“We’re never going to show you a banner ad in your code editor, and if we do, you can always build Zed from source.”
The editor is GPL, the server is AGPL and the GPUI framework is Apache 2.0. The money comes from Channels, which goes paid for private use after the beta, and from AI compute on Zed’s servers. Open sourcing the editor turns users into unpaid contributors and makes the hosted service the product. The no-ads promise ships with an exit plan for when the ads arrive.