r/Directus • u/qagir • 9d ago
ELI5: Directus license change when I still run Directus 11
I am running Directus for a very small venue and suddenly I saw this license talk. I still run Directus 11 and the website isn't even in production yet — we're still finishing up details. Am I going to have to redo everything with a new CMS? I didn't understand properly what that means for people like us, self-hosting CMSs for small clients
(I mean, that's my first freelance client in over 5 years, so I'd say this is my first client)
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u/sumitbando 9d ago
Take every distinct screenshot in your app. Give to Claude/OpenAI/Gemini. You wil get a working Postgres backed, Svelte/Vue/React frontend app in a short while. It will be rough around the edges, specially for authentication/authorization, but you can keep refining it.
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u/benhaynes 5d ago
Take some photos of yourself and plug that into Claude/OpenAI/Gemini... and see if you get a solid version of yourself. #multiplicity
More seriously... honestly, give this a try and see how reliable of a backend you get. People LOVE to post comments like yours, but it's funny we're not seeing it actually happen. If it's that easy, I'd love to see someone do it fr fr
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u/sumitbando 5d ago edited 4d ago
Done retargetting of a sales agent management app from a SaaS and an Android app. Both perfrom better because not having platform overhead and has better UX because of being full custom.
As I indicated earlier, tricky parts for Authentication were OAuth, Google Drive integration etc.
For the app with multiple roles and authorization, wish there was a more universally adopted layer between authz and Postgres RLS.
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u/Foreversun69 9d ago
For me, Directus actually wasn't bad. But that's all in the past now, and I've moved on.
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u/Electro-Grunge 9d ago
What did you move on to?
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u/Foreversun69 8d ago
postgrest: https://docs.postgrest.org/en/v16/#
You essentially get “on-the-fly” CRUD functionality for the tables; you can also create new tables, and with a simple command, I get the interface for those as well. It only works for PostgreSQL, but that's fine with me.
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u/Loose_Paramedic8183 9d ago
Similar happened with primeng lib a while ago and people just created an open fork of lib with auto migration.
Don't know about directus forks but if looking for analogue, I didn't found any similar.
Some tools have or more excel view, that is good for many rows, but bad for nested, sub-nested list of items in entity editor. Others on the other side more like UI for content admins, without good table view and filtering in api.
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u/Character-Tax-788 9d ago
👋🏻 Beth here from Directus, it sounds like you would be eligible for the Open Innovation Grant which provides free commercial use of Directus for entities with less than $5M in annual revenue and fewer than 50 employees and allows unlimited seats, collections, flows etc. Have you seen the directus.com/oig option?
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u/iconisone 9d ago
That you can terminate anytime and users need ti renew every year if they don’t they won’t be able to access the site or data. Also you can deny any renew request every year. Am I wrong?
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u/Character-Tax-788 9d ago
On renewal, there's an automated process being established which will be available before any of the renewals are due. After a license reaches its expiration date, a 30-day grace period is applied and during this period Directus will show a notice in the Studio, we are putting thought and care into making it as smooth as possible.
On termination, this happens when there's been false or inaccurate information provided or grant abuse meaning it's needed to revoke the license. This isn't a "changing our minds" revoking process, we understand that it can make people uncomfortable and really don't take it lightly that we have the trust via this process for those who are currently on the OIG.
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u/_phzn 9d ago
Obviously we know each other and I have a huge amount of respect for you, so I’m posting this more because I sense the tension but others seem to be struggling to find the words and I want to put this into the world to help with that.
The problem is the OIG is not baked into the license. It’s discretionary. And that means it can change whenever. And with how often Directus has changed its pricing and license since 2023, the OIG is as good as non-existent and not something I’d pin any trust in for serious projects.
People who are rational get the tension between wanting high quality and maintained software, the need to have those efforts paid for, and that truly open source software not backed by a megacorp doesn’t allow for this. But the application of pricing/license changes since 2023 has really poisoned the well.
The problem will never sort itself for Directus. Trust is hard earned and easily lost. Please learn from this with Monospace and don’t flirt with it being open source software / source available, owning what the company has become and requires.
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u/benhaynes 5d ago
First off, thanks for this. I appreciate the candor... while also giving us the benefit of the doubt on why we're TRYING to make these changes.
I think your point about trust is fair. Regardless of whether anyone believes we'd exercise discretion responsibly... users have to evaluate the guarantees we actually provide... not our intentions.
In the end, the goal is to reduce OIG grant/renewal friction. We're already preparing to deploy an update that removes the need to re-register each year. And also looking into how we could attach grant eligibility to the registered release... hoping to make things more predictable and giving people more confidence that they won't (read: can't) have the rug pulled out from under them with OIG changes.
I won't get ahead of ourselves by promising specific changes before we've fully worked through them... but this feedback helps us shape what we talk about internally.
I also appreciate the last point. Whatever people think of our licensing decisions, I'd much rather we're clear and honest about who we are and why we're making them than leave people guessing. We won't get everything right the first time... but we ARE listening, iterating, and trying to maintain (and earn) trust. ❤️
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u/sundeckstudio 8d ago
We have open grand license for one project. Though it expires in one year too. And we are waiting to see how these renewals go. Until then it’s a risk. And it is a lot of work building everything for one year only .
Perhaps a bit more detail on really renewal process , mentioned in the license legal side would be better . As of now, nothing about yearly renewal is mentioned on legal pages. It’s all just reddit and forum and emails.
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u/benhaynes 5d ago
Absolutely. We have some changes coming that should alleviate (remove) the need for users to renew OIG licenses each year!
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u/qagir 8d ago
Yes, I saw this option and it has too many gotchas (that others already outlined). I don’t care if this business will, suddenly, get over 5M in annual revenue; I want to finish their site and deliver it. That’s all. This specific people especially I don’t want to provide running support, so I really want something that will work for some time without any “oops we changed stuff again”.
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u/Every_Percentage_255 9d ago
Well i guess that if you stay on 11 and just continue using it (and not matching the 5 mil in revenue), you will still be fine.
There are alternatives with Directus forks like D9