Licensing

HF Panel needs a licence to run. A licence is a key tied to one server's public IPv4 address. The server checks its licence with the licence server every 6 hours. You add it on the Licence step of the browser setup (the link the install command prints). If the licence stops being valid, changes in the panel are paused, but websites, email, databases and DNS keep running.

Where: Server Admin › Billing › Licence

Licence keys

A licence key looks like this:

HFL-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Each licence has a tier that sets how many hosting accounts the server may have:

When the server reaches its limit, creating another account fails with "Your … licence allows … hosting accounts. Upgrade the licence at … to add more." Current prices: hostfog.com/pricing.

Plans and features

A licence carries the features it unlocks and an account limit. You pick one of the publisher's plans; each plan lists the panels and modules it includes. The server installs and shows only what the licence includes.

Panels (choose at least one; the Control Panel is needed for any hosting):

Modules add whole areas: email (with Mail), DNS, billing, domain sales, Files, DB Studio, apps (Node.js, Python, Ruby, Perl, Git deploy), Docker, WordPress tools, backup storage, cluster (more servers), white label, the AI helper, and the token API with webhooks and plugins. The pricing page lists each one with a one-line description and its price.

Note: HF Tunnel is not part of any plan: it runs only on HostFog Ltd's own server, which gives HF Local its free share links. HF Panel servers you install have no tunnel server and no Tunnels screen.

Every licence always includes accounts and packages, domains, SSL and AutoSSL, MySQL databases, FTP and SFTP, the File Manager in the Control Panel, PHP settings, cron jobs, security (firewall, malware scan, web firewall, isolation), local backups, logs and statistics, notifications, settings, updates and support tickets.

Note: a licence bought before plans existed has every feature. Nothing changes for it.

A screen of a module your licence doesn't include shows Not in your plan, with Change plan for administrators.

Buying a plan

On the pricing page (hostfog.com/pricing) each plan shows its monthly price, its number of hosting accounts and what it includes. Click Buy under a plan, or Start a free trial (the trial has every feature). The order page opens with that plan chosen: enter your email address and the server IP and pay by card or PayPal. The price you pay is always worked out by the licence server when you order.

The Free plan (the Server Admin and Control Panel, up to 5 hosting accounts, no add-on modules) costs nothing and doesn't end: click Get it free, enter your email address and the server IP, and open the link we email you to get the key. One per server and per email address.

Every paid licence has a 30-day money-back guarantee on its first payment: write to us within 30 days and the payment is refunded in full (see the terms on the website).

Note: plans you put together yourself from panels and modules are no longer sold. A licence that already has one keeps it and renews as it is; Change plan moves it to one of the plans.

Your account

pay.hostfog.com/account shows every licence bought with your email in one place. It looks like the Control Panel: a menu on the left (Your licences, Buy a licence, the install guide, system status, Sign out) and Your licences as a table — summary cards (licences, active, trials, the next payment), tabs for Active, Trial and Ended, a search by key, server or plan, and one row per licence with its key, plan and what it includes, status, server (IP, host name, HF Panel version, when it last checked in) and billing, with Manage for renewing, changing the plan, moving to another server and payment (Renew on an ended licence).

• Create an account: click Create an account, type your email and a password (at least 8 characters), then the 6-digit code we email you. The account exists only once the code is confirmed, because the email decides which licences you can see. One account per email: if the email already has one, the page says so and no second account is made.
• Sign in with the email and password. Forgotten your password? emails a code; type it, then choose a new password.
• Buy a licence on that page is a three-step wizard: 1. Plan (a plan or the free trial — each plan lists what it includes, and Your plan includes sums up the chosen one), 2. Server (the server's public IP address, and a coupon), 3. Review & pay. A trial starts at once — your email is already confirmed — and a paid licence is made the moment the payment goes through. Either way the key is emailed to you and shown on the page with its install command.
• Each licence shows what it includes: Every feature, or how many features (point at it for their names).
• Licences bought later with the same email appear by themselves.

You can still manage a single licence without an account: on the sign-in page, Manage it with an emailed link (the key and its email).

