When you're building developer tools, licensing is usually an afterthought—a standard MIT or Apache boilerplate you copy-paste from another repo and never look at again. But when I set out to build Juni IDE, I decided to do something a bit unconventional: I baked a mandatory legal contract right into the core usage agreement, including a $200/month commercial license threshold for larger businesses.
If you're thinking, "Requiring a contract for an IDE? That sounds like a great way to kill adoption," hear me out. Let's talk about why I did it, how it works, and what it means for developers and companies using Juni.
The Core Philosophy: Free for Hobbyists, Fair for Enterprise
When building software like desktop installers (macOS, Windows, Linux), web IDEs, and PWA builds, sustainability is the hardest problem to solve. Open-source is amazing, but solo maintainers often burn out trying to support enterprise teams who pull in millions in revenue while contributing zero back to the tooling they rely on.
To solve this, the Juni End User License Agreement (EULA) is structured around a simple principle:
Personal, hobby, and small business use: Completely free. No fees, no friction.
Commercial scale ($1M+ / Small Business threshold): If your company grows beyond the defined small business limits, a commercial license is required at USD $200/calendar month.
What You Actually Own (Spoiler: Not Your Source Code)
One of the biggest anxieties developers have with specialized IDEs or proprietary engines is vendor lock-in or loss of ownership over their creations.
We made sure Juni's EULA explicitly protects the creator:
Your projects remain yours: Your source code, assets, scenes, and exported games belong 100% to you. The EULA doesn't claim rights to your content.
The Export Exception: You are totally free to distribute your content (even commercially) using the normal exported runtime files.
The Fine Print: Acceptable Use and Enforcement
Of course, a binding contract has teeth. Under the EULA, using Juni means agreeing to a few non-negotiable boundaries:
No reverse-engineering, redistributing, rebranding, or selling the Juni IDE/app binaries themselves.
No bypassing the commercial license requirements if your company exceeds the small business thresholds.
Standard safety guards: No malware, no IP infringement, and no removing required copyright notices from the IDE or exported runtimes.
As for liability? Juni is provided “AS IS”, with damages capped strictly at the fees you paid for commercial access in the previous three months (or zero if you're on the free tier).
Why This Matters for the Ecosystem
Tools aren't built in a vacuum. By establishing a clear, legally binding contract upfront, it sets clear expectations between indie creators and corporate consumers. If a company is making over a million dollars in revenue, paying $200/mo for the IDE powering their workflow shouldn't be a hurdle—it should be a no-brainer.
What do you all think about tying developer tools to revenue-based commercial contracts? Have you ever had to navigate licensing hurdles like this in your own projects? Let me know in the comments below!
