License and editions
Backup and restore are complete in every edition, with no mailbox limit anywhere: a license never throttles how much you can protect or how much you can get back.
Editions
Section titled “Editions”| Edition | Tenants | Price (net, one-time) | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community | One | Free, no license key | One administrator. Microsoft 365 and IMAP backup, non-destructive restore, weekly restore checks, the archive (Microsoft 365 and IMAP sync, SHA-256 hash chain, full-text search), endpoint backup for servers and clients (Linux and macOS), mail file import and export, failure explanations, the opt-in update check, a basic operations log (job history, errors), REST API. Every read and every restore is recorded in the hash-chained audit log, without the viewer. |
| Business | One | €595 list price from general release; €476 during the pre-sale | Several administrators with roles (owner, administrator, technician, read only) and the archive’s layer built for German GoBD requirements: journal receipt, enforced retention, legal hold (available since 0.1.0). Audit log viewer (search, details, hash-chain verification, export as CSV and PDF), single sign-on (Entra ID, OIDC, LDAP), four-eyes approval, a signed, independently verifiable restore report (in development). |
| Service Provider | Any number | €1,950 list price from general release; €1,560 during the pre-sale | Everything in Business, plus multiple tenants, the cross-tenant REST API and limiting each team member to chosen tenants (available). Delegated tenant administrators, tenant reporting and white label are planned. |
The current status of every feature is on the roadmap and on the pricing page. Prices are for business customers only (§ 14 BGB), plus VAT where it applies.
What “one-time purchase” means
Section titled “What “one-time purchase” means”Buy once, own it forever.
- A license is bought once. There is no subscription and no renewal fee.
- All updates are included for as long as Restow lives and receives updates. If development ever stops, this is announced at least twelve months in advance and the Business and Service Provider modules are published under the AGPL; your installation then keeps running without a license key.
- A license includes the software and its updates. No support is included; setup work is available on quote.
- Licenses bought during the pre-sale keep their full scope after general release: every feature the edition adds is delivered as it ships.
The binding terms are the license terms (German, authoritative; English translation).
Open core: what is AGPL and what is not
Section titled “Open core: what is AGPL and what is not”Restow is one repository, one container image and one release. What differs between editions is which features are active, and the license key decides that at runtime.
- Everything outside
ee/(backup, restore, the archive, endpoint backup, mail file import and export, the integration API, the web interface) is licensed under AGPL-3.0 with the Restow Module Exception (LICENSE,LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md). The exception is an additional permission under section 7 of the AGPL: you may combine the core with separate modules and distribute the combination. The AGPL still applies to the core. - Everything under
ee/(the Business and Service Provider features) is licensed under the source-available Restow Enterprise License (ee/LICENSE). You may read the code, copy it unmodified, run it, and modify it for development and testing, including to prepare contributions. Using an edition feature in production needs a valid license key for that edition. The license check may not be removed, disabled or circumvented. - Locked features stay visible. Without a key, a feature’s menu entry is shown greyed out with a lock that leads to the license settings. There are no banners, pop-ups or counters.
- Contributions need the Contributor License Agreement (
CLA.md) and a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off on every commit (git commit -s). Both are checked automatically on every pull request. You keep the copyright in your work. The CLA lets the maintainer license contributions under more than one license, and it commits that every contribution to a file outsideee/stays available under the AGPL-3.0 in the public repository.
The files are in the repository.
The license key
Section titled “The license key”Business and Service Provider are unlocked by an Ed25519-signed license key bound to this installation’s installation ID, verified entirely offline against a public key built into the release (or RESTOW_LICENSE_PUBLIC_KEY, for a custom build). Install one under License → Install a key; Restow quotes your installation ID for the request. There is no phone-home and no expiry date: a license unlocks the edition’s features, not a mailbox count, so there is nothing for the software to shut off or throttle. Removing a key falls back to the edition set by RESTOW_EDITION in the server environment (default community) and is itself recorded in the audit log.
The license check is a fair-play mechanism, not copy protection. It works offline, never contacts the licensor and never switches an installation off. Because the source is open, the check can technically be changed. The Restow Enterprise License forbids removing, disabling or circumventing it for the code under ee/, and forbids distributing a build in which the edition features work without a valid key. The key is an agreement for the commercial use of those features, not a technical barrier.