Open source software for business makes sense role by role, not as a blanket switch. Moving cuts licence fees but adds migration, training, support and integration costs; macros, document layout, Arabic fonts, device management and line-of-business links break first. Virtualisation, servers, training labs and roles that mostly read, write and print are usually the easiest place to start.
Free vs open source software: price and licence are different questions
"Free" describes what you pay; "open source" describes what the licence lets you do. The Open Source Initiative's Open Source Definition (version 1.9) requires a licence to allow redistribution without a royalty, to come with source code and to allow modified versions, and it forbids restricting use in any field of endeavour, naming business as an example. The Free Software Foundation sets out four freedoms (run, study and change, share, share changed copies) and stresses liberty, not price. It says open source rests on a different philosophy, even though nearly all open-source programs are also free software (What is Free Software?).
So a product can be free to download and still be licensed for use only, and with open-source products you often pay for support rather than for the right to use. Read the licence, not the price tag.
| Product | Licence | Price to use (October 2026) | Open source? |
|---|---|---|---|
| LibreOffice | MPL 2.0 | No licence fee | Yes |
| ONLYOFFICE Docs | Community: AGPLv3 with added terms; Enterprise: proprietary | Community free; Enterprise paid | Community edition only |
| Collabora Online | Mostly MPL 2.0 | CODE free for testing; Business EUR 3 per user per month, up to 99 users | Yes |
| Proxmox VE | AGPLv3 | No licence fee; subscriptions from EUR 120 (Community: stable updates, no technical support) to EUR 1,100 (Premium) per CPU socket per year, net | Yes |
| GIMP, Scribus | GNU GPL; GPL v2 or later | No licence fee | Yes |
| SOGo groupware | GNU GPL and LGPL v2 or later | No licence fee; ActiveSync in production needs a Microsoft usage licence | Yes |
| Stirling-PDF | MIT core; listed parts under a paid user licence | Core free; licensed parts need a subscription in production | Open core |
| WPS Office | Proprietary licence agreement | Standard free; Pro+ paid | No |
| Affinity (Canva) | Limited, non-transferable, non-exclusive | Free with a Canva account | No |
| Microsoft 365 | Proprietary subscription | Paid per user; list prices changed on 1 July 2026 | No |
| Adobe Creative Cloud | Proprietary subscription | Paid plans, billed monthly or yearly | No |
| Llama 4 | Llama 4 Community License | Weights free to download | Open weight, custom terms |
| Qwen3-32B | Apache 2.0 | Weights free to download | Open weight, OSI-approved licence |
Four labels that need a second look
- Free but proprietary. The WPS Office licence agreement (8 May 2023) says the software is licensed for use, not sold, and forbids reverse engineering. Affinity's terms (12 March 2026) grant a limited licence and no right to distribute. PDFgear's maker calls it free, funded by investment, with some advanced options possibly paid later (PDFgear, 2024), and does not present it as open source.
- Open core. Stirling-PDF's licence file puts the repository under MIT except listed directories, which fall under the Stirling PDF User License: production use of those parts needs a paid user licence.
- Copyleft over a network. Under section 13 of the GNU AGPLv3, if you modify an AGPL program and people use it over a network, you must offer them your modified source.
- Open weight is not open source. The OSI's Open Source AI Definition 1.0 asks for training data information and code as well as weights. The Llama 4 Community License requires a "Built with Llama" notice when you distribute or make available the model or a product or service that contains it, compliance with an acceptable use policy, and a separate licence from Meta above 700 million monthly active users. Qwen3-32B and gpt-oss-120b are published under Apache 2.0, which is on the OSI's approved list.
What moving to open source really costs
A move replaces one recurring cost, the licence, with several others. The UK Government Digital Service warns that open source software is not completely free, and tells teams to take into account the total cost of migrating, including exit and transition costs, and to ask whether staff will need training and whether the solution offers the support needed (Be open and use open source).
| Cost line | When it occurs | What sets its size |
|---|---|---|
| Licence and subscription fees saved | Every renewal | Users, devices or CPU sockets that no longer need the paid licence |
| File, mail and virtual machine migration | Once | Volume of data and number of systems moved |
| Macro, template and form rework | Once | Macro files, templates and fonts in use |
| Training and help desk load | Once, then for each new joiner | Roles that change tools |
| Support subscription or partner | Every year | Production systems that need someone to call |
| Patching, monitoring and backup | Every year | Self-hosted servers your team now runs |
| Integration with directory, file platform and business systems | Once, and again when they change | Systems that call Word, Excel or Outlook directly |
| Parallel running and exceptions | Every year until the last role moves | Roles that keep the paid tool |
Staying usually has no migration bill, because its setup was paid in the past, but its licences renew every year at prices the vendor can change. Payback in years is roughly the one-off costs divided by the yearly saving, which is the licence fees saved minus the new yearly costs. If that saving is small, the move does not pay back on cost alone, and the case has to rest on control, data location or freedom to exit.
