Fixed User & Floating licenses
We use two license types: Fixed User and Floating. The difference between them is in the way users consume the license seats (license seats define the number of allowed concurrent license users):
| Fixed User | Floating |
|---|---|
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Typically used by individual professionals or by teams with a few QA engineers. |
Typically used by organizations with a large number of QA professionals. |
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A Fixed User license key can have one or multiple seats. |
A Floating license can also have one or multiple seats, but typically it has multiple seats. |
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The license administrator assigns the license seats to members of your team — one seat per person. The number of users cannot exceed the number of seats. |
The license administrator assigns license seats to your teammates. The number of persons in the assignment list can exceed the number of license seats. |
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The license seats can be used only by assignees. If some user is not working with the licensed product, others cannot consume the license seat of that user. |
Seats are not strictly assigned to users. Any user in the assignment list can run the licensed product. However, the number of users working concurrently cannot exceed the number of license seats. |
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A person cannot consume multiple seats. |
One person can consume multiple seats. This happens if that person is running the product on multiple computers concurrently. |
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If needed, the license administrator can remove some user from the list (this is called license revoking) or add new users to the list. |
Permanent & Subscription licenses
Both Fixed User and Floating licenses can be permanent or subscription. The latter means that the license has an end date after which it will expire.
Online & Offline licenses
Online licenses are those that are controlled by the SmartBear license servers available on the Web.
Offline licenses are those that work in private networks, which have no connection to the Web and SmartBear license servers.
By default, the licenses you purchase are online ones. You can convert them to offline licenses and vice versa on the SmartBear Licensing Portal. For complete information on this and on using offline licenses, see Licensing in Private Networks.
Trial licenses
Technically, a trial license is an online Fixed User license with 1 seat. That seat is automatically assigned to the user who requested the trial on the SmartBear website.
Default license assignment
Right after purchase, a license is not assigned to any user. The responsible employee (license administrator) assigns the license to users in the SmartBear Licensing Portal (that is, assigns the license seats). To run the licensed product, these persons should specify the emails that the license administrator used for assignment.
For complete information on license assignment, see Activate and Use Licenses.
A license administrator is a person who controls and manages licenses on your side. That can be a different person than those who run SmartBear products.
A license administrator is a person who controls and manages licenses on your side. That can be a different person than those who run SmartBear products.
See Also
Licensing Overview
Activate and Use Licenses
Using the Licensing Portal