Who is the Exponential Foundation?

The Exponential Foundation is the nonprofit organization behind the Exponential open source project. This page explains what the Foundation is, how it relates to 7x, which products make up the Exponential family and who each one is for, what the project commits to, how it grows, and how you can support it or join it.

Every statement names its source: a file in this repository, a public web page, or a command you can run yourself. The page does not describe what the sources do not say. Where a fact could not be checked, the page says so.

Contents #

1. In short
2. What the Foundation is
3. The Foundation and 7x
4. What the sources do not say
5. The product family at a glance
6. The products one by one
7. Which product is for you
8. The support commitment
9. How the project grows
10. The PHP stack it stands on and gives back to
11. Timeline
12. How to support or join
13. Glossary
14. Sources

In short #

• A nonprofit for an open source project. The Foundation describes itself as "a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Corporation founded in Seattle, Washington, USA", founded on 19 March 2026 (https://foundation.exponential.earth/).
• Its mission is "dedicated directly to the continued Funding, Adoption, Support, Direction, Education, Development, Promotion and Documentation for the Exponential Enterprise Open Source Project" (same page).
• It operates the project. "This project is operated by the Exponential Foundation a Public Non-Profit Corporation" (https://exponential.earth/about/project).
• 7x is its main contributor. The Foundation names 7x "the current leader in contributions both financial, code, extension development, new features, infrastructure, maintenance and much much more back to the project" (https://foundation.exponential.earth/).
• It shares the copyright. The kernel's notice reads "Copyright (C) 1998 - 2026 Exponential Foundation and 7x. All rights reserved." (COPYRIGHT.md).
• Everything is free software. The code is GPL v2 or later, the documentation GFDL 1.3 or later (The license of this documentation, CONTRIBUTING.md).

What the Foundation is #

In its own words #

What the Foundation funds #

The se7enxweb GitHub profile README lists what a sponsorship of the Foundation pays for:

• "Core library maintenance — exponential, exponential-platform, exponential-platform-legacy";
• "API documentation at api.exponential.earth" and "Core documentation at doc.core.exponential.earth";
• "GraphQL, REST, and Solr — modern integration layers for headless and API-first builds";
• "Community infrastructure — Slack, mirrors, wikis, and developer resources";
• "zetacomponents security hardening — 14 upstream security PRs submitted in April 2026 alone".

The Foundation's site #

https://foundation.exponential.earth/ has the sections About, Mission Statement, Support, Goals, News and Supporters. The Goals section says there is "a long detailed list of growth goals for the Exponential Project in 2026"; the list itself is not on the page, so it is not repeated here. The News section announced the Foundation's formation and its tax exemption.

The Foundation and 7x #

The Foundation and 7x are two organizations with one project:

"The Exponential Open Source Project is funded by donations of time and resources by 7x (and Exponential Sponsors)" (https://exponential.earth/about/project). The Foundation's Supporters section: "The Exponential Foundation supports direct change within the Exponential Project, Sub Projects, New Features, Documentation through the work of 7x" (https://foundation.exponential.earth/).

The profile README explains the two sponsorship streams: sponsoring 7x funds "the company that keeps the lights on" (monthly releases, Zeta Components patches, the LegacyBridge, the Symfony fork, the database translator, the training book mirror); sponsoring the Foundation funds "the open-source project itself".

What the sources do not say #

To keep this page honest, these questions are left open because no public source used here answers them: who sits on the Foundation's board, how it is governed, whether it has members besides its supporters, and what its budget is. Ask the Foundation through its website if you need to know. The Foundation's postal address and registration numbers are published on its websites and are not repeated here.

The product family at a glance #

The products the Foundation names are "Exponential, Exponential Platform and Exponential Basic" (https://foundation.exponential.earth/). Around them 7x and the project maintain servers, extensions and tools. The "State" column is the state on 18 October 2026, with its source.

The products one by one #

Exponential 6, the kernel #

What it is. "Exponential is a professional PHP application framework with advanced CMS (content management system) functionality. As a CMS its most notable feature is its fully customizable and extendable content model" (README). Its code was once the code of eZ Publish, a product that its creator discontinued after almost eighteen years of service to the world (7x's account, owner, 18 October 2026); Exponential carried that code forward and is published as the Composer package se7enxweb/exponential (composer.json). The README lists its main features: user-defined content classes, version control, multilingual support, a built-in search engine, role-based permissions, approval and scheduled publication, multisite support, built-in e-commerce, workflows, a template engine, a headless REST API, a database abstraction layer, clustering, and a plugin API.

Who it is for. Organizations that run structured content, several sites or several languages from one installation, and developers who build applications on its framework.

