Metered Licensing Business Models
In recent years, licensing business models that are based on usage, rather than providing an end user with ownership of the software, have become more prevalent. These models all apply some form of metering, the most common of which are rental (time-based) and execution (counter-based) metering. Some models require a prepaid fee, while others enable payment for each use. The models in this section include:
>Rental packages —Time-limited rental, phased rental, micro-rental, subscription.
In this group of models, the license is prepaid or paid on a monthly basis. When it expires, the end user can only continue using your software by extending the license.
>Pre-paid execution-based packages— Standard counter and phased counter.
The license provides a prepaid number of executions. When these have been consumed, the end user must purchase a new package of executions.
>Specialized packages— Capacity, pay-by-peak time, time-based overdraft, execution-based overdraft, token-based licensing.
The metered models described below are: