The free Community Edition license for Delphi was first introduced in 2018 for Delphi and C++ Builder 10.2.3. It has been successful for Embarcadero, but it has caused a few concerns around licensing over the years. One issue involves the simple fact that the license is only good for one year and they do not release a new Community Edition every 12 months and it has been a little confusing on how to get your Community Edition license renewed.
Registration Process Recently Updated!
Today, it has become easier to renew your Community Edition license. Just use either of these links for Delphi or C++ Builder to get your license renewed by using your previous registration details:
- https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter/free-download
- https://www.embarcadero.com/products/cbuilder/starter/free-download
Note from the license agreement: To the extent you want to continue using the Community Edition after the expiration or termination of your Community Edition Term, you must re-install the latest version of the Community Edition and agree with the terms and conditions of the Agreement in force at that time. So, technically, you should download and re-install the Community Edition and your license will be extended, as long as you agree to the latest agreement during installation. But, according to Antony Danby on LinkedIn, all he did was to use License Manager and submitted the new license code.
Reddit user dstrenz replied: So, to make a long story short, after several emails with a sales rep, he sent me a link to the same download page that had previously said it was not renewable. I clicked the link anyhow and it sent me an email with the serial number! What a relief! I thought that the sales rep somehow enabled that at his end, but, after seeing your post, it looks like they did something globally to fix the problem.
If you don’t have your free license yet, you can use the same link above to register for a new license.
Additional Links
- Delphi Community Edition Landing Page
- C++ Builder Community Edition Landing Page
- Community Edition DocWiki
- Community Edition FAQ Page
- Upgrade Center
Currently, the latest version of the Community Edition is 12.1 as it typically lags a little behind the latest production release. There is no current announcement regarding when the next version of Community Edition will be released.
Community Edition Special Terms and Restrictions
This is from the web pop-up window of special terms:
Please carefully review the terms of Embarcadero Community Edition End User License Agreement here before you download the Embarcadero Community Edition software for free. Also, please review the Community Edition FAQs here. If you do not fully comply with the Community Edition license terms and conditions, please DO NOT download the Community Edition software version. Any use of the Community Edition software outside the terms and conditions set forth in its license agreement is characterized as an unauthorized use of Embarcadero copyrighted software.
Please note the following summarized restrictions about the Community Edition. For a comprehensive list of the terms and conditions of the Community Edition software, please review the Community Edition License Agreement.
The Community Edition software IS NOT an evaluation license, and cannot be used as such. If you want to evaluate Embarcadero software, please use our trial version.
If you are a small business, governmental entity or non-profit organization (the “Company”) - you may use the Community Edition software ONLY if the Company has a cumulative annual revenue (i.e. the for-profit organization, the government entity or the individual developer) or any donations (of the non-profit organization) does not exceed USD $5,000.00 (or the equivalent in other currencies).
If you are an individual developer - you may use Community Edition to create apps for your own use and apps that you can sell until your revenues reach $5,000 per year or if your team expands to more than 5 developers. You must download and use the Community Edition software in your own computer and not on company (that generates more than $5,000 per year) issued hardware. In addition, the revenue of all contract work performed by you in one calendar year may not exceed $5,000.00 (or the equivalent in other currencies) whether or not the Community Edition is used for all projects.
If you are an employee of a company with more than US5,000.00 in annual revenue - you can download the Community Edition for your own personal use subject you don’t install the Community Edition on your employer issued device and/or within the company premises or network, and the use of the Community Edition doesn’t benefit the company (i.e. your employer). Your use of the Community Edition must be for your own personal use and to the extent your use benefits or is connected (directly or indirectly) with your employer, Embarcadero, at its sole discretion, will assume your use of the Community Edition is to benefit your employer, which is outside the scope of the Community Edition license.
