CoreShop Open Core License (CCL)
22.07.2025
In early 2025, Pimcore announced a significant change to its licensing model. As a result of this shift, we at CoreShop also found it necessary to reevaluate our licensing strategy. Previously, CoreShop was distributed under the GPLv3 license. However, due to the inherent incompatibility between GPLv3 and Pimcore’s updated licensing terms, continuing under GPLv3 was no longer a viable option for us.
After careful consideration and extensive internal discussions, we made the difficult but ultimately strategic decision to adopt our own custom Open Core License (CCL), inspired by Pimcore’s approach. This was not a decision we took lightly. We have always valued openness and community collaboration, but given the evolving ecosystem and Pimcore’s transition to an Open Core model, it no longer made sense for one of Pimcore’s largest and most complex extensions to remain fully open source.
We believe that aligning with Pimcore’s model is a necessary step to ensure consistency, sustainability, and long-term innovation. It is increasingly difficult to justify maintaining and supporting a comprehensive, feature-rich solution like CoreShop under a fully open-source model when the underlying platform itself is no longer fully open source.
In short, if Pimcore is now operating under an Open Core model, it would be contradictory for CoreShop — one of its most integral and sophisticated extensions — to continue under a more permissive license. This realignment allows us to maintain compatibility, provide better long-term support, and foster a more sustainable future for CoreShop.
Alongside the introduction of the new CoreShop Open Core License (CCL), we are also making updates to our pricing model to ensure it remains fair, scalable, and in alignment with Pimcore’s own licensing framework.
CoreShop will continue to be free of charge for small businesses and organizations that meet the following criteria:
We strongly believe in supporting early-stage companies, academic initiatives, and mission-driven nonprofits by giving them access to professional tools without financial barriers.
However, for medium and large enterprises — especially those already using Pimcore Professional or Pimcore Enterprise licenses — a CoreShop CCL License will now be required. This license will be available for purchase via the official Pimcore Store (launch details to be announced).
One Free Benefit Still Remains
Despite these changes, we’re happy to announce that one key benefit remains completely free for everyone: all of our standalone bundles, such as CoreShop Index, CoreShop Messenger, and others, will continue to be open and freely available. These standalone packages can be used independently of the main CoreShop distribution and are accessible to all developers and organizations, regardless of company size or license tier.
This approach allows us to continue giving back to the developer community, while also supporting a sustainable model for maintaining and evolving CoreShop’s core capabilities.
We have already updated the license file in our GitHub repository to reflect this change. You can review the complete text of the new CoreShop Open Core License (CCL) here:
https://github.com/coreshop/CoreShop/blob/5.0/LICENSE.md
We appreciate the understanding and continued support of our community as we take this step forward. These changes are made with the long-term growth and sustainability of the CoreShop ecosystem in mind.