CircleCI Server is described by CircleCI as “an on-premises CI/CD platform for enterprise customers” suited to organizations that must operate “within their firewall, in a private cloud, or in a data center”.[2] It provides the same features as the cloud offering but runs in the customer’s Kubernetes cluster.[2] Its licensing differs from the cloud plans in three ways. Users are licensed by Sign-on rather than counted as active users, the software is activated with a License Key, and the customer supplies and pays for the infrastructure that runs it.[1][5]
Editions
The plans overview lists Server as a plan with additional options: custom user seat count, custom storage retention set by administrators in the installation, and “expanded SLAs, an account team, and training and onboarding options”, with support packages available as add-ons.[8] The Server pricing page adds that the plan includes “unlimited build minutes” and “30 user seats included; add more as you grow”, on GKE, EKS or a native Kubernetes installation.[7] No Server price is published, and the Order sets the fees.[1]
| Item | What the documents say |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Installable on cloud resources (GCP or AWS), locally and in an air-gapped environment[2] |
| Tested platforms | EKS, GKE and a local installation are tested; Azure, Digital Ocean, OpenShift and Rancher are untested, and OpenShift is “known not to work”[2] |
| Version control | “Currently, CircleCI Server supports GitHub Enterprise Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server”; GitLab and Bitbucket are cloud only[7] |
| Runners | Self-hosted runners work with Server and give access to machine types such as macOS[2][7][11] |
| Features | Config policies are available “from CircleCI Server v4.2”[9] |
Catalog row: Server plan. The rule Server supports GitHub Enterprise Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server holds the evidence for the version control limit.
Metrics
The licensed unit is the user Sign-on. The Software License Agreement says that CircleCI grants “a non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, nontransferable license to the software to allow the number of Users provided under such license to use the software strictly in accordance with the related Documentation”.[1] Each User “shall have a unique user account (each a ‘Sign-on’), as managed and maintained by you”. The agreement continues: “Multiple Users may not use the same Sign-on. You may reassign a Sign-on to a new User. When you reassign a Sign-on from one User to another, you shall block the former User’s user account.”[1] See Server user licence and Server licence grants a number of Users, each with a unique Sign-on.
The agreement also defines the bundle that is bought. It defines a “Server Plan” as “the minimum indivisible cohort of licenses and Support, as further described on an Order”.[1] A customer therefore buys licences and Support together in cohorts set out on the Order, and cannot reduce them mid-term: the agreement says “We do not provide mid-term Support Plan downgrades or refunds for unused User Licenses”.[1] See A Server Plan is the minimum indivisible cohort of licences and Support and No refunds for unused Server user licences.
Counting / floors
Seats. Operator documentation explains which accounts use a seat. A suspended account “will no longer be active and will not count against your license quota”, and “inactive accounts”, which an administrator approved but that have not logged in successfully, “do not count against your available server seats”. Administrators can set Suspend New Users to True so that new accounts must be activated before they can log in, and can limit registration to members of listed GitHub organizations.[3] The row is Suspended and inactive Server accounts do not count against seats. The first 30 seats are described on the pricing page as included.[7]
License Key. After payment of the Fees, CircleCI provides a License Key “to download the software from a secure, password-protected website”. The key is “the data file used by the Services’ access control mechanism that allows you to install, operate, and use the Services”.[1] The customer must not “hack or modify the License Key, avoid or change any license registration process, or merge our software with other software”, nor disassemble or decompile the software.[1] See Server uses a License Key and forbids tampering.
Support. “Server Plan minimally includes Advanced Support, and you may upgrade to Platinum Support for an additional fee.” The same section allows a downgrade “from Premium Support to Advanced Support” at the first renewal after notice, so the agreement uses two names for the upper tier.[1] Community support through the discussion site is free.[1] See Server Plan includes Advanced Support with an upgrade to Platinum.
Supported versions. Two sources set different support windows. The agreement says CircleCI will “support up to four (4) Releases”, with support for the oldest ending when more than four exist, and requires the customer to upgrade to a Supported Release “on a commercially reasonable basis”.[1] The Server 4.10 documentation says CircleCI “supports the two most recent versions of CircleCI Server at any time”, targets a six-month cadence and ends support for the older of the pair when a new version ships, “in accordance with our terms of service”.[4] Its end-of-support table, subject to change, shows 4.10.x released on 2026-05-13 with support to 2027-05-13, 4.9.x released on 2025-12-09 with support to 2026-12-09, and 4.8.x ended on 2026-07-24.[4] Licence managers should plan upgrades to the shorter window. The rows are Four Supported Releases under the agreement and Server documentation supports the two most recent versions.
Virtualization & partitioning
The agreement counts Users, not processors, nodes or hosts, so the Nomad clients, machine provisioner instances and Kubernetes nodes of an installation are not licensed objects.[1][2] The customer’s cloud bill is nonetheless affected by job volume. CircleCI states that “Nomad workers are the primary compute cost driver”, that machine executor jobs are “billed per job duration” in the customer’s cloud, and that object storage for artifacts, caches and workspaces grows over time.[5] Row: Server customers pay for their own infrastructure.
Cloud / BYOL
Server is itself a bring-your-own-infrastructure edition. The customer must obtain and maintain the Equipment on which the software runs, and the Software License Agreement says CircleCI has “no liability” for damage to servers resulting from access.[1] The agreement adds that “You control the configuration and maintenance of your environment” and that CircleCI has no liability for a failure by the customer to secure it.[1] Customers can add self-hosted runners to cover operating systems and machine types that the machine provisioner does not offer, and the Self-Hosted Applications Terms govern the runner software they download.[2][10]
Programs
- Server supported releases. The supported-version policy described above.[4]
- Usage Data. The agreement states that the software “contains automated systems and reporting routines” that send Usage Data, and that the customer “shall not attempt to block these communications”. The Server 4.10 documentation says that release “does not include the data collection service” and that CircleCI will communicate any change.[1][6] See Server software reports Usage Data and customers must not block it.
- Order precedence. In this agreement, “the Order takes precedence and prevails over this Agreement, solely with respect to the subject matter of the applicable Order”. The SaaS Agreement that governs the cloud plans says the opposite.[1] See The Order prevails over the Software License Agreement.
Audits and compliance
The Software License Agreement has no audit clause in the version retrieved on 2026-10-08. Its compliance mechanisms are the License Key, the Sign-on uniqueness requirement, the restrictions on tampering, and the Usage Data reporting routines.[1] On expiry or termination the customer must “immediately cease use of the Services and return or destroy all copies of the software” and certify destruction if asked.[1] Fees are charged in advance, are “non-refundable, non-cancelable and non-creditable”, and bear a late fee of 1.5% per month if more than ten days overdue.[1] Practitioners comparing the licence count with the number of active and suspended Server accounts should use the Admin Users page described in the operator documentation.[3]
Out of scope
- The price of Server, additional users and support packages, none of which is published.
- Infrastructure licences for Kubernetes, operating systems, databases and object storage supplied by the customer.
- GitHub Enterprise licences, which are a separate product from the version control vendor.
- The CircleCI cloud plans, covered in CircleCI cloud plans and credits.