Sourcegraph Enterprise vs. Sourcegraph Open Source (Sourcegraph OSS)

Background

Sourcegraph offers two versions of its core product: Sourcegraph Open Source (Sourcegraph OSS) and Sourcegraph Enterprise. The Sourcegraph Enterprise offering additionally offers multiple hosting options. This can be confusing to people, and this document aims to clarify the distinctions.

What is Open Source Software (OSS)?

Great question! When software is built and released, it’s released under a license that tells the end user what they can do with it. Some software is released as closed source/under a proprietary license—think the Mac OSX, whose source code you can’t see, can’t modify, and can’t audit. If you want to make a new OSX feature, you just have to request it and see if Apple builds it.

Open Source Software is software released under a license that lets you see and modify the source code. It’s often built by teams of volunteers, but some companies (like us) release open source products, or license some parts of their code under an open source license. Linux, the operating system used to run many servers, is an open source operating system originally written by the same person who wrote git. If you want a new Linux feature, you can make it and run it yourself, as well as potentially sharing it for others to use.

If this is something you are interested in, read more here.

Not all public code is open source. In our case, all our enterprise code is public but not open source. Sourcegraph OSS, however, is open source.

Sourcegraph OSS vs Sourcegraph Enterprise

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