What this license is
The Elastic License 2.0 is a short source-available license with exactly three prohibitions and no time limit. You may use, copy, modify and redistribute the software, including inside a product you sell, as long as none of the three applies. It covers Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats, Elastic Agent and parts of the Elastic client libraries, alone or as one arm next to other options. Unlike the Business Source License it never converts to an open-source license on a later date, so the limits it sets are the limits for good.
Why it matters for your product
The first prohibition decides most reviews, and it is narrower than people assume. It stops you offering this software to third parties as a hosted or managed service where they get substantial access to its features. It does not stop you using it inside your own product. Running Elasticsearch as the search backend of your app is fine. Selling hosted Elasticsearch is not. Shipping it inside a binary you sell is allowed, and the same three limits then travel to whoever receives it.
You are meeting the terms when
- You use the software inside your own product or service rather than offering the software itself to third parties as a hosted or managed service.
- You have not circumvented the license-key functionality, and you have not switched on features that a key is meant to protect.
- You keep every copyright, licensing and trademark notice intact in the copies you distribute.
- You tell downstream recipients that the same three limits travel with the code, when you redistribute it inside something you sell.
- You have elected one arm and recorded it when a package is offered under more than one license. Elasticsearch and Kibana have shipped under SSPL or Elastic-2.0 since 7.11, and Elastic added AGPL-3.0 as a third arm in 2024.
Where teams get it wrong
- Teams confuse it with the SSPL. The same products carry both, and since 2024 an AGPL-3.0 arm as well, so a reviewer has to pick one arm and record which one governs the component.
- Teams read source available as no conditions. The notice condition applies, and the managed-service prohibition applies whether or not you charge for the service.
- Teams strip the license-key checks in a fork to unlock paid features. That is the second prohibition, and it is named explicitly in the text.
- Teams assume they cannot ship it in a paid product. They can. Redistribution is allowed as long as none of the three prohibitions applies.
How SourceTrust handles this license
The catalog records Elastic-2.0 as source available, and as a license a network deployment does not clear. A network distribution review item therefore appears on the checklist for SaaS and mixed projects, and publishing stays blocked until a person confirms it. Elastic-2.0 is also treated as a templated license, so the fetch never lands it on confirmed. A filled-in copy is labelled as the license with package-specific parameters instead of modified, and the actual text is put in front of you. The component page also shows a compatibility warning about the managed-service limit when the project context is SaaS or Mixed. Read Reviewing a component.
- When a package declares SSPL, Elastic-2.0 and AGPL-3.0 as alternatives, the review starts with an election, and approval is blocked until somebody chooses an arm.
- The three prohibitions are limits on use, not paperwork. No checklist item can stand in for reading whether your service is the prohibited one.
- The stored text is what your attestation page and your exports carry, which is how a downstream recipient learns that the same limits apply to them.
Related guides
- Distribution and network-use review
- Source available licenses
- Server Side Public License 1.0
- Dual-licensed packages (OR and AND)