Purchasing FAQ

Licensing / pricing / payment terms
  1. What is a subscription? What does it include? How does a subscription differ from a license?
  2. Where can I find your terms and conditions?
  3. How is a user defined?
  4. Are there any discounts for non-profit organizations / academic institutions?
  5. What are your payment terms?
  6. I am software vendor and would like to build my software offer on eXo platform or use some eXo Platform components. Can I do that?
Subscription plans
  1. Is your product cloud based or on premise?
  2. What is the difference between public cloud and eXo private cloud?
  3. Are there any other hosting options?
  4. Questions about support levels and conditions
  5. Questions about software maintenance
Hosting
  1. Where will my server be located?
  2. What is your backup policy?
  3. How do I get software updates?
  4. Can I use add-ons in my hosted instance?
  5. Can I use a custom domain name?
  6. Can I integrate my hosted instance with my on-premise IT systems?
  7. How much data can I use?
  8. Can I get an SSH access to my server?

Licensing / pricing / payment terms

What is a subscription? What does it include? How does a subscription differ from a license?

eXo sells subscriptions rather than licenses. A subscription is renewable annually and, during its validity period, includes:

  • The right to use the current software version
  • Free access to all future versions of the software
  • Access to global support
  • Software maintenance program

In addition, professional services are available on-demand solely to subscription holders.

Contrary to a subscription, a software license gives the right to use a particular software version, but usually without any time limit. In addition to the license, the customer separately pays a percentage of the license cost in an annual support and maintenance fee. They usually cost more upfront and are treated as a capital expenditure in terms of budgeting structure. For a future version of the software, a new license needs to be purchased.

Contrary to a license, a subscription to software gives the right to use the latest version of the software, with maintenance and support included. Subscriptions are renewable every year and are treated as operational expenditure. If a subscription is cancelled, so is the right to use the software.

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Where can I find your terms and conditions?

General terms and conditions, as well as other documentation, can be found here. They can also be accessed through the website footer.

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How is a user defined?

We define users as enabled user accounts on your digital workplace instance.
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Are there any discounts for non-profit organizations / academic institutions?

We offer case by case basis discounts to some non-profit organizations and academic institutions. We also have a grant program that offers a free usage of the software under certain conditions. You can find more about our grant program in this post.
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What are your payment terms?

Our subscriptions are paid annually upfront.
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I am software vendor and would like to build my software offer on eXo platform or use some eXo Platform components. Can I do that?

Yes, through our white label offer. Contact us to discuss.
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Subscription plans

Is your product cloud based or on premise?

Both options are available.
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What is the difference between public cloud and eXo private cloud?

In both cases we host and manage your digital workplace for you. For “public cloud” offer, we mutualize servers and services among other clients. For eXo private cloud, you benefit from a dedicated server, can choose your domain name and your server location.
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Are there any other hosting options?

We offer a SecNumCloud option with additional security oriented layers in the infrastructure for high risk organizations.
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Questions about support levels and conditions

Detailed SLAs for each support level can be found here.
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Questions about software maintenance

Our maintenance program is covered in detail here
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Hosting

Where will my server be located?

Currently, we leverage OVH infrastructure for our European deployments and the Google Cloud Platform infrastructure for North America. We can host your eXo instance in any of those datacenters. You can choose your location for some subscription plans.
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What is your backup policy?

We do daily backups during a maintenance window at a time you choose. The downtime for a backup is usually less than 10 minutes. The default backup retention delay is 7 days, and backups can be restored on demand.
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How do I get software updates?

We automatically install software updates during your maintenance window when they are available. No action is needed on your side.
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Can I use add-ons in my hosted instance?

We can install any supported add-on on demand. All you need to do is create a support ticket.
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Can I use a custom domain name?

Yes, for some plans. In that case, you would need to send us an SSL certificate for the chosen domain and update your DNS records as per our instructions. The provided SSL certificate must be issued from an official certification authority.
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Can I integrate my hosted instance with my on-premise IT systems?

Our operations team can work with yours to integrate the systems. We can set up your instance with things such as VPN tunneling, syncing with Active Directory, or SSO authentication. These services are provided upon request; additional fees may apply.
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How much data can I use?

