Premium edition
For procurement
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”You are evaluating NextPDF for purchase. This page collects the answers procurement teams ask first: who sells it, who grants the licence, what the money buys, and what your exit position is. Every statement here mirrors a canonical licensing or policy page and links to it. Where this summary and the binding documents differ, the binding documents govern.
This guide covers both commercial editions - NextPDF Pro (nextpdf/pro) and
NextPDF Enterprise (nextpdf/enterprise); see the
feature matrix for per-edition availability.
Both activate with a license envelope; a deployment without the matching entitlement does not load that edition’s premium classes.
Compare editions and get a license.
The commercial shape, in four lines:
- NextPDF Core is free and open source under the Apache License 2.0. NextPDF Pro and NextPDF Enterprise are the proprietary commercial editions. See Product licensing.
- Commercial licences are sold through our Merchant of Record — the seller of record for your order. Your licence is granted by PATEON under the EULA. See Buying and licensing.
- Each paid plan is an annual licence subscription. Perpetual buyouts are available on request. Prices are shown excluding tax.
- You can evaluate the full feature set free, behind a removable watermark, before any purchase. See Licensing and activation.
Procurement quick answers
Section titled “Procurement quick answers”The rows below are written to be pasted into a procurement questionnaire: each gives the short answer and names the page that owns it. Where a row and the linked page differ, the linked page governs, and the binding documents govern them both.
| Question | Short answer | Authoritative home |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing model and terms | The core engine is Apache-2.0 open source. NextPDF Pro and Enterprise are proprietary, licensed by PATEON under the NextPDF Commercial License Agreement (Version 3.0) — the EULA. | Product licensing, Buying and licensing |
| Support channels | Product, technical, and licensing questions go to PATEON support. Billing, tax, invoices, refunds, and payment disputes go to the Merchant of Record’s buyer support, via the contact details on your receipt. | Buying and licensing, Your account |
| Security posture | The trust center holds the engine threat model, the signature and encryption security model, and the coordinated vulnerability-disclosure policy (RFC 9116 security.txt, private reporting channels). | Trust center, Security model, Disclosure policy |
| Data handling and retention | The engine documents what it reads, keeps in memory, and writes, plus its personally identifiable information (PII) scrubbing and opt-in telemetry behaviour. Deployment-level residency and retention are the integrator’s responsibility — an explicit, documented boundary. Purchase data is handled per the Privacy Policy. | Data handling, PII, and telemetry |
| Licence-check telemetry | An ionCube-channel licence check sends a licence identifier and a salted fingerprint hash — never document content, never a raw fingerprint. The signed-source channel verifies locally; fully offline, nothing is sent. | Two delivery channels |
| Delivery channels and IP protection | Two channels, identical licence rights: ionCube-encoded (a technological protection measure) or signed plaintext source (PATEON’s confidential trade secret, with the mandatory-law reverse-engineering carve-outs preserved). | Two delivery channels, Product licensing |
| Evaluation procedure | Trial → pilot → licence. The full feature set runs free behind a removable watermark, via an evaluation grant or the 14-day trial; role briefs exist for engineering, procurement, legal, and security reviewers. | Evaluating NextPDF Premium, Licensing and activation, Trial and evaluation branding |
| Procurement artifacts | Binding: the Terms of Use, the EULA, the Refund & Cancellation Policy, the Privacy Policy, and the Trial terms. Reference: the trust center, the conformance evidence pages, and the feature matrix. | Legal index |
Pricing boundary. Pricing and negotiated terms live on the licence portal by design; the docs do not restate them. The authoritative entry point is the licence portal.
What you’re buying
Section titled “What you’re buying”In thirty seconds: you are buying an annual subscription licence to NextPDF Pro or NextPDF Enterprise, granted by PATEON under the EULA. The editions are cumulative — Pro includes everything in the open core, and Enterprise includes everything in Pro. The licence is delivered as a signed envelope: a self-contained, signed artifact naming your edition and entitlements. After purchase you receive the credentials you need — the private repository token and/or your signed licence — issued by PATEON for your deployment.
The same editions ship through two delivery channels — ionCube-encoded or signed plaintext source — and both convey identical licence rights under the same EULA. The channels differ in how the source is protected, how the licence is checked at runtime, and price. The full comparison is in Two delivery channels. Adoption requires no application code change; see Licensing and activation.
The questions we hear most
Section titled “The questions we hear most”Who is the seller of record?
Section titled “Who is the seller of record?”A purchase involves two separate agreements. Your purchase is a contract with our Merchant of Record, an authorised reseller and the seller of record for your order. Your licence to use the software is granted by PATEON under the EULA; PATEON does not itself process card payments or issue invoices to buyers. The two-contract model is documented in Buying and licensing.
How are invoices and tax handled?
Section titled “How are invoices and tax handled?”The Merchant of Record runs checkout, takes payment, and issues your invoice and receipt. It calculates and collects any VAT or sales tax due for your location, shown on the invoice; listed prices exclude tax. Your orders and invoices are also visible in your account at app.getnextpdf.com. Details are in Buying and licensing.
Can we get a quote or pay by purchase order?
Section titled “Can we get a quote or pay by purchase order?”Buying is contact-led today: you request a licence through the licence portal, and the purchase completes through the Merchant of Record’s checkout. Raise procurement requirements like these when you make contact, before checkout.
Can we evaluate before any money moves?
Section titled “Can we evaluate before any money moves?”Yes, two ways. An evaluation grant runs the complete Premium feature set; generated output carries a visible watermark, and the watermark is the only functional difference — see Licensing and activation. There is also a 14-day free trial from your account: one per email, no charge today, and it does not auto-renew; the card is handled by Paddle, our Merchant of Record, under the Trial terms.
