Using License Keys on a Development/Staging Site

Our licensing system allows for the same license key to be used on a live site and a development/staging site at the same time (with one single activation). 

This is dependant on the inclusion of certain terms within the website’s URL.

One of the below terms must be (part of) your development/staging site URL:

• localhost
• 10.0.0.0/8
• 172.16.0.0/12
• 192.168.0.0/16
• *.dev
• .*local
• dev.*
• staging.*
• staging-*
• *.wpengine.com

For example, if you tried to use the same Single-Site License key on both example.com and example.dev, this would work fine! Both sites would receive updates, and you would not get any notices about exceeding your limit.

However, if you tried to use the same Single-Site License key on both example.com and devexample.com, this would not work – only one site would be able to use the license key.

If you tried to use the same Single-Site License key on example.com, example.dev, staging.example, 10.0.0.0/8 and localhost this would work fine. All sites would get updates, and you would not get any “out of installs” notices.

Q: My dev site doesn’t use any of the above, will it still work the same way?

A: Unfortunately, no, at this time we only support the specific TLD configurations listed above.

Q: My license is active on a bunch of local sites. Can I get support for all of them at once?

A: No. If you have a Single-Site License, then you are only entitled to support for one licensed website as per our terms. If you try to get around this and get support for multiple domains, we will spot this and take action. We do not tolerate abuse of our license keys.

Q: What can I do if I want to use a license on a dev site that doesn’t fit the criteria listed above in this article?

A: You can have your license on your dev site during development and then move it when you are ready to go live. This means you would deactivate it from your local or test site, and activate it on the live site. If you need updates on the dev site, you can always move the license again or do a manual update with the latest version from your WP RSS Aggregator account.