This is extracted from the full v12_0 EULA available here
ADDITIONAL LICENSE TERMS APPLICABLE TO THE COMMUNITY EDITION
In the event Licensee has obtained a Delphi Community Edition or a C++Builder Community Edition license (collectively, the “Community Edition”) the following terms apply in addition to the General Terms described in Section 2 above. Please note that RAD Studio is not offered and may not be licensed as a Community Edition. The Community Edition license applies solely if Licensee cumulative annual revenue (of the for-profit organization, the government entity or the individual developer) or any donations (of the non-profit organization) does not exceed USD $5,000.00 (or the equivalent in other currencies) (the “Threshold”). If Licensee is an individual developer, the revenue of all contract work performed by developer in one calendar year may not exceed the Threshold (whether or not the Community Edition is used for all projects). For example, a developer who receives payment of $5,000.00 for a single project (or more than $5,000.00 for multiple projects) even if such engagements do not anticipate the use of the Community Edition, is not allowed to use the Community Edition. In addition, a developer building solely an app store application would not be allowed to use the Community Edition once the app store revenue reaches a revenue of $5,000.00 or more in a year. If Licensee is a company that has a cumulative annual revenue which exceeds the Threshold, then Licensee is not allowed to use the Community Edition, regardless of whether the Community Edition is used solely to write applications for the business’ internal use or is seen by third parties outside the company or has a direct revenue associated with it. If Licensee does not qualify to use the Community Edition or otherwise satisfy the additional terms and restrictions applicable to the Community Edition described in this Section, Licensee’s may not download or use of the Community Edition and any such use is unauthorized, constitutes a violation of this Agreement and may constitute a misappropriation of Licensor’s intellectual property rights.
Licensee may use a Community Edition license to develop software (X) for which Licensee does not charge directly or indirectly a fee or receive other consideration including but not limited to a license fee, a service fee, a development fee, a consulting fee, a subscription fee, a support fee, a hosting fee, or receive an income, or the like (“License Fees”) or (Z) to the extent Licensee charges License Fees, Licensee cumulative annual revenue shall not exceed USD $5,000.00 (or the equivalent in other currencies). The Community Edition Licensees are prohibited from moving the command line compiler to a different machine; therefore, the rights granted to Licensee in Section 2.4 do not apply to the Community Edition licenses.
In the event Licensee elects to license the Community Edition (for profit or non-profit) then (i) the total number of the Community Edition licenses deployed may not exceed five (5) individual users; and (ii) Licensees are only allowed to read the VCL, FireMonkey and other source code provided with the Community Edition.
The term of the Community Edition license is for one year from your first download or unsealing of Licensor’s Products (“Community Edition Term”) and will automatically expire upon the end of the Community Edition Term - the Community Edition license will not auto-renew. To the extent you want to continue using the Community Edition after the expiration or termination of your Community Edition Term, you must re-install the latest version of the Community Edition and agree with the terms and conditions of the Agreement in force at that time. For example, if Licensee installed the Community Edition v1.0 and upon expiration of the Community Edition Term intends to continue using the Community Edition then, subject to Licensee’s continued compliance with the additional license terms and restrictions of the Community Edition, Licensee must re install the then current version of the Community Edition license. Upon expiration of the Community Edition Term, all software developed using the Community Edition license may continue to be distributed by Licensee subject to the terms and restrictions of this Agreement. All restrictions and conditions relating to the Community Edition license shall survive the termination or expiration of your Community Edition Term. The Community Edition license granted under this Section will automatically terminate upon Licensee’s breach of the terms specified in this Section. The support described in Section 6.2 below does not apply to the Community Edition Licensees. None of the indemnification rights set forth in this Agreement apply to the Community Edition Licensees.
Embarcadero will collect information about your use of the Community Edition for auditing purposes and improve our products and services. For more information about our collection, use and disclosure of personal data, please review Embarcadero’s Privacy Statement at https://www.embarcadero.com/privacy-statement.
License Clarification
The EULA documentation seems to clarify the issue of an individual developer: your total contract-work related revenues cannot exceed $5,000 (even revenue generated by using other tools.) I have seen some developers worry about the total income of a developer being above $5,000 not allowing you to use the Community Edition. But based on the EULA wording, if you work at McDonald’s and also want to code an app on the side, as long as your development related contract-work doesn’t exceed $5,000 then you should be safe to use the Community Edition. (TIP: don’t ever install Community Edition with access to your corporate-run network as it may detect that it is being used in a business setting which violates the agreement if the business generates over $5,000 in revenue.)