Plans and licenses.

Farwing is free to start. A license raises the speed and turns on features for one Farwing Server. This page covers the plans, the free limits, trials, how to request and load a license, and what happens when a license ends. Prices are on farwing.io/pricing.

Plans

Every plan is per server. Transfers at once are unlimited on every plan.

A Custom license is any mix of speed and features. Build one on farwing.io/pricing or from the request form in your server.

Feature keys

A license lists its features by these keys. Admin → License shows them in words.

Team includes portal, automation, s3, branding and api. Business adds audit_export and sso. Enterprise adds standby.

Free limits

The farwing command and Farwing Desktop

• Free copies share 1 Gbit/s in total per machine, across any number of copies. Uploads and downloads count together.
• There is no limit on how many copies run at once.
• When the far end is a licensed Farwing Server, the server's license sets the speed. The free client adds no limit, and the copy does not use the machine's 1 Gbit/s. A free Farwing Desktop downloading from a Business server can reach 10 Gbit/s.
• A higher --max-rate does not raise the free limit. A license file passed with --license does.
• When the free limit is what slows a copy, the rate shows (free limit).

Free mode in Farwing Server

A server with no valid license runs in Free mode. It needs no license and never expires.

Starting a 30-day trial

A new server starts in Free mode. Any admin can start a 30-day trial with every feature and no speed cap, from Admin → License or from step 2 of the setup wizard.

1. Click Start 30-day trial and enter your work email.
2. We email a 6-digit code to that address. It is valid for 15 minutes.
3. Type the code into the server. The trial license loads at once, and a copy arrives by email.

Each company email domain gets one trial, and each server gets one trial. The server explains any answer:

A trial has no grace period. On the day it ends, the server runs in Free mode.

Requesting a license

Admin → License → Request a license, also in the setup wizard, sends your request to [email protected]. Choose a type:

• Trial, for a server that cannot reach license.farwing.io
• Trial extension
• Pilot, up to 90 days
• Buy a plan
• Custom license
• Renewal
• Move my license to a new server (asks for the old install ID, filled in when the current license has one)

Pick a plan: Team, Business, Enterprise or Custom. Custom offers the same choices as the estimator on farwing.io: speed (1, 2, 5, 10, 25 or 40 Gbit/s, or no cap), each feature, the number of servers, the term (1, 2 or 3 years, or perpetual) and the support level. Then add your name, company, email, phone (optional) and notes.

The server fills in, read-only: the install ID, server name, Farwing version, operating system and CPU type, the current license (plan, speed and expiry, or Free mode), and the number of users and jobs in use.

Preview and send

Preview shows the whole email; you can still edit the contact fields and notes. Send uses the server's own email settings (Admin → Email). The email goes to [email protected] with your address as the reply-to, and the subject License request: <type> - <company> - <first 8 characters of the install ID>. When it is sent, the page says "Sent. We usually reply within one business day."

If email is not set up, or sending fails, the page shows the same email with three buttons:

• Copy email: the whole email, subject included.
• Open in mail app: a new message with the subject and body filled in. When the email is too long for that, the message has a short body and the page asks you to paste the copied text.
• Download as .txt.

Above them: "Send this to [email protected] and we will reply with your license."

The request code

The email ends with a request code. It carries every field, so nothing has to be typed again:

-----BEGIN FARWING REQUEST-----
<base64url of the JSON of every field>
.
<first 16 hex characters of SHA-256 of that JSON>
-----END FARWING REQUEST-----

The request code is not a license and is not signed. It only saves typing and prevents mistakes.

Loading the license

We reply with farwing.lic attached. On Admin → License, upload the file or paste its text. It takes effect at once, with no restart. The page then shows the plan, speed, features, users and jobs allowed, the expiry date, and the install ID or IDs it is bound to.

The license file

A license is a signed text file that the server checks locally. Format 2 looks like this inside:

{
  "format": 2,
  "license_id": "FW-2026-000123",
  "kind": "subscription",
  "plan": "business",
  "customer": "Example Media Inc.",
  "contact": "[email protected]",
  "issued_at": "2026-10-03T00:00:00Z",
  "expires_at": "2027-10-03T00:00:00Z",
  "grace_days": 14,
  "speed_gbps": 10,
  "max_users": 0,
  "max_jobs": 0,
  "features": ["portal", "automation", "s3", "branding", "api", "audit_export", "sso"],
  "install_id": "8f4c…e21",
  "standby_install_id": null
}

• kind is subscription, trial or perpetual. plan is team, business, enterprise, custom or trial.
• speed_gbps, max_users and max_jobs use 0 for no cap or unlimited.
• Every license, trials included, is bound to an install ID. A license works on the server whose install ID matches install_id.
• Standby server: an Enterprise license (feature standby) can also name standby_install_id, a second install you can switch to if the first one fails, at no extra cost. Switching is manual, and the standby is for failover only, not a second live server. The portal shows Standby on that install. See failover with a standby server.
• Perpetual: the license keeps working after expires_at. It covers Farwing versions released before that date; a later version says "This license covers versions released before DATE."
• Format 1 licenses still load. Their speed carries over; an Enterprise edition gets the Enterprise features and a Standard edition the Team features. Farwing Server refuses a format 1 license with no install ID and asks for a license for this install.

Install ID and the data volume

The install ID is made on first start and stored in /data, the data volume, not in the image. Restarts, upgrades and new images that use the same volume keep the same ID, so the license keeps working. A new volume makes a new ID, and a license for the old one is refused with a clear message: ask for Move my license to a new server.

Admin → License and the setup wizard show the install ID with a copy button.

When a license or trial ends

Grace periods

• Paid licenses: 14 days at full features after the expiry date, then Free mode.
• Trials: no grace period. Free mode on the day the trial ends.

The same happens when a license is removed. Nothing is deleted and nobody is locked out.

Admin → License → Free mode choices lets you pick the 5 active users and the job that keeps running.

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Setup wizard: Choose how to start

Step 2 of the setup wizard offers four choices:

1. Start in Free mode, the default. Nothing to do.
2. Start a 30-day trial, as above.
3. Load a license: upload or paste it.
4. Request a license: the request form.

Under the choices: "Free mode needs no license and never expires. The trial asks license.farwing.io for a license only when you click it."

Related

• Server admin guide
• CLI reference for --license
• Prices and terms on farwing.io

Farwing docs · farwing.io