SharePoint 2013 App Licensing

What are SharePoint 2013 app licenses

• An app license is a digital set of verifiable information stating usage rights of an app.
• Usage right means – 
• App is free or need to be purchased
• App is available on per-user or site basis
• App is a trial or full version
• App license can be verified by querying Office store.

SharePoint 2013 App license categories

License Type	Applies To	Duration	Users	Cost
Perpetual all user	All users of a SharePoint deployment, with no expiration	Perpetual	Unlimited	Free or paid
Perpetual multi user	Per user, with no expiration	Perpetual	N (per user)	Paid
Trial all user	All users of a SharePoint deployment. Can have a set expiration date.	15, 30, 60 days, or unlimited	Unlimited	Free
Trial multiuser	Per user. Can have a set expiration date.	15, 30, 60 days, or unlimited	N (per user)	Free

App license features

• App license applies to – 
• Specific app
• For a specific SharePoint deployment
• And Specified users
• Only site, tenant, or farm administrators can purchase app licenses, as only users with those roles have sufficient privileges to install an app in a site.
• For security reasons, app license tokens expire and must be renewed periodically.

App licensing framework

• Provides a way for app developers to customize app access and behavior based on license information.
• Does not enforce app licenses on its own.
• It just provides a structure which can be used by code in app to retrieve license information and act accordingly.
• Applies only to apps downloaded from Office store.
• Provide APIs to get license information.
• Provides web service to verify license validity with Office store.

App license acquisition process

• User acquires/downloads the app from Office Store or App catalog.
• Office store generates app license and license token.
• License token is downloaded to SharePoint deployment.
• User can manage the license token and assign license to one or more users based on license type.

App license verification process

• App license token gets downloaded to SharePoint installation during installation.
• When app is launched, app’s license checking code queries the SharePoint deployment for the license token.
• App verifies license token’s validity and retrieves license information by querying Office Store verification web service.
• Based on license validity & information, app code takes appropriate action.

App license verification – Best practices

• For security reasons, minimize access to code that performs app license check.
• For security reasons, Use server side code to query Office store verification web service.
• For performance reasons, check for license only when needed.
• For performance reasons, cache the license token (if possible) until it expires. 
• Ensure that production version of app does not accept test licenses.