Accelerate Licensing Changes – What You Need to Know

[MikeCodesDotNET]

We’re launching the next iteration of Accelerate on Monday, and with it comes a new licensing model.

We know licensing changes matter. We want to be clear and upfront about exactly what’s changing and why.

The Core Facts

Avalonia UI (the framework) remains MIT licensed and completely free. Nothing changes here. We’re continuing to invest more than ever in the free, open-source improvements to Avalonia that benefit everyone.

What we’re licensing is the brand new professional tooling we’ve built from scratch and advanced UI components. These aren’t changes to existing FOSS tools; they’re entirely new applications.

What’s New

• Visual Studio Extension: With a brand new, much improved XAML parser.
• New Dev Tools: an entirely new application (not an update to the existing FOSS solution)
• Parcel: a new packaging tool built specifically for Avalonia
• Community Edition: free access to new tooling for 67% of users (individuals, small orgs, educators)
• 30-day free trial: full access to all paid tools and pro UI components
• 6-month grace period: for Visual Studio users – no signup required, just click “Skip until April 13th”

Who This Affects

• Individuals, small teams, and educators: You qualify for the free Community Edition and get access to the new tools at no cost.
• Enterprises (€1M+ revenue or 250+ devices): You only need a licence if you want to use the new tooling. The legacy FOSS Visual Studio extension, Dev Tools, and original TreeDataGrid remain available under the MIT licence. You can continue using them, fork them, or maintain them.
• Growing startups (under €10M revenue): 50% discount on Enterprise licences through our Startup Program.

About TreeDataGrid

We announced in September 2024 that TreeDataGrid development would continue as part of Accelerate. This is a commercial fork with the original FOSS version remaining available here, for anyone to fork. We called for maintainers but received no volunteers.

We’re offering complimentary Enterprise subscriptions to select contributors who’ve played a key role in shaping TreeDataGrid.

With v12, we’re committing to a new Table control for read-only tabular data that will be entirely open-source and free.

The Full Story

For the full context, including the rationale, pricing, and how this compares to other licensing changes in the ecosystem, read the detailed announcement on our blog.

Questions and Feedback

We’re here to answer questions and address concerns. This thread is open for discussion.

Here are the key principles behind this change:

• The framework stays MIT licensed forever
• Legacy FOSS tools remain available
• Most users get better tools for free
• Enterprises fund continued development

We believe this is the right path to ensure Avalonia has a sustainable future while keeping the core framework open for everyone.

[rabbitism]

There were some blogs about accelerate, worthy adding a link or banner to this one. Every time I sent those articles I have to explain more on the outdated license changes.

[kerams]

Reposting from twitter:

We’ve listened to our customers and made changes based on what you told us. Our sales data showed a clear preference for perpetual licences over subscriptions.

I am not sure how removing the Indie tier (effective immediately rather than on Monday, no less), which does not include a perpetual license, is an improvement. If you cared about a perpetual license, you could buy Business for 149, otherwise Indie for 89. Starting from Monday the only option is 219? Am I misunderstanding something here? Or is releasing a part of the offering under the free community license meant to offset that?

Both licences are perpetual with no recurring fees.

But updates for Business and Enterprise still require a recurring fee, so with Indie gone, I have to pay 2.5x as much for the same thing.

It's my own fault for holding off on purchasing Indie for the early bird price, but the way these changes are presented leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth nevertheless.

[MikeCodesDotNET]

Thanks for the feedback. Let me address your points:

I am not sure how removing the Indie tier (effective immediately rather than on Monday, no less)

We discontinued Indie several weeks ago, not today. The data was clear. Customers overwhelmingly preferred perpetual licenses, so we focused there.

Starting from Monday the only option is 219?

Starting Monday, there are more options:

• Community Edition: Free (covers 67% of users)
• Business: €219 perpetual
• Enterprise: €599 perpetual (€299.50 for startups up to €10M)
• 30-day free trial with full access
• Student/educator licenses continue

But updates for Business and Enterprise still require a recurring fee

Accelerate is genuinely perpetual, in that you own your license forever, with no recurring fees. You get 12 months of updates included, and then whatever version was available on the last day of your license period, is what keeps working indefinitely. You only pay again if you want continued updates. JetBrains have a similar model, but with theirs, you only get a perpetual license to the version that was available on the day you purchase, meaning you miss out of owning all the improvements you've gotten accustomed to over the 12 months.

but the way these changes are presented leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth nevertheless.

We've had a price increase warning on the website for weeks now. If you want to lock in the €149 Business license price, you have until Monday morning to do so.

I appreciate the feedback. We know not everyone will be happy, but we believe we've structured this as fairly as possible.

[kerams]

Thanks, I didn't notice Indie had been discontinued earlier.

Accelerate is genuinely perpetual, in that you own your license forever, with no recurring fees

This might just be arguing about definitions, but what exactly is different about Business and Enterprise other than the price hike (I am trying to reconcile it with We’ve listened to our customers and made changes based on what you told us. [...] and focused on what you actually want: perpetual licences you own outright.)? I mean it already used to include a perpetual license.

If you want to lock in the €149 Business license price, you have until Monday morning to do so.

I might just do that, appreciate the last call.

[MikeCodesDotNET]

I know you struck it out, but I'd like to answer anyway since others might have the same question.

what exactly is different about Business and Enterprise other than the price hike

When we launched Accelerate, it included:

• WebView
• Media Player
• Dev Tools

With Monday's release, Accelerate will include:

• Markdown Viewer
• TreeDataGrid
• On Screen Keyboard (Enterprise only)
• Parcel (entirely new packaging tool)
• Visual Studio Extension (completely rebuilt from scratch)
• Plus the WebView, MediaPlayer and updates to Dev Tools from the previous release.

We've more than doubled the features available in Accelerate, which is why the pricing reflects the increased value.

For anyone else reading this (in the future). Each major release of Accelerate will increase the price. If you want the absolute best value for money, you should purchase early and take advantage of the grandfathering scheme.

[thevortexcloud]

With the new table control: I feel like there has to be a better name for it? We already have:

• DataGrid
• TreeDataGrid
• Grid

From the names alone it is not at all obvious what they do and what differentiates them, and "table" sounds even more generic. Calling it something likeReadOnlyDataGrid or DataGridLite would at least make it clearer that it has similar functionality but is different from a normal datagrid. Someone else might have a better idea though.

[MikeCodesDotNET]

Naming to be confirmed. The announcement was more focused on the functionality

[gerhard17]

I‘m disappointed!
(see also: #19826)

I am new to Avalonia.
Was using it for about 4 weeks.
Tried implement a file browsing utility with a TreeGridView.
Technology looked great, I was impressed!

And now an update came - TreeDataGrid is not available any more in the community edition.
Hey, I'm a hobby developer!

My Visual Studio is now regular silenty crashing (and restarting).
That is no experience I want to suffer from.

I understand that you need to earn money, but that was too disappointing for me.
I am also be technology transferer eg. in my role an IT employee in my company.

Sorry, you lost me again with the last update.
Being a little bit sad about my lost time.
:-(

Wish you luck with your great technology!

[Bobsoftru]

Regular use of the new DeveloperTools will unfortunately lead to vision loss; it is impossible to work on it for 8 hours.