Purchase FAQ

Sitefinity is a web-based content management system (CMS) for the construction and management of websites, community portals, and intranets. This .NET application delivers a user-friendly experience for end users, while the flexible architecture enables developers to extend functionality.

Sitefinity fully leverages the capabilities of the 4.0 .NET framework. Among the key developer benefits are the extensible architecture, fully-exposed API, granular permissions, localization, the integration of ASP.NET controls and custom modules, custom workflow, and more. To view a list of Sitefinity features, please visit our features page.

Inspired by what Web 2.0 currently offers to the website visitor, Sitefinity provides an attractive, user-friendly interface which enhances the content management experience. Among the key benefits for end-users are the ‘drag & drop’ page editing, in-line content editor, search engine optimization capabilities, and most recently the inclusion of Google Analytics. To view the list of Sitefinity features for business users, please visit our features pages.

Most of the CMS products either cater to the needs of the developer or the end-user (sacrificing extensibility or functionality). Sitefinity aims to meet and exceed the requirements of all stakeholders. The product delivers a top-notch experience for end-users and at the same time provides a flexible architecture which enables developers to seamlessly build and customize modules and new content items. Some of the key advantages of using Sitefinity are:

• Highly-intuitive ‘drag-and-drop’ interface
• Business users can add and modify website content through an advanced approval process
• Rich set of modules with the ability to easily modify and create new ones
• Social media functionalities and easy integration
• Featuring award-winning Telerik UI controls (link) for ASP.NET
• Open architecture and Fluent API allows for infinite extension and diversification
• Reduced technical risk and integration concerns due to fully-enabled trial version for hands-on testing
• Quick and easy installation

Telerik offers a number of resources that will speed the evaluation of Sitefinity. We recommend you explore these resources in the following order:

• Review Showcase Gallery 
• Watch the Sitefinity Overview Video and review the features list
• Sign-up for Weekly Webinars
• Play with Sitefinity in your Online Sandbox or in your own environment

There are two options when you are downloading Sitefinity

1. Download the Sitefinity project manager only
2. Download the complete Software Development Kit (SDK), which includes:

• Sitefinity project manager
• Complete documentation
• How-to tutorials
• Sample projects of websites
• Telerik AJAX and Silverlight controls.

While documentation is provided with the Software Development Kit, you can also reference them on our online documentation page.

We have an extensive list of clients and customers who are proud to display their websites using the Sitefinity CMS. Please visit our Showcase Gallery.

Please review our Developer Network, where you can find lots of useful resources - our full documentation, videos and webinars. You can also interact with our Sitefinity experts & developers on our forums or take a look at their blog posts.

More information about the features included for the official Sitefinity 4.0 release is available on our 2011 Roadmap page.

The Sitefinity 4.0 licensing model is domain-based and offers 5 different editions based on your needs. Most notably, the versions differ in number of concurrent CMS editors and feature sets. A complete comparison table of all Sitefinity 4.x Editions is available on our Pricing and Comparison Chart.

Concurrent CMS users are authorized users logged into the backend of Sitefinity at the same time. These users may include content editors, administrators, web template designers, and publishers. The total number of backend users that may be registered is unlimited; however only a certain number of users may log in at the same time depending on your version. As soon as someone logs out, another user can log in.

No, all editions come with a predefined number of concurrent content editors and the only way to add more is to upgrade your license.

Yes, administrators can log out users at any time.  If the user limit is fully utilized, you can see which users are logged in.

The Community and Small Business Editions come with limits on the number of content items that can be published. Once the limit is reached, you may create content only as a draft and will be able to publish it after another content item is unpublished. This limitation applies only to published items and does not restrict the total number of content items that can be created and saved in the system. Please, note that there is no limitation on blog items and images in the Community Edition.

The Community and Small Business Editions come with limits on the number of sitemap pages that can be published. Once this limit is reached, you may create a page only as a draft and will be able to publish it after another page is taken down or “unpublished”. This does not include pages which are created dynamically (from blogs, forums, etc.).This limitation applies to all published pages, including page groups and home pages and does not restrict the total number of pages that can be created and saved in the system.

The key for Sitefinity 4.x License is generated for 1 top level domain name. There is NO limitation on the number of subdomains. To generate your Sitefinity 4.x license key, log into your Sitefinity account (Log In), select "Manage Sitefinity Keys" from the quick links menu on the left, then click on "Manage" to register the domain name for your license.

The Sitefinity 4.x license key can be applied either automatically or manually. For a step-by-step guide, please refer to the "Activating a license" section of the Sitefinity 4.x Documentation.