Where it stands. 6.0.15 is the current line, after 6.0.14 (7 June 2026). It adds, among much else, Velocity, the admin4 design, an audit trail, Exponential Layouts, Exponential Intelligence, content jobs, packages end to end, more than 360 locales in the README's count, the LoveStack features of Mugo Web and this help system (6.0.15 changelog, README "Recent improvements"). The story of every change since December 2023 is in the history.

Exponential Basic #

What it is. "Exponential Basic is the simple to us to use CMS Framework that is for everyone, educational purposes, personal use and worldwide general" (repository description of se7enxweb/exponentialbasic). Its repository is a fork of brookinsconsulting/ezcommunity2, the line of eZ Publish 2.2 that Brookins Consulting kept alive (GitHub API; Who is 7x?).

Who it is for. Learners, personal sites and anyone who wants a small CMS.

Where it stands. "Exponential Basic v2.4.0.3: PHP 8.4/8.5.9 ... (MySQL, Postgresql, SQLite, Informix) ... GNU GPLv2+", website https://basic.exponential.earth (repository description).

Exponential Platform 3.2.9 #

What it is. "7x Exponential Platform 3.2.9 CMS / DXP based on the last free versions of eZ Platform. Symfony / New Stack Only. No Exponential 6.x Legacy Support" (repository description of se7enxweb/exponential-platform). Its composer.json requires the se7enxweb forks of the eZ Platform 3 bundles (kernel, admin UI, REST, GraphQL, rich text, Solr, HTTP cache and others).

Who it is for. Teams that run eZ Platform 3 and want to stay on it with current PHP.

Exponential Platform Legacy #

What it is. "Exponential Platform Legacy provides a clean distribution of Exponential Platform ... with Exponential (Legacy) Included (now with SQLite support)" (repository description). Its composer.json requires se7enxweb/exponential and se7enxweb/legacy-bridge, so Exponential 6 runs next to the Symfony platform. The README lists the lines 2.5.x, 3.3.x, 4.6.x and 5.0.x as "Dual Kernel Symfony CMS which also includes a full copy of Exponential 6".

Who it is for. Existing Exponential sites, including sites built when the software was still called eZ Publish, that want Symfony beside them and move forward step by step (Legacy bridge).

Exponential Platform Nexus #

What it is. "Platform v2/v3/v4/v5 + Exponential v6.x (Legacy) + Netgen Media Site + NG Layouts + Symfony 7.4/5.4/3.4 PHP 8.0-8.5 Compatibility" (repository description of se7enxweb/exponential-platform-nexus). Its composer.json requires se7enxweb/exponential, netgen/layouts-core, netgen/layouts-standard and netgen/layouts-ui, so it ships the layouts editor. The README lists Nexus 1.0.0.x to 1.3.0.x, for Platform v2.5 to v5. A CJW flavor exists (se7enxweb/cjw-exponential-platform-nexus) and a ready-to-run starter (exponential-platform-nexus-starter, "Currently In Public Beta" in its description) (Nexus starter).

Who it is for. Agencies and teams who want a complete website with demo content, layouts and an administration in minutes.

Exponential Platform DXP #

What it is. "Exponential Platform DXP is a free, open-source Digital Experience Platform built on the Symfony framework, the community continuation of the eZ Platform and Ibexa OSS line maintained by 7x" (README). The meta package se7enxweb/exponential-platform-dxp describes itself as "Stable; Open Source" with the license "GPL-2.0-or-later or proprietary" (its composer.json).

What it ships, read from its requirements: the admin UI, content forms, REST, GraphQL and the GraphiQL console, HTTP cache, core and Solr search, the rich text, matrix and query field types, notifications, messenger, cron, the standard design, Twig components, JWT authentication and se7enxweb/layouts-core. What it does not ship: a layouts editor (no layouts UI or standard blocks), an approval workflow, a scheduler, or the legacy kernel. For Exponential 6 beside Symfony, choose Legacy or Nexus.

What the README says it adds over Ibexa DXP OSS: "The SQLite database driver and framework support", current PHP ("PHP 8.3 and later"), "A path from Exponential 6" through the dual-kernel distributions, and "A name of its own".

Who it is for. Organizations with a lot of structured content, teams leaving eZ Platform or Ibexa OSS, and Symfony developers (README, "Who it is for"). Start from the DXP skeleton.

Exponential Velocity #

What it is. "A pure PHP web server. No nginx, no Apache, no php-fpm. One process serves static files, PHP scripts, WebSocket connections, and a live dashboard" (README of se7enxweb/exponential-velocity). It "began as a fork of the Qbix web server engine" and keeps the application loaded between requests (README of Exponential). It is MIT licensed (its composer.json).

