Community versus Free Plan

[patric-dosch-vi]

Hello everyone,

I know there are already several threads around the topic of user limits and the difference between the Community and Free versions, but I haven't found a clear answer for our specific situation.

We are running Budibase v2.0.26 (released October 10, 2022), which, according to the official pricing update blog post, should still be the Community Edition without a user limit:
“Community plan accounts with over 20 users (admins, app creators, app users) on older versions (versions before the pricing update) of Budibase will continue to operate as they do today.”

Our understanding is that our self-hosted instance should not have any user limit, as long as we stick with this version or any other version released before the pricing change.

However, we are a bit confused:
Is there a definitive version number up to which the Community Edition is truly unlimited regarding users?
Are there any known issues with the user limit enforcement in v2.0.26 (we noticed some inconsistencies and saw this comment)?

Unfortunately, Budibase support redirected us to the community channels since we are not a paying customer, so I hope someone from the community or the Budibase team can clarify this for us.

This is my original E-Mail

Hello Budibase team,

We would like to briefly explain our understanding regarding the use of the Community Edition of Budibase:

We are using Budibase version v2.0.26 (release dated October 10, 2022), which is a version prior to the introduction of the new pricing model and user limit. According to your official communication in the blog post on the price change dated Nov 7, 2023 [https://budibase.com/blog/updates/pricing-v3/](https://eur05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbudibase.com%2Fblog%2Fupdates%2Fpricing-v3%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cpatric.dosch%40virtual-identity.com%7Cb1bcbb2bb9fc410e402208ddc866f0a7%7Ce75a90550c3d46e78e1fc91c2573f7c8%7C0%7C0%7C638887066628135774%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ttJED4STzFR5F4CVo9lVZi4QoAyFP4%2FaK%2B24zqSnT0o%3D&reserved=0), the following applies to existing community installations with more than 20 users on older versions:

“Community plan accounts with over 20 users (admins, app creators, app users) on older versions (versions before the pricing update) of Budibase will continue to operate as they do today.”

Our understanding is therefore that we can continue to operate Budibase without a user limit as long as we remain on this version.

Should there be any deviating information, please let us know.

Currently, however, we are on the Free Plan with 20 users with our Self Hosted Budibase installation. This However, this contradicts our understanding of the above.

In addition, the installed version shows a very inconsistent behavior: Sometimes we can create users and sometimes it fails due to the user limit.

Thank you very much for your reply.

Patric

Thanks a lot for any insights or experiences you can share!
Patric

[Kakovisk]

Hello Patric,

As far as I know, up to version 2.10.12, there are no restrictions on the number of users. So, you can upgrade to that version without any issues.

It was disappointing when they announced there would be a limitation, but I completely understand that the company needs to attract customers and used this approach to restrict "free" usage in favor of acquiring new clients.

As published on GitHub:
Budibase is open-source, licensed as GPL v3. The client and component libraries are licensed as MPL – so the apps you build can be licensed however you like.

You can alter and modify any version from GitHub for your own use.
If you plan to sell or distribute it, you must follow the rules:
GPLv3 and MPL 2.0

I have previously worked with OutSystems from Portugal and CronApp here in Brazil, and I found incredible potential in Budibase precisely because it is open source and allows for code modifications in the platform, if necessary.

Sincerely,

Marcelo Nascimento

[patric-dosch-vi]

hey @Kakovisk, thanks for your answer.

As far as I know, up to version 2.10.12, there are no restrictions on the number of users.

Well, currently I already have the problem in 2.0.26 that we are running into the 20 user limit, although our application has been running for a long time. I suspect a bug, but I have no idea what issues we are getting with new versions up to 2.10. And then not to be sure if our issue is fixed (and why a issue with the community version should be fixed).
Do you understand?

What's even crazier is that our old system displays the "Free" version, even though it was only communicated much later.

You can alter and modify any version from GitHub for your own use.
If you plan to sell or distribute it, you must follow the rules:
GPLv3 and MPL 2.0

Well, I'm a little unsure whether I can just remove the “limit”, even if we assume that it should be available to us in this version.
To summarize, I am still unsure how I should proceed.

Best and thanks for your time,
Patric