Licensing FAQ

1. Are GroupDocs licenses per user, or per named user?
2. Do we need licensing for only active developers? For example, we have a team of two developers working on shift A and a second team of two developers working on shift B … in this situation do we need two or four licenses?
3. Do we need a separate license for our Build / CI (Continuous Integration) Server?
4. I’m a contractor who works with different companies on a project basis. I was licensed for a GroupDocs product on my last job. Does that mean that I can use it in my next job?
5. What’s the difference between a license and a subscription?
6. What’s the difference between a Small Business and an OEM license?
7. Where can I find pricing information?
8. Can two companies temporarily share a license agreement for a period of time?
9. If my company purchases a GroupDocs for Java product, can part of the seats be converted to .NET?
10. What does the term physical location refer to, with regards to licensing?
11. We have a sizeable development team, but only one person using GroupDocs products. Do all developers need to be licensed or only the one working directly with the GroupDocs products?
12. We have several developers working on a single project, but they are working in a distributed model. Can we still use a site license to properly license our team?
13. What options do I have do purchase products as a bundle?
14. Do you support all the features of a specific file format?
15. There are five of us in the team, but we all work in different offices. What kind of license do we need?
16. I work in our London offices but the solutions I create for my company are used in our New York and Paris offices. What license do I need?
17. Can a developer’s license be reused if that developer leaves the company or is permanently reassigned to a different project?
18. A new developer has joined the team, what steps must be taken to transfer the license to the developer’s new machine?
19. Does a working from home (WFH) arrangement change the license type that is required?
20. How does Metered Licensing work?
21. How does licensing differ for Android, SharePoint, Reporting Services, JasperReports?

 
 

1. Are GroupDocs developer licenses per user, or per named user?

GroupDocs Developer licenses are per user, not per named user. We understand that members of a coding team may change over time and that it is not practical to have to update licensing each time that occurs.

 

2. Do we need licensing for only active developers? For example, we have a team of two developers working on shift A and a second team of two developers working on shift B … in this situation do we need two or four licenses?

All developers who are working on the project need to be licensed. In this situation GroupDocs sees your team as having four members (even though they work at different times).

 

3. Do we need a separate license for our build or CI (Continuous Integration) Server?

No, we are happy that customers use GroupDocs products on one server for solution building purposes at no extra cost. This installation should not be used to circumvent the license terms of your agreement with GroupDocs and should respect any redistributable or location limitations imposed by your purchased license.

 

4. I’m a contractor who works with different companies on a project basis. I was licensed for a GroupDocs product on my last job. Does that mean that I can use it in my next job?

No. Our products are licensed to the organization, not an individual within the organization. Our software are not personal tools that you can move freely from one workplace to another.

If you are working for a company to implement a solution that they will deploy, it is that company’s responsibility to ensure that they have licenses for the tools that you need. If you are working as part of their development team, they should buy sufficient licenses to let other members of the team continue maintaining the code when you have left.

On the other hand, if you are self-employed and develop solutions that you sell to other companies, then you should have a Developer OEM License. This allows you to use the product in any number of end user software and deploy them freely.

 

5. What’s the difference between a license and a subscription?

When you buy a GroupDocs product you get two things: a license and a subscription. The license entitles you to use the software. The subscription entitles you to software updates for a year. The subscription expiry date is stored in the license so when you renew your subscription, you get a new license file.

 

6. What’s the difference between a Small Business and an OEM license?

The number of sites (locations) that the end user software can be used at. An OEM license allows you to use the end user software at any number of sites. This is appropriate when the end user software will be distributed to others outside the organisation, or offered as an online service to any number of people, all in different physical locations. Some licenses allow you to deploy to a specified number of sites:

• A Developer Small Business license allows your end user software to be used at one location, for example your company’s head quarters.
• A Site Small Business license allows your end user software to be used at up to ten locations, for example your company’s head quarters and another nine of your company’s offices. Exactly what a license entitles you to depends on the platform: .NET and Java licenses give you slightly different rights from SharePoint and Android licenses, for example. Read about License Types to find out more.

 

7. Where can I find pricing information?

Head to the pricing information page for further details.

 

8. Can two companies temporarily share a license agreement for a period of time?

GroupDocs will not agree to licensing more than one company under a single order. GroupDocs’s products are licensed by the number of developers and deployment locations, to single entities. However, GroupDocs does offer temporary licenses which can be used in these cases. Click here to learn how to obtain a temporary license.

 

9. If my company purchases a GroupDocs for Java product, can part of the seats be converted to .NET?

No. GroupDocs products are licensed are per platform. If multiple platforms need to be supported, then GroupDocs offers a “Product Family” suite which licenses all platforms.

 

10. What does the term “physical site” or “physical location” refer to, with regards to licensing?

Often times we are asked what the term “physical site” or “physical location” applies to in terms of licensing. A physical location is any office or building with it’s own postal address. So if you have several different buildings each with it’s own postal address you would need to purchase a separate license for each location (which will be utilizing the product).

How do you classify off-site servers? If your business has off-site hardware, such as: build machines, backup servers, disaster recovery servers, co-location servers or test servers then you will need to purchase an additional license for each off-site location. A location can include an unlimited number of servers, that still counts as just one location in terms of licensing.

 

11. We have a sizeable development team, but only one person using GroupDocs products. Do all developers need to be licensed or only the one working directly with the GroupDocs products?

