Mendix deployment licensing outside Mendix Cloud is the set of rules for turning an unlicensed Mendix app into a licensed production app on infrastructure that the customer or a third party operates. Mendix lets customers deploy apps without a licence to another public or private cloud, such as SAP Business Technology Platform, in order to try and test them, but the app then has restrictions.[1] The Order Form Definitions name the deployment scenarios that a subscription can cover: Mendix Cloud, Mendix for Private Cloud on a customer-operated Kubernetes-based cloud, Mendix Cloud Dedicated, Mendix for Server-based Deployment on Windows or Linux servers, virtual machines or Docker containers, and Mendix for SAP BTP.[8] The pricing page also lists Mendix on Azure, Mendix on StackIT and Mendix on Server, each at additional cost in Standard and Premium.[9]
Editions
For a Mendix app outside Mendix Cloud, licensing has two states.
| Feature | Unlicensed app | Licensed app |
|---|---|---|
| Concurrent users | 6 | Depends on the pricing plan |
| Time limit | Runtime stops after 2 to 4 hours (randomly chosen) regardless of user activity | No time limit |
| Named users | No limit | Depends on the pricing plan |
Source of table: Mendix Licensing Apps documentation.[1] For each environment on which the restrictions are to be removed, a licence is needed. The app checks for a licence each time it starts, and if the licence expires while the app runs, it continues until the next start, when the licence is checked again.[1] The method of applying a licence depends on the target platform. The table below summarises the documented forms.
| Target | Licence form | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mendix on Kubernetes (online) | Subscription Secret, entered in the Mendix Portal | [2] |
| Mendix on Kubernetes (offline) | LicenseId and LicenseKey in the cluster custom resource, or a licence bundle in the Private Cloud License Manager | [2][3] |
| SAP BTP | Subscription Secret entered when creating or editing the environment | [5] |
| Cloud Foundry, Docker, Kubernetes (buildpack) | LICENSE_ID and LICENSE_KEY environment variables | [1] |
| Siemens Insights Hub | License ID and License Key as Cloud Foundry environment variables | [1] |
| Windows server | Licence key generated by Mendix Support from the server ID | [6] |
| Linux or other Unix-like server | Server ID from the m2ee console; licence key activated with activate_license | [1] |
| Mendix Portable Runtime | LicenseID and LicenseKey in the runtime configuration or RUNTIME_LICENSE_ID and RUNTIME_LICENSE_KEY | [1] |
Metrics
The main unit is the Runtime License, one per app environment. Mendix on Kubernetes documentation states that a runtime licence per environment is required, that the runtime licence is independent of the Operator licence, and that it removes trial restrictions from the app. Both types are needed to manage and run an application through Mendix on Kubernetes.[2] The related unit is the App Environment: the Order Form Definitions state that the number of Apps on an Order Form is the maximum number of production App Environments.[8] A customer should therefore reconcile three counts: production environments under the Order Form, runtime licences issued by Mendix Support, and environments actually running.
Licence requests go through a form. A customer opens the Request New App Node app, names the hosting type and gives details such as the server ID for a virtual machine, after which Mendix Support contacts the Technical Contact through a ticket. For hosting such as Cloud Foundry Mendix Support provides the LicenseId and LicenseKey.[1] The same documentation lets customers also obtain a subscription secret for SAP BTP and Mendix on Kubernetes through this process.[1]
Counting / floors
Mendix on Kubernetes
Mendix on Kubernetes is described as a premium offering requiring a valid subscription for production use.[2] Operator versions older than 2.23.0 require a separate Operator licence, one for each namespace the Operator manages. From Operator version 2.23.0 the separate key is no longer needed, a change Mendix describes as technical only, and a valid Mendix on Kubernetes subscription and support contract is still required whatever the Operator version.[2] The Operator can run in trial mode for evaluation. In trial mode it stops managing an environment ninety days after the environment was created (thirty days for Operator versions 1.12.0 and earlier), after which the only available action is to delete the environment.[2]
Private Cloud License Manager
For clusters without internet access, Mendix describes a Private Cloud License Manager (PCLM), currently in beta, as a repository of offline licences. It runs as a Kubernetes service and requires Operator version 2.11.0 or above and a Postgres or SQL Server database named mxlicenses.[3] Licences arrive as a licence bundle, a zip file that can hold runtime licences and an Operator licence, and Mendix states that runtime licences are required for each runtime environment and an Operator licence for each namespace where the Operator runs. The bundle is bought by contacting Mendix Support.[3] Licence assignment is automatic. After the Operator is patched and an environment restarted, licences are applied without any choice of which environment is licensed, and if there are more operator-controlled environments than licences, some environments will not be licensed. A deleted licensed environment frees its licence to be applied to new environments, which may take up to 30 minutes.[3] The command mx-pclm-cli license list-usage shows which licences are used by which environments and which are unused, which supports internal reconciliation.[3]
Mendix on Azure
Mendix on Azure has its own licensing model, separate from the base platform and user fees. The marketplace offering is free to deploy and Microsoft charges directly for Azure resources. Mendix does not charge for the first 120 days after creating any new app environment in a cluster. After that it charges a fixed number of Cloud Tokens per app environment, 14 as of 2025, and the charge depends on the number of app environments, not on the number of clusters.[4] Runtime licences are still needed: for production environments a customer must supply runtime licences to move the Mendix Runtime out of trial mode, in the same way as for Mendix on Kubernetes.[4]
SAP BTP
On SAP BTP a Subscription Secret is a required field when creating an environment. It is associated with the Mendix production licence. With an invalid secret the app still runs but restarts every two to four hours and has a limit of six concurrent users.[5]
Servers and Portable Runtime
On Windows, an on-premises licence is needed and the customer must be registered as the technical contact for the licence. The server ID is copied from the Mendix Service Console and submitted to Mendix Support, which generates a licence key. A separate licence applies to each environment.[6] Mendix Portable Runtime, a package that needs only Java to run, is included in the Server-Based subscription portfolio and uses the same licence model, so an entitled customer can request a licence for it without buying a new subscription. A Free App can be used to test it.[7]
Virtualization & partitioning
Mendix publishes no processor, core or virtual machine metric for these deployments. The licensed object is the app environment and, on Windows and Unix, the server ID provided with the licence request. The documents reviewed do not say what happens to a server-bound licence when a virtual machine is cloned, migrated or re-imaged, so customers should confirm with the Order Form and with Mendix Support before moving a licensed server.[6]
Cloud / BYOL
The Order Form Definitions give the model for each scenario in plain terms: use the Mendix cloud, bring your own cloud, get a dedicated cloud, bring your own infrastructure or use SAP’s cloud. For Mendix Cloud Dedicated, cloud resources are furnished separately by the customer through its own AWS contract.[8] In the server-based scenario the Mendix runtime engine runs on the customer’s servers on-premises, while development services such as the Mendix Portal, Studio, AppStore and Team Server are provided as a hosted solution.[8] A customer running a Mendix runtime on a third-party cloud therefore pays the cloud provider for infrastructure and holds a Mendix runtime licence on top.
Programs
The trial and evaluation arrangements are the Mendix Operator trial mode, the Mendix on Azure trial period and the unlicensed app limits on any platform. Mendix documentation also refers to a Mendix on Edge device licence for Industrial Edge, without describing its terms on the page reviewed, so that licence is not covered here.
Out of scope
This article does not cover Mendix Cloud nodes, Cloud Resource Packs, user subscriptions, Private Mendix Platform, or the Industrial Edge device licence. It also does not describe prices, which the documents reviewed do not publish for runtime licences or for Mendix on Kubernetes.