Geronimo is a product of the Apache Software Foundation. As an open source product, Geronimo is developed, enhanced, and maintained by a group of Apache developers, and made available to others under the terms of the Apache Software License. Most Geronimo business is conducted in open forums, including mailing lists and an IRC channel for user and developer discussions, a public issue tracker for bugs and new features, and a Wiki for (among other things) recording tips and tricks for new users.

While the open source development process can be an advantage for some users -- you never need to wonder who's assigned to a bug, what progress is being made, and whether a fix will be made available to you -- it can be a disadvantage if you're looking for a more rigorous level of support. For that reason, outside vendors offer support contracts for Geronimo with the full support of the Geronimo development team.

Another aspect of the Apache license is that Geronimo may be included in commercial products, such as higher-level servers, development tools requiring a working application server for testing, and more. In such cases the product vendor would typically provide support, though again, the Geronimo team encourages embedded use of this nature.