Chairside License

Apache 2.0 with two supplemental terms that protect patients and open integrations.

Why Apache 2.0

We chose Apache 2.0 as the base license because it strikes the right balance for healthcare software:

  • Permissive by design — You can use, modify, and distribute Chairside in commercial products without releasing your proprietary changes. This encourages adoption by vendors who need to differentiate.
  • Patent protection — Apache 2.0 includes an explicit patent grant, so contributors and users are protected from patent claims related to the codebase.
  • Well-understood — Legal teams at healthcare organizations, DSOs, and software companies already know Apache 2.0. There’s no ambiguity about what you can and can’t do.
  • Compatible — Apache 2.0 is compatible with most other open-source licenses, making it easy to integrate Chairside components into existing projects.

The base license gives you maximum freedom. The supplemental terms add two targeted protections without limiting commercial use.

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Healthcare

The Two Supplemental Terms

Section 10.1 — Patient Portability

Any deployment of Chairside must allow patients to export their complete records in a standard format. This ensures that patients are never locked into a single provider or vendor. The portability mechanism uses FHIR-standard exports and the Foundation registry for cross-instance transfers.

In practice, this means keeping the patient export and transfer endpoints functional. It’s already built into the platform — you just can’t remove it.

Section 10.2 — Open API Access

The Graph API’s 22 collections must remain accessible to authorized third-party applications via OAuth2. You can add new endpoints, extend existing ones, and build proprietary features on top — but the core API surface stays open.

This protects the developer ecosystem. Every integration built against the Chairside API will continue to work across all deployments, whether hosted by the original developers or a commercial vendor.

What You Can Do

The license is designed to enable commercial use, not restrict it. Here’s what’s explicitly allowed:

  • Sell it — Offer Chairside as a hosted SaaS product and charge subscription fees
  • Fork it — Create your own version with a different name and branding
  • White-label it — Rebrand the entire platform for your DSO or vendor clients
  • Modify everything — Change the UI, add features, rewrite modules, integrate with your existing systems
  • Add proprietary features — Build closed-source extensions, AI models, or analytics tools on top
  • Charge for support — Offer implementation, training, migration, and ongoing support services
  • Bundle with hardware — Package Chairside with imaging equipment, sensors, or practice hardware

The only requirements are keeping patient export functional and the API accessible. Everything else is up to you.

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Read the Full License on GitHub

The complete license text with supplemental terms is in the repository root.

View LICENSE View Repository
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