Open Source vs. Commercial On-premise

Overview

CARTO’s technology stack is open source, allowing private deployment on personal servers. However, the commercial on-premise offering provides additional value beyond the base software.

Open Source Documentation vs. Commercial Installer Support

Open Source Approach

The basic deployment process is documented in CARTO’s installation guides, suitable for development environments. This approach works well for proofs of concept or small projects where performance, high concurrency, or security are not big concerns.

Community support is available through:

• Google Groups forum
• GIS Stack Exchange

Commercial On-Premise Benefits

Support Services:

• Direct email access to support teams
• Architecture consulting
• Deployment and integration assistance
• Troubleshooting via screen sharing
• Scheduled maintenance operations

Technical Advantages:

• Pre-packaged RPM components with dependencies included
• Powerful installation and upgrade library
• Production-ready deployment in hours
• Configuration management tools

Production Stack Components:

The commercial installer includes third-party open source tools:

• Nginx (web server and reverse proxy)
• Varnish (caching layer)
• Unicorn (multiple Rails server instances)

These components are automatically configured during installation, enabling organizations to deploy fully production-ready environments efficiently.

Next Steps

For advanced solutions, CARTO offers consultation and live demonstrations to help organizations scale their implementations.