Synopsys licenses electronic design automation (EDA) software, design IP and prototyping hardware. Its public licensing documents describe a structure with three layers. A contract layer, the End-User Software License and Maintenance Agreement, sets what the customer may do and where. A key layer, built on FlexNet and the Synopsys Common Licensing (SCL) daemon snpslmd, enforces quantities and terms through licence key files that are bound to a hostid. A commercial layer decides how the quantity is bought, as a time-based Technology Subscription License, a Flexible Spending Account, or cloud credits. This article maps the three layers and refers to the deeper articles. It reports what Synopsys’s own documents state; the customer’s agreement and orders control.
Documents
The public contract text is a Synopsys-hosted template of the End-User Software License and Maintenance Agreement, footed “EULMD2 SINC 10.Feb.2014”, with a blank signature page and an Attachment for DesignWare Fee-Per-Use Cores.[1] The agreement states that it “covers the products and services you license (or purchase) from Synopsys, unless and until we enter into a new agreement that expressly replaces this one”, and that each Purchasing Agreement carries the specific products, prices and term.[1] Treat the template as a guide to the structure and to the clauses Synopsys uses, and check the signed version for the dates, the Use Area and the numbered terms.
Hardware is covered by separate Terms and Conditions, which state that software shipped with the hardware is governed by the End User License and Maintenance Agreement.[7] Evaluation downloads are subject to terms on the evaluation server.[8] The licence mechanics are documented in the Licensing QuickStart Guide and related support pages, and cloud models in Synopsys’s FlexEDA material.[2][6]
Editions and products
The public documents are organised by licensing construct, not by edition. Tools appear as feature names in licence keys: an example key and server log list PrimeTime, PrimeTime-SI, PrimeTime-ADV, Design-Compiler, DC-Expert and others, with an example INCREMENT line showing a quantity of 10, a start date and an expiration date.[2] The log also lists a long set of legacy vendor daemon names for which SCL serves features.[2] Dongle-based licences are supported for specific tools only, for example HSPICE or Synplify Pro.[3] DesignWare cores are licensed on a fee-per-use basis under the Attachment.[1]
Metrics
| Metric | What is counted | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Node-locked licence | A named machine; one user and one instance at a time | EULMD2 section 2.3[1] |
| Simultaneous End User or Client limit | Simultaneous End Users or Clients set in the key | EULMD2 section 2.9[1] |
| Use Area | A single site within 5 miles | EULMD2 definitions[1] |
| WAN use right | Continental or global WAN | EULMD2 section 2.6[1] |
| FlexNet hostid | Licence server identity | Hostid page[3] |
| Synopsys Cloud credit and pay-per-use licence minute | Credits deducted per minute of use | FlexEDA[6] |
| DesignWare Fee-Per-Use Core royalty | Royalty per licensee IC | EULMD2 Attachment[1] |
| Flexible Spending Account drawdown | Keys ordered against a contract | CSS page[5] |
Counting and floors
Location is a core counting rule. Outside node-locked licences, End Users must be in the designated Use Area, a single site of one or more buildings within 5 miles of one another, unless a WAN right was purchased; a global WAN right allows use at any customer facility worldwide, and a continental one on the continent of the Key Server.[1] A Key Server may not be permanently moved outside the Use Area without written approval, although a single back-up Key Server may be used temporarily in the same Use Area while the original is out of service.[1] Where a key limits simultaneous End Users or Clients, “you must ensure that this limit is not exceeded, by platform virtualization or any other means.”[1] The agreement template states no seat floors.
Virtualization and partitioning
The agreement treats virtualization as a counting risk, not as a separate metric: a limit in the key cannot be exceeded by virtualization, and tampering with a key includes “using a false host ID number or additional virtualized copy(ies) of the host ID number to enable unauthorized copies of a License Key.”[1] For licence servers, hostids differ by environment: an Ethernet-based hostid for physical machines, VM_UUID or AMZN_EIP for cloud VMs, and a FLEXID for dongles, and Synopsys states that for the cloud a MAC address is not an acceptable hostid.[2][3] Dongle licence servers should not run in virtual machines.[9]
Cloud and bring your own licence
Synopsys Cloud uses a business model called FlexEDA. Instead of buying “a specific number of licenses for specific tools”, customers purchase cloud credits usable for any number of licences for any enabled tools. Two licence forms exist: pay-per-use, metered by the minute and deducted after use, and cloud subscription licences of fixed term and quantity, paid upfront in credits.[6] Both deployments, Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) and Software as a Service, run under a single cloud contract.[6]
Programs
A Technology Subscription License lasts for a specific period and “includes (at no additional charge) Maintenance Services”.[1] For other licences maintenance must be purchased, and it covers only the latest and the immediately preceding version.[1] A Flexible Spending Account lets a customer order keys later through the Customer Self Service site, with keys generated by SmartKeys; by default only the super user named in the contract can order.[5] Evaluation licences may be used only to evaluate the product, and the template sets a liquidated fee of the perpetual list price plus maintenance if one is used for production or customer work.[1] Synopsys may audit with five days’ notice, once a year unless it has a good-faith basis for more, and recovers its costs if the audit reveals material non-compliance.[1]
Ansys
Ansys licences are now partly managed on Synopsys domains. Synopsys states that Ansys Semiconductor (EDA) licence files will change to the Synopsys combined vendor daemon format and the snpslmd daemon effective December 7, 2026, while other Ansys products are not affected unless they share a host.[4] The Ansys products’ own terms are covered in the Ansys licensing article, and the transition is detailed in a separate Synopsys article.
Litigation
Synopsys was the plaintiff in two federal cases about licence keys and anti-circumvention, summarised in Synopsys v. Ubiquiti Networks and Synopsys v. InnoGrit. The Ubiquiti docket records a consent judgment and permanent injunction entered on 2019-01-24.[10]
Out of scope
This article does not cover the Software Integrity Group products, Synopsys’s price lists, signed customer agreements, the SCL Administration Guide or the SolvNet Download Center, which require a Synopsys account.