F5 sells application delivery and security products whose licensing differs sharply by product line: BIG-IP appliances and Virtual Editions, NGINX software and the NGINXaaS cloud service, and Distributed Cloud Services delivered as software as a service. The common layer is the F5 Platform Terms of Use, a master contract that governs hardware, software, SaaS offerings and support services unless the customer and F5 have signed a separate agreement.[1] This article maps the pieces; the product lines, the programmes and the support terms each have their own articles listed under See also.
Contract structure
The Platform Terms of Use (document DOC-0355-20, last updated 2026-07-01) are “legally binding” between the customer and the F5 entity that serves its region: F5 Networks Ltd. for customers with their primary place of business in Europe, the Middle East or Africa, F5 Networks Singapore Pte Ltd for Asia-Pacific, and F5, Inc. elsewhere or whenever a product is bought through a public cloud marketplace private offer.[1] A signed agreement, if one exists, governs and the Platform Terms then have no effect.[1] The address that F5 previously used for its end-user licence agreement now serves the Platform Terms, so a reference to the “F5 EULA” in an older contract or purchase document should be read against the current Platform Terms and the order.[1]
F5 publishes the contract set on one policies page. It lists the Platform Terms of Use, the Maintenance Agreement, the Unity+ Partner Agreement, and two licensing model addenda for managed service providers (one for Distributed Cloud and one for the Cloud Licensing Program).[2] The Subscription Program Terms sit on their own page.[3] Around these documents are product documentation, which the Platform Terms make part of the licence: use of F5 products must comply with the documentation, including any restrictions on the number of protected applications, the number or type of licensed devices, the number of authorised copies or instances, users, bandwidth, non-production use, database or location restrictions.[1]
What is licensed
The Platform Terms grant a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right to access SaaS offerings and documentation and a licence to install and use software in object code form, for internal business purposes during the subscription term.[1] Software is licensed on either a subscription or perpetual basis as the order states.[1] Affiliates may use the products if the customer can bind them to the terms, accepts liability for them and lists them on request.[1] Hardware fees are in addition to any licence or subscription fees.[1]
Routes to buy
F5 describes four routes on its purchasing page: subscriptions for a specified number of instances on 1-, 2- or 3-year terms, perpetual licensing by service or in bundles, the Flex Consumption Program with a 3- or 5-year annual spending commitment, and local resellers; a free 30-day trial is also offered.[4] The Subscription Program Terms add that products must be ordered from an F5-authorised reseller unless F5 agrees otherwise in writing, with licence keys, certificates or other authentication methods issued by F5 after the order.[3] A reseller agreement cannot modify those requirements or the Platform Terms, and the commercial terms of price, payment and term are negotiated between the customer and the reseller.[3][1]
| Route | Typical products | Document that governs | Reporting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perpetual licence | BIG-IP hardware software modules, BIG-IP VE (bring your own licence) | Platform Terms, order, Maintenance Terms | Not specified in the cited terms |
| Term subscription | BIG-IP VE, NGINX Plus, other software | Subscription Program Terms (Term Subscriptions) | Product-dependent; NGINX Plus reports under its JWT licence |
| Flex Consumption Program | Deployable software (Schedule A), Distributed Cloud (Schedule B) | Subscription Program Terms (FCP) | Monthly usage reports for software; consumption reports for services |
| Utility (pay-as-you-go) | BIG-IP VE and NGINX through cloud marketplaces | Cloud provider marketplace plus Platform Terms | Billed hourly or monthly by the marketplace |
| Partner programmes | Managed service providers | Unity+ Partner Agreement and licensing model addenda | Monthly usage reports |
Table sources: purchasing page, Subscription Program Terms, Platform Terms and partner addenda.[4][3][1][5]
Metrics in use
F5 does not use a single unit. Each product line has its own:
- BIG-IP Virtual Edition is sold by licensed throughput tier, from a lab licence through 25 Mbps, 200 Mbps, 1, 3, 5 and 10 Gbps production tiers, with a High-Performance VE licensed by vCPU instead of throughput.[6] See Throughput tier (BIG-IP VE) and High-Performance VE vCPU licence.
- Per-App licences cover one back-end application with one virtual IP address and three virtual servers.[7]
- Software Instance is the unit in the Subscription Program Terms: “the individual licensable unit of a Software as defined in the applicable Usage Metrics”.[3]
- NGINX Plus instances report against a JWT licence that is tied to the subscription and not to individual instances.[8]
- NGINX Capacity Unit (NCU) meters NGINXaaS for Azure by the hour.[9]
- Distributed Cloud Services use a unit per service, such as the number of WAF-enabled load balancers, HTTP(s) requests, DNS zones or unique monthly active users.[3]
Licence keys, activation and reporting
Software supplied in stand-alone form, for example a virtual machine image, requires a valid licence key or other identifying token issued by F5 or an authorised distribution partner, and use is limited to the duration the key allows.[1] If a key lets the customer deploy software or features before an order exists, the customer agrees to pay for that use, except for non-production software and evaluations.[1] In a subscription programme the Subscription Start Date is, unless the quote says otherwise, the day registration keys, certificates or other authentication methods are first made available, not the day the software is deployed.[3] For support, coverage starts on the earlier of 90 days after shipment or the date the product is activated with F5.[10]
Products may collect and transmit information to F5, including hardware serial numbers, part numbers and information used to determine fees under the documentation and programme terms; depending on the product and pricing tier an opt-out may be available.[1] On written request the customer must certify compliance with the applicable usage metrics and may be asked for reasonable access to usage records and logs for validation; if use exceeds the metrics the parties may work to reduce it, and otherwise the customer must order additional quantities and is liable for the fees for excess usage.[1]
Programmes
The Flex Consumption Program is a three-year subscription reconciled each year against actual usage, with monthly usage reports for software and consumption measurement for services.[3] F5 describes it as its flagship buying programme and the successor to the Enterprise Licensing Agreement.[11] The BIG-IP Better and Best bundles for Virtual Editions are sold as subscriptions or through a VE Enterprise Licensing Agreement.[12] See Flex Consumption Program (FCP), Term Subscription and Enterprise Licensing Agreement (ELA).
Cloud and virtualisation
For software run in a public cloud, the Platform Terms allow use only in an F5-authorised cloud provider environment and bar copying software out of it; with a bring-your-own-licence offering each instance needs its own licence key, while a utility offering is bought from the cloud provider marketplace.[1] Software licensed for F5 hardware may not be moved to other hardware, third-party hardware or a virtualised environment unless the documentation or a separate agreement says so.[1] For the Cloud Licensing Program, a Software Instance is tied to a single copy running in a single virtual machine, and pooling or multiplexing does not reduce the count.[5]
Support and warranty
Updates are an entitlement of maintenance and support: they may be used only on products for which support has been bought and only for the term of the licence.[1] Support agreements renew for one-year terms on a purchase order, support entitlement is not transferable between products or customers, and support lapsed for more than 180 days requires inspection and recertification.[10] F5 warrants software for 90 days from shipment and hardware for one year.[13] Details are in the support article.
Litigation
F5 and its NGINX subsidiaries were defendants in a US copyright and contract suit brought by Lynwood Investments over the origin of NGINX software; the Ninth Circuit’s 2024 memorandum is covered in a separate case article.[14]
Out of scope
This article does not cover price lists, which F5 does not publish, the Unity+ partner programme beyond the licensing model addenda, third-party software embedded in F5 products, or the open source components that F5 products contain, which are governed by their own licences as the Platform Terms state.[1]