# Is this a legit Duplicati email? Trial expiring – I’m honestly confused
**URL:** https://forum.duplicati.com/t/is-this-a-legit-duplicati-email-trial-expiring-i-m-honestly-confused/21791
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [January 11, 2026, 9:33pm UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/is-this-a-legit-duplicati-email-trial-expiring-i-m-honestly-confused/21791 "2026-01-11T21:33:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@doncesco](https://forum.duplicati.com/u/doncesco)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2026, 9:33pm UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/is-this-a-legit-duplicati-email-trial-expiring-i-m-honestly-confused/21791/1 "2026-01-11T21:33:06Z")
Hey everyone,
I just received an email saying _“Your Duplicati trial will expire on 2026-01-16”_ from `noreply@mailer.duplicati.com`.
Honestly, I’m kind of shocked.
I’ve always associated **Duplicati** with being free and open source, simple and community-driven. I never expected to get a _trial expiration_ email from them.
So I have a few questions and I hope someone can clarify:
1. **Is this email actually legit?**
It looks real, but it feels strange for an open-source project to send trial expiry mails like this.
2. **Why is it no longer fully free?**
Did something change recently in their licensing or business model?
3. **Did this email only come because I created an account?**
I’m guessing this is related to their hosted / cloud / managed offering?
4. **If I had never created an account, would I never have received this email?**
Meaning: local/self-hosted Duplicati usage without any account is still unaffected?
I’m not trying to hate here – I genuinely liked the software a lot because of how simple it was and because it was promoted as open source.
But getting a _trial expiration notice_ was really unexpected and a bit unsettling.
Would appreciate factual clarification, not marketing talk.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@ts678](https://forum.duplicati.com/u/ts678)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2026, 2:22am UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/is-this-a-legit-duplicati-email-trial-expiring-i-m-honestly-confused/21791/2 "2026-01-12T02:22:28Z")
[“Click to register”, is a paid service, right?](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/click-to-register-is-a-paid-service-right/21748/4) should help clarify trial.
[Pricing plans](https://duplicati.com/pricing) shows the levels, including a free level below “Pro”.
[Duplicati Inc & Open Source](https://docs.duplicati.com/duplicati-programs/license/duplicati-inc-and-open-source) gave short summary of the situation:
> Duplicati Inc is founded with an Open Core model, where the open source client is further developed as open source, but with additional enterprise focused tools and services as a paid feature.
That’s new business model. Open source client went [MIT license](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License).
IMO community [contributions](https://github.com/duplicati/duplicati/graphs/contributors) are down but Duplicati Inc.'s are up.
As a community volunteer, I’m happy to get help from any source.
[News & Articles](https://duplicati.com/articles) has more, and there have also been forum topics.
[Introducing “Duplicati, Inc.](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/introducing-duplicati-inc/17491) in March 2024 has more on this history.
The lead developer might comment or answer any more questions.
---
### Author:  [@kenkendk](https://forum.duplicati.com/u/kenkendk)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2026, 9:48am UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/is-this-a-legit-duplicati-email-trial-expiring-i-m-honestly-confused/21791/3 "2026-01-12T09:48:59Z")
> [@doncesco](#):
>
> I’ve always associated **Duplicati** with being free and open source, simple and community-driven. I never expected to get a _trial expiration_ email from them.
The Duplicati client is open-source and free to use.
The Duplicati console is a proprietary solution that adds management features to the open-source client. The email is from the Duplicati console.
> [@doncesco](#):
>
> **Is this email actually legit?**
Yes.
> [@doncesco](#):
>
> **Why is it no longer fully free?**
The open-source client is fully free and open-source, the console has a free usage tier (and a free trial).
> [@doncesco](#):
>
> **Did this email only come because I created an account?**
Yes.
> [@doncesco](#):
>
> **If I had never created an account, would I never have received this email?**
> Meaning: local/self-hosted Duplicati usage without any account is still unaffected?
Yes.
There is no requirement to use the console. If your setup does not benefit from using the console, feel free to not use it.
See the links from @ts678 for more details, but generally Duplicati Inc is using an Open Core model where we sell some services which helps pay for development of the open source project.
---
### Author:  [@doncesco](https://forum.duplicati.com/u/doncesco)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2026, 10:27am UTC](https://forum.duplicati.com/t/is-this-a-legit-duplicati-email-trial-expiring-i-m-honestly-confused/21791/4 "2026-01-15T10:27:06Z")
okay thank you 🙂
so i delete the console and use it without. Thanks for the help.