How Our Licensing Works

Our licences are “perpetual”, per-platform and per-version

You buy a “perpetual licence” for a single version and operating system. For example, you might buy a licence for Scrivener 3 (the version) for macOS (the operating system). This way, you pay upfront, only pay for what you use, and you aren’t tied in to a rolling subscription. It’s entirely up to you if you want to buy licences for other platforms too or if you want to pay for major updates that come along in the future.

What a licence covers:
  • You can use the licence for the version you buy forever so long as you continue to use a compatible operating system. There are no subscription fees, so you don’t need to pay again to continue using the version you bought.
  • You get free updates for as long as we develop that particular version of the software. If you have Scrivener 3, for instance, you get Scrivener 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and so on for free.
What a licence doesn’t cover:
  • One licence doesn’t cover more than one operating system. You need a separate licence for each platform.
  • A licence doesn’t cover major version updates. So if you have Scrivener 3, when we release Scrivener 4 you will need to pay for a new licence (but you’ll get a discount). You are under no obligation to upgrade, however. You get to choose whether you want to download and pay for a major update or instead carry on using the version you have.
One licence covers your entire household

Each licence is a “household licence”, which allows you to use our software on as many computers as you own provided that:

  1. The computers are running the operating system for which you purchased the licence.
  2. The only users are yourself and family members living with you.