{"id":3743,"date":"2014-11-11T15:31:54","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T15:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/commercial-software\/"},"modified":"2023-06-05T09:18:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T09:18:32","slug":"commercial-software","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4245\/commercial-software","title":{"rendered":"Commercial Software"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_commercial_software_mean\">What Does Commercial Software Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Commercial software is any software or program that&#8217;s designed and developed for licensing or sale to end users or that serves a commercial purpose. Commercial software was once considered proprietary software, but now a number of free and open-source software applications are licensed or sold to end users.<\/p>\n<p>Off-the-shelf software programs, such as games or those sold in computer specialty stores or even music stores and grocery stores, are some examples of commercial software.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft products, such as the Windows Operating System and MS Office, are some of the most well-known examples of commercial software.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_commercial_software\">Techopedia Explains Commercial Software<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Commercial software is normally licensed, not sold. It was once the domain of proprietary software, developed from scratch by a specific company to solve a specific problem or fill a specific niche and then licensed or sold to the people or organizations that needed them.<\/p>\n<p>This type of software includes financial, marketing, and accounting software. During the last decades, however, some open-source applications have also become commercial software, licensed to customers as is or as part of a service.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to popular belief, open-source software doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean free software. Depending on the distribution license, the former can be considered commercial software but comes with the source code to allow customization. Some commercial software applications may also be used freely for non-commercial use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Commercial Software Mean? Commercial software is any software or program that&#8217;s designed and developed for licensing or sale to end users or that serves a commercial purpose. Commercial software was once considered proprietary software, but now a number of free and open-source software applications are licensed or sold to end users. Off-the-shelf software [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[230,239],"class_list":["post-3743","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-privacy-and-compliance","definitioncat-productivity-software"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Commercial Software? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Commercial Software and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commercial Software\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Commercial Software and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4245\/commercial-software\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-05T09:18:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4245\/commercial-software#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4245\/commercial-software\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Commercial Software\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-11T15:31:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-05T09:18:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4245\/commercial-software\"},\"wordCount\":231,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4245\/commercial-software#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4245\/commercial-software\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/4245\/commercial-software\",\"name\":\"What is Commercial Software? 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