Licensing

In this article you will learn more about the licensing of CodeTwo Email Signatures 365.

• Trial version
• Can I extend the trial period?
• How is the software licensed and how are the licenses counted?
• How can I get a license?
• How can I check the number of available licenses and which accounts are using them?
• What happens when my license limit is exceeded?
• How to manage and reassign licenses?
• How can I change the number of licenses?
• How can I change my subscription plan?
• How can I pay for my subscription?
• Where to find invoices for my subscriptions?
• What to do if my credit card expires or stops working otherwise?
• How can I remove my credit card?
• How can I cancel my subscription?
• What happens with my data and settings after I cancel a subscription?
• How can I resume my subscription?
• How can I stop using CodeTwo services completely?
• What will happen to my subscription if I change my domain in Microsoft 365?
• How to activate a subscription with a product license key?

Trial version

The trial version of CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 can be used for free for 14 days (you can easily extend it to 21 days) and for up to 1000 mailboxes. During the trial period, the program works exactly the same as the full, licensed version and you also get full technical assistance from us.

Once the trial is over, the program stops adding signatures and you receive multiple notifications via email about that. When you purchase a subscription, there is no need to reconfigure the software – all your settings are stored and ready for use.

Can I extend the trial period?

Yes, it’s possible without sacrificing all the benefits of the 14-day trial (e.g. full technical assistance). If you simply need more time to test our software, you can easily extend the trial period in CodeTwo Admin Panel by clicking Extend trial by # days (Fig. 1.).

Fig. 1. Extending the trial period of CodeTwo Email Signatures 365.

Note that the option to extend the trial appears in CodeTwo Admin Panel when your trial period is close to ending. You can extend the trial period twice: by 5 days and then by 2 days, which gives you 21 days in total for free testing (counted from the trial period starting date).

If your company needs additional time to test CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 after the trial version expires, contact us.

How is the software licensed and how are the licenses counted?

Licensing of CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 is based on a monthly or yearly subscription model. If you want to purchase a different subscription period, contact us.

When you buy a subscription, you get signature licenses plus the same number of autoresponder licenses. Each license type is counted separately, so you can use all of them for the users or you can assign them to different users.

The minimum number of licenses is 10 and it is not possible to order fewer licenses. Also, if you ordered more than 10 licenses it will not be possible to reduce their number below 10 at a later date.

Signature licenses

Only users specified in the scope of licensed users can consume licenses. Learn more about this scope

Each user whose emails are routed through the CodeTwo cloud service and each user who uses a CodeTwo signatures add-in for Outlook consumes one license. One user can consume one license only, even if this user triggers both cloud (server-side) and Outlook (client-side) signature rules. Emails sent from aliases also won’t consume any additional licenses.

Additional notes for cloud (server-side) signatures: Every user whose emails go through the CodeTwo services consumes one license, no matter an email is actually stamped with a signature. Licenses are consumed by shared mailboxes as well, because Microsoft 365 treats shared mailboxes as users. In the cloud (server-side) signature mode, it does not matter if an email is actually stamped with a signature (this depends on your signature rule conditions defined in the Senders step). What matters is the fact that an email passes through the CodeTwo service (there are 2 exceptions: emails sent from mail-enabled public folders and emails sent as groups, distribution lists and contacts do not consume licenses because they are not supported by the signature-adding mechanism). To learn how to manage the scope of licensed users in cloud mode, go to section How to manage and reassign licenses?

Additional notes for Outlook (client-side) signatures: Licenses are consumed differently, depending on which Outlook add-in you use:

• CodeTwo Signatures Web Add-in for Outlook – a license is consumed as soon as:
  • the Web Add-in adds a CodeTwo signature to user's email in Outlook, or
  • a user opens the Web Add-in's pane in Outlook and there is a signature they can insert. If no Outlook/client-side signatures are set up for that user, no licenses are consumed.
• Legacy CodeTwo Signatures Add-in for Outlook (COM Add-in) – a license is consumed as soon as a user signs in to the COM Add-in.