Who it is for. Every Exponential site: it is "the recommended engine for every stage, from development to production" (README, "Engines"). FrankenPHP is "the production-ready alternative", PHP's built-in server the development default.

Where it stands. First commits in July 2026, first release v0.0.1 in September 2026, part of Exponential since 22 September 2026 (Velocity chronicle); the README names it as required at ~0.0.4.57; it runs on PHP 8.0 since release 0.0.4.54.

Exponential Intelligence #

What it is. "A writing assistant built into the administration interface" that "writes drafts, as the signed-in editor and with that editor's own permissions", never publishes on its own, and works with hosted providers in the US or the EU or with a local open-weight model (README, "Exponential Intelligence"). Package se7enxweb/expai.

Who it is for. Editors, project managers and content writers ("Great for project managers and content writers!", repository description).

Where it stands. Required in composer.json since 6.0.15; "A new installation activates it by default" and it "sends nothing anywhere until you add a provider key" (README). Read Exponential Intelligence before you switch it on.

Exponential Layouts #

What it is. "A visual page builder for Exponential. It brings the concept of the upstream layouts packages to the Exponential kernel: a layout is a saved arrangement of blocks in zones, and a rule decides which pages get it" (README). Packages se7enxweb/explayouts and the explayouts-* family.

Who it is for. Editors who rearrange pages without template work, and designers (The layouts editor).

AdminUI #

What it is. "A feature complete port of the legendary Netgen AdminUI Administration UI. This solution depends on Exponential 6.0.15* or greater" (repository description of se7enxweb/exp_adminui). It is one of the administration designs; Admin 4 is the one most installations use (Help for editors and users).

The help system #

What it is. The help in the administration that shows the git-tracked documentation of doc/, rendered safely, searchable and filtered by audience, with a "?" context help button on every page (Help system). Its pages are free documentation (Free documentation). Help pages written as content in the database are planned in phases; phase 1 is in 6.0.15 (Help as content).

The extension ecosystem #

composer.json requires 66 se7enxweb/* packages: themes, the shop's PayPal gateway, tags, newsletters, two-factor authentication, the Oracle driver, the REST API, the job queue, the page builder and more. The list, with one line each, is on Who is 7x? and in The default extension distribution. On Packagist the vendor se7enxweb has 219 packages (https://packagist.org/packages/list.json?vendor=se7enxweb).

Companion projects #

• request-shield is a project of CJW Network (https://github.com/cjw-network/request-shield), not of the Foundation. Exponential documents how its HTTP cache works with request-shield in front (HTTP cache) and how to load it under Velocity (config.php-RECOMMENDED). Its website https://request-shield.com/ was private when this page was written, so nothing more is said here.
• The package server exponential.packages.exponential.earth serves the packages of the setup wizard ("Users do not need to use this server outside the setup wizard usage", repository description).
• AdminNeo, through sevenx_dse, the database source editor (sevenx_dse).

Which product is for you #

The support commitment #

The project does not publish one "support policy" document. The commitments below are each written down in the place named; together they describe how the project looks after its users.

PHP versions #

The continuous integration runs the test suite on PHP 8.1 to 8.5 and checks that PHP 8.0 still boots, on every push to main and every pull request (CI).

Security fixes #

• "Exponential 6.0 is the maintained line. Security fixes are made on the main branch ... and published with the next 6.0.x release" (SECURITY.md).
• Report privately to [email protected]: "You can expect a first answer within one business day" (SECURITY.md).
• 5.x, 4.x, 3.x and older are not supported (SECURITY.md).
• Hardening is documented for administrators: Security hardening and chapter 13 of the installation book.

Releases and version numbers #

• Published versions never change. "A published tag is never changed: a fix for a problem in v6.0.14 or an earlier tag reaches you as the next release, not as a corrected copy of the old one" (SECURITY.md).
• The last position counts on. "After 0.1.9 the next release is 0.1.10; only the last position counts up unless you decide otherwise", and versions are sorted with --sort=version:refname, not by name (Extensions, "Release it"; the same for Velocity in Getting the code).
• An extension states its version in its own files. ezinfo.php and extension.xml carry the release number (Extensions).
• Distribution through GitHub and Packagist. Every package is a GitHub repository under se7enxweb and a Composer package; composer require or a Git clone installs it (Getting the code).

Documentation #

• The documentation lives in the repository, in doc/, and this help shows it in the administration (Help system).
• It is free documentation under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or later (The license of this documentation).
• Every change since December 2023 is told in the history and recorded in the ledgers.

