Funambol Licensing

Sync4j has two licensing options, following what is known as "dual licensing" model. After the adoption by MySQL(http://www.mysql.org) this model is becoming very successful as a way to support open source development.

The guiding business principle of dual licensing is one of fair exchange, or Quid pro Quo ("something for something"). From a licensing perspective, there are two different products depending on usage and distribution, though technically they have the same source code.

The idea is to get the best out open source (high quality software, a community of people working together, no vendor lock-in), while providing a source of income to pay for the development of the software (yep, Sync4j developers need to eat...).

In their simplest form, the following are general licensing guidelines:

Commercially licensed customers get commercially supported product with assurances from Funambol(http://www.funambol.com). Commercially licensed users are also free from the requirement of making their own application open source.

For OEM's, ISVs, corporate, and government users, a commercial license is the proper solution because it provides you with assurance from the vendor and releases you from the strict requirements of the GPL license.

Nevertheless, you can test Sync4j under the GPL license and inspect the source code before you purchase a commercial non-GPL license.