Yes, you may develop your project with the 30-day trial of the respective Sitefinity 4.x edition that you plan to purchase. After your trial period expires, you need to purchase a license in order to continue with your development. After you purchase a license, you can apply the new license file to the trial project and continue with your development and project launch. For more details on how to apply the license key to your Sitefinity project, please refer to the "Activating a license" section of the Sitefinity 4.0 Documentation.

Since an unlimited number of subdomains are allowed with your Sitefinity license, you can create testing and development environments on subdomains of the purchased domain (e.g. test.domain.com). You can also use the Sitefinity domain licenses on developer machines to develop on localhost.

No, the Sitefinity 4.x Community Edition does not allow commercial use. For this purpose we have introduced the Small Business Edition.

Yes, a Sitefinity 4.x Community Edition website can be upgraded to a commercial edition. Any license edition can be upgraded to a “higher” edition.

“Per server” licenses and “site/company” licenses are not available with Sitefinity 4.x.

However, all additional licenses of the same edition (excl. Small Business) for the same end-client (the same legal entity) may be purchased at 50% the list price. If you want to take advantage of this discount, please contact sales@sitefinity.com. The upgrades and renewals for these additional licenses will be at the list prices.

No, you are not allowed to use the RadControls and Silverlight controls outside of your Sitefinity project. If you would like to use these controls for other projects, you may purchase them from our online store.

A comparison table with information about the support levels for the different editions is available on our pricing and feature comparison page.

A support incident is defined as a single support issue with the SOFTWARE and the reasonable effort required to resolve it. A single support incident is a support problem which cannot be broken down into secondary issues. A single support incident may involve several emails and offline work in order to be resolved. The Customer needs to provide Telerik with detailed information about the problem encountered. Though Telerik Support Engineers will make reasonable efforts to resolve the issue, Telerik does not guarantee any problem resolution.

All bug reports and product feature suggestions are not considered to constitute support incidents

There are two cases when you can have several domain names all pointing to the same website:

1. Domain Alias is a domain name that points to another primary domain. For example, if the primary domain name is "original.com" and a Domain Alias is registered for "alias.com", then “http://www.original.com” and http://www.alias.com will take visitors to the exact same pages of the “original.com” website. Furthermore, http://original.com/somefile.html will bring visitors to the exact same page as http://alias.com/somefile.html.

2. Domain Forwarding (URL Redirect) allows redirection of web requests for the parked domain name to content hosted on a different server. In case of Domain Forwarding when a visitor attempts to access the forwarded domain, the web browser automatically redirects to the specified website.

In both cases you would NOT need separate Sitefinity licenses for each domain alias/forwarded domain. In the case of domain aliases, please contact sales@sitefinity.com with the list of domain aliases, and we will generate additional license keys for you. Please, note that in order to register a domain alias, you need to have a license with active support subscription. Prior to issuing of the new domain name licenses, you will need to sign an Annex to the Sitefinity EULA. In the case of domain forwarding, it would be sufficient if you generate the Sitefinity license key for the primary domain name only.

The different benefits of renewing your Sitefinity subscription are listed here.

With Sitefinity 4.x the early (pre-expiry) subscription renewal rates will cost 20% of the license list price. Late renewals will cost 30% of the license list price and are available only within 60 days after your subscription expires. You can see the renewal and upgrade options for all Sitefinity 4.x license editions on our renewals and upgrades page.

Yes, upgrades for Sitefinity 4.x from one version to another are seamless. All you have to do is replace the license file, once you have purchased the upgrade. The Sitefinity project will not be affected and you will not lose content or modules, configurations will also be preserved.

The upgrade comes with 1 year of support subscription for the corresponding license edition. Therefore, when you upgrade your license you would get one year of subscription added, starting from the day of the upgrade. For example, if you purchase a Sitefinity Standard Edition license in May 2011, and then upgrade to Enterprise Edition in September, 2011, your subscription will be extended until Sept 2012.

Yes, any edition can be upgraded at any time. You need to upgrade your license, your project, and then apply the new license key in that order. You will not lose any work or content created with your previous edition when upgrading to higher edition.

Once you have purchased a license for a particular edition, you cannot downgrade your license, i.e. you cannot switch to lower edition subscription terms. For example, if you have purchased a Professional Edition license, and then later on decide that you would like to use a Standard Edition license instead, you cannot change your subscription terms.

Yes, but please, note that by downgrading to a lower edition you won’t have access to the features included in the higher edition and more importantly, any custom development work based on those features will be lost. For example, if you develop your project with our trial version of Sitefinity 4.x Enterprise Edition and then purchase Sitefinity 4.x Professional Edition, you will lose the custom development work related to the features that are available in the higher edition.

If you are upgrading to a higher license edition, the Sitefinity 4 renewal and upgrade terms will apply.

