Licensing

Hermes is source-available under the Elastic License 2.0.

Free Use

You may use Hermes free of charge for:

Use Case	Free?
Personal projects	Yes
Hobby development	Yes
Educational/academic use	Yes
Open source projects (OSI-approved licenses)	Yes
Commercial use, revenue < $1M/year	Yes

Paid License

Commercial use by organizations with $1 million USD or more in annual revenue requires a paid license:

$695 per application per year

This includes:

• Full commercial use rights
• Priority support
• License to distribute applications built with Hermes

What You Get

Whether free or paid, your license includes:

• Unlimited distribution — Distribute your application to as many users as you want
• No seat limits — No restrictions on team size or number of developers
• No user tracking — We don't count or monitor your end users
• Perpetual use of shipped versions — Applications you ship continue to work even if you don't renew

License Key Configuration

Hermes validates an optional license key at startup. If no key is provided, your application still runs normally with an informational warning printed to stderr.

Setting the Key

Hermes resolves the license key in this order:

1. Environment variable HERMES_LICENSE (takes priority)
2. Configuration via appsettings.json:

{
  "Hermes": {
    "License": "HERMES-1-<your-token>"
  }
}

Keys use the format HERMES-1-<base64url-encoded-token>.

Validation Behavior

Scenario	Behavior
No key provided	App runs; prints unlicensed notice to stderr
Valid key	App runs silently
Invalid or expired key	App runs; prints validation warning to stderr

Perpetual Use Rights

Paid licenses include perpetual rights for versions released before your subscription ends. If you ship an application with Hermes 1.2 and your subscription covers that release date, your shipped application continues to work indefinitely, even after the subscription expires.

Frequently Asked Questions

What counts as an "application"?

Each distinct product you distribute. Multiple builds of the same application (Windows, macOS, Linux) count as one application.

How is annual revenue calculated?

Total gross revenue for your organization in the most recent fiscal year.

Can I evaluate Hermes before purchasing?

Yes. The Elastic License 2.0 permits full use for evaluation. You only need a paid license when shipping a commercial product above the revenue threshold.

What if my organization grows past $1M revenue?

You'll need to purchase a license before your next release after crossing the threshold.

Can I use Hermes in a SaaS product?

Yes, as long as you're not providing Hermes itself as a service. Using Hermes to build your desktop client for a SaaS product is permitted.

Contact

For licensing inquiries: support@mythetech.com