The relationship between Element and Matrix.

Element’s business model is to derive profitable revenue from selling subscriptions to an enterprise-grade server-side solution ( Element Server Suite Pro ) for governments and other large public sector organisations. It provides a mature backend solution, complete with required enterprise-grade features such as advanced identity and access management, record keeping and administrative functions for corporate control and oversight. It also includes advanced security advisories, technical support and services.

The principle is that Element provides - as a core competency - a robust, powerful server-side solution that gives a government all it needs to run a digitally sovereign Matrix-based deployment. It saves multiple governments re-inventing the wheel, and enables any bespoke open source development to focus on use case specific requirements. Provided governments subscribe to Element Server Suite Pro, it also ensures that the Matrix open standard has a well-resourced upstream vendor that can continue to invest in Matrix development and maintenance.

Element is committed to open source software, and the Matrix open standard its leaders created, because of a core belief in software transparency, the importance of interoperability and the right for end-users to have digital sovereignty. None of this is possible if Element makes all of its software development available free of charge. There has to be a revenue stream to pay developers’ salaries.

The vast majority of Element’s development is made available as open source software under an AGPL v3 license. Element’s intention is to provide individuals and the FOSS community with performant, reliable software for non-professional use that is available free of charge.

Enterprise-grade features developed by Element are proprietary to generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions to government and other large public sector organisations, who routinely pay proprietary vendors for software solutions.