Your instance can store up to 1GB per registered user and consume a bandwidth of up to 500MB per user per month. If more is needed, you may contact us for a personalized quote.
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Can I get an SSH access to my server?

eXo Hosting is a managed offer and is managed by the eXo operations team only. You can use the service, but you don’t get access to the physical server.
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Software FAQ

Branding, Integrations, Scalability
  1. Can I modify the look and feel of the software?
  2. Is the platform available in different languages?
  3. What environments (DB, OS, AS) are you compatible with?
  4. Does eXo provide API for integration to other software?
  5. My volume of hits per month will be very high. Can eXo Platform handle this?
Permission management
  1. Are there levels of access?
  2. Is it possible to have groups as well as individual permissions?
  3. Using Exo can I have a few pages for guests and the rest of the features for our staff for Intranet?
  4. Can I invite guests outside of my organisation to collaborate on specific projects?
Roadmap
  1. How do you define your roadmap?
  2. What is your version policy? How often is a new version released?
  3. Can I request a feature?
  4. Do you have a beta program? How can I preview upcoming versions?
Rewards / Blockchain / Tokens
  1. What do you use blockchain for?
  2. Can I use gamification and kudos features without using blockchain?
  3. What is the Meeds token, and how does it relate to Ethereum?
  4. Can I use my own corporate token instead of using Meeds?

Branding, Integrations, Scalability

Can I modify the look and feel of the software?

Administrators have access to a Branding screen that lets them choose a logo for the top bar and color theme. Besides that, more advanced styling can be done through CSS or via a custom skin add-on.
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Is the platform available in different languages?

Yes. eXo Platform is available in many languages. Refer to our supported environments page for the full list of supported languages.
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What environments (DB, OS, AS) are you compatible with?

eXo Platform is compatible with a wide range of operating systems, databases and other IT components, but only some of them are fully supported. Refer to the Supported Environments page for the recommended environments.
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Does eXo provide API for integration to other software?

eXo Platform has an integration API fully documented. You may want to start by reading the relevant chapter of our Developers Guide.
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My volume of hits per month will be very high. Can eXo Platform handle this?

eXo Platform is designed to scale horizontally via clustering. Hence handling an increasing user load can be done by adding more nodes to your cluster.
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Permission management

Are there levels of access?

Yes. eXo Platform defines some roles by default: guest, user, administrator, contributor, publisher, space manager.
You can define custom ones according to your specific needs.
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Is it possible to have groups as well as individual permissions?

Yes. eXo Platform’s permission model allows to define ACLs that grant privileges to principals of type: user, group or role.
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Using Exo can I have a few pages for guests and the rest of the features for our staff for Intranet?

Yes. All you have to do is tinker with permissions and set your public pages accessible to ‘anyone’.
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Can I invite guests outside of my organisation to collaborate on specific projects?

Yes. You can invite external users who will only get access to people and information from a particular space. They will not see your users directory or any of your other pages/spaces.
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Roadmap

How do you define your roadmap?

Our roadmap is defined and established by our product management team. They prioritize changes that deliver value to our customers and community. The best way to suggest a new feature is to fill and discuss it here. The most voted-for requests get the most attention. Our Roadmap page is actively maintained and we encourage anyone interested in eXo Platform to watch it.
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What is your version policy? How often is a new version released?

We release Major, Minor and Maintenance versions. Major versions may introduce significant architectural changes and require migration. Minor versions represent evolutions over a Major stream and are designed to be compatible and provide seamless upgrades. Maintenance versions deal with stability, security and performance enhancements and are designed to be drop-in replacements.

There is no pre-established rhythm for Major versions. Minor versions are usually expected to ship every 8 to 12 months and Maintenance versions are released every 3 to 6 months. Read our Maintenance Programpage for full details.

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Can I request a feature?

Yes. The best way to suggest a new feature is to fill and discuss it here.

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Do you have a beta program? How can I preview upcoming versions?

We don’t run a formal beta program. However, as an open source vendor, we work in the open and upcoming changes are available at any time in source code. Moreover, a new work version is released weekly in our Tribe lab. Join our Tribe to test the latest developments, get resources and more.

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Rewards / Blockchain / Tokens

What do you use blockchain for?

