---
title: Software acquisition for Public Administrations 
lang: en
ref:
  it: /it/riuso/acquisizione
layout: internal-long
subtitle:
see_also:
  - label: Software publication  
    url: /en/reuse/publication
---

When acquiring software, public entities shall run a comparative evaluation
following the process described by the [Guidelines]({{ site.url_lineeguidariuso }}).

Such a process privileges open source software (in reuse or third party one)
with respect to the acquisition of software covered by end user license
agreements, as mandated by the Codice dell'Amministrazione Digitale, indicating
the [Developers Italia catalogue](/en/software) as the reference platform to run
the search.

In case of reuse, it is not necessary to contact the holding administration
since the application is publicly available and the open source license
regulates the reuse conditions.

An administration which reuses software and makes some **modifications or
personalizations** must release them as open source. This can be done by making
sure that such modifications are embedded in the original project or by
completely [republishing the software](/en/reuse/publication) - in such case the
software will appear in Developers Italia as a *variant*.
