Licensing, Enterprise features, Transparent pricing, Community Edition

[sandroshu]

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Topic

Self-hosting

Deployment type

Self-hosted - quickstart script

Operating system or environment

Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, FreeBSD, OpenWRT, Docker, Kubernetes, Synology, Browser

NetBird version

No response

Question

I’d like to understand the planned licensing model for Enterprise features in the self-hosted edition.

There are a few features currently labeled “Enterprise” that I may want to use. They are not necessarily deal-breakers if not available, but I would be willing to purchase a license to unlock them if the pricing and purchase process are clear and right.

One point of friction: seeing “Contact us” as the only purchasing option is frustrating. If a feature has a defined license, it would be much better to have transparent pricing and a straightforward way to buy it directly, without needing to start a sales conversation. I am not a business, I definitely don't want to talk to sales.

Could you clarify the following?

• Will self-hosted "Enterprise" features have clear, publicly available pricing?
• Will it be possible to purchase licenses directly, without contacting sales?
• Is a Community Edition planned that excludes Enterprise features entirely?
• Alternatively, will there be a supported option to hide or remove "Enterprise only" features from the UI?

A clear separation between Community and Enterprise functionality, along with transparent licensing, would make it much easier for self-hosted users to decide if they want to go forward with Netbird or look for replacement.

Thanks,

Desired outcome

No response

What have you tried?

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Relevant environment details

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Logs or output

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Additional context

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[tommy10606]

This doesn't really help or solve the issue, but I was told an enterprise license for the self-hosted version with 50 users is $11k USD for 1 year or $28k USD for 3 years.

[sandroshu]

...50 users is $11k USD for 1 year or $28k USD for 3 years.

what 😂😂😂

[tommy10606]

I wish I was joking.

[securebitsorg]

This price doesn't really surprise me. It's a pretty standard pricing structure in the enterprise environment. (See, for example, Forti ZTNA, etc. - you probably won't get by with 11k there.)

The existing pricing lacks a suitable option for smaller deployments that need to incorporate audit and traffic event streaming.

Especially in the German healthcare sector, with companies subject to NIS2, a streamlined version would be very helpful.

But after all, a company has to make a profit somehow, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

What’s being offered here as a free project is certainly more than generous...

[OGDeguy]

I would like to add to this as well. We are a smaller shop 1-10 users, the enterprise features are attractive and appealing to us and we would be willing to pay. But 11k is too steep for the number of users we have, especially as we are already in a good place on the self-hosted. Hopefully you folks will consider a low cost 1-3k/year sub with no or limited support for the little guys like us who still want some redundancy. (yes we could go for a cloud subscription, but our data residency requirements prohibit this)

[tommy10606]

If it was half, I would consider it but a license for a self-hosted solution for 50 users at 11k a year is wild.

[bitcrshr]

I'm just running Netbird in my homelab, and yeah I've found the recent dashboard updates that "dangle" enterprise features in front of you a bit disheartening. Not that I think it's bad or wrong, but it's just a bit strange to be repeatedly funneled into a paywall that I have no reasonable way to get through.

That being said, I have much respect for OSS business models and would love to give NetBird (a reasonable amount of) my money to access a limited set of enterprise features for my personal deployment. Short of that, I do agree that a community edition or the ability to hide the disabled features would be great too.

I can imagine there are some very real and understandable reasons to not offer personal use licenses for enterprise features right now, and I doubt many folks would take any issue with it if that's the case. I think it would just mean a lot us who want one to be acknowledged as a category of user and given a clear answer about whether it's possible, and if not, perhaps a brief explanation of why.

Maybe an easy to find blurb on the pricing page would do the trick?

[bctrainers]

I'm a bit conflicted on the additions being locked. I get it, there's need for monetization for the Netbird group to make cash on what they've made. However, it would be nice if the Netbird group added some more options/routes for obtaining/unlocking some premium features.

One example would be a SMB and self-hosted+ 'tier'. Another example would be an 'À la carte' buying of specific features. Seeing the quote above for $11,000/yr is.. ahem... a bit vertical for smaller shops, and effectively locks out the homelab crowd. :-(