Licensing

If you are using a vanilla MongoDB server from either source or binary packages you have NO obligations. You can ignore the rest of this page.

All of the MongoDB software is open source, under a variety of licenses. The following is a list of components and licenses:

• MongoDB : GNU AGPL v3.0
• mongodb.org Supported Drivers : Apache License v2.0 (third parties have created drivers too; licenses will vary there)
• Documentation : Creative Commons

From our blog post on the AGPL:

Our goal with using AGPL is to preserve the concept of copyleft with MongoDB. With traditional GPL, copyleft was associated with the concept of distribution of software. The problem is that nowadays, distribution of software is rare: things tend to run in the cloud. AGPL fixes this “loophole” in GPL by saying that if you use the software over a network, you are bound by the copyleft. Other than that, the license is virtually the same as GPL v3.

Note however that it is never required that applications using mongo be published. The copyleft applies only to the mongod and mongos database programs. This is why Mongo DB drivers are all licensed under an Apache license. Your application, even though it talks to the database, is a separate program and “work”.

If you intend to modify the server and distribute or provide access to your modified version you are required to release the full source code for the modified MongoDB server. To reiterate, you only need to provide the source for the MongoDB server and not your application (assuming you use the provided interfaces rather than linking directly against the server).

A few example cases of when you'd be required to provide your changes to MongoDB to external users:

Regardless of whether you are required to release your changes we request that you do. The preferred way to do this is via a github fork. Then we are likely to include your changes so everyone can benefit.