We use blockchain technology to enable Wallet and Perks Store features. Each user has a unique chain identifier, associated with his wallet. This chain is known only to him and belongs to him even after his departure from a given company. Once the tokens have been deposited into the wallet, they belong to the user.
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Can I use gamification and kudos features without using blockchain?

Yes. Our gamification engine uses a system of points. Kudos are also a stand alone feature. Points and kudos can be converted into tokens based on a preset budget. Conversion is not compulsory. However, blockchain and tokens are needed to fuel the wallet and the perks store features.
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What is the Meeds token, and how does it relate to Ethereum?

Meeds is the token that fuels eXo Rewards programs. It is based on Ethereum blockchain.
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Can I use my own corporate token instead of using Meeds?

No. The philosophy behind our rewards engine is to use the same token for everyone, as we believe that this will maximize value for individual employees.
Indeed, the token will be listed and may be converted into other currencies. Moreover, with the community growth, additional services will be available to purchase against Meeds in the larger ecosystem.
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Open Source/Community FAQ

Community Vs Enterprise
  1. Open source is free. What is it that you are selling?
  2. What is the difference between the Community and the Enterprise editions?
  3. What is eXo Tribe? What can I find there?
  4. I have a project on a community version. Is it possible to upgrade to an enterprise edition?
Community Edition
  1. Do you have a free community version and where can I find it?
  2. What license do you use for Community edition?
  3. Do you provide services for the community versions?
  4. I want to run a project using your free Community version? How can I get help?
  5. How do I get the source code of the Community edition?
  6. How to build the code?
  7. Can I contribute?

Community Vs Enterprise

Open source is free. What is it that you are selling?

“Open source” means that the code is open and that your IT team can have full control. We market a packaged solution for enterprise use of the eponymous open-source project: eXo Platform. We also provide support and assistance services with our commercial offerings.
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What is the difference between the Community and the Enterprise editions?

eXo Platform is distributed under two editions – eXo Platform CE (community edition) and eXo Platform EE (enterprise edition).
The are differencing in licensing policies, feature scopes and services available between the two editions. The details can be found in our documentation here
https://exoplatform.github.io/guide/getting-started/Introduction.html
. 

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What is eXo Tribe? What can I find there?

eXo Tribe is accessible to registered users via this link – https://community.exoplatform.com/. 

However, the word community in this particular instance refers to our internal community – eXo-ers and clients.

eXo Tribe is our development lab – we release our latest developments there weekly. The tribe serves as the digital workplace for eXoers who can thus test new developments in real time and in real work situations, improving our software continuously in advance of production releases. It also serves as a support and communication platform for our clients.

We use github to foster our Community Edition related resources here – https://github.com/exoplatform/exo-community. 

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I have a project on a community version. Is it possible to upgrade to an enterprise edition?

Yes, of course. However, depending on your specific developments and data, the migration will be more or less straightforward.
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Community Edition

Do you have a free community version and where can I find it?

Yes we ship a community edition of eXo platform, called eXo Platform community edition. It is distributed under the AGPL license. The documentation and in particular a starting guide is available here : https://exoplatform.github.io/guide/getting-started/start-community.html. 

Useful information and discussion forums can be accessed herehttps://github.com/exoplatform/exo-community. 

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What license do you use for Community edition?

The community edition of eXo Platform uses the LGPL license.

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Do you provide services for the community versions?

eXo does not provide professional services for community versions of eXo platform.

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I want to run a project using your free Community version? How can I get help?

The eXo community forum on github, a space where community members can find resources, interact, and help each other. If you need assistance, please ask for help on eXo community discussions on github. We do our best to provide technical support through the forum, although there is no service level commitment.
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How do I get the source code of the Community edition?

The code for eXo Platform is on GitHub: https://github.com/exoplatform/
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How to build the code?

First, you need to set up your environment following this guide. Then, go to this repository and follow the README.
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Can I contribute?

Of course.

If you’re a developer, we accept your contributions via pull requests. To incorporate them, we’ll need you to sign the Contributor License Agreement. For more details, please consult our dedicated page.

If you’re not a developer, you can contribute by answering questions on our forums, providing feedback on documentation, suggesting new features, telling us about your project, assisting with translation efforts, or simply spreading the word about us!

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