All developers who are working on the project that uses GroupDocs products need to be licensed, even if they do not directly use the GroupDocs products.

 

12. We have several developers working on a single project, but they are working in a distributed model. Can we still use a site license to properly license our team?

Yes, a Site license can cover a distributed team as long as the size of the team does not exceed the maximum user count.

 

13. Do you offer a product bundles?

Yes, you can purchase a product family package for which includes every platform for that product. This is useful if your organisation uses several different technologies and is discounted for the number of products it contains.

In addition there is the GroupDocs.Total product suite which includes all products for a particular platform e.g .NET or Java. If you are using three or more GroupDocs products then cost-wise it becomes cheaper to buy GroupDocs.Total instead of each product individually.

Finally there is a Product Family for GroupDocs.Total which includes everything, all products for all supported platforms. This is massive value for a great price.

 

14. Do you support all features of a file format or document manipulation feature?

While GroupDocs products are extremely powerful we cannot guarantee that every feature is available. If you find a missing feature or a bug please report it on the support forums and it will be communicated to our development team to fix. For mission critical issues consider purchasing paid support for increase priority.

 

15. There are five of us in the team, but we all work in different offices. What kind of license do we need?

That depends in in part on where you intend to use the end user software (the applications you use GroupDocs products to create). We recognize that a team can be distributed and allow that in our license structure. In this case, you have a team of five. Whether they are in the same physical location or not, you need enough licenses to cover five developers. They also need to cover the number of locations that the end user software will be used. Here are some scenarios:

• Scenario 1: The team is distributed over five offices and the end user software will be deployed to and used in the same five offices. You should buy either five Developer Small Business licenses (we offer discounts for multiple licenses) or one Site Small Business. The latter will allow your team to grow the team to up to 10 developers, and the end user software to be used in up to 10 locations.
• Scenario 2: The team is distributed over five offices and the end user software will be accessed by an unknown number of customers online. You should buy five Developer OEM licenses (we offer discounts for multiple licenses) or one Site OEM license. The latter allows you to grow the team up to 10 developers.
• Scenario 3: The team is distributed over five offices and the end user software will be accessed by staff in six company offices. You should buy a Site Small Business. This allows you to deploy the the end user software in up to 10 sites. It also allows you to grow the team up to 10 developers.

 

16. I work in our London offices but the solutions I create for my company are used in our New York and Paris offices. What license do I need?

That depends on how many physical offices are in New York and Paris. Here are a couple of scenarios:

• Scenario 1: You are the only developer working with GroupDocs products. Your end user software are used in one office in New York and one in Paris. One developer, two sites - you need two Developer Small Business licenses.
• Scenario 2: You are the only developer working with GroupDocs products. Your end user software are used in six offices in New York (housed in six separate buildings) and seven offices in Paris. One developer, more than ten sites - you need one Developer OEM license.

 

17. Can a developer’s license be reused if that developer leaves the company or is permanently reassigned to a different project?

Yes. If the developer permanently leaves the team and will no longer be working with GroupDocs products then their license can be transferred to a different developer. See the next question for details about that process.

 

18. A new developer has joined the team, what steps must be taken to transfer the license to the developer’s new machine?

GroupDocs licenses are not tied to a particular machine or account so the license file can be copied and installed to a new machine provided that any redistributable or location limitations imposed by your purchased license are still respected.

 

19. Does a working from home (WFH) arrangement change the license type that is required?

We require that each location (distinct building) that the end user software (the application you create with GroupDocs) is deployed to, or accessed from is licensed. Each location regardless of the type (office, home etc) counts towards the total number of locations to be licensed. In a working from home arrangement your end user software will be accessed remotely from many locations which is considered a multi-site intranet and is not supported by the Developer Small Business license. This applies even if the application is accessed in the office from home via remote desktop, as where the user is physically located is what’s counted. If you purchased this license before a working from home arrangement was in place then you will need to upgrade to a Site Small Business license as soon as possible.

A Site Small Business license covers up to 10 locations and supports multi-site intranet so this is the correct minimal license to purchase for a working from home arrangement. If the total number of locations to be licensed does not exceed this number then the one license is all that’s required. If you have more than 10 locations then you are required to purchase a second Site Small Business license to cover the additional locations or a move to an OEM license type which covers unlimited locations.

This scenario does not affect Developer OEM or Site OEM licenses as those licenses already cover unlimited locations.

 

20. How does Metered Licensing work?

Refer to the Metered Licensing FAQ for further details.

 

21. How does licensing differ for Android, SharePoint, Reporting Services, JasperReports?

The .NET and Java licenses are concerned with the number of developers and the number of locations to which any end user software (products created with the APIs) are used in. A location can be an office, for example, or any building with its own postal address.

The Android licenses work a little differently. They look to how many apps are created, as well as how many places they are deployed to. There are two options for the latter: Enterprise deployment (for use in one company only) or OEM (unlimited deployment to unlimited companies). An OEM license is used if you are selling the app on a marketplace. A Developer license lets you develop one app and a Site license lets you create up to ten.

The Exporter licenses (SharePoint, Reporting Services, JasperReports) work differently as well, once a SharePoint component is installed, for example, it’s features are available to all users of that SharePoint site. So instead of looking at physical locations, the license limits the number of physical servers that the component can be used on.