Paid-versus-evaluation is decided by the licence itself, not by your engineers’ configuration. The runtime models it as a single licence channel:
enum LicenseChannel: string{ case Paid = 'paid'; case Evaluation = 'evaluation';}Activating a paid licence removes the watermark with no application code
change (NextPDF\Enterprise\Licensing\LicenseChannel switches to Paid).
What is the refund position?
Section titled “What is the refund position?”Refunds, cancellation, and your withdrawal rights are set out in the Refund & Cancellation Policy. For billing, refunds, or a payment dispute, contact the Merchant of Record’s buyer support using the details on your receipt, as described in Buying and licensing. This page does not restate or extend those terms.
What data leaves our network at runtime?
Section titled “What data leaves our network at runtime?”It depends on the delivery channel. The ionCube channel verifies its licence periodically online — roughly a 7-day check renewing an approximately 14-day lease — and a check sends only a licence identifier and a salted fingerprint hash: never your document content, no IP-address payload field (as with any HTTPS request, the transport layer exposes a source IP to the endpoint infrastructure - network metadata, not payload), never a raw fingerprint. The signed-source channel verifies its licence locally; a fully offline deployment sends nothing. See Two delivery channels.
What happens when the subscription ends?
Section titled “What happens when the subscription ends?”The software does not stop. It first enters a grace period — about 30 days — in which entitled capabilities keep working while you renew. It then enters a perpetual-fallback state: the installed version keeps running, but updates and support are no longer entitled. You are never locked out of software you have already deployed; the precise durations are defined by your licence agreement. See Licensing and activation and Two delivery channels.
What if the vendor disappears?
Section titled “What if the vendor disappears?”Your foundation is not hostage. The core engine (nextpdf/core) is
Apache-2.0 open source: you never pay for the right to keep using it, and in
every failure mode the engine degrades to that free Core rather than bricking.
See Open core, no lock-in. On vendor
viability itself: NextPDF is built by PATEON Network Technology, a Taipei
security-and-network company of about 25 people, operating an
ISO/IEC 27001:2022-certified ISMS — see
The company behind NextPDF.
Where do the binding terms live?
Section titled “Where do the binding terms live?”On the NextPDF website, linked — not restated — from the docs: the Terms of Use, the Refund & Cancellation Policy, the EULA, the Privacy Policy, and the legal index. The commercial editions are governed by the NextPDF Commercial License Agreement (Version 3.0); see Product licensing.
Who do we contact after purchase?
Section titled “Who do we contact after purchase?”For billing, tax, invoices, refunds, or payment disputes: the Merchant of Record’s buyer support, via your receipt. For product, technical, or licensing questions: PATEON support. The split is documented in Buying and licensing and Your NextPDF account.
Requirements checklist
Section titled “Requirements checklist”| Procurement requirement | What NextPDF offers | Documented at |
|---|---|---|
| Named seller of record | Yes — our Merchant of Record sells; PATEON grants the licence under the EULA. | Buying |
| Tax-compliant invoicing | Yes — invoice and receipt issued by the Merchant of Record; VAT/sales tax calculated at checkout. | Buying |
| Predictable pricing model | Yes — annual subscription per edition, prices ex-tax; perpetual buyouts on request. Docs do not restate prices. | Buying |
| Free evaluation before purchase | Yes — full feature set behind a removable watermark; 14-day trial, one per email, no auto-renew. | Licensing, Your account |
| Published refund policy | Yes — the Refund & Cancellation Policy governs refunds and withdrawal. | Refunds |
| Exit and continuity position | Yes — grace then perpetual fallback on the installed version; Apache-2.0 core is yours regardless. | Licensing, No lock-in |
| Runtime telemetry disclosure | Yes — licence ID plus salted fingerprint hash on the ionCube channel; nothing offline on signed source. | Delivery channels |
| Air-gapped operation | Yes, on the signed-source channel; the ionCube channel needs periodic connectivity. | Delivery channels |
| Quotes and purchase orders | Not documented — the published path is Merchant-of-Record checkout; raise PO needs at contact. | Buying |
| Brand/trademark rights | Not included — no licence grants rights to the NextPDF name or logo. | Trademark |
Risk & mitigation
Section titled “Risk & mitigation”- This page is not the contract. The EULA, your order, and the published policies are binding; this page is a guided index. Where they differ, the binding documents govern — see Buying and licensing.
- Prices are not stated in the docs. Current editions and prices live on the pricing page only.
- Evaluation output is watermarked by design and is not suitable for production delivery — see Licensing and activation.
- The ionCube channel needs periodic connectivity. Offline past its lease, premium features pause to Core and resume on reconnect. If that is unacceptable, procure the signed-source channel — see Two delivery channels.
- A licence is not a brand grant. Reselling or rebranding needs are a trademark question — see Trademark and brand use.
What to request next
Section titled “What to request next”- Start at the licence portal. Compare editions and request the one you need; raise quote, purchase-order, or paperwork needs at this contact step.
- Run a pilot at no cost. Request an evaluation grant, or start the 14-day trial from your account, and exercise the full feature set behind the watermark.
- Choose a delivery channel. Decide between ionCube-encoded and signed-source using Two delivery channels; this drives price, connectivity, and audit posture.
- Complete purchase and activation. Checkout runs through the Merchant of Record; you then sign the licence agreement at app.getnextpdf.com, receive your credentials, and place the signed licence envelope per Licensing and activation.