do all packages in nuget have free licence to use?

soroush shirali picture soroush shirali · Jul 26, 2015 · Viewed 12.4k times · Source

I am working on a project which require manipulating Excel files. I found a library for this job called Aspose.cells. it is not a free library and we should buy its licence from its site in order to use it in our projects. However, I found that there is a nuget package of this library. So I am a bit confused and wanted to ask these questions:

  1. Since I met nuget I have been thinking that all packages exit on it are free though this one seems to not be. Any description??

  2. I remember one of my friends used Aspose.cells without buying any license what would happen if I did so?

Answer

Matt Ward picture Matt Ward · Jul 26, 2015

A NuGet package available on nuget.org can have any license.

There is no restriction on whether the NuGet package is free, open source or commercially licensed.

You should review the license that each NuGet package has. Typically a NuGet package that does not have an open source license will require you to accept the license agreement before installing it but you should still review the license even if you are not prompted to accept one.

  1. Not all NuGet packages are free on nuget.org but a lot of them are free.
  2. The Aspose.Cells NuGet package has a license agreement that needs to be accepted before it can be installed. A quick review of this license agreement indicates that you need to purchase a license after the evaluation period has expired but you should review the license yourself to see if you can accept and understand it.