A license manager is a software management tool used by software vendors

ISV

The initialism ISV may refer to:* Internal security vehicle* Independent software vendor* International scientific vocabulary* Cardiff International Sports Village* International Standard Version of the Bible* International Student Volunteers...

 or by end-user organizations to control where and how software products are able to run. License managers protect software vendors from losses due to software piracy and enable end-user organizations to enforce compliance with software license agreements. License managers enable software vendors to offer a wide range of usage-centric software licensing

License

The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...

 models

Business model

A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...

, such as product activation

Product activation

Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary computer software programs. In one form, product activation refers to a method invented by Ric Richardson and patented by Uniloc where a software application hashes hardware serial numbers and an ID number specific...

, trial licenses, subscription licenses, feature-based licenses, and floating licensing

Floating licensing

Floating 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 authorized user wishes to run the application they request a license from a central license server. If a license is...

 from the same software package they provide to all users.

A license manager is different from a software asset management tool

Software Asset Management

Software asset management is a business practice that involves managing and optimizing the purchase, deployment, maintenance, utilization, and disposal of software applications within an organization...

, which end-user organizations employ to manage the software they have licensed from many software vendors. However, some software asset management tools include license manager functions.

See also

• Product activation
  Product activation
  Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary computer software programs. In one form, product activation refers to a method invented by Ric Richardson and patented by Uniloc where a software application hashes hardware serial numbers and an ID number specific...
  
  
• Digital rights management
  Digital rights management
  Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
  
  
• Floating licensing
  Floating licensing
  Floating 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 authorized user wishes to run the application they request a license from a central license server. If a license is...
  
  
• Software metering
  Software metering
  Software metering refers to several areas:*Tracking and maintaining software licenses. One needs to make sure that only the allowed number of licenses are in use, and at the same time, that there are enough licenses for everyone using it. This can include monitoring of concurrent usage of software...
  
  
• License queuing
• License borrowing
  License borrowing
  License borrowing is a feature that allows a user to run software on a computer that is not continuously connected to the license server on the network....
  
  
• Automatic server discovery
  Automatic server discovery
  Automatic server discovery is a software licensing feature that allows client applications to find license servers automatically on the network, thus eliminating the need for end users to manually configure server information and allowing system administrators to perform their tasks more easily and...
  
  
• Key server (software licensing)
  Key server (software licensing)
  Key server for software licensing is a colloquial or generic description that refers to a centralized computer software system which provides tokens, or keys, to client computers in order to enable licensed software to run on them....