Checked 15 October 2026.
Rule of thumb: if a company pays for it, installs it or manages it, you need a Business License. If you pay for it yourself (sole traders included) and nobody reimburses you, a Personal License is right, even on a work computer.
The main difference is the service, not the software. A Business License comes with what an organization needs to buy and run software as an organization: priority support, business purchasing, deployment help, seats that move between people, and both Synergy 1 and Synergy 3 included. The business editions also add things the apps don't do for personal customers, such as policy-based controls and extended and legacy operating system support. A Personal License is for one person who buys and runs their own copy. If none of the business conditions below applies to you, a Personal License is the right one, and a Business License would add nothing you need.
These answers are a plain-English guide. The agreement that applies is the EULA: End-User License Agreement (EULA)
For business and enterprise customers: a Business License
Buy a Business License, or start a free trial, from the business page: Synergy Business and Enterprise
A Business License is required when an organization (a company, an employer, a client, a school or university, a government body, a non-profit, or an affiliate of one) does any one of these, whatever name is on the receipt. A genuine sole trader or one-person business with no employees other than you doesn't count as an organization for your own use:
- Pays for the license, or reimburses, expenses or funds it in any form, including a stipend, an allowance or an equipment budget.
- Installs or deploys it, through IT, a software catalog, a self-service portal or device-management tooling, whoever clicks the installer.
- Manages, configures, monitors or supports it centrally.
- Tells, asks or encourages its staff to get it, including "buy it yourself and expense it" arrangements.
- Asks for a quote, a purchase order, an invoice with payment terms, a volume agreement or negotiated pricing.
- Needs a contract, a service-level agreement, data processing terms, a security or compliance review, vendor onboarding or an assigned account manager.
- Makes it standard tooling, part of a standard build, or expected equipment for a role.
Every Business License includes both Synergy 1 and Synergy 3, and comes in three editions: Synergy Business Essential, Synergy Business Advanced and Synergy Enterprise. To choose between them, see: Comparing Synergy Business Essential, Advanced and Enterprise
Already using Personal Licenses at work? Contact us and we'll handle the move to a Business License; what was paid for the Personal Licenses can be credited toward it at our discretion: Contact our business team
For personal, non-commercial customers: a Personal License
Buy a Personal License from the purchase page, which compares the three Synergy 3 editions, Lite, Plus and Max.
A Personal License is right when you pay for it yourself, with your own money, and no organization reimburses you or runs it for you. It's licensed to you alone: you install it, you look after it, and nobody else shares or manages it. You can use it on any computer you personally use, including a work computer, and the fact that your employer or a client benefits doesn't change that. You pay once, and the license is perpetual: it doesn't expire and needs no recurring payment to keep using the product you bought.
A Personal License is for Synergy 3, and includes Synergy 1 on request: Contact support
Common cases
I use my own license on a work computer
A Personal License is fine, as long as you bought it yourself and weren't reimbursed. Where you use it doesn't change the license type; who paid for it does.
I work from home
Home or office makes no difference. What matters is who paid for the license and whether an organization deploys or manages it.
I bought it myself and my employer never paid me back
A Personal License, even though your work benefits from it, and even if your employer won't buy you one or doesn't know you use it.
I'm a freelancer, contractor, consultant or self-employed
A Personal License, as long as no client or other organization pays for it, reimburses you, or directs how it's set up. Working for yourself, or having clients, doesn't make it a Business License.
I own a one-person business and bought the license through it
A Personal License. A genuine one-person business with no employees other than you is still your own money. It becomes a Business License when a separate organization pays for it or reimburses you, or when you work inside a company as one of its staff, under its direction.
My employer reimburses me for the purchase
A Business License. If a company, client or institution pays for, reimburses, funds or expenses the license in any form, a Business License is required, whatever name is on the purchase.
I run a small business with staff
If the business pays for it, installs it or manages it for its staff, that's a Business License, however small the business. If it's just you, paying for your own copy, see the one-person business case above.
My company wants licenses for several people
A Business License. It's built for buying and deploying across a team, with the rollout, support and purchasing that companies need, and its seats aren't tied to named people.
Our purchase goes through procurement
A Business License. A quote, a purchase order, an invoice with payment terms, a contract or a security review are all business purchasing.
Will my existing license stop working?
Your license keeps working. These rules clarify the wording of the EULA; they don't disable or change any license you already hold.
Is a Personal License perpetual?
A Personal License is perpetual: you pay once, it doesn't expire, and there is nothing recurring to pay. The EULA says so in those words: End-User License Agreement (EULA)
Business licensing exists because companies need things individuals don't, such as rollout across teams, central management, SLAs and procurement. The business price funds that work.