One public example, with its own figures
The German state of Schleswig-Holstein made LibreOffice the binding office standard for its ministries and authorities. In December 2025 its state chancellery reported LibreOffice on nearly 80 per cent of workplaces outside the tax administration, with Microsoft Office and Outlook removed or being removed. The state puts its licence savings at more than EUR 15 million, against EUR 9 million of one-off investment in 2026 for migration and development. About 20 per cent of workplaces still depend in part on Word or Excel because specialist applications require them, and migration paths for those are agreed (Staatskanzlei Schleswig-Holstein, 2025). Even a committed programme keeps exceptions.
Staying has a price too
Windows 10 support ended on 14 October 2025; Microsoft recommends upgrading eligible PCs to Windows 11, and organisations that keep Windows 10 can buy Extended Security Updates at USD 61 per device for the first year, doubling each year for up to three years (Microsoft Learn). Microsoft changed the list prices of its commercial Microsoft 365 suites from 1 July 2026, globally, with local market adjustments (Microsoft, 4 December 2025). Ask your reseller for current AED prices rather than converting US list prices.
What breaks first in a move to open source
These are the points to test before any licence is cancelled.
- Macros. Excel for the web cannot create, run or edit VBA macros (Microsoft Support). LibreOffice's VBA support is not complete but covers common patterns (LibreOffice Help), and ONLYOFFICE macros are written in JavaScript (ONLYOFFICE API), so VBA has to be rewritten.
- Document layout. LibreOffice says converted Microsoft files need some manual reformatting, in proportion to their complexity (About Converting Microsoft Office Documents).
- Arabic fonts. Microsoft lists Sakkal Majalla as exclusively included with Microsoft products (Microsoft Learn). Where a template font is missing, a substitute re-wraps the lines and tables move.
- Device management. Intune supports Linux desktops on Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 or 26.04 LTS with GNOME, and on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 or 10 (supported platforms). Its Linux guide covers compliance policies, custom compliance scripts and Conditional Access through Microsoft Edge. The Microsoft 365 desktop apps need Windows or a recent macOS (system requirements), so a Linux user gets the web apps, without VBA.
- Mail and calendars. SOGo supports ActiveSync for phones, and its installation guide also lists Outlook 2013 and 2016 over ActiveSync, with limits such as no global address list search; its website offers Outlook compatibility through a separate add-on, the Outlook CalDav Synchronizer (SOGo). The same guide says production use of SOGo's ActiveSync code needs a usage licence from Microsoft, with fees negotiated directly with Microsoft (SOGo Installation Guide). Test shared calendars, delegates and meeting rooms before mailboxes move.
- Print colour. GIMP 3.0 imports and exports CMYK JPEG, TIFF, PSD and JPEG XL files and calls its colour work groundwork for future CMYK image modes (GIMP 3.0), and 3.2 adds ink coverage to its CMYK colour selector for soft-proofing (GIMP 3.2). Scribus lists CMYK and spot colours (specifications) and exports PDF/X-3 (help). Agree the output format with your printer.
- Support. The Document Foundation does not provide technical support for LibreOffice and recommends partner LibreOffice Enterprise versions for large organisations (LibreOffice in business). Proxmox describes its no-subscription repository as for testing and non-production use, and Collabora does not recommend its free CODE edition for production (Collabora).
Where open source fits well
- Virtualisation. Proxmox VE runs KVM virtual machines and Linux containers, is based on Debian GNU/Linux and is licensed under AGPLv3, with subscriptions priced per CPU socket. Whatever the hypervisor, it belongs in the backup plan you can restore after ransomware.
- Servers. File, print, web and database roles can run on Linux, whose kernel is licensed under GPL-2.0 (kernel COPYING file).
- Labs and training rooms. Proxmox aims its lowest subscription at training environments, evaluation clusters and non-critical workloads.
- Roles that read, write and print. Staff who use no macros and whose files rarely leave the company make a natural pilot group; LibreOffice vs ONLYOFFICE vs Microsoft 365 compares the suites.
- Private AI. Open-weight models such as Qwen3 and gpt-oss can run on your own servers; size the hardware with the UBM AI simulator and read running AI on your own servers.
The paid tools stay the simpler fit for roles built around VBA workbooks, shared Exchange mailboxes and Teams meetings, Microsoft-only Arabic templates or commercial print work. A mixed estate is a normal outcome.
The migration map: paid tool, open-source option and the gate to test
Each common move has one risk that decides whether it works.
| Paid tool | Open-source option (licence) | Gate to test first |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Office desktop apps | LibreOffice (MPL 2.0) or ONLYOFFICE Docs Community (AGPLv3) | VBA macros, layout, Arabic fonts |
| Exchange and Outlook | SOGo groupware (GPL and LGPL v2+) with a mail server | Outlook sync: calendars, shared mailboxes, ActiveSync on phones and its Microsoft licence |
| Windows desktops | Linux desktops (kernel GPL-2.0) | Device policy, line-of-business apps |
| Adobe Acrobat | Stirling-PDF (MIT core) | Paid parts: features under the paid user licence |
| Adobe Creative Cloud | GIMP (GPL), Scribus (GPL v2+) | CMYK print output, files exchanged with agencies |
| VMware vSphere | Proxmox VE (AGPLv3) | Support subscription, backup coverage |
| AI chat subscriptions | Open-weight models (Apache 2.0 or custom licences) | Model licence terms, GPU hardware |
How to decide, role by role
- List every paid licence with its renewal date, its unit (user, device or socket) and its yearly cost.
