Self-hosted AI apps by license: what a business may do
Short answer
22 of the 40 apps we track use a permissive license (MIT or Apache-2.0), which allows use, modification and resale with few obligations: Ollama, Langflow, llama.cpp, vLLM, RAGFlow, OpenHands, NextChat, AnythingLLM, PrivateGPT, whisper.cpp, LocalAI, Milvus, LibreChat, Jan, Open Notebook, Vane (formerly Perplexica), Qdrant, Sim, Label Studio, Coze Studio, Paperless-AI, Speaches.
Open core: LiteLLM, Flowise, Langfuse, Tabby, Onyx (formerly Danswer), Activepieces. Core is MIT/Apache; enterprise folders need a paid license.
Copyleft (GPL): ComfyUI, MaxKB. Free to use; distributing modified versions requires sharing source.
Network copyleft (AGPL): Firecrawl, Khoj, PDFMathTranslate, LibreTranslate. Like GPL, and also applies when users access a modified version over a network.
Custom / conditional: Dify, Open WebUI, LobeHub (LobeChat), MinerU, FastGPT. Apache- or BSD-based with extra conditions (branding, multi-tenant SaaS, derivatives).
Source-available: n8n. Code is public but commercial resale is restricted.
All 40 allow internal business use under their license text; the differences matter when you modify, resell or host the app for other companies.
Last updated · generated from the same verified data as each app page
Comparison table
| App | License | Type | Internal business use | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AnythingLLM | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the copyright notice. |
| Coze Studio | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. |
| Jan | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. |
| Label Studio | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. |
| Langflow | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the copyright notice. |
| LibreChat | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the copyright notice. |
| llama.cpp | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed. Individual models have their own licenses. |
| LocalAI | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed. Models keep their own licenses. |
| Milvus | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. |
| NextChat | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. Branding, admin panel and permissions are sold separately as an Enterprise Edition. |
| Ollama | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed. Individual models have their own licenses. |
| Open Notebook | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. |
| OpenHands | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. LLM usage is billed by your model provider. |
| Paperless-AI | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the copyright notice. |
| PrivateGPT | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. |
| Qdrant | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. |
| RAGFlow | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. |
| Sim | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep license and notices. The built-in Chat feature is a Sim-managed service that needs a Chat API key from sim.ai. |
| Speaches | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed. Speech models keep their own licenses. |
| Vane (formerly Perplexica) | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the copyright notice. |
| vLLM | Apache-2.0 | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed. Models keep their own licenses. |
| whisper.cpp | MIT | Permissive | Allowed | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed. The Whisper model weights have their own license. |
| Activepieces | MIT (core) + Activepieces Enterprise License (ee directories) | Open core | Allowed | Everything outside packages/ee and packages/server/api/src/app/ee is MIT. Code in those directories needs a commercial license. |
| Flowise | Apache-2.0 (enterprise directory under a commercial license) | Open core | Allowed | Most of the code is Apache-2.0. Code under packages/server/src/enterprise and files with explicit copyright notices are under a separate commercial license. |
| Langfuse | MIT (core) + Langfuse Enterprise License (ee directories) | Open core | Allowed | Everything outside ee/, web/src/ee/ and worker/src/ee/ is MIT. Those directories need a commercial license. |
| LiteLLM | MIT (core) + LiteLLM Enterprise License (enterprise directory) | Open core | Allowed | Everything outside the "enterprise/" directory is MIT. That directory has its own license. |
| Onyx (formerly Danswer) | MIT (Community Edition) + Onyx Enterprise License (ee directories) | Open core | Allowed | The Community Edition is MIT. Code in "ee" directories is under the Onyx Enterprise License. |
| Tabby | Apache-2.0 (ee directory under a separate license) | Open core | Allowed | Everything outside the "ee/" directory is Apache-2.0. The ee/ directory has its own license. |
| ComfyUI | GPL-3.0 | Copyleft (GPL) | Allowed | Free to use internally and commercially. If you distribute a modified version, you must release its source under GPL-3.0. Each model has its own license; check before commercial use. |
| MaxKB | GPL-3.0 | Copyleft (GPL) | Allowed | Free to use internally and commercially. If you distribute a modified version, you must release its source under GPL-3.0. |
