Licensing for iOS deployment

mcosta

Hi all,

in my company we use the LGPL version of Qt to deploy applications for Desktop (OS X, Windows and Linux) and Android.
We're planning to create also iOS apps. Is in this case LGPL still available (iOS version is statically linked)?

Thanks

Manfred

hi mcosta,

Yes you can use the comunity version for ios.
When building for ios you have to be on a MAC and use XCode.
QtCreator will generate an xcode project for you and call the clang compiler behind the scenes.
This will build an IPA (ios program archive, if I recall correctly) which is an equivalent of an installer.
This IPA can then be installed via iTunes or XCode on your device (iPad, iPhone...)

for more info please take a look at this :
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/ios-support.html

cheers
Manfred

mcosta

thanks for the answer but my question is about licensing.

Can I use the opensource version of Qt to distribute iOS apps or shall I buy a license??

TioRoy

AFAIK, no.

Qt for IOS is compiled as static lib, because Apple does not allow dynlib on Apple Store. So it breaks GPL/LGPL.

To keep your source closed, you need to use a commercial version of Qt.

mcosta

Ok, you confirm what I supposed.

The only thing is understand how many licenses we need to buy. Our team is about 10 developers but we only need to build for iOS (expected only small part of platform specific code)

TioRoy

Here, we have 1 license to build and publish the app.
The others developers have the opensource version.

But we have an Indie Mobile License, (do not exist anymore?). The page to buy Indie Mobile still exists

The full comercial license offer more tools, compared with Indie Mobile.

mcosta

@TioRoy said:

Here, we have 1 license to build and publish the app.
The others developers have the opensource version.

Is that allowed?
We have a single machine used to build official packages to publish in AppStore (signature, provision profile, ...).

BTW, something to clarify with the Qt Company.

TioRoy

@mcosta said:

Is that allowed?

With Indie Mobile? Indie mobile = OpenSource with only one difference: static lib for IOS.
No comercial components, no QtCreator addons, no support, no qtquickcompiler....

Why not?