Autoresponder licenses

Only users specified in the scope of licensed users can consume licenses. Learn more about this scope

Autoresponder licenses are consumed based on autoresponder rule settings. If you create an autoresponder rule for X users (this includes user/shared/room/equipment mailboxes defined in the Reply from step of the rule) in your organization, X licenses will be instantly consumed when you save the rule. If you select the Group members (inside organization) option and select a group / distribution list with Y members, Y licenses will be consumed when you save the rule (the group / distribution list itself will not consume a license).

Automatic replies set up for alias addresses won’t consume any additional licenses.

How can I get a license?

The product license is sold as a subscription, which can be purchased in CodeTwo Admin Panel. Any user with the Owner or Admin Panel admin role in your organization's Admin Panel account can purchase the subscription (learn more about admin roles in CodeTwo Email Signatures 365).

To purchase a subscription for your Microsoft 365 tenant, first sign in to CodeTwo Admin Panel and select your tenant on the Tenants page. Next, in the Subscription settings, click Buy subscription (Fig. 2.). A wizard will guide you through the entire process. 

Fig. 2. Purchasing a CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 subscription.

If you have not defined a payment method (credit card) and have not filled out required billing info, you will be asked to do so in the Payment method and Billing info step of the wizard, respectively.

In the Subscription plan & licenses step, enter the number of licenses you want to buy and select a subscription plan (monthly or yearly), currency and payment method (Fig. 3.). Click Next to proceed.

Fig. 3. The subscription purchase wizard in CodeTwo Admin Panel.

In the Order summary step, verify subscription details and your billing info, accept all the terms, and click Pay <amount> now to make the purchase.

How can I check the number of available licenses and which accounts are using them?

You can check the number of available licenses in CodeTwo Admin Panel. To do this, sign in to the Admin Panel, select your tenant on the Tenants page, and go to Licenses in the left menu (Fig. 4.).

Fig. 4. Checking the number of available signature & autoresponder licenses.

To check the number of used signature licenses, go to the Signature licenses tab. Next, click Show used signature licenses to display a list of all the email addresses to which a license has been assigned.

To see the number of autoresponder licenses in use for your tenant, simply go to the Autoresponder licenses tab instead.

If you want to change the number of licenses, see this section.

What happens when my license limit is exceeded?

If you are using cloud (server-side) signatures and you exceed the license limit, some of your users will be sending emails without signatures (or will not send automatic replies if you enabled them). You will get an email notification from us each time this happens.

In the case of Outlook (client-side) signatures, the users who are unlicensed:

• will not get any signatures and will see a relevant message in the pane of the CodeTwo Outlook Web Add-in,
• (only if you use the legacy COM Add-in) will not be able to sign in to the add-in (a relevant message will be displayed) and use any signatures.

If necessary, you can limit the users who get signatures / auto replies (as explained here) or purchase additional licenses to cover all users who e.g. need signatures (as described here).

How to manage and reassign licenses?

The program assigns licenses automatically to every user (and shared mailbox) whose emails travel through the CodeTwo service and to every user who uses a CodeTwo signatures add-in for Outlook, as described earlier in this article.

If there are more users in your Microsoft 365 organization than you have CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 licenses for, you can limit the scope of licensed users, as described in this article. You can also limit the number of users that should get:

• Cloud (server-side) signatures by limiting the scope of senders to a selected group of users during the configuration of Exchange Online connectors (for more information, click here). If necessary, you can create a distribution list that includes only those users that should get CodeTwo cloud signatures.
• Outlook (client-side) signatures by deploying an Outlook add-in to the selected group of users only (see deployment instructions) or defining these users in the Senders step of your Outlook (client-side) signature rule (as described here).
• Automatic replies by selecting specific users/groups in the Reply from step when you configure your autoresponder rules in the signature management app. Learn more

Once a license is assigned to a specific user / shared mailbox, it will not be automatically reassigned to another one even if you change the scope of licensed users, uninstall the Outlook add-in from some users/machines or delete users from your Microsoft 365 tenant. However, if some licenses were assigned to the wrong users, you can use the Reset license count option to unassign all licenses and reassign them to other users.

