Frequently asked questions
What is Open VSX Managed Registry?
Open VSX Managed Registry is a professionally operated, enterprise-grade service for organisations that rely on Open VSX at production scale. It provides SLA-backed reliability, predictable scaling, and reduced infrastructure overhead through globally operated infrastructure, multi-region resilience, and vendor-neutral stewardship under the Eclipse Foundation.
How does Open VSX Managed Registry extend the Open VSX Registry?
The Open VSX Registry continues to operate as a neutral public registry and remains open and accessible to everyone, with generous free access for developers and open source projects.
To support organisations that depend on Open VSX at production scale, the Eclipse Foundation now offers Open VSX Managed Registry, a distinct, professionally operated, enterprise-grade registry service with commercial assurances.
What does Open VSX Managed Registry provide?
Open VSX Managed Registry provides professional operation of the Open VSX registry service, including availability targets, incident response for registry operations, multi-region resilience, and contractual service commitments.
It applies to the registry service itself. Support for downstream IDEs, tools, and developer environments remains the responsibility of adopters.
Who is Open VSX Managed Registry for?
Open VSX Managed Registry is intended for organisations that rely on the Open VSX Registry at sustained commercial or AI-driven scale.
This includes cloud IDE providers, enterprise internal developer platforms, vendors distributing extensions at scale, and large CI or automated environments.
How does this benefit developers?
Developers benefit from stronger security, improved reliability, global resilience, and long-term sustainability of the Registry, with no change to free access.
How do Eclipse Open VSX, the Open VSX Registry, and Open VSX Managed Registry each fit into the overall ecosystem?
These terms refer to related but distinct parts of the Open VSX ecosystem:
Eclipse Open VSX refers to the open source project. It includes the codebase, community, and governance, and is transparently governed by the Eclipse Foundation through the Open VSX working group.
Open VSX Registry refers to the public extension registry instance and the underlying infrastructure used to publish, host, search, and download extensions
Open VSX Managed Registry refers to the production-grade extension registry service offered by the Eclipse Foundation for organisations that rely on the Open VSX Registry at sustained production scale. It provides professional operations, commercial assurances, and predictable scaling.
All three are governed by the Eclipse Foundation. What differs is how the registry service is operated and supported at scale, not the openness or neutrality of the project.
Is Open VSX still open source?
Yes. Eclipse Open VSX remains an open source project, transparently governed and vendor-neutral by the Eclipse Foundation through the Open VSX working group. The GitHub repo can be found here.
Is the Open VSX Registry still open and free?
Yes. The Open VSX Registry remains open and accessible to everyone. Free access is intentionally generous and designed to support developers and open source projects. Publishing, search, and downloads remain free, and this commitment is embedded in the project’s governance and mission.
Why aren’t sponsorships and memberships sufficient to support Open VSX?
Sponsorship and membership are not aligned with usage. Sustainable stewardship requires aligning consumption with contribution while preserving free access for developers and open source projects.
Does Open VSX Managed Registry introduce vendor lock-in?
No. Open VSX Registry remains open source and self-hostable. With the addition of Open VSX Managed Registry there is no exclusivity, preferred vendor model, or lock-in requirement.
How does Open VSX balance open source access with commercial offerings?
The Eclipse Open VSX project remains open source, transparently governed and vendor-neutral through the Open VSX working group. The GitHub repo can be found here. The Open VSX Registry also remains open and accessible for developers, open source projects..
Open VSX Managed Registry applies to commercial organisations that rely on the Open VSX Registry at sustained production scale. Commercial users who derive direct operational value from sustained, large-scale usage contribute proportionally to sustaining the shared infrastructure, ensuring it remains secure, reliable, and free for developers and open source projects.
How can I get involved in the Open VSX Working Group?
If your organisation wants to help guide the governance, sustainability, and strategic direction of Open VSX, you can participate through the Open VSX Working Group at the Eclipse Foundation. The working group aims to ensure the continued sustainability, integrity, evolution, and adoption of the Open VSX Registry. It provides governance, guidance, and funding for the communities that support the implementation, deployment, maintenance, and adoption of both the registry service and its open source project. Organisations can get involved by joining the working group as members and actively contributing to its governance and strategic direction.
Usage, billing, and responsibility
How do I know whether my organisation needs Open VSX Managed Registry?
If you integrate the Open VSX Registry directly into your own product, platform, CI system, or internal tooling, consider Open VSX Managed Registry to ensure the service levels and reliability your team and customers depend on.
If you use the Open VSX Registry through a tool or platform that integrates with it, that provider is the customer and is responsible for considering Open VSX Managed Registry.
Is Open VSX Managed Registry more cost-effective than self-hosting?
Yes. Open VSX Managed Registry is typically significantly more cost-effective than self-hosting equivalent infrastructure at scale.
Self-hosting requires substantial investment in high-availability infrastructure, storage, networking, monitoring, and ongoing DevOps. In contrast, Open VSX Managed Registry provides a fully managed, globally operated service with predictable costs, eliminating the operational burden and reducing total cost of ownership.
Based on typical usage patterns, the total cost of ownership for an on-premises deployment can be up to 10x higher than the managed service, while also requiring significant investment in infrastructure and ongoing operations.
How does this work at a high level?
The Open VSX Registry is infrastructure consumed by tools and platforms such as IDEs, cloud IDEs, and AI development tools.
Usage is metered and tiers are applied to those platforms, not to their individual downstream users, unless an individual or organisation is accessing the Open VSX Registry directly.
We do not see or bill individual downstream developers when they access the Open VSX Registry through a vendor that already integrates with and pays for it.
Who is responsible for Open VSX Registry usage and billing?
Pricing and rate limits apply to the entity that directly integrates with and authenticates against the Open VSX Registry.
That entity is responsible for usage and billing. Any downstream users consume the Open VSX Registry under that organisation’s allocation.
What if I am an enterprise but only use vendors that already pay?
In that case, the vendors pay.
Your organisation does not need a separate Open VSX Managed Registry subscription unless you also access the Open VSX Registry directly outside of those vendors.
If I work at a small company and use a commercial IDE that integrates with the Open VSX Registry, who pays?
The IDE vendor pays.
If you use the Open VSX Registry through a commercial tool that has an Open VSX Managed Registry subscription, your usage is covered under that vendor’s allocation.
Do both the IDE vendor and my company have to pay?
No. Only the party that integrates directly with the Open VSX Registry has a billing relationship with the Eclipse Foundation for Open VSX Managed Registry.
Can I use the Free tier if only one developer uses a commercial IDE?
No. If you access the Open VSX Registry through a commercial IDE or platform, you are consuming that vendor’s allocation, not the Free tier.
Where can I learn more?
Organisations using the Open VSX Registry at scale can contact the Open VSX team to discuss Open VSX Managed Registry, service levels, governance, and operational requirements.
Open access, open source governance, and vendor neutrality remain unchanged. What scales is how the registry service is operated.
Using Open VSX at scale?
If Open VSX is a critical dependency for your platform, let’s discuss how Open VSX Managed Registry can support your requirements.