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Meld Forums Licensing

Meld Forums is a commercial product with a non-exclusive, limited license. There are two main licenses for Meld Forums, "Individual" and "Studio".  For organizations looking for ISP/hosted, software-as-a-service, or distributable licenses we ask that you contact sales directly.

All versions of Meld Forums are identical in terms of functionality and feature-set; the only difference is in how and how often you can install the software.

Individual License

The individual license is basically one that allows you to install a copy (or copies) of Meld Forums into a single Mura CMS installation on a single web server.  This Mura CMS can have multiple sites owned by multiple people or organizations (Mura allows for multiple sites to be setup within a single install).

An example the license can be found here.

Studio License

The studio license allows a single company such as a development or graphic design house to install copies of Meld Forums for their clients.   The basic criteria is that the license holder must be the company who either a) installed and configured the Mura CMS, or b) be the company identified as the "company who built our website" by the website owner.

An example the license can be found here.

Hosted/ISP/SaaS/Distributable License

In certain cases the above licenses may not suit a companies needs, or fall into one of the following categories:

  • ISPs or other hosting-type companies who might wish to offer Meld Forums to their clients
  • Companies who wish to offer Meld Forums itself as a hosted service
  • Companies who may want to include Meld Forums in a larger product they have developed for sale

The basic rule here is, if you aren't sure then you should contact us.  We'll be pretty reasonable as long as the requirements and requests are reasonable as well.

Example Scenarios
  • A shoe company wants to have forums on their website.  They have multiple locations, and each location has a separate site within the same Mura installation.
    LICENSE: Individual
  • A web development company wants to include forums for some of their clients.  They host some of these sites themselves, while others are hosted by external ISPs.
    LICENSE: Studio
  • The same web development company occasionally does web work for a local graphic design company, installing and setting up the Mura CMS for them, configuring some of the basic settings, etc.  The graphic design company does all of the content entry and design work.
    LICENSE: Studio
  • The same web development company is considering hosting Meld Forums as a subscription service, where people fill out a form and are given access to a Mura CMS site with Meld Forums installed.
    LICENSE: ISP
  • A university with multiples Mura CMS installs on multiple servers wants to be able to install Meld Forums for their department websites.  Some of the division websites reside within individual Mura CMS installs.
    LICENSE: Studio