Change or upgrade your plan

You can switch to another plan at any time. Your licence key stays the same.

1. Open the licence portal: on the Licence screen click Change plan (or Licence portal), or go to pay.hostfog.com/account and click Manage on the licence (or pay.hostfog.com/licence/manage and ask for a sign-in link).
2. Under Change plan, choose another plan. The new monthly price and the difference are shown as you choose.
3. Click Review change. The licence server shows the Current price, the New price, the Difference and, for an upgrade, what is Charged now; for a downgrade, when it Starts.
4. Click Confirm change.

The server picks the change up at its next licence check. To apply it at once, click Check now on the Licence screen, or run hf-agent licence sync. Added modules are installed; removed ones are hidden.

Important: removing a module never deletes data. Its screens come back, with everything in them, when you add it again.

The free trial

From the website: click Free trial at the top of any page. 1. Pick the plan, 2. type your email and a password, then the 6-digit code we email you — you are signed in at once — 3. type your server's IP address and click Start the free trial. The key is shown with its install command and emailed to you. If you already have an account, click Sign in on the plan step instead; the trial carries on after you sign in.

From the installer: open the setup link the install command showed; on the Licence step click Start free trial with your email. The trial starts at once for this server.

Before the trial ends, buy a licence and enter its key on the Licence screen. When a trial ends without one, websites, email and databases keep running, but changes in the panel are paused until you add a licence: a banner says so on every screen, and the Licence screen still works. Customers and resellers can't use the panel until then.

Add the key

Install with the same command as everyone (curl -fsSL https://cdn.hostfog.com/latest | bash), open the setup link the install shows and paste your key on the Licence step (Use this key). Or add it later on the Licence screen.

For scripts and partners, the key can go on the command line and is then activated during the install:

curl -fsSL https://cdn.hostfog.com/latest | bash -s -- --licence HFL-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

The key is checked before anything is installed. A key that is unknown, not active or licensed to another IP stops the installation with the reason, and nothing on the server changes.

IP binding

A licence belongs to the server's public IPv4 address. The licence check always goes out over IPv4, even on a server that has IPv6 too.

• A new server, or a new IP? Move the licence in the Licence portal: open Licence portal on the Licence screen and change the IP there. You can change it up to 3 times a month.
• A server that checks in from another IP than the licence's gets the status "for another server IP" and locks.

The Licence screen

Where: Server Admin › Billing › Licence

The screen shows four figures:

If the last check failed, its reason is shown under the figures.

Change the licence key

1. Under Licence key, enter the new key in Key.
2. Click Save and check. The key is saved and checked with the licence server at once.

Renew, pay or move the licence

Under Renew or change:

Licence states

The server checks its licence every 6 hours. If it cannot reach the licence server, the last good answer stays valid for up to 7 days. The administrator gets an email when the panel locks, when the licence needs attention, and when it is unlocked again.

When the panel is locked

The Licence screen shows "The control panel is locked." with the reason.

• Websites, email, databases and DNS keep running.
• Customers and resellers can't use their panels until the licence is valid again.
• Administrators can still sign in and open the Licence screen to enter a key or check again.
• The API answers with status 402.

As soon as a valid key is saved and checked, the panel opens again.

Install reports

A licensed server tells its licence server when an installation starts, finishes or fails, when an update finishes or fails, and when HF Panel is uninstalled. This is part of the licence terms. Each report holds the licence key, the event, the HF Panel version, the host name, the server's own domain and company name, the operating system, the number of CPUs, the memory and the disk size; a failure also names the step that stopped and the last log line, with passwords and keys masked. Nothing about websites, accounts, customers or mail is sent. Reports are sent in the background: an installation, update or uninstall never waits for them or stops because of them.

Related

• Install
• Troubleshoot the installation
• Updating

A licence from your hosting company

If your server came with HF Panel from a hosting company (a VPS with HF Panel, say), its licence comes through that company. Server Admin › Billing › Licence then says Licensed through with the company's name, website and email: for help, plan changes and payments, contact them — they look after the licence for you.