activeState

ActiveState is a software company that provides language distributions and development tools to help teams build, deploy, and govern software that relies on open-source components. It is best known for its language distributions, including ActivePerl, ActivePython, and ActiveTcl, which bundle interpreters with pre-compiled modules and tested libraries for multiple platforms. These distributions aim to offer reproducible runtimes and enterprise-grade support for developers and organizations.

In addition to language distributions, ActiveState offers the ActiveState Platform, a cloud-based solution for managing open-source components across the software supply chain. The platform provides governance features such as software composition analysis, SBOM (software bill of materials) generation, license compliance, and vulnerability management, along with policy-driven controls and reporting. It also includes State Tool, a command-line interface that enables teams to create reproducible environments by provisioning runtimes and dependencies from the platform.

ActiveState serves enterprises, government entities, and development teams that require reliable language runtimes and governance over open-source usage. The company supports both hosted services and private deployments, with enterprise-level support and professional services options.

History and focus: ActiveState originated as a provider of robust, enterprise-grade language runtimes and later expanded into governance and security tooling for the software supply chain. By integrating runtimes with management and compliance capabilities, the company seeks to help organizations reduce risk and improve reproducibility when using open-source software across development and production environments.