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Summary

Starting from recent releases, Evolution products (API, CRM, Go and Evo Nexus) require a free license activation on first access. This does not change the open source nature of the project. Evolution remains:
  • 100% free
  • Open source under the Apache License 2.0
  • Self-hosted
  • Without usage limits
  • Without feature restrictions
  • Without any payment
Activation exists so we can measure the real reach of the ecosystem, track adoption metrics, and protect the Evolution brand.
Installations on versions that didn’t require activation continue to work normally. The activation requirement only applies starting from the releases indicated for each product (e.g. Evolution API 2.4.0+).

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Which products require activation

All community tiers are free, with no instance limit, no message limit and no feature flag gating functionality.

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What is collected

During activation we only collect:
  • Email — to identify the instance operator
  • Phone number — for contact in case of security incident or abuse
  • Evolution version in use
  • Unique instance identifier (locally generated UUID)
After activation, the instance sends periodic heartbeats containing:
  • Current version
  • Aggregated usage counters (e.g. total messages sent in the period)
  • List of enabled features (e.g. chatbot, webhook, broadcast)
  • Server IP (automatically extracted from the request, used for approximate geolocation)
Exact heartbeat payload:

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What is NOT collected

Evolution does not collect, under any circumstance:
  • Messages
  • Conversations
  • Trafficked content
  • Contacts
  • Media
  • WhatsApp numbers of end users
  • Tokens, credentials or third-party API keys
  • Private instance data
  • Sensitive configuration
Collection is aggregated and technical — there is no access to the content of communications passing through your instance.

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Why activation exists

License activation lets the Evolution Foundation:
  1. Measure the ecosystem — know how many instances exist, in which countries, on which versions
  2. Plan infrastructure — properly size public services (registry, telemetry, docs)
  3. Detect abuse — identify misuse of the Evolution brand and uses outside the Apache 2.0 terms
  4. Prioritize the roadmap — know which features are actually used in production
  5. Sustain the project — ground commercial decisions (Cloud, support) on real data
Evolution always had basic version telemetry. Starting with the current releases, this process became formalized via license activation.

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Is Evolution still Apache 2.0?

Yes. The source code license remains Apache License 2.0, with no additional clauses. That means you can:
  • Audit the entire source code
  • Modify, recompile and redistribute
  • Fork the project
  • Use it commercially
  • Self-host without payment
License activation is a Manager feature requirement, not a software license restriction. It exists as an operational mechanism (instance registration), not as a restriction on using the code.
Forks that remove activation are permitted by Apache 2.0, but lose the right to use the Evolution brand and associated assets (logo, name, visual identity). The trademark is protected separately from the source code license.

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Is everything still free?

Yes. Under the current model:
  • The community license is free
  • There are no paid features inside open source Evolution API, CRM or Go
  • There is no usage, message or instance limit for the community tier
The Evolution commercial model has always been and continues to be:
  • Hosted Cloud — for those who prefer not to self-host
  • Professional support — SLA, priority, guided integration
  • Managed services — infrastructure, observability, compliance

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Next steps

Activation Flow

How license registration works — endpoints, polling, authentication

Auto-Activation

Skip the browser on subsequent installs using EVOLUTION_OPERATOR_EMAIL

Telemetry

Exact payloads, heartbeat and what is sent on each call

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about billing, privacy, forks, offline and trademark

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Transparency commitment

We believe open source is built on transparency. If there is any future change in telemetry, licensing or data collection, it will be:
  • Publicly documented on this page
  • Announced in the product changelog
  • Communicated to the community before becoming a stable release
The current documentation reflects product behavior on the versions listed above. To track changes, see the Evolution API changelog.