Upgrade your licenses
So you have one of our products, and there’s a newer version you want to upgrade to. Great! Let’s look at your options…
Desktop licenses
Desktop licenses are for our manual products, such as pdfToolbox Desktop and pdfaPilot Desktop. They are typically licensed for use on a single computer, and they are version-specific.
When you purchased the licenses, it’s possible that you also bought a Software Maintenance Agreement, or SMA. This is a yearly contract between you and callas that grants you free upgrades while it is active. If you have this, you can get any product upgrades for free from your reseller.
If you don’t have an active SMA contract, you can buy upgrades for your licenses. The cost of the upgrade depends on how many versions you are behind. For example, if we currently ship version 16 of a product, the upgrade price will differ depending on whether you have version 15 or 14.
In all cases, contact your reseller and they’ll figure it out for you.
Server licenses
Server licenses, or automated licenses, cover all products destined for workflow automation. They include the Server, CLI, and SDK flavors of our products, and the complete pdfChip product line. They are typically computer and platform-dependent, and they are version-specific.
When you purchased such a license, you definitely also bought a Software Maintenance Agreement, or SMA; those are obligatory when buying a server license. If you kept the contract active (you renewed it every year), you can get any product upgrades for free from your reseller.
If your SMA contract isn’t active any more, you’ll have to re-activate it. The cost for this depends on for which period of time it was inactive. Contact your reseller, and they’ll figure it out for you.
License Server
License Server is the most flexible way to license our products. Instead of locking a product to a particular computer, it asks License Server whether it is allowed to run. We use two types of License Server:
License Server in the Cloud
These licenses are subscription-based; you pay a yearly fee to use a particular product, and you never have an SMA contract for such licenses. You can use the latest version of the software (or a mix of different versions on different computers) as you please.
License Server on Premise
These licenses depend on the type of cartridges you purchased:
- Credit cartridges are consumables, and they function with any version of the product they were meant for (or a mix of versions on different computers),
- Process cartridges are typically locked to a specific software version, and they behave just as the Server Licenses; you’ll need to prolong your SMA contract with us if it is no longer active.
Not sure what your case is and how to proceed? Contact your reseller and let them help you!
Questions? Contact us!
Still having questions, and not sure where to get the help you need? Check whether we have a local partner you can talk to, or contact us directly, and we’ll be happy to direct you to the right place…