Elasticsearch and Kibana License Change: Elastic vs AWS Conflict and Community Reaction
The article details Elastic's shift of Elasticsearch and Kibana from Apache 2.0 to SSPL/Elastic License, the ensuing dispute with AWS over alleged coercion and trademark issues, AWS's plan to fork the projects under Apache 2.0, and the broader community backlash against the licensing change.
On January 15, Elastic founder Shay Banon announced on the company's website that starting with version 7.11, Elasticsearch and Kibana would change their open‑source license from Apache 2.0 to a dual licensing model of SSPL and the Elastic License.
Elastic argued the change was forced by AWS to stop “free riding,” while AWS countered that Elastic’s move was intended to monopolize the market and that the SSPL is neither free nor truly open source.
On January 20, Elastic CEO Shay Banon reiterated the stance, accusing AWS of trademark infringement, community confusion, and splitting the community with its Open Distro fork, quoting several strong statements that labeled AWS’s actions as “NOT OK.”
“Amazon launched its own service based on Elasticsearch in 2015 and called it Amazon Elasticsearch Service, which is a clear trademark infringement. NOT OK.”
“The trademark issue confuses users into thinking there is a partnership between Elastic and Amazon, which is not true. NOT OK.”
On January 21, AWS published a blog post titled “Stepping up for a truly open source Elasticsearch,” denying any coercion and stating that Elastic’s restrictive licensing aims to block others from offering hosted Elasticsearch services and to grow its own business.
AWS clarified that the SSPL is not an open‑source license, describing it as a non‑open‑source license that blurs the line between open and proprietary software, and announced they will maintain an Apache‑licensed fork of Elasticsearch and Kibana.
AWS also reminded that in 2019 it released Open Distro for Elasticsearch, a fully Apache‑2.0‑licensed distribution that includes Kibana, and pledged to create a new GitHub repository with an ALv2‑licensed fork based on the latest 7.10 code, continuing to support a truly open‑source option.
The licensing change sparked widespread discussion in the open‑source community; many developers expressed disappointment, accusing Elastic of betraying the community for profit and labeling the move as anti‑open‑source.
The article concludes by inviting readers to share their opinions on the Elasticsearch and Kibana license change.
Top Architect
Top Architect focuses on sharing practical architecture knowledge, covering enterprise, system, website, large‑scale distributed, and high‑availability architectures, plus architecture adjustments using internet technologies. We welcome idea‑driven, sharing‑oriented architects to exchange and learn together.
How this landed with the community
Was this worth your time?
0 Comments
Thoughtful readers leave field notes, pushback, and hard-won operational detail here.