Using Aspose within a Public SDK or API

This page discusses how we define usage and license our software when our products are used in end user software with a public SDK or API. Under our standard End User License Agreement (section 3.1) customers using unmetered licenses (Developer Small Business, Developer OEM, Site Small Business, Site OEM) are not allowed to expose any kind of public API or other programmatic interface for other developers which uses Aspose products either directly or indirectly.

For customers who do require to expose features which use our products as part of their own product’s public Development Library, API, online API or SDK we offer a way to use our products: The use of a metered license. See the FAQ for details about this license type.

For customers who cannot use a Metered approach but who commercially deploy their software, e.g. a product with a public or private Development Library, API, online API or SDK that uses Aspose’s functionality, another option is an SDK License. An SDK License allows commercial deployments to either 50 or 250 Customer Deployments. See the FAQ for details about this license type.

 

What is considered use within an SDK or API?

We define this applicable if you have a Development Library, API, online API or SDK Usage as any product that exposes Aspose products features or functionality within its own public API. If your product does not have a public API or SDK for other developers to use then this does not apply.

It does not matter the extent to which our features or functionality is exposed; if executing a public API call within your product ‘touches’ any Aspose products as part of doing its job then we consider it as usage which requires a metered license or SDK license. It also does not matter how many layers of abstraction an application has; if Aspose features / functionality are being made available to other developers through an API, then only a metered license or SDK license can be used.

 

What are the key licensing differences?

Under our usual Developer or Site OEM license you are granted the right to distribute end user software containing our products. However when your product contains a public API, as described above, this is no longer the case and you are required to use a metered based license or an SDK license. If you have an existing Developer or Site OEM license and your end user software now has a public API, then you will need to migrate to a metered license or an SDK license.