A per-seat license (or "named user license") is a

software license A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software. Since the 1970s, software copyright has been recognized in the United States. Despite the copyright being recognized, most companies prefer to sell lic ...

model based on the number of individual users, known as 'seats' in reference to them sitting in an

office chair An office chair, or desk chair, is a type of chair that is designed for use at a desk in an office. It is usually a swivel chair, with a set of wheels for mobility and adjustable height. Modern office chairs typically use a single, distinctive ...

at a

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or computational science, scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating syste ...

, who have access to a digital service or product. For example, 50-user per-seat license would mean that up to 50 individual named users can access the program. Per seat licensing is administered by providing

user-level security A modern computer operating system usually uses virtual memory to provide separate address spaces or regions of a single address space, called user space and kernel space. This separation primarily provides memory protection and hardware protec ...

to the directory containing the program. It contrasts with the

concurrent user license Floating licensing, also known as concurrent licensing or network licensing, is a software licensing approach in which a limited number of licenses for a software application are shared among a larger number of users over time. When an authorize ...

, based on the number of simultaneous users (regardless of which individuals they are) accessing the program. It typically deals with software running in the server where users connect via the network. For example, in a 50-user concurrent use license, after 50 users are logged on to the program, the 51st user is blocked. When any one of the first 50 logs off, the next person can log on. Concurrent licensing can be managed by the application itself or via independent

software metering Software metering is the monitoring and controlling of software for analytics and enforcing of agreements. It can be either passive data collection, or active restriction. Types Software metering can take different forms: * Tracking and maintai ...

tools. Per seat licensing often imposes restrictions on the users. A user may be a person, software or device accessing the software. User licenses may be differentiated by user types, as authorized users, external user, internal user, qualified user, etc. User types to be taken into account are determined by the licensing requirements. Per-seat licensing is common for products used by specialised professionals in industrial settings. In addition to computer programming, typical examples include chemists, molecular biologists, geographers, and designers.

References

{{reflist Software licensing