Resetting licenses

To restart the assignment of licenses, sign in to CodeTwo Admin Panel. On the Tenants page, select your Microsoft 365 tenant and click Licenses in the left menu. Go to the Signature licenses tab or the Autoresponder licenses tab, depending on which type of licenses you want to reset, and click Reset license count (Fig. 5.). The program will begin to count signature or autoresponder licenses from zero.

Fig. 5. Restarting license assignment with the Reset license count button.

How can I change the number of licenses?

If you want to change the number of licenses (for example, buy licenses for more users), you can do it in CodeTwo Admin Panel by editing your subscription. On the Tenants page, first select your Microsoft 365 tenant to open its settings. To change the number of licenses, click Edit subscription, as shown in Fig. 6. A wizard will open.

Fig. 6. Opening the Edit subscription wizard.

Go to the Subscription plan & licenses step and modify the number of licenses (Fig. 7.). The wizard will show an updated total price for your subscription period. Click Next to proceed.

Fig. 7. Changing the number of licenses for a subscription.

In the Order summary step (Fig. 8.), review the modified subscription order. You can check how many licenses will be added/removed, the amount to be paid for the new licenses, and verify your billing information.

Fig. 8. Reviewing the subscription order summary.

To finish, accept all the terms and click Pay now (if you added licenses) or Next (if you removed licenses from your current license pool).

• If you increased the number of licenses (as shown in Fig. 8.), then at this point you will be charged only for the additional licenses that will be used in the current billing cycle. In the next billing cycle, your credit card will be charged for the total number of licenses.
• If you decreased the number of licenses, then the subscription price and the number of available licenses will be decreased starting from the next payment renewal date (next billing cycle). In the next billing cycle, the license count will reset automatically, and the program will begin to reassign licenses to your users.

How can I change my subscription plan?

If you want to change your subscription plan (e.g. from monthly to yearly), you need to cancel your current subscription and buy a new one. See this Knowledge Base article for step-by-step guidelines.

How can I pay for my subscription?

To buy a subscription and maintain its continuity, you need to add a payment method. You can add one or more credit cards to pay for your subscriptions.

Adding a new payment method

If you don't have any payment methods defined yet, you need to add a new credit card. You can do that when you purchase a subscription for the first time or you can go directly to the Billing page in CodeTwo Admin Panel and click Add in the Payment methods section (Fig. 9.).

Fig. 9. Adding a new payment method on the Billing page in CodeTwo Admin Panel.

Changing or updating a payment method

If you need to change or update your payment method for a subscription, e.g. because your credit card has expired, first add a new payment method (if necessary) in CodeTwo Admin Panel.

Next, go to the Tenants page, select your Microsoft 365 tenant to open its settings, and click Edit subscription, as shown in Fig. 6. A wizard will open.

Go to the Subscription plan & licenses step choose the card you just added from the Payment method drop-down menu (Fig. 10.). Proceed with the wizard to update the payment method for this subscription.

Fig. 10. Changing the payment method for a subscription.

When you finish, you can remove your old credit card, as shown here (if applicable). Before you do so, make sure that all of your subscriptions are updated first.

Where to find invoices for my subscriptions?

If you are the Owner of your organization's CodeTwo Admin Panel account, you can view your organization's billing history and download invoices for all your CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 subscriptions on the Billing page in CodeTwo Admin Panel (Fig. 11.).

Fig. 11. Accessing billing history & invoices in CodeTwo Admin Panel.

Invoices are also sent to the contact email address of the CodeTwo Admin Panel Owner.

What to do if my credit card expires or stops working otherwise?

When your payment fails, your subscription temporarily expires. Do not worry about your signatures - we will continue adding them for some time and you will receive multiple email notifications from us regarding the payment problems.

• If your card stops working, our payment processor will try to charge it several times within the next 72 hours. When you fix your card problems after that period, you will have to reactivate your subscription in CodeTwo Admin Panel (as shown in Fig. 12.).

Fig. 12. Reactivating a subscription in the event of a payment failure.

• If your credit card expires, your subscription will resume the moment you add a new card and assign it to your subscription, as explained here.

How can I remove my credit card?

