Are plugins free using the open-source, self-host option?

[fer (Fernando Scheps)]

Hi community, I am new to discourse, and I want to better understand the licensing model. For what I read online I see its open source, so we can host it in our own servers or hosting servers and have a forum setup.
What I want to understand is if all the plugins will also be available for free on the Open Source version or if these are only available for paid customers on certain plans.

Additionally, I want to understand if I can use Open Source discourse for setting up comercial services or products.

Thanks a lot for your feedback

[Lilly]

Hi @fer welcome to Discourse Meta

To answer your questions -

@fer

if all the plugins will also be available for free on the Open Source version or if these are only available for paid customers on certain plans.

You can use any plugins you choose if you are self-hosting, that is why we include a link to self-install plugins instructions on all of our plugin pages. Please note that we support only the standard install instructions for self-hosting. That isn’t to say other installs are not possible, but it likely won’t be as easy to get support here on Meta with non-standard installs.

Install Plugins in Discourse

This guide assumes that you have a self-hosted standard installation. We only support the standard method of install here, so these instructions assume you have a standard install. This guide only applies to self-hosted Discourse instances. If you are using a managed hosting service, the available plugins are controlled by your hosting provider. For example, on our hosting these specific plugins are available by hosting tier. In this tutorial, we’ll install the Discours…

@fer

I want to understand if I can use Open Source discourse for setting up comercial services or products.

You can use it for whatever purpose you wish if you are self-hosting.

[fer (Fernando Scheps)]

Thanks a lot!