A perpetual license means that the version of the software you purchase will never stop working. NI software licenses provide access to an NI software service program. These benefits are included in the first year of perpetual licenses. After the first year, software service is renewable on an annual basis. Even if you do not subscribe to software service, your software will continue to operate with the version you currently have installed. 

A subscription license gives you access to software on an annual basis. Once the term of the subscription license is up, you must renew your subscription to keep using the software. When you renew your subscription, you will also maintain access to your NI software service agreement benefits. 

Learn about the benefits of software services or read this article to help you decide which license option will best meet your needs.

There are no functional or feature-level differences when purchasing NI software through a subscription or perpetual license. Both licenses include the same features.

Yes. You can upgrade to FlexLogger Professional at any time. You can purchase online or contact your NI representative. You will not lose any of your previous work while upgrading to FlexLogger Professional.

If you are currently using FlexLogger Lite, you can activate FlexLogger Professional by selecting My FlexLogger > Activate license...

This will open the NI License Manager activation window, where you can select the method of activation. You can also activate FlexLogger by opening NI License Manager and using a single-seat license or connecting your computer to a NI Volume License Manager. 

Purchasing a single-seat license to FlexLogger provides access to an NI software service agreement which includes benefits like new and previous version downloads, technical support, and online training. These benefits are included in subscription licenses and for the first year of perpetual licenses. After the first year, software service is renewable on an annual basis.

Learn more about the benefits of software services.

For activation, you will have to log in to your NI Account, which requires a network connection. However, after the login process is done via the network and FlexLogger Lite becomes available, you can disconnect from the network and use FlexLogger Lite offline. As long as the user doesn‘t log out of FlexLogger—in that case, a network connection will be needed again.

Any option not available in FlexLogger Lite will display in the user interface with a green ribbon symbol, as shown in the following image. 

If you try clicking one of those options, you will see a “License Required” window with a brief description of what the feature does in FlexLogger Professional. If you haven’t started your free trial, the “Start your free trial” option will be available in the displayed window. If the trial has already expired, a button to activate FlexLogger Professional will be displayed instead. You can also find a table with the list of available features at Documentation Reference for FlexLogger Editions. 

You can open the projects, but you will not be able to edit or run them. FlexLogger Lite will display a banner mentioning that there are paid features being used, and you can see a list of them by clicking on the “View licensed features” button to the right of the banner, as depicted in the following image.