Pentaho DI: Free?

[lucas.turco]

Hi!

I apologize for the basic question, but would like to know if any version of Pentaho DI is free for use in companies.
In the website of pentaho this information is not very clear.
I downloaded version 8.0 from sourceforge and apparently there are no licenses or anything like that.

Thank you!

[matthewtckr]

The Pentaho software comes in two forms, Community Edition, and Enterprise Edition.

The Community Edition is free, licensed under the Apache Software License, meaning that you're generally ok to use it for internal projects, but can't repackage it and sell it to others (a bit oversimplified and probably not 100% accurate, but I'm not a lawyer). This is what's available for download on SourceForge.

The Enterprise Edition is not free, and requires a subscription from Pentaho. That's what's mainly marketed on the www.pentaho.com website, as it does cost quite a bit to maintain and develop the product.

For PDI, there are only a few differences between the two editions, which are mainly related to the types of features that large enterprises would need. Pentaho should have a list of what those EE-only features are, but you may need to ask one of the sales representatives.

I'd recommend starting with Community Edition to kick the tires and see if it does what you need for your company, and then evaluate whether you will want support for the software or need some features that are only in the Enterprise Edition.

You could also look into getting training from Pentaho before deciding on a subscription to Enterprise Edition, but there are also many free resources available from the community if you have the time to research and learn.

* PDI Tutorial
* Pentaho Kettle Solutions (Book)
* PDI Community Documentation