Yes, we offer a 10% discount to qualified government, educational, non-profit, and charity entities, provided that you purchase directly from us. Please, note that this discount is available to all Sitefinity editions except for the Small Business Edition.

In order to apply for the discount, please send us an email from your organization/your work e-mail account bearing your signature and a brief description about your organization.

After you contact us, we will review your request and get back to you with instructions on how to place your order and take advantage of our special pricing options.

Special discounts cannot be combined with other discounts.

Telerik offers a $100 discount to customers who own another Telerik product. This discount can be applied only towards the first purchase of a Sitefinity License. Please, note that this discount is available to all Sitefinity editions except for the Small Business Edition.

Yes, we offer competitive discounts to customers who are already using other 3rd party commercial CMS solutions and would like to upgrade to Sitefinity. In order to receive the discount, please send a short email to sales@sitefinity.com and mention the product and license that you own and the Sitefinity License you would like to acquire; our sales team will get back to you shortly with a special coupon code and payment instructions. Please, note that the competitive discount is available to all Sitefinity editions except for the Small Business Edition.

The fastest and easiest way to obtain a Telerik product license is through our online store.
You can also make the payment with a bank transfer or send us a check. Before you make the wire transfer or issue the check, please contact us at sales@sitefinity.com to request an official quote.

Yes, we do. For more information, please visit our Purchase Orders page.

In case you are making the purchase on behalf of someone else (that is, someone other than the payee will be the Telerik Client.net account owner) you can enter his contact info under the shipping details section in the shopping cart and the other person will receive automatically the download instructions (the electronic invoice will be sent ONLY to you).

Our products are delivered electronically through download. Once your payment is processed, you will receive 2 e-mails: one with payment details and another one with the download instructions. If you do not receive the e-mails within 10 minutes, please contact our sales team at sales@sitefinity.com and tell us about your problem. We will help you out immediately.

If you already own other Telerik products, please send a short e-mail to sales@sitefinity.com and list the type and number of licenses that you have purchased and the Sitefinity License you would like to acquire; our sales team will get back to you shortly with a special coupon code and payment instructions.

All Sitefinity 3.x customers who have an active subscription receive Sitefinity 4.x Standard Edition License at no additional cost. The license key for Sitefinity 4.x Standard Edition is automatically activated in your Sitefinity client account. Please note that your current 3.x license key will not work with the 4.x Standard Edition. You must use the new license key for the 4.x version which can be found in your account.

Thousands of websites are running on Sitefinity 3.x and we will continue to support it at least through 2013. For more information, you can review the product lifecycle scheme here:

 

Yes, Sitefinity 3.7 will be supported with bug fixes after the release of Sitefinity 4.x.

The Sitefinity 3.x subscription renewals are backdated. A subscription renewal adds one year of subscription, considered from the expiration date. Please, note that the option to do a late renewal of your Sitefinity 3.x licenses is only available within 60 days of your support subscription expiration date.

Since you have purchased a Sitefinity 3.x license, we will honor the subscription terms we have offered you at the time of your purchase as long as you continue to use the Standard Edition and Sitefinity 3.x is supported. Please, note that the option to do a late renewal of your Sitefinity 3.x licenses is only available within 60 days of your support subscription expiration date. For more details, you can review the product lifecycle scheme here:

 

If you are upgrading to a higher license edition, the Sitefinity 4.x renewal and upgrade terms will apply.

No, all Sitefinity 3.x licenses with active subscriptions at the time of the official release will get Sitefinity 4.x Standard Edition at no additional cost.

You need to upgrade your project and apply the Sitefinity 4.x license key. We’ve published an open source migration tool on the marketplace which helps migrate Sitefinity 3.7 projects to Sitefinity 4.x. Details are available with the marketplace item.

No, the Sitefinity 4.x license keys are different than the 3.x license keys. If you have an existing Sitefinity 3.7 website, after upgrading your project to 4.x you need to download the 4.x license key from your Sitefinity client account and apply it to your project. The 4.x license key will be for the same domain name as the 3.7 key. Both 3.x and 4.x license keys will remain available for this domain name.

Yes, you may use either one of the licenses for the same domain name. If you have a Sitefinity 3.x license with an active subscription, then the key for your Sitefinity 4.x Standard Edition has already been automatically activated in your client account. You should be able to see both keys in your account, one for Sitefinity 3.7 Standard Edition and one for Sitefinity 4.x Standard Edition.

These licensing changes do not affect 3.x Community Edition sites since this edition does not need a license key. If you want to upgrade to our Sitefinity 4.x Community Edition, you need to upgrade your project and apply the Sitefinity 4.x Community Edition license key. It is free and you can register as many keys (domains) as you like.