Optimizely licenses most of its portfolio as cloud subscriptions. A customer signs an Order for one or more Software Services, and the Order states the Usage Metric and Usage Volume for each service. The Product Use Terms then say which metrics exist and which product-specific terms apply, and the Usage Metrics document defines each unit.[1][2] The company’s own contract documents record that its contracting entities include Optimizely AB (formerly Episerver AB), Optimizely North America, Inc. (formerly Episerver Inc.) and Episerver GmbH, which is why older documents and some software artefacts still carry the Episerver name.[6]
For a software asset manager the useful starting point is that there is no single Optimizely metric. Content management is counted mainly by named users, content items, environments and API calls; experimentation by monthly active users and impressions; commerce by transactional orders; the data platform by active profiles; and the AI assistant Opal by credits.[2] Installed software that predates the subscription model is a different regime again, with Servers, Sites and Instances as the units.[6]
Editions
The Product Use Terms list the services that carry product-specific terms: CMS and Commerce Connect, the Data Platform (ODP), the Content Marketing Platform (CMP) and digital asset management (DAM), Analytics, Campaigns, and the HIPAA and DORA supplements.[1] The Usage Metrics add Experiment Collaboration, Configured Commerce, Personalization and Opal.[2] The catalog groups these as follows.
The Product Use Terms also say that Optimizely One is the company’s bundled Software Service, and that Services Descriptions, which describe features, prerequisites and options of each service, are documentation and not contractually binding definitions.[1] Public pricing is not published; no part numbers or list prices appear in the contract set, so the catalog records none.
Metrics
The Usage Metrics document is the authoritative list. The main ones, with the rule that most often surprises licensees, are below.[2]
| Metric | Unit | Notable counting rule |
|---|---|---|
| Named User | Individual person | A limit that may not be exceeded at any time, not a total over the term |
| Monthly Active Users | Unique user ID or profile per month | Web counts every visitor the snippet evaluates, even outside an experiment |
| Impressions per Year | Experiment or variation activation | Multiple experiments or pages on one view produce multiple impressions |
| API Calls per Year | HTTP 200 JSON, XML or YAML responses | Optimizely may change the definition of an API call |
| DXP Environment | Azure web app, SQL database, Blob Storage and search index | Commerce packages add a web app and database |
| Content Item | Page, experience or media asset | Each language version and variation counts separately |
| Transactional Order (Customized Commerce) and Transactional Order (Configured Commerce) | Confirmed order | Configured Commerce counts transacted cart statuses |
| Optimizely Opal Credits | Credit | Consumed by every task that calls an AI model |
Counting / floors
Floors are not published. The Order sets each Usage Volume, and the Software Subscription Terms provide that a customer may not reduce Usage Volume during a Subscription Term.[3] In practice a licence manager therefore treats each Usage Volume as a floor for the term and a ceiling for billing without overage.
Overage is the central commercial rule. The customer is to monitor its own Use and report any Use above the agreed Usage Volume; Overage Fees accrue from the date the overage first occurs, are calculated at two times the Usage Volume unit price, and are invoiced monthly in arrears.[3] Optimizely may review use at any time, and on becoming aware of overage must notify the customer in writing and may invoice it.[3] The overage metrics are defined per service, including ACY, impressions, emails, SMS, MAUs, Opal credits, pageviews, transactional orders, content items and named users.[2] See Overage at twice unit price.
Customers can see consumption in the Usage & Billing dashboards of the Opti ID Admin Center for Configured Commerce, CMP, CMS, Collaboration, ODP, Experimentation and Opal; the dashboards require the Super Admin or Billing Admin role.[13]
Virtualization & partitioning
Virtualization matters only for installed software. The EULA treats a Physical Server and a Virtual Server alike, requires that a Server provide a MAC or IP address to which the licence is bound, and treats a hardware partition or blade as a separate physical server.[6] The legacy licence-types document adds that one Virtual Server is counted the same as one physical Server.[7] For cloud-hosted installed CMS, the EULA instead defines an Instance as a single web application with a single database on a Virtual Server that is not bound to a MAC or IP address.[6]
For managed DXP the unit is the Environment: one Azure web app, one Azure SQL database, one Azure Blob Storage and one Search & Navigation index, with an additional web app and database for Commerce packages.[2] If several Service Instances are subscribed, Usage Volumes and Overage Fees in all Orders are measured in aggregate.[2]
Cloud / BYOL
Optimizely hosts its subscription services itself or on third-party clouds. Experimentation, Personalization, CMP and Analytics are US-hosted only, while other subscription services default to the location in the Order; EU hosting for Experimentation visitor data was added on 2025-03-01, with administrative data remaining in the US.[1]
Self-hosted CMS in Azure uses instance-bound (“cloud”) licences. These are tied to the number of running instances and behave like a floating server licence; the site calls home to register each running web app instance.[11] DXP needs no manual activation because it has no instance validation.[11] A formal bring-your-own-licence programme for hyperscaler platforms is not described in the documents reviewed.
Programs
- Overage at twice unit price: twice the unit price, monthly in arrears.[3]
- Auto-renewal and price increase: subscriptions under the Online SSA renew for twelve months; Optimizely may raise fees on 120 days’ written notice; either party may cancel renewal by notice at least 90 days before the term ends.[5]
- Then-current Product Use Terms on renewal: the Product Use Terms say the then-current version applies on renewal, while the Software Subscription Terms say the version published at the Order’s Effective Date applies for the term, so the Order and both documents should be read together.[1][3]
- Standard and Premium Support: Standard has a 99.7% service level commitment and Premium 99.9%, under the Support Policy that applies to subscriptions starting on or after 2025-07-02.[9]
- Maintenance and Support (installed software) for installed licences, renewed annually in advance.[8]
- Development and Demonstration licences: free non-production licences, at most one year and thirty days respectively.[6]
- Opal complimentary monthly credits: up to 200 complimentary Opal credits per instance each month from 2025-10-01 to 2026-12-31.[12]
Audits and compliance
The current subscription terms do not contain a classic audit clause. They instead rely on self-monitoring and a review right: Optimizely may review use at any time and the customer must comply with reasonable usage review requests, although Optimizely is not obliged to review.[3] The legacy licence-types document is different. It requires records of installations and credentials during the licence term and for one year afterwards, treats Optimizely’s records as accurate unless definitively proven wrong, and allows an audit of use at any location where the software is installed if records are missing or disputed.[7]
The Online SSA also makes the terms of the Agreement and its pricing confidential, so a customer should check the clause before sharing order forms with third parties.[5] A reconciliation routine should compare the Opti ID dashboards with the Order each month, because overage accrues from the first day.
For experimentation, MAUs can be reconciled to the invoice with the Experimentation Events Export, which lists every MAU in a period by server timestamp.[10]
Out of scope
This article does not cover Optimizely’s partner and reseller programmes, professional services statements of work beyond the onboarding rules, privacy and data processing terms, or the pricing of any Order. It does not interpret the Services Descriptions, which could not be retrieved without signing in to Optimizely’s developer portal and which the Product Use Terms treat as non-binding documentation.[1]