April

What April does

April (Association pour la Promotion et la Recherche en Informatique Libre) is a French non-profit advocacy association founded on 20 November 1996 by computer science students from Paris 8 university and headquartered at 44/46 rue de l'Ouest, Paris. The association promotes and defends free software and open standards in the Francophone world, reaching the general public, professionals, and institutions through community events, mailing lists, a weekly press review, the 'Libre à vous !' radio show on Radio Cause Commune, and advocacy campaigns such as 'Adieu Windows, bonjour le Libre !'. It is funded almost entirely by member subscriptions (minimum €10/year for individuals, with suggested tiers up to €100) and donations; donations are not tax-deductible under French law, and the association does not publish financial statements.

The organization's 'products' are advocacy and community infrastructure rather than commercial software: the april.org website (running on Debian, Apache, NginX, MySQL, Drupal, MediaWiki, and other free tools hosted at Hetzner in Germany with backups at Fondation Free), the weekly 'Libre à vous !' radio show and its transcription site librealire.org, the Chapril self-hosting service suite under the CHATONS banner, and an internally developed member-management tool called gDTC. Sub-brands include DiSHITal (a card game introduced in 2026) and the Planète April blog aggregator. The association is governed by an elected board of directors chaired by President Magali Garnero (Bookynette), with a small paid staff of 10 employees supplemented by volunteer contributors across working groups. As of 2025–2026 it claims 2,890 members (2,589 individuals plus 301 companies, associations, and local authorities), and allocates roughly 43% of expenditure to awareness, 30% to institutional dossiers, 9% to international dossiers, 8% to associative life, 8% to member management, and 2% to system administration.

Name

April

Legal name

Association pour la Promotion et la Recherche en Informatique Libre

Website

https://april.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

April is a French non-profit association founded in 1996 that promotes and defends free software and open standards in the Francophone world, serving its 2,890 individual and organizational members through advocacy, community events, and media including the weekly 'Libre à vous !' radio show.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Free Software Advocacy

NAICS

Business Associations (813910), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Business, Professional, Labor, Political, and Similar Organizations (8139)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

OER Licensing, Rights & Open Policy Support (Creative Commons) (EDAGAJAO)

akta.pro secondary industry

Open Multimedia OER (video, audio, podcasts, animations) (EDAGAJAF)

Keywords

• Free software advocacy
• Open source promotion
• Digital rights association
• Software freedom advocacy
• Open standards promotion

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership dues and donations: April is a non-profit association under the French law of 1 July 1901, financed by member subscriptions (cotisations) and donations. The association has a paid staff team funded by these contributions. Dons are not tax-deductible in France.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

April is a non-profit advocacy association founded in 1996 that promotes and defends free software and open standards in the French-speaking world. It sells annual memberships (minimum €10) and accepts donations to fund awareness campaigns, institutional advocacy, community events, the weekly "Libre à vous!" radio show on Radio Cause Commune, publications under free licenses, and the Chapril free services platform.

Product overview

April is a non-profit advocacy association (loi 1901) founded in 1996, dedicated to promoting and defending free software with the motto 'logiciel libre, société libre'. The organization does not develop commercial software products but provides advocacy services and platforms including: its main website (april.org) as a communication and resource hub; the weekly radio show 'Libre à vous !' broadcast on radio Cause Commune with transcriptions; the Chapril platform offering libre services; the Trombinoscope member directory; the Planète April blog aggregator; and photo galleries. April connects approximately 2,890 members (individuals and organizations) through these platforms to advance free software adoption in the French-speaking world.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Chapril: Free and loyal services (email, hosting, etc.) offered by April to its community.
• Libre à vous !
• DiSHITal

Products and services

• Annual Membership (Cotisation)
• Chapril Free Services Platform
• Libre à vous! Radio Show and Podcast
• DiSHITal Card Game
• April Advocacy and Awareness Campaigns

