Why do you want these notes?
The official offers a variety of subscription plans, while also opening some of the functions of X-PACK. Then the questions we need to be clear are:
1) What functions does the free version have?
2) What functions of X-PACK can we use?
For this question, you can refer to the Elastic Stack subscriptions page, without reading the rest of this note.
What is a subscription plan?
The official provides several flexible subscription plans, and users can choose according to their own needs. The so-called "subscription plan" is the normal version, membership version, gold version and so on.
This article will briefly introduce these subscription plans and the features (emphasis) included in them.
Types of subscription plans
08/12/2019
Currently there are only four subscription plans: Open Source, Basic, Gold, and Platinum.
The first two subscription plans are free and can be downloaded for free, and Basic is the default.
You can use GET /_xpack/license to check the license status.
06/01/2020
https://www.elastic.co/elasticsearch/service/pricing
Standard Gold Gold Enterprise => all are paid versions
https://www.elastic.co/subscriptions
OPEN SOURCE => Free version, but does not include the following functions (here only the functions we are interested in are listed, please refer to the link above for other descriptions):
1) Index lifecycle management
Feature list of subscription plan
Each subscription plan contains different functions, please refer to the Elastic Stack subscriptions page
About X-Pack extension
08/12/2019
In addition, X-Pack has already opened certain functions, and you can also see whether certain functions are open in Elastic Stack subscriptions .
In Elasticsearch 6.3, the X-Pack package has been installed by default, so there is no need to install it separately. Use GET _xpack to view related information.
The default Elasticsearch distribution includes all the features of X-Pack, but the default is a "Basic" license. You can start a trial of some new features in Kibana (Management -> License).
About Elasticsearch OSS version
In fact, there is no Elassticsearch OSS version, please refer to the We opened X-Pack article.
references
Elastic Stack subscriptions
Elasticsearch Reference [6.3] » X-Pack APIs » Info API
Kibana User Guide [6.3] » Management » License Management
What is difference in Basic and open source type license?