proprietary software is a challenge, though. The term “open source company” can feel like an oxymoron. Being an open-source company means we are constantly discussing which functionality should be open-source and which should not. While it’s easy to make closed source open, the other direction is something we would like to avoid at all costs.
This discussion boils down to the question: How do we make Axon and event-centric systems available to the broadest group? To do this, we need both the accessibility of open-source and the stability of commercialization.
How we managed the balance so far
Until recently, AxonIQ offered two core products: the open-source Axon Framework for application development, and the commercial Axon Server, which included a free Standard Edition for essential message routing and event storage, and a paid Enterprise Edition for high availability and advanced features in data management and security. This dual-product approach worked well for growing the Axon Framework's user base and functionalities as well as facilitating valuable partnerships with large enterprises. See our Use Cases page for more on that.
But despite this success, it became clear that the Enterprise Edition's benefits were beyond reach for smaller-budget companies. Holding the belief that Axon technology is equally beneficial for startups as it is for large enterprises, I knew we had to make a strategic adjustment to make our solutions more universally accessible.
What we will change
To make the benefits of Axon more accessible, we decided to build new editions that sit in between the free and the enterprise versions of Axon Server.
Developer, Starter, and Pro plans will replace the Axon Server Standard Edition. The Developer plan offers a no-cost single node of Axon Server, similar to the Standard Edition. The Starter plan offers 3-node clustering that starts at $100 per month. The Pro plan offers 3-node clustering, multi-context, and a basic support SLA for incidents. It is available from $1500 per month. Our Enterprise offering remains unchanged.
Benefits
This means that you can now deploy a three-node cluster with Axon Server, leading to higher availability and a much lower risk of data loss for $100 per month – all without a contract.
These plans contain a quality, zero-configuration event store and message router. This allows any engineering team to spend their time on business functionality without infrastructural complexities.
Conclusion
Striking the right balance between the spirit of open source and running a business has always been a complex challenge. However, our journey has shown us that blending the two can actually drive the adoption and growth of event-centric architectures forward.
We're excited to finally offer a way that makes our solutions more accessible to all – while ensuring we continue enhancing and supporting the AxonIQ ecosystem well into the future.
Join us on this journey as we continue to empower developers, paving the way for innovative, resilient, and scalable architectures that drive modern applications.
Register for the upcoming "From Insight to Action” webinar on May 16 to learn more.
