Apache-2.0
The whole platform is open source.
Every application, the API, and the deployment tooling. Not a stripped-down community edition sitting next to a real one — the public repository is the same code we run for our hosted customers. Clone it, run it, change it, deploy it for as many institutions as you like. You owe us nothing.
Running in a few minutes
The stack is docker compose with no cloud dependency: Postgres, Redis, MinIO, OpenSearch, the API, a worker, and the frontend. Migrations, security policies, and seed data all run on first boot.
git clone https://github.com/madrona-app/madrona.gitcd madrona && cp .env.example .envdocker compose up -d --buildFirst boot takes a couple of minutes. Then create your first admin account and start cataloguing.
How we make money without holding features back
The software is free because we are not selling software. We sell the work of running it well.
What is free, forever
The platform, under Apache-2.0. No license key, no seat count, no feature gate, no phone-home. Fork it and take it in a different direction if you want to — the license permits that, and so do we.
What we charge for
Hosting: we run the infrastructure, apply updates, monitor and back it up, and answer when something breaks. Alongside it, migration off legacy systems, staff training, and custom integration work.
Why this is safer for you
A vendor you can fire without losing your collections system behaves differently from one you cannot. If we raise prices unreasonably, get acquired, or shut down, you keep running the same software on your own hardware.
The license
Madrona is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0. In practice that means you may run it for any purpose, commercial or not; read and modify the source; distribute your modified versions; and use it without royalty. It includes an express patent grant, which is usually the clause institutional counsel is looking for.
What it asks in return is modest: keep the copyright and license notices, and state what you changed. It offers no warranty — a support agreement is the thing that carries commitments, which is one of the services we sell.
Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy govern our hosted service only. They do not apply to software you run yourself — that relationship is the Apache-2.0 license and nothing else.
Contributions welcome
Museum software is better when the people who use it can change it. Bug reports, field-level fixes, connectors for systems we have never seen, and translations are all genuinely useful — particularly from registrars and collections staff who know what the workflow is supposed to do.
Report a problem
Open an issue with what you expected and what happened. Screenshots of the record help.
Send a patch
Fork, branch, and open a pull request. CONTRIBUTING.md in the repository covers the test suite and conventions.
Build a connector
Bridge integrations are ordinary code in the repository. A connector for your legacy system helps every institution still trapped on it.
Install it yourself, or hand it to us
Self-hosting is free and documented. If you would rather not run infrastructure, we host it and support it.