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The important limit is different: the Defold License does not let you commercialize Defold itself as a game-engine product. You must also include required license and copyright notices, identify significant changes to Defold, and comply with licenses for third-party components included in your build.
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What “free” means for a commercial Defold game
Defold is distributed under the Defold License, version 1.0, dated May 2020. The license is derived from Apache 2.0 and grants worldwide, perpetual, no-charge, royalty-free rights to use the engine. In practical terms, the cost of the engine does not increase when your game earns money, sells copies, shows advertising, or charges for in-game purchases.
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Defold’s own engine-and-editor FAQ describes the product as completely free of charge, with no hidden costs, fees, or royalties. That statement concerns Defold’s software license. It does not waive the separate commercial terms imposed by a console, app store, payment provider, advertising network, analytics service, or other distribution service.
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| Question | Answer under the Defold License |
|---|---|
| Can I sell a game made with Defold? | Yes. Commercialization of software created with original or modified Defold is permitted. |
| Does Defold take a percentage of game revenue? | No Defold license royalty is required. |
| Can I use the editor and engine without paying? | Yes. The official FAQ states that the full-functionality engine and editor are free. |
| Can I sell Defold as an engine product? | No. The license restricts commercializing Defold itself as a Game Engine Product. |
| Do stores and services become free? | No. Their account, review, payment, hosting, advertising, tax, and other terms remain separate. |
Therefore, “free” describes Defold’s license cost, not the total budget for releasing a game. You still need to account for development, art, audio, testing, business registration, payment processing, platform compliance, and any services you choose to use.
What the license lets you do
Release and monetize your own game
The central permission is broad: software created using Defold, whether you use an unmodified engine or a version you changed, can be commercialized. “Commercialized” covers ordinary activities such as selling a paid download, distributing a free game with advertising, charging for optional content, licensing the game to a publisher, or releasing a commercial project for a client.
The permission applies to the game you create, not only to prototypes or noncommercial projects. You do not have to publish your source code merely because the game was built with Defold. The engine license and the license you select for your game are separate matters.
Modify the engine
You may alter Defold for your project. The license summary does not require you to publish those changes. You can maintain a private fork, add internal tooling, change engine behavior, or make build adjustments needed by your game while keeping your game’s source and your engine modifications closed, provided you follow the license’s notice and other conditions.
Understand the Game Engine Product restriction
The restriction targets a different product category: the engine itself. The license defines a “Game Engine Product” as software used for video-game development, including content-authoring software and software used to display created content. You cannot take Defold or a derivative engine and sell that engine product as though the license grants a right to commercialize it.
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This distinction matters for tools companies, hosted editors, engine resellers, and products that bundle a modified Defold editor or runtime as a development platform. Selling a game that happens to contain Defold runtime technology is not the same activity as selling Defold as a game-development product.
If your business model involves redistributing an engine, offering a hosted development service, or exposing a modified editor to customers, read the license text closely and obtain qualified legal advice for questions the plain-language summary cannot resolve.
What you must include when distributing a game
Provide the Defold license and copyright notice
The license requires you to include the Defold license and copyright notice in copies of Defold and derivative work. A commercial game is normally distributed together with engine components, so plan a visible notice location before you ship rather than treating attribution as an afterthought.
Defold identifies several practical placements:
- a credits section in the game;
- a dedicated license screen or popup;
- a startup log;
- an accompanying text file; or
- a printed manual, where a physical manual is part of the product.
Choose a location that reaches every form of distribution you support. If your game has separate desktop, mobile, console, and HTML5 packages, check that each package gives users access to the notice or that the accompanying documentation travels with it.
Describe significant changes
If you made significant changes to Defold, the license requires you to state that fact. Your notice should identify that the distributed engine is modified and briefly describe the nature of the changes. Keep the wording accurate: do not claim that the upstream project made changes it did not make, and do not imply that Defold endorses your product.
A concise change statement can sit beside the license text in the same credits or license screen. Keep a fuller internal record of the modified files, version used, and release date so you can reproduce the notice for later updates.
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Defold includes third-party software, and some of those components may be included in games or applications built with the engine. Their licenses can impose additional attribution, notice, or redistribution conditions. Defold’s compliance guidance places responsibility on the developer to include the required third-party licenses and notices in the distributed work.
Do not assume that one Defold notice covers every dependency. For each release:
- inspect the engine version and build configuration you actually ship;
- identify third-party libraries, codecs, fonts, SDKs, and extensions included in that build;
- read the applicable license for each component;
- copy the required notices without editing away required wording; and
- place the resulting notice set where users and, when relevant, platform reviewers can access it.
Asset-store packages, advertising integrations, analytics libraries, and platform SDKs can introduce their own terms in addition to components bundled by Defold. Keep those obligations in the same release checklist, but do not describe them as Defold royalties.
