[mfreed]

"Can I use Timescale to provide a SaaS service that collects application traces, and I provide a DSL to query the database that is not exposing the DB directly?"

Yes you can. (Timescale co-founder here)

The vast majority of people using TimescaleDB use our community/open-source software (rather than managed Cloud), and vast vast majority of those use the TSL (Community) edition, including many as part of their SaaS service.

It's a three-part test for asking "is this a value added service?" [0] Given the way your have described your service, sounds like a clear "Yes".

- Is your SaaS service primarily different than a database product/service? Yes.

- Is the main value of your SaaS service different than that of a time-series database, and you aren't primarily offering your SaaS service as a time-series database? Yes.

- Are users prevented from directly defining internal table structures through the database DDL? Presumably yes.

[0] https://www.timescale.com/legal/licenses#section-3-10-value-...

[boomskats]

As someone previously sceptical of the wording in your proprietary license, I appreciate the clarification for this use case & the rationale behind those license terms.