Octopus Deploy licensing can seem a bit complicated and with 3.0 on the horizon many customers are asking how they qualify for 3.0 or what they need to do to make sure they are 3.0 ready.
A bit about our licenses
When you purchase an Octopus Deploy license you are buying a perpetual license with one year support and maintenance. What this means is you can use that license for any upgrades while the maintenance is valid, and after that point continue to use that version for as long as you like, but your upgrading will be limited.
Earlier this year we changed our policy for required upgrades and maintenance dates. Previously each release had a build date and your maintenance period had to be inside this for you to be able to successfully upgrade.
Our policy has changed so that any patch release is free so long as you qualified for the corresponding major or minor release. So for example, our 2.6 release had a build date of mid Dec 2014. 2.6 had 5 patch releases over many months, but even if your maintenance expired you qualified for all of them so long as you qualified for 2.6.
This is due to all patch releases being bug fixes for the current major/minor version, they will never contain new features. Major and minor releases will always require a valid maintenance date because they are considered feature updates. Our maintenance allows us to continually upgrade and improve our product. You will also be able to preview any pre-releases before the next feature release if you qualified for the previous feature release.
Qualifying for 3.0
If you have an existing 2.0 license and it has a valid maintenance date on the day of release, you qualify for 3.0 and do not need to do anything but install and go! If you have a 2.0 license but the maintenance period has expired then you need to renew your license to qualify for 3.0. You can do this by entering your license key into our renewal form.
If your maintenance date within your license key is for the 15th of July 2015 or greater you qualify for 3.0 and any 3.0.X patch.
Upgrading your license
While we are covering licensing costs, we can't leave out how our upgrade process works. Octopus has three editions each with their own limits for your number of Projects, Deployment targets (machines and Tentacles) and Users. Choosing your edition should not be stressful. You can start small and upgrade to a higher edition and we will only charge you the difference between what you have paid and the price of the edition you wish to upgrade to. It will also reset your maintenance period! You do not believe you should be penalized, and Octopus should grow with your needs. To request an upgrade quote you need to email us at sales@octopusdeploy.com.
Octopus Server instances
Many customers do not know about licensing and Octopus Server instances. Each paid license (no matter the edition) allows for 3 individual instances of Octopus Server. If you have need for more than 3 instances you will need additional licenses. We do offer a discount on multiple licenses for a single company, so again email us at sales for a quote!
