Word.ws English Dictionary

open core

open core noun: a business model for software whereby the core is open-source and free, while closed-source add-ons are available for purchase.

Noun

open core (uncountable)

  1. A business model for software whereby the core is open-source and free, while closed-source add-ons are available for purchase.
    • We deliver a fully functional product with our community edition. You can download it under a GPL v3 license. But, additionally, we provide enterprise features only if you pay for them. It's open core.2012, Simon Phipps, Open Source Strategies for the Enterprise, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN
    • In part because the upsell features are often not clearly partitioned off from the core project, many open core products require their contributors to sign a contributor license agreement (CLA), which assigns rights to the commercial owner of the product.2018, Gordon Haff, How Open Source Ate Software […] , Apress, →ISBN, page 109

Questions about open core

What does open core mean?
Open core means a business model for software whereby the core is open-source and free, while closed-source add-ons are available for purchase.
What part of speech is open core?
Open core is a noun.

Words near open core in the dictionary

  1. open compound
  2. open compounds
  3. open content
  4. open convention
  5. open conventions
  6. open core
  7. open cover
  8. open covers
  9. open curve
  10. open curves
  11. open dating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: open core (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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