Licensing FAQ

Applies to TestComplete 15.63, last modified on April 10, 2024

What is happening?

In 2021, SmartBear announced that it is moving to a proprietary, unified licensing approach, SmartBear License Management (SLM). SLM is currently implemented in TestComplete. SmartBear will be discontinuing its legacy HASP licensing model and utilize the SLM license management solution.

SmartBear is informing you about this new licensing model and the need to migrate over to SLM.

What is SLM?

SmartBear License Management, or SLM (formerly known as User-Based Licensing, or UBL) is an administrative solution for product users and SmartBear sales operations.

Why is SmartBear changing to SLM?

SLM provides license administrators, end users, and SmartBear sales operations with a simple solution to distribute, view, assign, consume, and manage licenses for desktop products. SLM improves on several areas in license management for our products. These improvements include:

Administrators know who is using their licenses in real time.
Administrators can easily assign, revoke, and manage floating and fixed licenses.
Administrators can update their license server with new licenses or assign licenses to a new user.
Management of licenses is less error-prone.

What is the process for migrating to SLM?

Email your SmartBear account manager requesting to convert to SLM.
Your SmartBear Account Manager will request written confirmation (email) that you agree to deactivate your current license(s) following the rollout of SLM.

This is required in order to convert to SLM.
Provide a license admin contact to your SmartBear Account manager. This is required to manage SLM licensing. The initial admin can invite additional admins or assign licenses to end users.
Your SmartBear Account Manager will support you throughout the transition and provide additional resources if necessary.
Upon successful rollout, you need to confirm deactivation/decommission of prior HASP licenses to ensure compliance with SmartBear terms of use.

What happens if I do nothing?

Every user, whether on a subscription or on a perpetual license with renewed maintenance, will have to migrate to ID-based licensing. Users on a perpetual license will need to migrate in order to continue to benefit from the maintenance. HASP licenses may go on working for an unknown time, but once they no longer work, SmartBear cannot fix or renew them.

When is the migration deadline?

We ask that you migrate as soon as possible. This will allow you to access the many benefits SLM provides. Please contact your SmartBear Account Manager for more details.

Does SLM cost more?

No. This is simply a change of licensing management systems. SLM does not affect the pricing of SmartBear products.

All support to convert to the new system is provided by SmartBear without any additional cost.

What are the benefits for administrators and users?

The SLM benefits include:

Licenses are bound to individuals (users), rather than computers where the licensed products are installed.
Support for both online and offline licenses.
Improved reporting on license usage and access.
Administrators can revoke licenses that are no longer being actively used.
Improved performance and security, as SLM removes dependency on third-party licensing.
SLM enables you to install the product easily in cloud environments.

How is SLM deployed?

SLM uses two license types: Fixed User and Floating.

The difference between them is the way users consume the license seats (license seats define the number of allowed concurrent license users).

Online and offline use is differentiated.

Online licenses are controlled by the SmartBear license servers available on the Web.
Offline licenses work in private networks, which have no connection to the Web or SmartBear license servers.

By default, purchased licenses are online licenses. They can be converted to offline licenses (and vice versa) on the SmartBear Licensing Portal.

For complete information, see Licensing in Private Networks.

Is SLM available for all TestComplete versions and modules?

You must be running TestComplete version 15.46 or newer.

All TestComplete modules and add-ons are currently supported by SLM with online and offline support.

This is explained in more detail here.

More information on licenses

For complete information on the SmartBear ID-based licenses, see our SmartBear License Management Documentation.

The following demo is currently available.

Need Assistance?

If you have questions or need assistance with the new licenses, please contact our Customer Care Team.

Licensing FAQ

See Also