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Chapril (CHATONS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Chapril is the April's suite of free and loyal services, providing self-hosting and communication tools (email, pads, etc.) to the community. It is a direct initiative of the association.
• Radio Cause CommunecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe 'Libre à vous!' radio show is broadcast on Radio Cause Commune, a community radio station. This is the primary media channel for the association's outreach.
• Libre à vous! transcriptions (Libre à lire)minorOthersThe transcriptions of the Libre à vous! show are published on librealire.org, extending accessibility of the content.
• En Vente Libre (e-commerce platform)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorApril merchandise and donation collection is managed through the En Vente Libre online store at enventelibre.org.
• WikimaniaminorGTM or Marketing PartnerApril participates with a stand at Wikimania 2026, the annual Wikimedia conference.
• Fête de l'Huma (Fête de l'Humanité)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerApril has a stand at the Fête de l'Humanité festival in September 2026 at La Base 217 (91).
• Libre en fêteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerA network of local events (Libre en fête) coordinated by April to promote free software at the local level across France.
• GULL (GNU/Linux User Groups) and local free software groupsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerApril collaborates with regional GULLs and local free software groups (such as Cenabumix in Loiret) for joint events and initiatives.
• Hetzner Online AGcoreOthersPhysical server infrastructure is hosted with Hetzner Online AG in Gunzenhausen, Germany. Backup infrastructure is hosted by Fondation Free in Paris.
• Let's EncryptminorOthersSSL certificates for the April website are provided by Let's Encrypt.
• Fondation FreeminorOthersBackup servers and supervision infrastructure are hosted by the Fondation Free at 8 rue de la Ville l'Évêque, 75008 Paris.
• LinuxFr.orgminorGTM or Marketing PartnerAggregator feed from LinuxFr.org news is displayed on the April homepage as part of the free software news ecosystem.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Framasoft: Framasoft is a French popular-education non-profit promoting free software and online freedoms through 'dégooglelise' the internet campaigns and a portfolio of free web services. It is April's closest French domestic peer, with a similar audience and complementary service-delivery focus (Framasoft ships products, April advocates).
• Free Software Foundation: The FSF is the original global free software advocacy organization founded by Richard Stallman in 1985, focused on promoting software freedom and the GPL. Like April, it is a membership-based non-profit running campaigns, events, and licensing work, and is the most direct global counterpart to April's Francophone advocacy mission.
• La Quadrature du Net: La Quadrature du Net is a French advocacy group defending digital rights through litigation, public campaigns, and EU policy lobbying. It overlaps with April's digital-freedoms advocacy mission in France and is a frequent co-signatory on open-source and interoperability dossiers.
• Free Software Foundation Europe: FSFE is a pan-European sibling organization to April, advocating for free software at the EU policy level. It shares April's advocacy, policy engagement, and community-building model but operates transnationally rather than within a single national market, making it the closest cross-border peer.
• Open Source Initiative: OSI is the steward of the Open Source Definition and licenses, and a global advocacy body for open source in industry and policy. While oriented to 'open source' rather than 'free software', OSI shares April's license-defining, standards-promoting, and institutional-advocacy role.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: EFF is a leading digital rights advocacy non-profit whose scope extends beyond free software into broader digital freedoms (privacy, free speech, encryption). EFF and April share the digital-freedoms advocacy model, donation-driven funding, and public policy engagement, though EFF's remit is much wider.
• AFUL (Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de Logiciels Libres): AFUL is another historical French-speaking free software user association, with a more developer/sysadmin-flavored audience than April's broader citizen-advocacy base. It is a direct domestic peer, historically collaborating with April on free-software events and policy work in France.
• Creative Commons: Creative Commons is a global non-profit that builds free licensing infrastructure (CC licenses) used by April's own publications (CC-BY-SA). It shares April's licensing/policy advocacy model in the broader free-culture ecosystem and is a natural partner in open-policy work.

Emerging players

• Wikimedia Foundation: Wikimedia Foundation operates Wikipedia and sister free-knowledge projects under a free-content model that is conceptually aligned with April's free-software advocacy. April regularly attends Wikimania, and both organizations sit in the broader free-culture ecosystem though their operational models differ.

Broad incumbents

• Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation is the largest industry consortium supporting open-source development (Linux, Kubernetes, etc.) via corporate membership, training, and standards. It addresses a much broader industrial open-source constituency than April and represents the corporate/developer-foundation end of the ecosystem April advocates for.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/april_3

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about April