Languages and accessibility #

• 368 locale files, 43 of them right to left, and administration translations (the current totals are at the top of Languages in Exponential) (Languages); dir="rtl" in content and administration (Right to left).
• The admin4 design follows WCAG rules that tests check: a contrast test of the color tokens in light and dark mode and target sizes of at least 24 by 24 pixels (Styling the administration).

Security headers and the Content Security Policy #

Exponential sends a Content Security Policy from site.ini [ContentSecurityPolicy]; "By default it is report-only on the administration and off on the sites" (Content Security Policy). New administration templates carry no inline styles or scripts so that a strict policy can be enforced (CONTRIBUTING.md).

Git first #

"Building websites with Exponential? The recommended way is to get the kernel and every se7enxweb extension as Git clones with their full history" (README, "Installation"; Develop with Git).

How the project grows #

Contributors and pull requests #

• Every pull request is merged. While it is open, its author squashes it and rebases it onto main as the reviews ask; once it is merged, main's history is never rewritten, and later fixes come as new pull requests (CI, commit messages; Code reviews).
• Contributions stay free. "any modifications made to the project are also released under the same GPLv2 or later license" (CONTRIBUTING.md).
• Copyright assignment (CLA). The Exponential Foundation and 7x require a signed Contributor Licensing Agreement for every code contribution to the core kernel, in any form, before it is merged. By signing and submitting, the contributor assigns the copyright in the contribution to the Exponential Foundation and 7x, which become its owners, and gives up control over it: the Exponential Foundation and 7x may use, change, relicense and distribute it in any way, also commercially and under other licenses, without asking or paying the contributor, who cannot withdraw it or set conditions on it. Users' own custom extensions are not affected (Copyright assignment (CLA)).
• Who contributes. Since December 2023 pull requests have come from se7enxweb, ekked, fwoldt, netgen, brookinsconsulting, mugoweb and others (git log --grep="Merge pull request"). Before that, hundreds of people built eZ Publish (Who is 7x?).
• Work of other projects, credited. The LoveStack improvements of Mugo Web were rebuilt "with full credit to Mugo Web" (README); Exponential Layouts ports the concept of the upstream layouts packages (README).

Community places #

No events (conferences, meetups) are documented in the sources used for this page.

The PHP stack it stands on and gives back to #

Timeline #

How to support or join #

• Sponsor the Foundation: https://github.com/sponsors/exponentialcms, or "with a sustaining subscription or one time donation" through https://foundation.exponential.earth/. The Foundation says donations are tax deductible in the United States; check with your own tax adviser.
• Sponsor 7x: https://github.com/sponsors/se7enxweb, https://sponsor.se7enx.com, https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/7xweb (README).
• Contribute code: fork, branch, pull request (Develop with Git, CONTRIBUTING.md).
• Report what is wrong: When something goes wrong.
• Translate and document: Languages; every help page has "Edit on GitHub".
• Talk to people: the forums and Telegram.

Glossary #

Sources #

Repository files (se7enxweb/exponential): README.md, COPYRIGHT.md, LICENSE, SECURITY.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, composer.json, release overview, history, ecosystem, CI, Extensions, Languages, Content Security Policy, Styling the administration, 6.0.15 changelog.

Other repositories, read through the GitHub API on 18 October 2026: the composer.json and description of exponential-platform, exponential-platform-legacy, exponential-platform-nexus, exponential-platform-dxp, exponential-platform-nexus-starter, exponentialbasic, exponential-velocity, expai, exp_adminui, and the se7enxweb profile README (se7enxweb/.github).

7x's own account of its three stages (2014, 2022, 2023), given by the owner of 7x for this page on 18 October 2026.

Public web pages, read on 18 October 2026: https://foundation.exponential.earth/, https://exponential.earth/about/project, https://exponential.earth/, https://se7enx.com/about, https://ezpedia.exponential.earth/, https://share.exponential.earth/, https://doc.exponential.earth/, https://packagist.org/packages/list.json?vendor=se7enxweb.

Related pages #

• Who is 7x?
• The history of Exponential
• Develop with Git
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve.

Become an Exponential Partner. Partners share their information, provide funding, contribute back and develop the products with us, and that is how Exponential grows. A partner website and dashboard are planned for mid-2027: please become a partner today to speed up our growth rate and land new features faster. Start with Partners: start here and How to apply.

Copyright and copyleft #

Since 29 October 2026 the copyright of Exponential is held by the Exponential Foundation and 7x together, the Foundation named first: "Exponential Copyright © 1998-2026 Exponential Foundation and 7x", in files "Copyright (C) 1998 - 2026 Exponential Foundation and 7x. All rights reserved." Who holds it and why, what the GPL lets you do, the third-party notices that stay and how to write the notice in new files and extensions: Copyright and copyleft.