Kaltura is a video technology vendor whose products serve education, enterprise and media customers. Its pricing page lists the products as a video management console and video portal, virtual events, webinars, virtual classroom, town halls, meetings, video messaging, media services APIs and an AI conversational agent studio, and offers most of them by quote or by plan rather than at a published price.[2] For a licence manager the contract matters more than a price list. Kaltura’s online Customer Agreement is the master document, an Order Form supplies the commercial quantities, and the vendor’s usage dashboards show how consumption is measured against them. Separately, Kaltura releases the installation packages of a Community Edition of its video platform as open source under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL).[9]
How Kaltura products are licensed
| Layer | What it is | Where it is covered |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Agreement | Online master terms between Kaltura and the customer, taking effect on acceptance, first use or an Order Form | Customer Agreement, Order Forms and trials |
| Order Form | Commercial document with services, minimum commitments and term | Customer Agreement, Order Forms and trials |
| Usage metrics | Stored media, outbound bandwidth, transcoding, entries, unique users, live and recording hours | Usage metrics |
| Credits | REACH credits for captioning and enrichment; Credits for AI offerings | REACH credits and the AI Addendum |
| Community Edition | Open source installation packages under AGPLv3 | Community Edition and commercial editions |
The Customer Agreement and Order Forms
The Kaltura Customer Agreement contains the terms that govern access to and use of Kaltura’s Service Offerings and takes effect when the customer accepts it, when it first uses a Service Offering, or when it executes an Order Form referencing it.[1] Where a customer buys a subscription through an Order Form signed by both parties, the Order Form and the billing terms in the Agreement’s section 5.3 apply. Minimum commitments in an Order Form are based on services purchased and not actual usage, are non-cancelable and cannot be decreased during the term, and the fees paid for minimum commitments and actual usage are not refundable.[1] The Agreement also says that a customer may not use the Service Offerings in a way intended to avoid incurring fees or exceeding usage limits or quotas.[1] Kaltura Europe Ltd. is the contracting entity where the account has a United Kingdom or European Union bill-to or sold-to address.[1] The rights granted are a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable and non-transferrable licence during the term.[1]
Usage metrics
Kaltura’s knowledge center describes usage per Publisher ID, the identifier of an account. The overview dashboard reports average stored media in GB, outbound bandwidth in GB, transcoded hours and transcoded media, managed entries, active unique users, live viewing hours, recording hours, interactive videos, delivered video streams and the REACH credits spent in the month.[3] Transcoding is measured differently from storage: it is the volume of the transcoded output and is billed once per transcode, whereas storage is measured repeatedly.[4] Kaltura says it offers pre-defined packages of bandwidth, storage and transcoding, with details from a Kaltura representative.[4] See Kaltura usage metrics.
Credits for REACH and AI
Two Kaltura services are consumed in credits. REACH, the captioning and enrichment framework, uses REACH profiles that carry allocated credit, remaining credit and a credit expiration date, and the profile’s credit tab shows credit type, amount, allowed overage and dates.[5] Kaltura’s AI offerings are governed by an AI Addendum, under which use operates under subscription fees, a free trial or a credit-based model, and Credits are purchased as specified in the Order Form and consumed by use.[6] REACH also has published product specifications and limitations, including a statement that batch submissions over 1,000 media minutes per day may be delayed unless coordinated in advance.[10] See REACH credits and the AI Addendum.
Trials
Kaltura publishes two trial agreements. Under the Free Trial Service Agreement, Kaltura may cease making a free trial available in whole or in part at any time in its sole discretion, and direct competitors may not access it.[7] Under the Limited Trial Service Agreement a valid credit card is required; Kaltura charges one dollar to validate the card and places a hundred dollar hold as a deposit, released on completion or termination provided the terms have been met.[8] The pricing page marks several solutions with a free trial or a limited trial.[2]
Community Edition and commercial editions
The README of Kaltura’s installation-packages project states that all code in the project is released under the AGPLv3 licence unless a different licence for a particular library is specified in the applicable library path.[9] The same README describes Kaltura as also providing commercial solutions and services, including monitoring, applications, an SLA, 24/7 support and professional services, and points to the hosted platform and to a commercial OnPrem Edition.[9] The AGPL differs from the ordinary GPL in its section 13, which requires a modified version that supports remote network interaction to offer its source to those users. See Community Edition and commercial editions and the general article on GNU GPL, LGPL and AGPL obligations.
Acceptable use
The Customer Agreement incorporates an Acceptable Use Policy, which Kaltura updates from time to time and whose version on the Kaltura site was last updated on 1 August 2021.[1][11] The customer is responsible for compliance of its content and its End Users with the policy.[1]
What a software asset manager should record
- The contract set: the Customer Agreement version, the Order Form or forms, and any AI Addendum, trial or REACH terms.
- The Kaltura accounts or Publisher IDs, and whether a Multi-Account is in use, since the Agreement allows one account per legal entity unless a Multi-Account is activated.[1]
- Each minimum commitment, its term and its metric, with usage read from the dashboards against it.
- Credit balances, expiry dates and allowed overage for REACH and AI.
- Any on-premises deployment, and whether it is the open source Community Edition or the commercial edition.
Out of scope
This article does not cover Kaltura’s privacy terms, the Data Processing Agreement, the sponsorship terms for virtual events, or vendor purchase order terms. It does not summarise pricing, because Kaltura publishes none, and it does not cover third-party products integrated with the Kaltura platform.