Founded in 1999, NLnet Labs is an independent, non-profit foundation based in the Netherlands. Our mission is to make the core of the Internet a better, safer place by developing open-source software, through applied research and by promoting and contributing to open standards.
We believe in sustainable open-source software. NLnet Labs is not owned by a commercial organisation. We operate independently with 16 full-time developers and researchers on staff. We are funded by organisations who rely on our software and by those who think our work is important.
- Our software is, and always will be, open-source with a liberal license
- We will have at least two developers on each of our projects
- You will always get all features for free, we will never adopt a "freemium" model
- We will only develop functionality that serves the general benefit of the Internet community
- Because our software is used in mission critical environments, we offer support services with a service-level agreement
- We guarantee continued maintenance of our software for at least two years in the unlikely event all funding would disappear
We cannot do any of our work without your support. If you depend on our software, please consider purchasing professional support and consultancy services with a service-level agreement for one of our products, sponsoring the development of new software or a feature for an existing product, or through a donation.
At NLnet Labs, we are committed to an open mindset that encourages anyone to contribute to our software and discussions on Internet technology. To exchange ideas you can find us on Mastodon and we host several mailing lists. For DNS related topics you can also find us on the DNS-OARC Mattermost server and for discussions related to RPKI we maintain a Discord server. You are likely to run into one of us in real-life at industry events such as IETF or ICANN meetings, or at operator meetings such as RIPE or NANOG. We'd love to discuss ideas and hear your feedback!
