Kentico licensing for MVC applications

This page describes licensing requirements for some of the common environment setups when developing and running ASP.NET MVC applications with Kentico.

The Kentico development model for ASP.NET MVC websites relies on using two separate applications – the MVC live site and the Kentico administration. If these applications run on different domains, you need to acquire licenses for both domains.

You only need to purchase a license for the MVC application (i.e. the live site’s domain). The additional license for the Kentico administration is provided for free. To obtain the additional license, contact your sales representative directly or email us at sales@xperience.io

The MVC and Kentico administration applications also use web farm functionality for synchronization. Licensing of the web farm servers works automatically – you only need a license with additional web farm servers when running multiple instances of the same application for one site. Scenarios where multiple MVC applications run different sites with a shared administration application are also supported (every license key for an MVC site automatically allows one additional web farm server).

Note: The Kentico CMS Free Edition cannot be used for developing ASP.NET MVC applications.

Example scenarios

Environment setup

URL examples

Required license keys

1 Kentico administration

1 MVC application

(2 IIS web sites on different domains)

Admin URL1: https://admin.mydomain.com

Live site URL: https://mydomain.com

1 website license key (mydomain.com)

1 free license key (admin.mydomain.com)

1 Kentico administration

1 MVC application

(1 IIS web site on a single domain with 2 separate applications)

Admin URL1: https://mydomain.com/administration

Live site URL: https://mydomain.com

1 website license key (mydomain.com)

1 Kentico administration

2 instances of the MVC application (load balanced)

Admin URL1: https://admin.mydomain.com

Live site URL: https://mydomain.com

1 website license key (mydomain.com)

2 web farm servers

1 free license key (admin.mydomain.com)

2 Kentico administration instances (load balanced)

2 instances of the MVC application (load balanced)

Admin URL1: https://admin.mydomain.com

Live site URL: https://mydomain.com

1 website license key (mydomain.com)

3 web farm servers

1 free license key (admin.mydomain.com)

1 Kentico administration
(with 10 sites, each with its own administration domain)

10 MVC applications on different domains
(each running a different site)

Admin URLs1:

  • https://admin.mydomain1.com
  • https://admin.mydomain2.com

Live site URLs:

  • https://mydomain1.com
  • https://mydomain2.com

10 website license keys (mydomain1.com, mydomain2.com, …)

No need for a license with additional web farm servers

10 free license keys (admin.mydomain1.com, admin.mydomain2.com, …)

1 Kentico administration
(with 10 sites, each with its own administration domain)

10 MVC applications on a single domain and its subdomains
(each running a different site)

Admin URLs1:

  • https://admin.mydomain.com
  • https://subdomain1admin.mydomain.com

Live site URLs:

  • https://mydomain.com
  • https://subdomain1.mydomain.com
  • https://subdomain2.mydomain.com

10 website license keys (mydomain.com, subdomain1.mydomain.com, …)

No need for a license with additional web farm servers

10 free license keys (admin1.mydomain.com, admin2.mydomain.com, …)

1 Kentico administration runs on the /Admin alias. For example, you can configure a URL Rewrite rule in IIS to redirect from the root of the domain to the /Admin alias.

For scenarios not listed in the table above, contact your sales representative directly or email us at sales@xperience.io.