Stance

The grants extension is Open Source. Under AGPL-3.0-or-later.

The source code will be published on GitHub on January 1, 2027 — freely inspectable, freely auditable, freely usable. Including for self-hosting. Those who let us run Grantifex pay for service. Those who self-host pay us nothing. Both are legitimate.

View release plan → Self-host

License

SPDX-License-IdentifierAGPL-3.0-or-later

TYPO3 Extensiongrants

RepositoryGitHub

IWhy open source

Grant-making is a public matter.

Public organisations and foundations expect — rightly — that the tools they use to distribute tax money or foundation assets can be verified. Who decides on approvals? How are the numbers calculated? Who has which access?

Closed-source software on US servers is hard to reconcile with the claim of European data sovereignty. Open source solves this — not because it is ideologically better, but because traceability follows from the source code, not from a whitepaper.

It is no coincidence that the EU Commission, in its Open Source Strategy 2020–2023, explicitly encourages public authorities to prefer open-source solutions wherever it is technically and economically feasible.

„Public money should produce public code. If it is public money, it should be public code as well." Free Software Foundation Europe — Public Money, Public Code

publiccode.eu — Public Money, Public Code, FSFE initiative. EU Open Source Strategy — Strategy of the European Commission.

IIWhat AGPLv3 means

In plain language: what you may do — and what the license requires.

The AGPL — Affero General Public License version 3 — is one of the strongest open-source licenses. It allows almost everything. It demands a single thing in return.

→What you may do

Four rights. Unconditional.

Use the code — privately, commercially, in any context. For any purpose, without registration or permission from us.
Study the code and adapt it to your needs. Read it, understand it, change it. With or without our help.
Redistribute the code — give copies to third parties. Original or modified, for a fee or free of charge. Your decision.
Run the code yourself — on your own infrastructure. Your own domain, your own servers, your own branding. Without asking us.

!What the license requires

One obligation. Exactly one.

Anyone who modifies the code and offers it as an online service must disclose the changes. Even if the modified version is never shipped as software — but only made accessible via browser. That is the famous “Affero clause”.
Disclosure happens under the same license. So that improvements remain usable for everyone — even if a corporation takes over the code.
License and copyright notices are preserved. When redistributing, the origin of the code is stated.

This keeps the software usable for everyone — even if a corporation takes it over. If you want to read on in depth: the full license text is available from the Free Software Foundation.

IIIRelease plan

When the code goes public — concrete and honest.

The grants extension will be published on GitHub under AGPL-3.0-or-later on January 1, 2027.

Done

Platform in production

Full feature set already in use at the first pilot foundations.

Now

Release preparation

Code audit, licence headers, documentation, repository setup on GitHub.

2027 · January 1

Public repository

GitHub goes public. Issue tracker, pull requests and discussions open.

2027 · Q1

TER listing

Listed on extensions.typo3.org — the official TYPO3 Extension Repository.

We will announce the release right here as soon as it happens. Want a reminder? fill in the trial instance form (tick the “receive updates” option) or star the GitHub repo — the latter being possible, of course, only once it is public.

IVWhat open source does not mean

Open source does not mean "free as in worthless".

Open source means: the code is free. The service is work that has to be paid for.

Anyone with the time and the know-how can self-host — and pays us nothing. Anyone who cannot or would rather not pays Grantifex to have someone else do that work. Both are legitimate. Both have our respect.

What your price with us covers: hosting, backups, updates, security patches, maintenance, ongoing development, personal support. What it does not cover: your own work, if you self-host.

Free · to self-host

The code

Source code of the grants extension
Documentation & setup guide
Issue tracker & discussions
Pull requests & code reviews

Paid · from us

The service

Hosting in Germany
Updates & security patches
Daily backups
Personal support
Ongoing development with a roadmap

VSelf-hosting

A prospect — not a finished guide. Not yet.

We take self-hosting seriously. A full step-by-step guide ships in the repo with the release. Until then, here is what you will need.

You will need a TYPO3-capable server, the public provider repo with the Docker stack, and a few hours of setup time. Anyone who has worked with TYPO3 before is done in half a day. Anyone who has not — bring in a TYPO3 agency or book us for onboarding.

LanguagePHP 8.3 or newerWith extensions: intl, gd, zip, mbstring, curl

DatabaseMariaDB 10.6 / MySQL 8PostgreSQL possible, but unconfirmed

CMSTYPO3 v14 LTSEarlier versions are not supported

Storage≥ 4 GB RAM, 20 GB diskScales up with attachment volume

MailSMTP server or mail APIPostmark, Mailgun, your own mail server

setup · grantifex.local

# 1. Clone the provider repo
$ git clone https://github.com/grantifex/grants.git
$ cd grants

# 2. Create the configuration
$ cp .env.example .env
$ editor .env  # enter domain, DB, mail

# 3. Start the Docker stack
$ docker compose up -d
✓ typo3        running
✓ mariadb      running
✓ redis        running
✓ mailcatcher  running

# 4. Initial setup
$ docker compose exec typo3 
    typo3 grants:install --admin you@example.org

→ Portal ready at https://grantifex.local
→ Backend at https://grantifex.local/typo3

# Sketch. Final guide follows
# with the repo release on January 1, 2027.

VIIn the TYPO3 ecosystem

One of the most mature open-source CMS in Europe.

Grantifex is not a solitaire. It lives in an ecosystem with an active community, its own conferences, clear standards and an established marketplace for extensions.

The grants extension will be listed in the official TYPO3 Extension Repository (extensions.typo3.org) once it is published. That way any TYPO3 developer can find it — without knowing us.

2003First releaseTYPO3 as an open platform

9,000+Extensions in the TERFrom forms to accounting

v14Current LTS versionLong Term Support · 2025–2028

DEAssociation seatTYPO3 Association · Düsseldorf

VIIContribute

Three ways to make Grantifex better.

Anyone who wants to contribute can. Pull requests are reviewed and merged when they fit the roadmap.

Way 01

Bug report

Found a bug? Open an issue on GitHub — with reproduction steps and the affected version. We confirm within two business days.

GitHub issue · from January 1, 2027 · public

Way 02

Feature request

Missing a feature? Open a discussion on GitHub. If it fits the roadmap, we schedule it. If not, we honestly say why.

GitHub discussion · from January 1, 2027

Way 03

Code contribution

Can build it yourself? Fork, branch, pull request. For larger changes, check in first — otherwise someone develops the same area in parallel.

Pull request · from January 1, 2027 · CONTRIBUTING.md

VIIITrust over promises

Until the code is public, you have to trust us. That's not ideal.

And we don't want to leave it at that.

We know this asks for trust up front. An extension that officially will be AGPL — but isn't public yet. That's the reality of an early stage, not the end state. We're transparent about it.

Once the code is published, this reservation falls away on its own. Until then, we offer a bridge: a code review under NDA.

Prefer to verify for yourself before you sign?

A test instance under your subdomain, NDA access to the code, a personal conversation. In that order — or any other.

Request trial instance → NDA review