Tidelift and the Python Software Foundation partner to support widely used Python web development libraries

Maintainers of the Pallets Projects, including the Flask microframework, now deliver commercial-grade support through Tidelift’s managed open source subscription

BOSTON, September 17, 2019—The Python Software Foundation and Tidelift today announced a partnership to support the community-driven Pallets Projects, a collection of Python web development libraries downloaded millions of times each month. Tidelift now provides recurring income to the team of developers behind these vitally important open source libraries to help ensure they are maintained to commercial standards. The collaboration also enables Pallets maintainers to deliver maintenance, security, and license assurances to Tidelift’s managed open source subscription customers, ensuring the libraries work well with their applications.

The Pallets libraries power web applications of all sizes and are consistently among the most downloaded Python projects. The Flask microframework, which is widely used for creating API endpoints, is central to the family of projects. All Pallets libraries—Flask, Jinja2, Werkzeug, click, MarkupSafe, itsdangerous, and Flask-SQLAlchemy—are now included in the Tidelift Subscription. 

“Through the Tidelift Subscription, we’re already providing commercial support for more than 1,000 of the most commonly used open source components, including many Python packages,” said Donald Fischer, CEO and co-founder of Tidelift. “We’re seeing strong interest among our subscribers in the Pallets Projects, so we are pleased to work with the Python Software Foundation to ensure these critical libraries are maintained to commercial standards by the people who know them best.”

Ewa Jodlowska, executive director of the Python Software Foundation, commented: “The Pallets Projects are key beneficiaries of our Fiscal Sponsorship Program to sustain critical community-driven projects. Now, through our collaboration with Tidelift, income from corporate subscribers goes to Pallets maintainers so they can devote more time to managing their projects. The Python ecosystem will benefit from this work, as will corporate users of the Pallets libraries, who now have a direct route to support from the creators of these crucial projects.”

Managed open source speeds application development

Most professional applications today are created using open source components, typically with hundreds of dependencies on other projects and libraries. Many of these components have no one being paid to keep them professionally maintained, so corporate teams must invest time in managing these components themselves and assume risk for anything that might go wrong.

Managed open source addresses this systemic problem to help teams become more productive and allow them to stay focused on developing their own apps—not the underlying open source infrastructure components. 

Through the Tidelift Subscription, companies get help identifying the open source software in their apps, understanding potential issues in those components, working with a network of open source maintainers to resolve issues, and choosing the best and most reliable packages to include in their apps. The Tidelift Subscription helps organizations use open source more effectively, while paying maintainers for the immense value they create.

Learn more about how to make open source work even better for professional developers in The 2019 Tidelift managed open source survey results.

About the Python Software Foundation

The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers. The majority of the PSF’s work is focused on empowering and supporting community members around the world. The PSF has active grant programs that support sprints, conferences, meet ups, user groups, and Python development efforts all over the world. In addition, the PSF underwrites and runs PyCon US, the primary Python community conference. Being part of the PSF means being part of the Python community. Learn more about membership here and consider donating to the PSF.

About Tidelift

Tidelift makes open source work better—for everyone. Through the Tidelift Subscription and in direct partnership with maintainers, Tidelift is a single source for proactively managed open source components and professional assurances around those components. Tidelift makes it possible for open source projects to thrive, so we can all create even more incredible software, even faster. 

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