Use your own game license if you want
You may license your game under terms you choose, including a proprietary end-user license. Your game’s license does not replace the Defold License. It must coexist with the required Defold and third-party notices and cannot remove permissions or obligations that apply to the engine components you distribute.
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Supported destinations
Defold’s FAQ lists support for console, mobile, desktop, and HTML5 targets. That means the engine is designed to build for those categories; it does not mean every individual platform accepts every game automatically. Each platform can require its own developer account, technical certification, age ratings, privacy disclosures, submission process, and business documentation.
Plan platform work as a separate track from engine licensing. A game can be legally commercial under the Defold License and still fail a platform review because of performance, content, controller, privacy, accessibility, or user-account requirements.
In-app purchases and advertising
Defold describes support for in-app purchases and advertising solutions and directs developers to the Asset Portal for current monetization integrations. Those integrations are capabilities and extension options, not a promise that Defold operates the payment or advertising service.
When you add a monetization service, review its current SDK license, revenue terms, data practices, regional availability, consent requirements, and reporting obligations. The service may charge its own fee or retain a share of transactions. Such a charge comes from that provider or platform, not from Defold’s engine license.
A release checklist for a commercial Defold game
- Record the engine version. Save the Defold version, build configuration, target platforms, and commit or archive used for the release.
- Decide whether you modified Defold. If you changed engine code or included a derivative, identify changes that are significant enough to disclose.
- Prepare the Defold notice. Include the Defold License and copyright notice in credits, a license screen, startup output, an accompanying text file, or another permitted distribution document.
- Add the modification statement. State that significant changes were made and summarize them accurately when applicable.
- Inventory dependencies. Generate a list from the actual build, including Defold third-party components, extensions, SDKs, libraries, fonts, codecs, and monetization packages.
- Collect third-party notices. Follow each component’s license instead of relying on a generic attribution paragraph.
- Test notice access. Verify that users can reach the notices in every package, including offline builds and platform-specific versions.
- Review platform rules. Check the current submission, content, privacy, payment, and technical requirements for each destination.
- Review service contracts. Confirm the separate terms for payment processing, advertising, analytics, hosting, and other services used by the game.
- Keep an evidence archive. Store license texts, notices, dependency lists, and build records with the release so updates can be audited.
Common situations and how the license applies
| Situation | Likely treatment | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| A paid game made with an unmodified Defold release | Commercial release is permitted with no Defold royalty. | Include Defold and applicable third-party notices. |
| A free game funded by advertising | Permitted under the engine license. | Review the advertising provider’s contract, privacy duties, and regional rules. |
| A game with paid downloadable content or in-app purchases | Permitted under the engine license. | Check the platform’s payment and digital-content policies plus the integration’s terms. |
| A private fork of Defold used to build your own game | The license summary does not require publishing your engine changes. | Disclose significant changes and preserve required notices. |
| A company selling a modified Defold editor or engine service | Potentially affected by the Game Engine Product restriction. | Read the license text and obtain advice for the proposed distribution model. |
| A game shipped with extensions or external SDKs | Commercialization may still be allowed. | Identify and satisfy every additional component license. |
Costs that remain outside Defold’s license
Zero engine royalties should not be confused with zero publishing cost. Depending on your project, you may pay for hardware, development software unrelated to Defold, art and audio production, contractors, testing, legal and accounting work, localization, age-rating submissions, developer accounts, payment processing, advertising inventory, cloud hosting, customer support, and taxes.
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The exact amount and applicability vary by destination and service. The Defold license does not set those prices, and they can change independently. Build a budget from the current terms of each platform and provider you intend to use rather than multiplying a Defold royalty rate—there is no such rate.
When to seek a closer legal review
The ordinary case—a studio builds and sells its own game—fits the license permission directly. More unusual arrangements deserve a closer reading of the full license: selling or licensing a modified engine, offering engine access to customers, redistributing editor binaries, combining Defold with another development platform, or making trademark and endorsement claims.
Defold’s public summaries are useful for planning, but they are not an independent legal opinion. For a product centered on engine redistribution, a large commercial partnership, or a dispute about notices or trademarks, consult the complete license text and qualified counsel in the jurisdictions where you operate.
Bottom line
Defold is free to use for commercial game development: you can ship a paid or monetized game without Defold licensing fees or royalties. The bargain has boundaries. Do not sell Defold itself as a game-engine product, include the Defold license and copyright notice, disclose significant engine changes, and satisfy the licenses of third-party components. Storefronts and monetization services remain separate businesses with their own rules and costs, so treat publishing compliance as a second checklist rather than assuming “free engine” means “free distribution everywhere.”
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