- Group users by role: which files they exchange, with whom and in which format.
- Record each role's dependencies: macros, templates and fonts, Outlook features, print output, and business systems that open Word or Excel.
- Price both sides of the ledger at the next renewal date, including support, training and parallel running.
- Pilot one role through a month-end on its own Arabic and English files, and keep the paid tool, with a recorded reason, wherever a role needs it.
How UBM handles it
UBM manages Microsoft 365 tenancy, licensing and identity and Adobe creative and document workflows, and deploys Proxmox where an open platform fits a workload better than the next licence tier. A move starts from the licence position: what is owned, what is paid for twice and what renews this quarter. We then map roles and dependencies, price both options on the same renewal date, and pilot with real users before anything changes for everyone else. Open-source platforms we deploy run on infrastructure the client controls, joined to the existing directory and covered by backup, patching and monitoring like the rest of the estate. The scope is on our software solutions page.
UBM is a Microsoft and Adobe partner that also deploys open-source platforms; recommendations are made per role, not per brand. To have your licences and roles reviewed before a renewal, talk to a UBM engineer.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between free software and open source software?
Free of charge describes the price; open source describes the licence, which lets you use, change and share the code for any purpose. WPS Office Standard and Affinity cost nothing but are proprietary.
Can a business use open source software commercially?
Yes. The Open Source Definition forbids licences that restrict use in a field of endeavour such as business. Most obligations apply when you distribute the software or, under AGPLv3, modify it and offer it to users over a network.
Does moving to open source save money?
It removes licence fees but adds other costs. Schleswig-Holstein reports more than EUR 15 million in licence savings against EUR 9 million of one-off investment in 2026, and still keeps about 20 per cent of workplaces partly on Microsoft Office.
What usually breaks when a team moves from Microsoft Office to an open-source suite?
VBA macros, complex layouts, templates that use Microsoft-only Arabic fonts, and business systems that open Word or Excel directly. Test them with real files before cancelling licences.
Are open-weight AI models open source?
Not automatically. The OSI's Open Source AI Definition also asks for training data information and code. Some weights use Apache 2.0, while Llama 4 uses a custom community licence with an acceptable use policy.
Sources
- The Open Source Definition, version 1.9, OSI-approved licenses and The Open Source AI Definition 1.0 (Open Source Initiative, 2007, checked October 2026, and 2024)
- What is Free Software? and GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (Free Software Foundation, checked October 2026, and 2007)
- Be open and use open source (Government Digital Service and Central Digital and Data Office, UK, 2017, updated 2021)
- Digitale Souveränität ist möglich und wirtschaftlich (Staatskanzlei Schleswig-Holstein, 4 December 2025, in German)
- Advancing Microsoft 365: new capabilities and pricing update (Microsoft, 2025)
- Microsoft Learn: Extended Security Updates for Windows 10, Intune supported operating systems and browsers, Deployment guide: manage Linux devices in Microsoft Intune, Sakkal Majalla font family (Microsoft, checked October 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Work with VBA macros in Excel for the web and System requirements for Microsoft 365 for business (Microsoft, checked October 2026)
- LibreOffice licenses, LibreOffice in business, Working with VBA Macros and About Converting Microsoft Office Documents (The Document Foundation, checked October 2026)
- ONLYOFFICE Docs project page and Macros: getting started (Ascensio System SIA, 2026); Collabora Online Development Edition and Collabora Online subscriptions (Collabora Productivity, checked October 2026); Collabora Online project page (2026)
- Proxmox VE Administration Guide and Proxmox VE pricing (Proxmox Server Solutions, checked October 2026)
- Linux kernel COPYING file (kernel.org, checked October 2026)
- SOGo and SOGo Installation Guide, version 5.12.11 (Alinto, checked October 2026, and September 2026)
- About GIMP, GIMP 3.0 release notes (2025) and GIMP 3.2 release notes (2026) (The GIMP Team)
- Scribus COPYING, specifications and PDF/X-3 help page (The Scribus Team, 2026)
- Stirling-PDF LICENSE and Stirling PDF User License (Stirling PDF Inc., 2025)
- End User License Agreement for WPS Office (2023) and WPS Office plans (checked October 2026)
- Creative Cloud plans (Adobe, checked October 2026)
- Introducing the all-new Affinity (Canva, 2025) and Affinity Terms (Canva, 12 March 2026)
- Is PDFgear really free, and why is that (PDFgear, 2024)
- Llama 4 Community License Agreement (Meta, 2025); model pages for Qwen3-32B (Qwen, 2025) and gpt-oss-120b (OpenAI, 2025)
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