NEXT HMILicensing, in plain terms.
NEXT HMI is genuinely open source. Every feature ships in the free build — historian, alarms, recipes, the editor, the custom-widget SDK, all of it. Nothing is held back to sell you later. This page explains exactly when you owe nothing, when a commercial licence is the easier route, and what the paid products actually are.
Most people owe nothing. Ever.
If you run NEXT HMI on your own machines to operate your own plant, you are done — there is nothing to buy, no seat count, no tag count, and no expiry. The licence only starts asking questions when you hand the software to someone else.
You run it yourself
A factory, workshop, lab, or integrator running NEXT HMI on its own hardware for its own operators. Free, forever, all features. This is the majority of users and it is the point of the project.
You ship it to others
A machine builder putting NEXT HMI on a panel PC that leaves your building, or an integrator handing installations to clients. AGPL-3.0 asks you to pass the source along with it. If that does not fit your business, a commercial licence releases you from that obligation.
You are regulated
A pharma, food, or medical-device plant that needs an append-only, attributed record of what operators did on the line. That module is a paid subscription — it is the one thing not in the open-source build.
Complete, not a demo.
Open-core products usually hold back the feature that makes the product worth having. NEXT HMI does not. There is no licence token in the free build and nothing to unlock — an HMI without alarms is not an HMI, so alarms are free.
| Included, free | What that means |
|---|---|
| Pages, widgets, and the in-browser editor | Unlimited pages, unlimited widgets, unlimited screens. No per-seat or per-client licensing. |
| OPC-UA connectivity and writes | Unlimited tags. No tag-count tiers. |
| Alarms | Condition-based alarms with acknowledgement, full capability. |
| Historian | Local recording and charting of tag history. |
| Recipes | Full recipe management. |
| Users, groups, and permissions | Local accounts, group-based visibility and interaction control. |
| Custom-widget SDK | Author your own components in TSX, compiled on save. |
| Multi-project manager | Several projects on one installation, LAN transfer between installations. |
| MCP server | Let AI agents author pages against your project. |
| Every distribution channel | Source, Docker image, and the portable Windows/macOS builds. There is no "community edition" binary that differs from the one we run. |
LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md in the repository, so you do not have to take a website's word for it.
For machine builders and integrators who ship it.
AGPL-3.0 does not require you to pay anyone. It requires that when you distribute the software — or run a modified version that other people interact with over a network — you make the corresponding source available to those recipients. A commercial licence is simply the alternative to doing that.
| Your situation | Under AGPL-3.0 | Commercial licence? |
|---|---|---|
| You self-host it, unmodified, for your own operators | No obligation at all | Not needed |
| You modify it for internal use, still self-hosted | Offer the source to your own users — usually trivial | Not needed |
| You ship it on a machine or panel PC to a customer | Provide your customer the corresponding source, which they may pass on further | Worth it if that does not fit your product |
| You deliver installations to many clients | The same, for every delivery | Usually simpler than complying each time |
| Your procurement policy bans AGPL outright | You cannot use the software under its open licence | Required |
Licensed per shipped unit — one fee per machine or panel that leaves your building with NEXT HMI on it, perpetual for the units already delivered. It is a contractual licence with no runtime check behind it. Ask for a quote against your volume.
Audit trail.
Regulated plants need a record of who did what on the line, and when. That module is proprietary and sold as a subscription. Everything else on this site is in the free build.
What you get
An append-only, per-project record of operator actions against live equipment: alarm acknowledgements, successful PLC writes, and operator sign-in and sign-out. Every record carries whether the actor's name was verified by the server or merely claimed by the caller — so a reader can tell evidence from a lead. Each write is flushed to disk before it is acknowledged, and rotation renames rather than deletes.
What it is not, yet
There is no cryptographic integrity chain over the file, and no electronic-signature capture — so this is not, on its own, a 21 CFR Part 11 compliance package, and we would rather say that here than in a qualification meeting. If your regulator requires either, tell us what the auditor asks for before you buy.
How it is delivered
A separate build containing the core plus the module, and a licence key bound to your installation. The module activates when the key is valid. Your HMI keeps running regardless — the audit trail is additive, never a kill switch, and nothing contacts a licence server.
What it costs
Contact us for per-site, per-year pricing. Includes the enterprise build, key issuance and renewal, and support with a defined response time. Talk to us before you buy — we would rather scope it against your actual regulator than sell you a checkbox.
Evaluate it on your own machine first.
A 7-day trial key, signed and bound to the device you name, activating the audit-trail module on an installation you already run. No payment details, no sales call, no double opt-in — you copy your Device ID out of the HMI, we email you the key.
You will need the enterprise build and your Device ID: manager dashboard → Settings → Device licenses → Copy Device ID.
Things a fork cannot give you.
You do not need any of this to run NEXT HMI. Buy it when you want somebody accountable rather than a repository.
| Product | What it is | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Support subscription | A named contact and a committed response time, with a real contract and a real invoice behind it. | Contact us |
| Commissioning | We set it up against your PLC, build the first screens, and hand it over working. | Contact us |
| Preloaded panel PC | Hardware with NEXT HMI installed, configured, and tested against your controller. One purchase order, one phone number. | Contact us |
Licensing FAQ
Is NEXT HMI really free, or is this open-core bait?
Really free. The open-source build has no licence check and no disabled features. Historian, alarms, and recipes are all in it. The only proprietary component is the audit-trail module, which exists because regulated industries need it and are willing to fund it — and a plant that does not answer to an auditor has no use for it anyway.
Do I have to publish my HMI screens if I use the free build?
No. Your pages, themes, translations, datasource configurations, and custom widgets are your own work, not a derivative of the platform. This is stated explicitly in LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md. The copyleft is aimed at people who fork the platform itself.
We are a machine builder. What exactly triggers the commercial licence?
Handing a copy to someone outside your organisation. If the software leaves your building on a panel, AGPL-3.0 asks you to provide that recipient with the corresponding source, including any changes you made. You are free to do that — plenty of companies do. A commercial licence exists for when your product or your customer's contract cannot accommodate it.
Is there a runtime check that will shut our line down?
No. The open-source build contains no licence check whatsoever. The audit-trail module checks its key, and if the key lapses the module stops recording — but the HMI itself keeps running. Nothing in NEXT HMI will stop a machine because of a licensing state.
Why AGPL and not MIT or Apache?
Because a permissive licence lets a larger company build a product on this work and give nothing back, while contributing nothing to its maintenance. AGPL keeps that door shut without costing ordinary users anything — if you self-host, you will never notice the difference.
Can we try the audit-trail module before buying?
Yes — request a 7-day trial key. It is signed and bound to one machine, activates the module on an installation you already run, and expires on its own. No payment details and no sales call. When it lapses, the module stops recording and the HMI carries on exactly as before.
Can we get the source of the audit-trail module?
Under a commercial agreement, yes — including escrow arrangements if your compliance department requires one. Ask.
Can we white-label it?
Under a commercial licence, yes. The open-source build shows a short attribution notice on the runtime boot screen — the product name and the AGPL-3.0 notice — and that notice is the free build's attribution. The setting that hides or replaces it is plain project configuration that nothing in the build verifies, so changing it without a commercial licence is a licence violation rather than something the software stops you doing.
We are a non-profit, a school, or a one-person shop.
The free build already covers you completely. If you also need redistribution rights and the usual rate does not fit your situation, write to us — that conversation is usually short.
Not sure which applies to you?
Describe what you are building and who receives it. You will get a straight answer, including "you do not need to buy anything" when that is the true one.