To remove a credit card, go the Billing page in CodeTwo Admin Panel and click Remove () next to it (Fig. 13.).

Fig. 13. Removing a credit card from CodeTwo Admin Panel.

If there are any active subscriptions that use this card, you will not be able to remove the card until you cancel these subscriptions. Note that if your card expired and you want to add a new card, you do not need to remove the old one. You can update your card by editing it – that way, your subscription will not be interrupted. Learn more

How can I cancel my subscription?

To cancel a subscription for a Microsoft 365 tenant, sign in to CodeTwo Admin Panel and select the tenant on the Tenants page to open its Subscription settings. Click Cancel subscription (Fig. 14.) and then confirm your action to terminate your subscription plan.

Fig. 14. Cancelling a subscription.

To prevent potential blocking of your mail flow, remember to deregister your tenant after your subscription expires - this will remove the CodeTwo Exchange Online connectors that route email through the CodeTwo service. These connectors are not removed automatically when you cancel your subscription.

What happens with my data and settings after I cancel a subscription?

After you cancel a subscription and it expires (your billing cycle ends), or after your trial period expires, we keep your tenant-related data and program settings (such as signature rules) on Microsoft Azure servers for 180 days (unless the law requires us to keep customer data longer) before they are permanently removed. Within this 6-month period, you can conveniently return to our services and all of your settings are available immediately.

If you want us to delete your data right after you cancel your subscription, contact us.

Learn more about data safety

How can I resume my subscription?

Before you resume your subscription, remember that:

• If you recently canceled a subscription, your signatures are still added until this subscription expires (which is at the end of your current billing cycle). To avoid double payment, it's best to resume the subscription right before the current one expires.
• If you resume using the program within 6 months after your subscription expired, all the settings associated with your tenant (including email signature rules) will be restored. Learn more about our data retention policy

To resume a subscription, go to the Subscription settings of your tenant in CodeTwo Admin Panel and click Buy subscription (as shown in Fig. 2.) to resume the subscription.

How can I stop using CodeTwo services completely?

If you want to stop using our services, all you need to do is deregister your tenant (as described in this article) and the software will immediately stop adding signatures. Deregistering a tenant automatically cancels this tenant's subscription.

What will happen to my subscription if I change my domain in Microsoft 365?

Nothing, because subscriptions are associated with tenants, not with domains. If you change a domain (i.e. add a new domain and remove the old one in Microsoft 365), the signatures will be added as previously.

How can I activate my subscription with a product license key?

If you received a product license key for CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 from your reseller or CodeTwo Customer Success, you need to use the key to activate your subscription. To do so, sign in to CodeTwo Admin Panel, select your tenant on the Tenants page to open its Subscription settings. Next, click the link shown in Fig. 15. to open the subscription activation wizard.

Fig. 15. Accessing the subscription activation wizard.

In the Activation step, enter your product license key to validate it (Fig. 16.). If the validation is successful, the number of available licenses and subscription details will be shown. To activate the subscription, click Next (you also may be asked to accept all the terms to continue).

Fig. 16. Activating the subscription for CodeTwo Email Signatures 365.

Renewing a subscription activated with a product license key

You need to contact your CodeTwo reseller or CodeTwo Customer Success to renew your subscription for the next period (1 year). Once the subscription is renewed, it will be automatically extended for your tenant in CodeTwo Admin Panel.

Limitations of a subscription activated with a product license key

Unlike subscriptions purchased via CodeTwo Admin Panel, subscriptions activated using product license keys have some limitations:

• you cannot buy a monthly subscription plan,
• the subscription is not renewed automatically,
• you cannot make any changes to the subscription from CodeTwo Admin Panel. This means you need to contact your CodeTwo reseller or CodeTwo Customer Success every time you want to:
  • modify (increase or decrease) the number of licenses,
  • renew the subscription,
  • reactivate the subscription.

If you would like to use the monthly subscription plan, have your subscription renewed automatically or be able to manage your subscription on your own, you need to purchase a subscription directly in CodeTwo Admin Panel by following these steps.

See also

License Agreement - this article contains the terms and conditions of using CodeTwo software.