Sales & Licensing FAQ

We offer the following types of licenses:

• Business Licenses are floating, concurrent-user licenses and are commercially available to companies and organizations.
• Personal Licenses are named-user licenses, designed exclusively for individuals, and are available for Metalama only.

Metalama is included in your PostSharp Framework or PostSharp Ultimate subscription. Use the same license key provided with your active PostSharp subscription during the installation wizard.

Maintenance Subscriptions provide free updates, including bug-fixing builds and new versions, during the subscription duration. Note that bug-fixing releases will not be available without a maintenance subscription.

The subscription also includes support. The support terms depend on the product you have acquired and, for PostSharp, on the number of licensed users. See support policies for details.

No, that option is not available. Subscriptions can only be purchased for 12-month periods.

No, you don't need a license for your build server.

Typically, no. PostSharp and Metalama automatically detect when they are running on a build server and do not enforce licensing. However, if our product fails to detect the build server, you can install any valid license key on the server.

The complete text of our License Agreement can be found here.

No, our licenses are perpetual. Each new license includes a maintenance subscription, which determines the version of the product you are allowed to use. If you are allowed to use a version one day, it will continue to work every future day. However, it is important to note that the build date of the product release must be within the maintenance period. Additionally, Microsoft releases new versions of Visual Studio and .NET frequently, and not having an up-to-date license may hinder your ability to use the latest development tools.

Yes, you can build commercial products using PostSharp Essentials, and redistribute them without any additional costs.

Yes, you can build commercial products using Metalama Community and redistribute them without additional costs, provided you meet the eligibility criteria for the Community edition. For example, if you are employed by a company, one condition is that no more than 3 developers in your company are using Metalama Community.

Only for PostSharp licenses. Learn more about our volume pricing here.

For Metalama, volume pricing is replaced by different tiers of Metalama Enterprise.

No, we no longer offer free licenses of paid products. However, we do offer a free version of Metalama called Metalama Community, and a free edition of PostSharp called PostSharp Essentials.

Except volume discounts and a reseller discount, we don't offer any other discounts. However, we do offer a 45-day money-back guarantee, and have free editions of our products.

Only if this is a single-person company. Individual licenses are intended for personal use only and can only be assigned to a physical person. If you are looking for a license for commercial use, please consider our Business Licenses.

No, it is not possible to upgrade an Individual License to a Business License. If you wish to upgrade your license, you will need to purchase a new Business License.

All individuals who modify and build code that includes aspects need a license. If you have 100 developers who both modify and build code that uses aspects created by 5 senior developers, you will need a 100-user license. Developers who only build the code without editing do not require a license.

Everyone who modifies and builds code that includes aspects needs a license. If the 100 developers modify code that uses the aspects created by 5 senior developers, you will need 100 user licenses.

Everyone who modifies and builds code that includes aspects requires a license. In this scenario, only 5 developers are modifying code that includes aspects, so you will only need to purchase a 5-user license. Developers who solely build the code without editing do not require a license.

Business Licenses are floating licenses. Licenses are not explicitly assigned to a developer. There is no "sign in" and "sign out" process, so there is nothing you need to do when a developer leaves and another developer arrives.

Licensing is enforced through telemetry, a mechanism we call license audit. Each day, we collect information containing your license key, a hash of the developer's name using the license, and a hash of the machine. This data is aggregated daily for each license key.

If we notice that the total number of users exceeds the entitlements of your subscription, we will contact you to address the issue. Note that we do not have the technical ability to remotely block a license key and have always resolved all problems in a friendly and cooperative way.

Companies with their own internal license audit processes can request to opt out of our license audit. For more information and to make this request, please contact us.

Yes, it is possible to add more users to an existing Business License subscription before its expiration date. The price for the additional user(s) will be discounted from the original price and the subscription end date will remain unchanged.

However, it is not possible to add more users to an Individual License as it is, by definition, intended for a single user.

To add users to your subscription, go to your customer account.

No, we no longer offer site licensing.

Yes, we do offer global licensing. For more information and to request a global license, please contact us at hello@postsharp.net.

Yes. This operation is called co-terming. You can co-term your subscriptions during the renewal order.

To co-term and renew your subscriptions, go to your customer account.

Some changes to the License Agreement may be accepted for orders of a significant size. Other changes will need to be reviewed by our legal team. Please contact us for more information.

No, neither PostSharp nor Metalama requires a connection to the Internet to function. However, license audit requires an internet connection once per week. If this is not acceptable for your organization, please contact us to request license keys without audit.

Yes. You can request a team evaluation by visiting this page.

The license key you will receive will work with both PostSharp and Metalama.

To renew your maintenance subscription, navigate to the Customer Portal. You will need the license key of the subscription you want to renew or your customer account secret link.

If you choose not to renew your maintenance subscription, you may continue to use the software as normal but free upgrades, bug fixes and support will no longer be available to you.

No, you can only purchase a renewal subscription for a 12-month period.

The new subscription period starts on the day when the previous subscription ends, regardless on the date of the purchase.

Yes, you can do so by navigating to the Customer Portal. You will need the license key of the subscription you want to add more users to, or the secret link to your customer account. The end date of your subscription will not be affected if you add new users, but the price will be discounted to reflect the shorter period.

Yes, you can upgrade online while your maintenance subscription is active. The new subscription period will extend 1 year from the date of the upgrade purchase.

If you switch to a superior edition within 45 days after the initial purchase of your subscription, the initial price will be fully discounted from your new purchase. After 45 days, the discount is a multiple of the remaining days until the end of the current product subscription.

You can upgrade a subscription for the same number of developers as before, or for fewer. If you renew for fewer users, you will lose the right to upgrade for more users in a later order and will need to add more users to the renewed subscription.

Navigate to the Customer Portal to make your upgrade. You will need the license key of the subscription you want to renew or your customer account secret link.

The software is delivered electronically. An email with your license key will be sent to you shortly after the purchase.

For online orders, all commonly used payment methods are accepted by our e-commerce partner PayPro Global, such as bank wire transfers and credit cards.

For offline orders, payments via SEPA or SWIFT bank transfers, or by credit cards, are possible.

You can contact us directly. The purchase process is as follows:

1. You send us a quote request.
2. We reply with a quote.
3. You accept the quote and send us a purchase order.
4. We reply with a payment request (pro-forma invoice).
5. You pay via wire transfer or certified check.
6. After receipt of the payment, we send you the license key and the final tax invoice.

We no longer offer redistribution license keys for PostSharp.

For Metalama, redistribution license keys are generally unnecessary because Metalama is open-source. If you wish to enable your users to access premium Metalama features, please contact us.