Software licensing models explained
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Zentitle enables you to adopt proven software licensing models that increase revenue while simplifying license management.
With Zentitle Cloud-Based Licensing, implementing revenue-boosting software licensing models is quick and straightforward. It's the most effective way for software vendors to grow sales and revenue.
These licensing models can work together, simplifying complex use cases that are easy to describe but typically difficult to implement.
One of the real benefits of adopting the Zentitle platform as you bring your products to market is the ability to separate the business model from the application implementation itself. You instrument your application once, then can take it to market with various business models, such as feature-based licensing that lets you enable or disable specific capabilities, modules, and components per license.
The platform supports all types of time-based licenses: one-month subscriptions, one-year subscriptions, or licenses that expire on a specific date, like December 31st, 2025. You can implement any date-based metric you need.
You can also offer perpetual or non-expiring licenses with optional maintenance contracts. The entitlement tracks when maintenance contracts end, allowing you to build logic into your application and only allow software updates for licenses within their maintenance window.
For version-based licensing, you have two options. First, you could require separate licenses for each product version (version 2, version 3, etc.). However, we recommend defining a valid range of versions within the entitlement. Start with a 2.x line, then as customers upgrade to 3.x or 4.x versions, they keep the same license but update their attributes to include the new version ranges.
We fully support usage-based, consumption-based, and software-as-a-service models through our consumption tokens and other capabilities. This makes it easy to track resource usage over time within the license.
From a capacity standpoint, you can use entitlement attributes to set specific limits. For example, a lower-cost edition might manage up to 10 widgets, a mid-tier up to 50 widgets, and an enterprise edition could offer unlimited widget management. You can include as many of these attributes as needed.
We also support named user models. You can set up a license for 10 specific users based on identity and allow your end customer to manage their list of authorized users.
Similarly, we allow integration with identity-based systems to provide experiences like Adobe Creative Cloud or Office 365, where end customers activate seats using email addresses and passwords. We integrate with any OpenID-based identity platform—whether that's Auth0, Okta, Cognito, or Azure AD.
This provides additional benefits for end customers with their own identity provider (IdP). They can federate into these identity platforms, allowing single sign-on access to license rights.
We provide these capabilities for customers with ongoing internet connections, intermittent connectivity, or completely disconnected ("dark site") environments. This works for node-locked individual seat licenses and concurrent or network-based licensing models running in dark environments.
Across all these capabilities, you can monetize your application however you want, mixing and matching models without building dependencies into your core application. This means you can easily deploy new packages, offerings, and pricing without engineering changes.
This traditional "buy once, use forever" model is familiar to most users. While many software companies are moving away from this approach, Zentitle provides robust support, including Offline Activation. This ensures a hassle-free experience for end-users while reducing licensing-related support requests.
Today's consumers are increasingly comfortable with SaaS-style subscriptions. Zentitle's Cloud-Based Licensing makes it easy to implement subscription-based licensing for Desktop, Server, IoT, and Mobile software and desktop-SaaS hybrid solutions. Combined with Account-Based Licensing, this model shifts focus from license codes to users.
Simplify bulk licensing for your customers by restricting the number of active software copies permitted per license code. This allows business customers to purchase what they need while ensuring they only use what they're entitled to. The streamlined management system significantly reduces licensing support issues.
For business customers with multiple software instances, you can limit the number of users who can access specific features simultaneously. For example, while 10 users may run your software, only three can use a particular feature simultaneously.
Element Pools lets you manage resource access across multiple instances. For example, with 10 graphics workstations sharing 100 processing cores for rendering, each workstation can access the cores as needed. Still, total usage across all machines cannot exceed 100 cores at any time.
This modern licensing model tracks usage through Consumption Pools and Tokens. Whether you need usage-based contracts or want to offer pay-as-you-go or prepaid options, this model works seamlessly with our Subscription and account-based licensing.
Account-based licensing puts the user at the center, using email/username and password for entitlements. While common in mobile and SaaS applications, this approach works for Desktop, Server, and SaaS-Desktop Hybrid solutions. It's compatible with all other Zentitle licensing types.
Set licenses to expire on specific dates and extend them as needed through the Licensing UI or API.
Control exactly which features each user can access through License Codes or Accounts. Go beyond simple on/off toggles with options like Concurrent Licensing, Consumption Licensing, or limited trial periods.
For software suites with multiple versions (Lite/Standard/Pro) or components (Word Processing/Spreadsheet/Presentation), ship everything in one binary and let Zentitle manage access control. This simplifies upgrades and reduces engineering complexity by minimizing the number of binaries to maintain.
For customers using software at sites without regular internet access, Zentitle offers flexible solutions. Our Network Licensing Server runs on your LAN to manage permissions across computers, devices, or users. Alternatively, our Network Relay Server provides DMZ access to cloud-based licensing.
Zentitle Offline Licensing supports most licensing models with simple, hassle-free activation when internet access is unavailable or restricted. The customizable portal maintains your brand identity.
Zentitle supports multiple platforms to maximize licensing benefits for hardware companies with software-driven products. From initial provisioning to customer deployment, our Hardware Licensing provides control and monetization opportunities. Customer upgrades take effect with a simple reboot.
Track maintenance contracts, whether sold separately or included with initial software purchases.
Zentitle Licensing works across Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, ARM, Java, FreeBSD and more. Contact us about specific platform requirements.
Zentitle Licensing includes comprehensive trial capabilities. Customize trial experiences from time-limited access to feature restrictions, and showcase new features through upgrade trials.
Zentitle Cloud-Based Licensing simplifies multi-user customer management. Replace individual license codes with efficient concurrent licensing and multi-activation licenses.