Editions & Licensing

import { Aside } from ‘@astrojs/starlight/components’;

Monibuca v6 enforces Editions (connection/room/cluster limits) and Licenses (commercial activation files) separately. Without a license file there is no trial time limit — the server runs indefinitely as the Free edition.

Editions

Pre-built downloads are compiled as Free (edition-free). Build-time features can also target Professional or Enterprise; most users rely on the official binaries.

Feature	Free	Professional	Enterprise
Max concurrent connections	50	1,000	Unlimited
Max rooms	3	10	Unlimited
Cluster deployment	❌	❌	✅
Protocols & plugins	All (excl. Cluster)	All (excl. Cluster)	All (incl. Cluster)

When limits are exceeded, new connections or rooms are rejected and a log message references the active edition. The Admin System view shows the effective edition and quotas.

Running without a license file

At startup the process looks for activate_<username>.key in the working directory. If the file is missing, invalid, or fails local verification:

The server runs as the Free edition with no runtime expiry
There is no 30-day trial from build date
The process does not exit solely because no key was found

Example log line:

WARN No activation key found. Running as free edition (max connections: 50, max rooms: 3, no runtime time limit). Place a valid activate_<user>.key file to unlock licensed features.

vs. demo mode (`--edition`)

Scenario	Time limit	Limits
No license (default)	No	Free
`--edition pro` / `--edition enterprise` on a Free binary	Yes — shuts down after 30 minutes	Temporary Pro/Enterprise quotas
Valid license file	No (subject to license expiry dates)	As licensed

Demo mode applies only when --edition requests a tier higher than the binary was built with. See Downloads for examples.

Commercial license (activation key)

Place the activation file in the process working directory (same directory as config.yaml):

activate_<username>.key

Example: user acme → activate_acme.key. The username inside the license must match the filename.

What is verified

After a successful activation, local checks run; some license types also use online verification (ACTIVATE_URL, default http://localhost:8088/verify):

Validity window (start / expire, YYYYMMDD)
Version pattern (version regex)
Machine binding (selected license types)
Max concurrent streams (selected license types)

When a license becomes invalid

If the license expires or periodic local verification fails at runtime:

Limits fall back to Free edition; the server keeps running
The process does not exit only because the license expired (unlike older trial behavior)
Periodic license checks stop until you deploy a valid .key and restart

Failed online activation checks also degrade to Free instead of exiting the process.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
`ACTIVATE_URL`	Online activation endpoint (default `http://localhost:8088/verify`)

Licensed plugin lists may set *_ENABLE variables (e.g. CLUSTER_ENABLE) early at startup.

Building from source

Default cargo build enables the license feature. With no .key file, behavior matches the sections above (Free, no runtime cap).

To omit the license module entirely:

cargo build --no-default-features --features "static-plugins,edition-free,all-plugins,api-v6"

(Adjust features as needed; do not include license.)

Pin edition at compile time with mutually exclusive features:

cargo build --features edition-free    # default
cargo build --features edition-pro
cargo build --features edition-enterprise