Egnyte user types are the classification that determines which subscription an individual needs. The Terms of Service define a User as an individual authorised by the customer to be a Power User or a Standard User.[1] The Help Desk adds a third label, the Administrator, and describes all three as user types that govern access to features such as audit reports, user management, FTP upload and private folders.[2] For a software asset manager the distinction matters because the two paid user types are licensed and priced differently, and the contract allows Egnyte to adjust fees when people are put in the wrong type.[1]
Editions
User types are not tied to one plan, but each plan allows a different mix. The Team plan is capped at 10 users,[3] the Business plan shows a maximum number of Power Users on the pricing page, and the higher plans show no stated cap.[4] Which plans allow Standard Users beyond the Power User allotment is set in the Order Form. The pricing page lists “External User Accounts” as a collaboration feature, described as the ability to share content with users who are not part of the organisation.[4]
Metrics
Power User
A Power User is an employee, consultant or individual contractor of the customer, or of any entity affiliated with the customer. An unaffiliated third party who needs Power User functionality can also be given a Power User subscription.[1] The Help Desk summarises this as the licence for a company’s employees and says Power Users get full use of Egnyte’s access methods and advanced features: depending on the plan, the web browser, FTP, the Desktop App and mobile apps, and the ability to invite Standard Users.[2] Each Power User also receives a personal sub-folder under /Private that only that user and the account Admins can access.[2]
Standard User
A Standard User, also called an External User, is an individual other than a Power User, expressly including people employed or engaged by the customer’s suppliers or customers.[1] The Help Desk describes Standard Users as business partners such as customers, vendors and outside partners.[2] They can be granted access to shared folders and can log in through a web browser or mobile app, but they have no private folder, cannot create or share folder or file links, and are not granted the Desktop App, Storage Sync or FTP access.[2] They also cannot be authenticated through an external Active Directory or SSO identity provider.[2] The FAQ adds that Standard Users should not be given access to sensitive data because they are outside the organisation.[5]
The rule that keeps the two types apart is stated twice. The definition says an employee, consultant or individual contractor of the customer, or of any affiliated entity, may not use a Standard User subscription.[1] The use restrictions then prohibit allowing Users who should be classified as Power Users to use Standard User subscriptions.[1]
Administrator
The Administrator is a Power User that the customer appoints with administrative rights, including the right to purchase and configure the Services, and the customer must maintain at least one active Administrator.[1] By default the person who registers the account is its Administrator. Administrators can create users and groups, control licence and subscription settings including buying more Power User licences, and run reports.[2] Administrators cannot be restricted from accessing specific folders.[2] Some administrative rights, such as plan details access and Standard User management, can be delegated to Power Users through Role-Based Administration.[2]
Service Account
A Service Account is an account meant for an application, such as Storage Sync, Smart Cache or an API integration, instead of a person. It can be set as an Administrator or a Power User account, and a user licence is used when a new Service Account is created.[6] Service Accounts cannot be used with the Web UI, Desktop or Mobile apps, and they may share an email address with another user.[6] The licence consequence is easy to miss: the Help Desk names Storage Sync, Smart Cache, applications built with the Egnyte API and the account used to add an Egnyte Connect source in Secure and Govern as typical uses, so each such account can consume a Power User licence even though no employee logs in.[6]
Counting / floors
One subscription, one person. The use restrictions prohibit allowing multiple individuals to use the same User subscription, “whether concurrently or in an oscillating fashion”.[1] The terms describe named subscriptions and define no concurrent-user model, so a shared login is a breach rather than a licensing optimisation.
Included and additional users. Included users are the employee licences that come with the plan by default, and additional users are extra employee licences purchased beyond that. Only administrators manage user quantities, using Settings, Subscription, Current Plan.[7]
Deactivation does not reduce billing. Deactivated Admins and Power Users do not use a user licence and do not count towards the total user licence count, but the Help Desk states that deactivating a user does not reduce the bill, because billing is based on the number of users allotted in the plan and not on how many licences are in use at a time.[7] Paying for fewer licences is therefore a commitment question. The Terms of Service tie fees to the Order Form, renew the term automatically and refuse a refund of prepaid fees if the customer ends the agreement mid-term other than for cause.[1]
Overconsumption. If the customer adds User access beyond what the Order Form provides, it pays for the extra access for the remainder of the Subscription Term and the extra sets a new high-water mark for that term.[1]
Misclassification. The Terms of Service state that classifying individuals who should be Power Users as Standard Users may result in fee adjustments based on proper classification.[1] Egnyte may monitor usage levels to verify compliance and, on reasonable notice, the customer must cooperate with reasonable requests for information relating to User counts, classifications or usage levels.[1] The terms do not set out a formal audit procedure, a look-back period or a penalty rate for this clause.
Affiliates and acquisitions. Affiliated entities may use the Services the customer bought, but their Users can only be classified as Power Users. Parents, subsidiaries and entities the customer acquires, however they were acquired, count as affiliates.[1] Under that clause, personnel of an acquired entity who use the Services must hold Power User subscriptions, not Standard User subscriptions. The agreement can be assigned to a successor in a merger or sale of substantially all assets that does not involve a direct competitor of the other party.[1]
Virtualization & partitioning
Users are not partitioned by device, but a person’s licence can span multiple domains where Multiple Entity Management is enabled. In that case all unique Power Users under the agreement may access any domain on the Order Form, excluding Archive and GxP domains, subject to configuration and MEM limits.[8] Each linked domain needs an active account with the same Egnyte-validated email address, and Egnyte must link the accounts.[9] Archive Domains admit up to 5 unique Admin Users, and the GxP test domain includes up to 5 Power Users and 5 Standard Users at no additional cost.[8]
Cloud / BYOL
There is no bring-your-own-licence model for user types. Identity, however, can be brought in: Power Users can be authenticated by Active Directory or SSO, while Standard Users cannot.[2] If a customer expects partners to sign in with the partner’s own identity provider, that is not possible for a Standard User account.
Programs
Several optional features depend on user type. Egnyte Sign requests can be sent by any Administrator or Power User by default, the permission can be limited to up to 10 groups, and Standard Users cannot send signature requests.[10] By default Standard Users cannot @mention other Standard Users, though an administrator can enable a toggle that lets them search for other Standard Users in the workflow assignee field.[5] Standard Users created through Document Portal cannot log into the mobile app.[5] The Help Desk also explains that admins can export the user list and filter for Standard Users with blank last-active values to find those still pending.[5]
Reconciling a user export
A practical method for an Egnyte position follows from these rules.
- Export users from the domain and group by user type, status and last active date.
- Check that every Standard User is outside the customer and its affiliates, using the definition in the Terms of Service.[1]
- Identify Service Accounts and treat each as a consumed Power User licence.[6]
- Compare the number of active Power Users plus Service Accounts with the included plus additional users on the Current Plan page.[7]
- For multi-domain customers, count unique Power Users across domains rather than per domain, and exclude Archive and GxP domains.[8]
Out of scope
Folder permissions, groups and the content of Role-Based Administration are administration topics, not licence metrics. Egnyte’s identity and security features are not covered here.