Why We Open-Sourced Our Core Engine

Today we're announcing that Teable's core database engine is now open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. This is one of the biggest decisions we've made as a company, and we want to share the thinking behind it.

The Decision

Open-sourcing isn't just a technical decision — it's a business philosophy. After months of internal debate, we came down to three core beliefs:

1. Infrastructure should be transparent. You're trusting us with your data. You should be able to inspect every line of code that touches it.

2. Community makes better software. Our best feature ideas have come from users. Open source amplifies this by letting people contribute directly.

3. Lock-in is the enemy of trust. If we disappear tomorrow, your data and your workflows should survive. Open source guarantees that.

What's Included

The open-source release includes:

Core Engine

PostgreSQL-based storage layer

Field type system (all 20+ field types)

View engine (Grid, Kanban, Gallery, Form, Calendar)

Real-time collaboration via WebSocket

REST API and WebSocket API

Not Included (Enterprise)

Advanced automation engine

AI Fields integration

SSO / SAML / OIDC

Audit logs

Priority support

Self-Hosting Guide

You can run Teable on your own infrastructure in under 5 minutes:

# Using Docker Compose
git clone https://github.com/teableio/teable.git
cd teable
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d

That's it. Teable will be running at http://localhost:3000.

System Requirements

How to Contribute

We welcome contributions of all kinds:

Code Contributions

1. Fork the repository 2. Create a feature branch 3. Write tests for your changes 4. Submit a pull request 5. Pass CI checks and code review

Other Ways to Help

🐛 Report bugs via GitHub Issues

📖 Improve documentation — always needed!

🌍 Translate the interface into your language

💬 Answer questions in GitHub Discussions

⭐ Star the repo — it helps more than you think

The Business Model

A common question: "If the core is free, how do you make money?"

Our model is simple:

Teable Cloud — Hosted service with zero maintenance

Enterprise Edition — Advanced features for larger organizations

Support Plans — Dedicated support and SLA guarantees

Consulting — Custom implementations and migrations

The open-source core is and always will be free. We compete on convenience, features, and support — not lock-in.

Community Response

Since the soft launch last month:

⭐ 12,000+ GitHub stars in the first week

🍴 800+ forks

👥 150+ contributors

🌍 Translations in 14 languages

The response has been overwhelming and humbling.

What's Next

Our open-source roadmap for 2026:

[ ] Plugin system for custom field types

[ ] Marketplace for community templates

[ ] Helm chart for Kubernetes deployment

[ ] Mobile app (React Native)

[ ] Offline-first sync engine

---

Thank You

Open source is a bet on the community. It's a bet that by giving away our core technology, we'll build something bigger together than we ever could alone.

To every contributor, translator, bug reporter, and star-gazer — thank you. This is just the beginning.

View the repository on GitHub →

Read the self-hosting documentation →

Join our Discord community →