Consulting on 1C-Bitrix licensing

Licensing Consultation for 1C-Bitrix

The 1C-Bitrix licensing policy often creates confusion: the product line has changed several times, the difference between editions is not obvious from the price list, and the conditions for technical support and updates affect the real cost of ownership more than the license price itself.

Products and editions: what is what

1C-Bitrix: Site Management and Bitrix24 are different products with different codebases, though they look similar. Site Management is a CMS for public websites and online stores. Bitrix24 is a corporate portal with CRM, tasks, communications. Sometimes clients confuse them and buy Bitrix24 On-Premise for creating a regular corporate website — this is overkill and more expensive.

Site Management editions (current product line):

• Start — basic, up to 1 site, no e-commerce, limited module set. Suitable for business cards and landing pages
• Standard — adds online store with limited functionality
• Small Business — full-featured e-commerce, multi-site support up to 2 sites
• Business — unlimited multi-site support, expanded catalog capabilities, learning module
• Enterprise — clustering, high load, support SLA

Specific module limitations between editions are fixed in /bitrix/modules/main/lang/ru/admin/license.php — there are machine-readable constants there, but for practical purposes it's easier to look at the comparison table on the official website.

Technical limitations of editions

These are more important than marketing descriptions. Limitations are checked in code through CBitrixComponent::__construct() and \Bitrix\Main\Loader::includeModule() — attempting to use an unavailable module throws an exception or returns false.

Practically significant limitations:

• Compound cache (bitrix:main.page.polymorph) — available from "Business" edition and above
• Web cluster (clouds module, session balancing, distributed cache) — Enterprise only
• Number of sites on one kernel — checked in b_lang by record count
• sale module (online store) — absent from "Start"

If you're told that a site with 5,000 SKUs needs "Enterprise" — that's not necessarily true. "Business" handles catalogs with hundreds of thousands of items with proper database and caching configuration. "Enterprise" is needed when horizontal scalability is required.

License key and updates

License in Bitrix is a file /bitrix/license_key.php with the key and edition data. When you purchase a license, you get a key that is registered to a specific domain. The site works without registration, but updates through the update system (/bitrix/admin/update_system.php) will be unavailable.

Updates are included in the license cost for the first year. After the year expires and the update license is not renewed ("license for updates"), the site continues to work on the current version, but new security updates don't arrive. This is critical: vulnerabilities in Bitrix are published regularly, and without updates the site becomes a target.

The cost of renewing the update license is about 30% of the license cost per year. Many clients save on renewal and then get a hacked site.

Multi-site and license count

You can attach several sites to one Bitrix kernel — this is multi-site (table b_lang, multiple records). For this, you need one license of "Small Business" edition or higher — the number of sites is determined by the edition, not by the number of licenses.

A common misconception is that each additional site requires a separate license. This is wrong for multi-site on one kernel. A separate license is needed only if you run a separate Bitrix installation on a separate server for another legal entity.

Demo mode and testing

Bitrix can be installed in demo mode — full functionality for 30 days without license attachment. This is the standard way for development. Demo mode is technically implemented by checking the date in the kernel (/bitrix/modules/main/classes/general/main.php). When demo expires, some functions are blocked, but the site doesn't fall completely.

For production servers, never leave demo mode on — even if the site "works", you won't get security updates.

Marketplace and third-party modules: licensing nuances

Marketplace modules have their own licenses — one-time or subscription. When purchasing a module, it's attached to your account on bitrix.ru. When changing hosting or domain, license transfer through the personal account is required. There's no automatic attachment to a new domain.

Important point: when selling a business or changing a legal entity, Bitrix licenses are transferred through the official transfer process with notification from 1C-Bitrix. Unofficial transfer (just giving the key) technically works but violates the license agreement and creates risks when contacting technical support.