Licensing Fees for Couchbase Enterprise Edition 7.6.x for Development and Vector Search Evaluation

Couchbase Server
1

Hi,

I have a question regarding licensing fees for the Enterprise Edition. We are interested in exploring Couchbase’s vector search capabilities and would like to use the Enterprise Edition 7.6.x for development purposes. Before we proceed, I’d like to clarify whether there are any licensing fees associated with using the Enterprise Edition specifically for development.

We’re hoping to evaluate the vector search functionality soon, so it would be helpful to know the specifics around licensing for non-production use. Any insights on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

2

Use the form on this page -Couchbase Pricing for Capella, Server + Mobile Subscriptions

3

I did and I spoke to one of Couchbase’s representatives. In one of the SKUs, we saw that even for development there is licensing fees. That is inconsistent with the license agreement published here: COUCHBASE, INC. LICENSE AGREEMENT. Still waiting to here back from him.

The agreement says the following:

2. License Grants.

2.1 License Grant as to Free Licenses. A “Free License” is allowed only for development use and evaluation of the Software and is provided with no Support or any other services. Couchbase is under no obligation to provide or continue to provide the Free Licenses (including any update, upgrade or new version of the Software licensed thereunder).
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2.2 License Grant as to Enterprise Licenses. An “Enterprise License” is required if Customer uses the Software (a) for testing, quality assurance, or in production, (b) for any use other than solely for internal development use or evaluation of the Software, or (c) after Customer’s initial request for Support.

4

I’m not a legal authority.
I don’t see anything in 2.1 that specifies the edition (Community vs. Enterprise). But it does state the is no support with the Free License.

5

Agreed.

I think it is reasonable to assume that it is referring to enterprise edition because community edition is anyway usable even in production. Even if we disregard 2.1, in 2.2 it clearly uses the words “Enterprise License” and says it is required only for testing, qa or in production.

Regardless, I am no legal expert and like to play it safe on the legal front. Hence, wanted to double check and make sure.

6

I don’t know the specifics of your contract, but I imagine it prevents paying for a one-cpu production license and support, and using that to get support for 100 cpus of development.

7

We have no contracts with Couchbase, have only been using Couchbase CE and have never taken support

8

I assumed this was from a contract or at least a proposed contract.

9

This was in the title of the SKU that was showed to me during the call I had with the rep. The title was something like 4 Core 8GB RAM Development