Licensing FAQ

General

Can I use bext commercially without a license?

Yes. The Community tier is MIT-licensed and fully functional for production use. You only need a paid license for the advanced features (WAF, HTTP/3, Redis, etc.).

Is bext open source?

Yes. The core is MIT-licensed. The license key system gates runtime features, not source code. You can read, modify, and redistribute the code freely.

What happens if I don't set a license key?

The server runs in Community mode with all free features active. Paid features are silently disabled. There are no nag screens or degraded behavior.

Keys and Validation

Does the server phone home?

No. License validation is 100% offline. The key is verified using an Ed25519 public key embedded in the binary. No network requests are made, ever.

What happens if my key is invalid?

The server logs an error and falls back to Community mode. It never refuses to start.

What happens when my license expires?

There is a 14-day grace period after expiry. During this period, all features remain active and the server logs a warning. After 14 days, it falls back to Community mode.

Can I use one key on multiple servers?

Each key has a servers field specifying the maximum. Check your limit with:

bext-server license

How do I renew?

Renewal generates a new key with an updated expiry date. Replace the old key in your config or environment variable.

Tiers and Features

How do I upgrade from Pro to Enterprise?

Contact us through bext.dev/pricing or upgrade through your dashboard. You'll receive a new key with Enterprise features.

Can I add individual features without upgrading tiers?

License keys can include extra features on top of the tier defaults. Contact us for custom feature bundles.

What's the difference between compile-time and runtime gating?

Compile-time (Cargo flags) controls whether code is included in the binary. Runtime (license key) controls whether included code is activated. You can compile everything in and gate it with the key, or compile only what you need.

Cloud Platform

Is the cloud platform separate from self-hosted licensing?

Yes. The cloud platform is a managed hosting service with usage-based pricing. Self-hosted license keys and cloud subscriptions are independent.

Do cloud plans include all features?

Cloud Pro includes all Pro self-hosted features. Cloud Team includes all Enterprise features.