| Firecrawl | AGPL-3.0 (SDKs and some UI components MIT) | Network copyleft (AGPL) | Allowed | Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Firecrawl and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source under AGPL-3.0. The SDKs are MIT. |
| Khoj | AGPL-3.0 | Network copyleft (AGPL) | Allowed | Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Khoj and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source code under AGPL-3.0. |
| LibreTranslate | AGPL-3.0 | Network copyleft (AGPL) | Allowed | Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify it and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source. The name and logo are covered by separate trademark guidelines. |
| PDFMathTranslate | AGPL-3.0 | Network copyleft (AGPL) | Allowed | Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify it and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source under AGPL-3.0. |
| Dify | Dify Open Source License (modified Apache-2.0) | Custom / conditional | Allowed | Commercial use is allowed, including as a backend for your own apps. Extra conditions: you may not run a multi-tenant service (one tenant = one workspace) without written permission, and you may not remove or modify the Dify logo or copyright in the frontend. |
| FastGPT | FastGPT Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with conditions) | Custom / conditional | Allowed | Commercial use is allowed. You need a commercial license to run a multi-tenant SaaS similar to FastGPT, or to remove or modify the logo or copyright in the console. |
| LobeHub (LobeChat) | LobeHub Community License (Apache-2.0 with conditions) | Custom / conditional | Allowed | Commercial use is allowed as a frontend and backend service without modifying the source. Developing and distributing a derivative work requires a commercial license from LobeHub. |
| MinerU | MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) | Custom / conditional | Allowed | Commercial use is allowed without a separate license, unless you and your affiliates exceed 100 million monthly active users or USD 20 million monthly revenue. If you offer an online service to third parties based on MinerU, you must state prominently that it uses MinerU. |
| Open WebUI | Open WebUI License (BSD-3-Clause style with branding clause) | Custom / conditional | Allowed | BSD-style terms plus a branding condition. You may not alter or remove the "Open WebUI" branding unless your deployment has no more than 50 end users in any rolling 30 days, you have written permission, or you hold an enterprise license. |
| n8n | Sustainable Use License (fair-code) + n8n Enterprise License for .ee files | Source-available | Allowed | You may use or modify n8n for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial use. You may not sell it or offer it to others as a paid service. Files with ".ee" in the name need an n8n Enterprise License. |
Plain-English summaries of each project's license text, checked against the LICENSE file linked on each app page. Not legal advice. Models you run with these apps have their own licenses.
Frequently asked questions
Which self-hosted AI apps have an MIT or Apache license?
22 of the 40 apps we track use a permissive license (MIT or Apache-2.0), which allows use, modification and resale with few obligations: Ollama, Langflow, llama.cpp, vLLM, RAGFlow, OpenHands, NextChat, AnythingLLM, PrivateGPT, whisper.cpp, LocalAI, Milvus, LibreChat, Jan, Open Notebook, Vane (formerly Perplexica), Qdrant, Sim, Label Studio, Coze Studio, Paperless-AI, Speaches.
Which self-hosted AI apps have extra license conditions?
Dify: Commercial use is allowed, including as a backend for your own apps. Extra conditions: you may not run a multi-tenant service (one tenant = one workspace) without written permission, and you may not remove or modify the Dify logo or copyright in the frontend. Open WebUI: BSD-style terms plus a branding condition. You may not alter or remove the "Open WebUI" branding unless your deployment has no more than 50 end users in any rolling 30 days, you have written permission, or you hold an enterprise license. LobeHub (LobeChat): Commercial use is allowed as a frontend and backend service without modifying the source. Developing and distributing a derivative work requires a commercial license from LobeHub. MinerU: Commercial use is allowed without a separate license, unless you and your affiliates exceed 100 million monthly active users or USD 20 million monthly revenue. If you offer an online service to third parties based on MinerU, you must state prominently that it uses MinerU. FastGPT: Commercial use is allowed. You need a commercial license to run a multi-tenant SaaS similar to FastGPT, or to remove or modify the logo or copyright in the console.
Is n8n open source?
n8n uses Sustainable Use License (fair-code) + n8n Enterprise License for .ee files. You may use or modify n8n for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial use. You may not sell it or offer it to others as a paid service. Files with ".ee" in the name need an n8n Enterprise License.
Which self-hosted AI apps use the AGPL?
Firecrawl, Khoj, PDFMathTranslate, LibreTranslate. Like GPL, and also applies when users access a modified version over a network.
Related
Every figure on this page comes from the linked app pages, which cite the project's own repository and docs. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.