License AGPL-3.0
openWCS is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3.0 (AGPL-3.0) — a strong copyleft license. You can run it, study it, change it and share it freely. The one rule: improvements to openWCS stay open for everyone, even when it is offered over a network.
The four freedoms
Like every GNU GPL-family license, the AGPL guarantees four freedoms — to everyone who receives the software, at no cost and without asking permission.
Run openWCS for any purpose, including commercially, in as many warehouses and on as many machines as you like. No seat counts, no per-flow fees, no usage caps.
The complete source is public. Inspect exactly how every service behaves, audit it for security, and learn from it — no black boxes between your WMS/ERP and the floor.
Adapt openWCS to your warehouse — add device adapters, change flows, fix bugs. It is yours to shape, and you never need our permission to do it.
Redistribute openWCS, with or without your changes. When you do, your recipients get the same four freedoms and the same source you started from.
Copyleft & the network clause
"Copyleft" means the freedoms travel with the code: anything you build on openWCS and pass on must itself be AGPL-3.0, with source available. The AGPL adds one thing ordinary GPL does not — it closes the "software-as-a-service" gap.
If you distribute openWCS or a modified version, you must license the whole work under AGPL-3.0 and provide the corresponding source. You cannot fold it into a closed-source product.
This is the Affero clause. If you run a modified openWCS and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer those users the complete source of your modified version — even though you never "distributed" a copy. Ordinary GPL would not require this.
In practice
For almost every operator, the AGPL is a non-event: you run openWCS to control your own warehouse and never trigger an obligation. The duty only appears if you hand modified openWCS to others — as a download or as a hosted service.
Self-host openWCS, run it commercially to operate your own sites, and make private changes you never share. Using the software to run your business is not "conveying" it — your operational data and processes stay entirely yours.
If you distribute a modified openWCS, or offer a modified openWCS to other users as a network service, make your modified source available to them under AGPL-3.0. Keep copyright and license notices intact. The software comes with no warranty.
Common questions
Yes, without paying anyone. Run it in production across your operation. The AGPL restricts how you redistribute the software, not whether you can profit from operating it.
No. The license covers source code, not the data you process or the BPMN flows and master data you configure. Your inventory, orders and settings are not "the program."
No. If those changes never leave your organisation — not distributed, not offered to outside users as a service — there is no obligation to publish them. The §13 duty is triggered by serving or shipping to others.
Talk to us. If copyleft is incompatible with how you need to ship or embed openWCS, reach out via the contact button and we can discuss the options.
The fine print
This page is a plain-language summary to help you understand the AGPL-3.0 — it is not legal advice, and the license text itself always governs. The full, authoritative terms ship in the repository and are published by the Free Software Foundation.