Licensing: Community and Pro

#Community and Pro editions

bipanel is built from one code base and published as two packages. The Community package is public, needs no license key and allows at most 3 hosting accounts; that limit is compiled into the package and no setting changes it. The Pro package can only be downloaded with a valid license and runs within the limits of your license plan. The installer always installs the Community package; you switch to Pro from the panel after installation.

The features page marks the edition of every feature, and the pricing page lists each plan's account and server limits.

#How the account limit works

Only hosting accounts count toward the limit, meaning accounts with a home directory on the server. Once the limit is reached, creating a new account is refused with an explanation, and Server Admin shows a "Community edition: 3 / 3 accounts in use" banner.

The license never stops existing accounts, sites, email or databases. If there are more accounts than the limit allows (for example after a license expires), the existing ones keep working; you just cannot create new ones.

#Features covered by the license

In the Pro package some features also depend on your license plan: Reseller accounts, White label (your own brand), Remote backups (S3, SFTP…) and Priority support. Node.js, Next.js and Python apps are available in every edition. The features your license covers are listed in the Features row of the License screen. If you try something the license does not cover, the panel tells you which feature it needs, and your existing settings keep working.

#Activating a license

A license key looks like BP-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX. You will find it under My licenses in the customer portal and in your license email.

1. Sign in to Server Admin (https://server.example.com:2087) as the server administrator.
2. Open System → License.
3. Paste the key into the License key field under Activate a license and click Activate.

The panel sends the key to bipanel Hub together with this server's fingerprint. The hub returns a signed license token, which the panel verifies with the public key built into it and then stores. The screen shows the plan name, the license holder, the masked key, the expiry date, the last and next check, and your account usage. Check now refreshes the license without waiting for the next scheduled check.

On a server installation you can do the same from the command-line tool (see API and CLI):

$ bipanel license activate BP-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
$ bipanel license status
$ bipanel license check

A license can be active on as many servers as your plan allows. When that limit is reached, activation fails with "This license is already active on … server(s)"; release the old server first (see moving a license). If you activate a different key on the same server, the hub releases this server's slot on the previous key.

#Upgrading from Community to Pro

When you activate a valid license on a server running the Community package, the License screen shows a Ready to switch to Pro box. The 3-account limit stays in place until the Pro package is installed, because the limit lives inside the Community package.

• Upgrade to Pro downloads the Pro package from the hub using your license. The download link is short-lived, and the package is marked specifically for your license.
• The package is verified like any update, with its SHA-256 digest and Ed25519 signature, and installed the same way: panel database backup, restart, health check and rollback on failure (see panel updates).
• The version number can stay the same (for example Community 0.1.4 → Pro 0.1.4). No reinstall is needed; the panel restarts for about a minute while sites keep running. Sign in again after a few minutes.

On Docker and Railway the file system comes from the image, so this switch cannot be done from the panel; contact support to move to the Pro image. You still activate the license key on the same screen.

#Validation and the license lease

A license token does not last forever. The panel checks in with the hub regularly: the hub suggests the interval (12 hours by default) and the panel keeps it between 1 and 24 hours. Every successful check renews the token's lease, which is 14 days by default. This keeps a license from being used on a server that stays out of contact with the hub for long periods.

The lease is separate from the license Expires date: the expiry date is your billing period, the lease is online validation. Once the expiry date passes, the License screen shows Grace period ends. During the grace period (7 days by default) the license keeps working in full; after that, new actions fall back to Community limits. When you renew, the limits lift at the next check.

#When the hub cannot be reached

• The panel keeps working with the last validated token and retries at growing intervals (5, 10, 20 minutes… up to 6 hours).
• Seven days before the lease ends, the status changes to Hub unreachable and Server Admin shows a warning.
• If the lease runs out, the status becomes Offline for too long and new actions fall back to Community limits. As soon as the connection is back and a check succeeds, the limits lift on their own.

Allow outbound HTTPS from the server to bipanel.io; licensing, updates and the installation report all use it.

#License statuses

The plan limits in the table apply to the Pro package; on the Community package, Community limits stay in place even with a valid license until you upgrade to Pro. Whatever the status, existing accounts and sites keep running. In the Pro package, Pro-only settings also keep working while the license is not valid; you just cannot make new changes.

#Fingerprint and moving servers

A license is bound to the server's fingerprint, a 64-character digest. On a server installation it is derived from the operating system's machine ID, in a container from a persistent ID stored on the /data volume, and in both cases from a secret generated once at install time. You can see it in the Server identity section of the License screen.

The fingerprint changes when the operating system is reinstalled, when bipanel is installed from scratch, or when a container loses its /data volume. If you move the panel's data directory to another machine, the panel reports the old fingerprint along with the new one at its next check, and the hub moves the existing activation over. This does not count as a new activation, and it can happen at most once every 7 days for the same activation.

#Moving a license to another server

1. On the old server, go to System → License → Remove activation. The license is detached from the server, which falls back to Community limits: existing accounts and sites keep running, but the 3-account limit and feature restrictions apply.
2. If you cannot reach the old server, or the hub was unreachable when you removed the activation, release it under My licenses in the customer portal. No support ticket is needed.
3. Activate the key on the new server; if it runs the Community package, upgrade to Pro afterwards.

If you release an activation from the customer portal while the panel on that server is still running, its next check moves it to the Unavailable status.

#Installation report (heartbeat)

Every bipanel installation (Community and Pro, server and container) regularly sends a short installation report to bipanel Hub. The hub compares the reported package and component versions with known vulnerabilities and sends back the ones affecting this server, which then appear on the Vulnerabilities screen (see vulnerability monitoring).

The report is mandatory and cannot be turned off: there is no panel setting, installer option or environment variable that disables it. It is independent of the license and never affects the panel or the sites. If the hub cannot be reached, the report is retried quietly at growing intervals (from 5 minutes up to 6 hours).

The first report goes out 1–10 minutes after the panel starts, or 15–60 seconds after start if the server booted a different kernel than in its previous report. Later reports follow the interval set by the hub, about every 2 hours by default. When packages change (an update, a component install), the next report is brought forward. The connection is encrypted with HTTPS.

#What is sent

The installation token is stored encrypted on the server, and the hub keeps only its hash. The hub deletes the record and package list of any installation it has not heard from for 180 days.

#What is never sent

• Account names, domain names, email addresses and personal details
• Email contents and mailboxes
• Passwords, keys and certificates
• File contents and websites
• Databases and their contents
• Access logs and visitor information

#Seeing the data that is sent

Server Admin → System → Installation Report shows the report status: the last successful report, the next one, the interval and when the package list was last sent. Show the data sent opens the exact body of the next report as JSON (with the token hidden). Also show the package list lets you inspect the package list even when this report will not include it. Send now sends the report straight away.

#What license and update checks send

Apart from the installation report, the panel makes two other kinds of requests to the hub:

• License check (only when a key is entered): the license key, the fingerprint, the server hostname and IP address, the bipanel version, installation type and edition, the number of hosting accounts, the SHA-256 digest of the running panel package and, if the fingerprint changed, the previous one; the Pro package also sends its watermark and an integrity flag.
• Update check: the channel, the installed version, the edition and the pinned series, if any; the Pro package adds the license key, fingerprint, package digest and watermark.