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

Official pre-built downloads are Free (edition-free). Professional and Enterprise tiers require a commercial license and the matching binaries or activation file.

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 install or download 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.