Overview

1 Website License

1 Website License allows you use Kentico CMS for one live website. The website may have one main domain and any number of additional domain aliases that point to the same content as the main domain.

Different language versions of the same website that are created using the built-in multi-lingual support are all considered as the same website.

If you run websites with different content on sub-domains of the main domain, such as store.mydomain.com, these websites are considered as a new website and require an additional license.

If you run a mobile version of your site within the same Kentico CMS website (within the same content tree) as your main site, 1 website license covers both the main site and the mobile site.

If you run multiple sites with different design in a single Kentico CMS website, each of these sites still needs 1 website license.

The license is limited to 1 server. For licensing in web farms, in the cloud and on virtual servers please read the relevant paragraphs below.

1 Server License for 10 Sites

1 Server License for 10 Sites allows you to run 10 websites on a single physical server for a single organization and entities controlled by this organization by at least 50%. The server doesn't have to be your property - it can be a shared, virtual or rented dedicated server.

1 Server License for Unlimited Sites

1 Server License for Unlimited Sites allows you to run any number of websites on a single physical server for a single organization and entities controlled by this organization by at least 50%. The server doesn't have to be your property - it can be a shared, virtual or rented dedicated server.

Virtual Servers

If you use multiple virtual servers on a single physical server for the purpose of separation of environments for security or configuration reasons (e.g. running public website, intranet and extranet in three virtual machines on a single physical server), these virtual servers are still considered as a single physical server for the purposes of licensing.

If you use multiple virtual servers on a single physical server for the purpose of higher availability or scalability, each of your virtual servers is considered as one physical server for the purposes of licensing and you need to purchase an appropriate number of licenses similarly to cloud and web farm licensing.

Cloud Licensing

Multiple cloud instances are considered as multiple physical servers in a web farm for the purposes of Kentico CMS licensing. Learn more details

Source Code

There are two levels of source code:

• Source code of the web project and of the administration interface - this source code is provided with all licenses.
• Full source code of all libraries and controls - this source code is provided only as a part of the licenses with Source Code.

The full source code is not necessary for common use of the product - you can create flexible dynamic websites without modifying the full source code. It's intended for users who need to make advanced modifications to the core CMS libraries.

Maintenance

When you purchase any Kentico CMS license you get the maintenance for 1 year included. After the first year, you can renew the maintenance or keep using the license without maintenance. The maintenance covers:

• free technical support during the maintenance period
• free major upgrades (6.0, 7.0, etc.) released during the maintenance period

Upgrades

Major upgrades (6.0, 7.0, etc.) are provided free of charge only to the customers who own a license with a valid maintenance. The other clients need to purchase major upgrades.

Learn more

Technical Support

Free technical support is provided:

• to users who evaluate Kentico CMS during their evaluation period
• to users who have valid Kentico CMS maintenance

Technical support is provided by e-mail and phone. All questions are usually answered within one business day.

Web Farms

If you run Kentico CMS on several servers in a web farm, you need to purchase a Base license for each additional server in the web farm. If you use any additional packages or the Unlimited License, it's NOT necessary to purchase them for all servers in the web farm - you need to purchase only extra Base Licenses.

This applies also to the 1 Website License.

User Licenses

There are no per-user fees.

Development, Staging and QA License

There's no per-developer fee. Once you own some Kentico CMS license, you are entitled to install it on any number of development, staging and QA computers that are not used for displaying content to the website audience.

Fail-over Servers

If you run a fail-over server that is being synchronized with the production server in real time using the Kentico CMS web farm server synchronization mechanism ("active-active" model), it requires an additional license, just like any other web farm server.

If you run a fail-over server that is not used to serve content and that is being synchronized with the production server using some custom periodic synchronization such as copying database and files from production to the fail-over server ("active-passive" model) no additional license is required for such fail-over server.

License Transfers

You can transfer the license to a third party - e.g. to your client. You can transfer only the whole license, not its part.

Sublicenses

You cannot provide any kind of sublicenses to any third party. What it means: If you buy e.g. a server license, you cannot provide part of the license (1 website license) to the client. If your client wants to have their own license, they can either buy their own license from us or you can transfer your license to them (see above), but you can transfer only the whole license, not its parts.

It also means that:

• you cannot buy a server license and host Kentico CMS using this license for other companies if you do not control them by at least 50%.
• we do not provide direct technical support to the end clients of web development companies unless they own a Kentico CMS license with a valid maintenance - without their own license, they need to ask the web development company for support.

Free Edition

Kentico CMS Free Edition allows you to build commercial or personal sites at no cost. You get a license that never expires. No hidden fees. See the feature matrix to learn the restrictions of the free license. You are required to place the Powered by Kentico CMS logo or a visible link "Powered by Kentico CMS for ASP.NET" pointing to http://www.kentico.com in the footer of every page managed by Kentico CMS. The logo and link must be of readable size and colors. There's no technical support for the Free Edition, but you can use our Forums to get help from the community.