Licenses

Activate your Xperience by Kentico application by following the steps described below for each subscription type:

• Xperience by Kentico subscription providing an Xperience Portal project for deploying to the SaaS environment.
  • See Licensing Xperience by Kentico.
• License-only subscription – for self-managed Xperience deployments.
  • See Licensing self-managed Xperience deployments.
• Evaluation license – a 30-day evaluation license.
  • See Evaluate Xperience by Kentico.

Subscription expiration and renewal

Subscriptions expire at midnight (0 hours) at the start of the expiration date. For example, if a subscription expires on December 31, the last day it remains valid is December 30.

Self-managed Xperience deployments and Xperience Portal projects (SaaS deployment) expiration dates include a 30-day grace period. The grace period does not apply to evaluation licenses.

Evaluate Xperience by Kentico

Create an account in Kentico Client Portal to receive a 30-day evaluation license key. For more information, see one of the following sections depending on you Xperience by Kentico version:

• Xperience by Kentico version 29.3.0 and newer
• Xperience by Kentico version 29.2.2 and older

Licensing Xperience by Kentico

When you purchase an Xperience by Kentico SaaS subscription, you receive access to an Xperience Portal project. The purchased service plan defines the set of available features in the Xperience Portal. You can see your current service plan on the Dashboard in the Xperience Portal.

To help you decide which service plan best fits your needs, check the overview of the individual plans and their differences:

Licensing for applications in the SaaS deployment environments (QA, UAT, Production) is automatically handled by the Xperience Portal, except for local development environments.

License keys for SaaS local development

Activate your local development instance by generating a license key in Xperience Portal:

1. Open the License key generator application in Xperience Portal.

2. Select Generate license key.

3. Store the license key in a text file before you leave the license key generator.

   Lost license keys cannot be recovered. If you lose the license key, you will need to generate a new one.

4. Register the license key in the Xperience administration to activate your local Xperience instance. See one of the following sections depending on you Xperience version:

   • Xperience by Kentico version 29.3.0 and newer
   • Xperience by Kentico version 29.2.2 and older

The local development instance is activated. The license key expires with your subscription, but its expiration date is automatically extended with every subscription renewal when your local Xperience instance is connected to the Internet.

Licensing self-managed Xperience deployments

Activate self-managed Xperience projects by registering your license keys in the Xperience administration. For more information, see one of the following sections depending on you Xperience by Kentico version:

• Xperience by Kentico version 29.3.0 and newer
• Xperience by Kentico version 29.2.2 and older

Obtain license keys by registering the serial number you received with your Xperience by Kentico purchase in the Kentico Client Portal.

License keys in version 29.3.0 and newer

Each Xperience by Kentico instance must be activated using a license key. You can generate the following types of license keys:

• Evaluation – provides full access to all features of the product for 30 days.
• Production – for live deployments. See Production license keys.
• Non-production – for local development and pre-production environments (deployment pipelines, QA). See Non-production license keys.

License keys must be registered via the Xperience administration or during project database installation.

All license keys support unlimited auto-scaling, allowing sites to accommodate increased traffic and performance demands.

License server communication

To ensure fair product use, Xperience instances communicate with the Kentico license server on a daily basis. As a result, a working Internet connection is mandatory for all instances. License server communication uses the following endpoint: https://api.kentico.com/licensing/licenses/instanceverification. Ensure this URL is whitelisted and accessible from your network.

When an Xperience instance cannot reach the Kentico license server for longer than five days, the administration interface starts notifying users via information popups and the event log. If you keep encountering issues after verifying that your instance is connected to the internet and the communication endpoint is accessible, contact our support department at support@kentico.com.

Register license keys in the system

Product license keys are managed via the Settings application under System -> Licenses.

To register a license key:

1. Open the Settings application.
2. Navigate to System -> Licenses.
3. Insert your license key into the License key setting.
4. (Optional) Set a friendly name for your instance. This value will be used in the license overview section of the Kentico Client Portal. You can use friendly names to identify instances under a single license.
5. Save the changes.

The product is now activated using the provided key.

Production license keys

Production license keys are intended for final, live product deployments.

Xperience by Kentico instances activated using production license keys perform daily checks that monitor product feature use (the number of active website channels, for example).

If the instance detects feature use that is outside the scope of the corresponding license, the administration interface displays a warning banner detailing the violation. Product use is not limited in these cases. However, note that such actions are monitored and you may be contacted by a Kentico representative should they persist for a prolonged period of time.

After addressing any reported issues, you need to wait for the next daily check before the warning banner disappears from the administration interface.

Non-production license keys

Non-production licenses are intended for local development and pre-production environments (deployment pipelines, QA).

Xperience by Kentico instances activated using non-production license keys do not monitor product feature use. Avoiding license overreach when using non-production license keys is the user’s responsibility.

License keys in version 29.2.2 and lower

Xperience requires a license key for every used domain name, including:

• The Website domain set for website channels, including all domain aliases
• The Email service domain set for email channels (if it does not match a licensed domain of a website channel)

The license keys must be registered in the Xperience administration via the License keys application. If you do not have a valid license key for a website’s domain name, the administration will be limited to critical applications only, and the live site will be unavailable.

All license keys enable auto-scaling by default, allowing sites to accommodate increased traffic and performance demands. There are no limitations on the number of self-managed web farm servers or Azure Web Apps cloud instances used to scale the application dynamically.

License keys and domain names

A license key is issued for a specific domain tied to a website channel or email channel.

Register license keys in Xperience

Manage your system license keys using the License keys application in the Xperience administration. The License keys application displays a list of all license keys registered in your system, including the domain names, license key expiration dates, and license editions.

1. Open the License keys application.
2. Select New license key.
3. Copy the full license key into the text field.
4. Select Add.

The license key is now registered.

You can delete license keys by selecting the Delete () action (for example if you need to replace a license key for a domain or remove an expired key). Deleting a license key removes access to the corresponding live website and its content editing, but the site’s content and settings remain preserved. Access is restored when a valid license key is registered.

Extend license key validity for self-managed Xperience deployment

When you renew your license, the license keys registered in Xperience are renewed automatically if your Xperience instance is connected to the Internet. For Xperience running in a network without access to the Internet, generate a new license key in the Kentico Client Portal and replace the expired license key in Xperience.