Neoma Commercial Licence
Last updated: 21 August 2026
Draft for legal review. This document was prepared to be reviewed by a solicitor before Neoma accepts money, as
docs/licensing.mdrequires. Do not publish it as binding terms until that review has happened.
The short version
Neoma is free for personal use, forever. That includes the web app, the open-source edition, and the signed desktop and App Store builds. Nothing here takes that away, and nothing here is a feature you have to pay to unlock.
If your organisation uses Neoma for work, it needs a commercial licence.
| Team. Firms, labs, clinics, practices | A$22 per user per month |
| Institutional. A faculty, hospital or department | A$4,500–22,000 per year, site licence |
The institutional licence covers everyone at the site, so there is no seat counting and no argument about who qualifies as a user.
Who needs a commercial licence
You need one if all of these are true:
- You use Neoma for work that produces revenue for a company or organisation
- That organisation has two or more people
- You are using Neoma in the course of that work
Who does not
- Individuals, for anything at all. Personal notes, side projects, journals
- Students and academics, for study and research
- Sole traders and single-person businesses
- Registered charities and non-profits
- Anyone evaluating Neoma before deciding
- Anyone self-hosting the open-source edition under the AGPL
If you are not sure, you almost certainly do not need one.
What the licence grants
For each licensed user or site, for the term:
- The right to use Neoma for commercial purposes on devices they own or control
- The compliance pack: a written confidentiality statement covering data residency, network behaviour, storage format and sub-processors, suitable for submission to a research office, ethics committee or IT security review
- Responses to your organisation's security questionnaire
- Priority handling of support requests
- Written confirmation of licensing, for procurement and audit purposes
Most of what an institution is buying is the second and third items. The software is free; what is not free is somebody standing behind it in writing when your compliance officer asks.
What it does not do
It does not unlock anything. There is no paid tier, no locked feature, no licence key to enter, and no phone-home check. Neoma has no telemetry and this licence does not introduce any. It cannot, without breaking the promise the product is built on.
This is an honour-system licence. It works the same way Obsidian's does, and it relies on organisations choosing to be compliant. Deliberately so: the alternative is a product that watches its users, which would make Neoma something other than what it is.
Term and renewal
Twelve months from purchase. Lapsing does not disable anything or delete anything, your notes are plain Markdown files on your own disk and remain entirely yours regardless.
Refunds
Full refund within 30 days, no questions asked. Email support.
Relationship to the other licences
| What | Licence |
|---|---|
| Open-source edition (web app) | AGPL-3.0-or-later, see the neoma repository |
| Desktop and App Store builds | Proprietary, see EULA |
| Commercial use by an organisation | This document |
The AGPL edition remains AGPL. This licence adds a commercial-use permission for organisations; it removes nothing from anybody.
Buying
Purchases are handled by a merchant of record, which collects and remits GST, VAT and sales tax in the buyer's jurisdiction.
Contact: see the support page.