License manager

A license manager is a software management tool used by software vendors or by end-user organizations to control where and how software products are able to run. License managers protect software vendors from losses due to software piracy and enable end-user organizations to enforce compliance with software license agreements. License managers enable software vendors to offer a wide range of usage-centric software licensing models, such as product activation, trial licenses, subscription licenses, feature-based licenses, and floating licensing from the same software package they provide to all users.

A license manager is different from a software asset management tool, which end-user organizations employ to manage the software they have licensed from many software vendors. However, some software asset management tools include license manager functions.

See also

• Product activation
• Digital rights management
• Floating licensing
• Software metering
• License queuing
• License borrowing
• Automatic server discovery
• Key server (software licensing)