Flowplayer Product Details Comparison of the available options

Free License

The Free version of Flowplayer is licensed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3 (GPL). You can use it freely in every possible situation including commercial projects. This version includes a copyright notice and attribution requirements. According to the GPL this information must be displayed even if you modify the source code of the player. The full policy can be found here.

If you want to get rid of this Flowplayer attribution and apply your own 'branding' you need to use one of our commercial versions.

The free version can be used on commercial sites and on any other sites as long as the above terms are met. See these frequently asked questions for more information. Our trademark policy can be found here.

Commercial versions

All commercial versions have the following features in addition to the features that are included in the Free version:

They do not display any Flowplayer logos, i.e., they are completely un-branded.
You can have your own logo and place it below or above the screen. You can define whether your logo is visible all the time or only when displaying Flowplayer at fullscreen. Your logo can be scripted.
The context menu that opens by right-clicking the video area can be customized.
The big play button shown in the center of the video area can be customized with your own graphics.
You are allowed to run third-party plugins with the player.

Quick Demo

Here is an example commercial setup. It displays a large company logo behind the canvas and the video screen is gradually animated over it so that the logo has enough time to display. Try to right-click the player and select "Acme menu 1.0.0" to see a custom menu action.

Here you can see more Flowplayer demos:

Commercal License types

There are three different types of commercial licenses. They all have identical features and the only difference between them is the amount of domains they work on:

The Commercial version works on a single domain, for example, mydomain.com.
The Multidomain version is equal to 100 commercial licenses.
The Unlimited version works on an unlimited amount of different domains.

The Commercial license allows you to generate one key for a single domain. The Multidomain license allows you to generate 100 different product keys and if you have a bundled license we have given you an algorithm that you can use to generate as many product keys as you need.

Embedding (viral video sharing)

End users can embed your player on their websites and it will work because the domain name is checked from the domain from where the player SWF file is loaded from. You can use our embedding plugin for that purpose.

Product key

Every time you are using any of the commercial versions you'll need a product key. This product key "de-brands" the player. The key is validated on the player and it does not "phone home" to check the validity of the key. The Flash component does not connect to the Flowplayer website at any time.

Product keys are generated from your account. That page is opened automatically after your purchase. The license key creation is a manual operation and you will need to do it here on this site for each of the domains where you install Flowplayer.

All commercial versions work on all subdomains. For example sub.mydomain.com or other.sub.mydomain.com are valid if the key is generated for mydomain.com.

If you are using a commercial version without the key you have all the features available but the Flowplayer text is visible. This allows you to test your features on another development domain (or on localhost) without needing to create a product key.

Flowplayer Unlimited License

The Unlimited License allows you to replace Flowplayer branding with your own for any number of different domains. The license is ideal for Content Management Systems, for example. The price includes full support for integrating Flowplayer into your product or web service and it includes all bug-fix releases.

1. Load from one domain. Serve to unlimited.

Distribute the player to any number of client domains and subdomains without the product key. You'll get a customized Flash file where your origin domain is compiled in. Make sure you supply this domain name on download page before the purchase. The Flowplayer trademark is visible when loaded from other domains.

2. Make Flowplayer part of your product.

Flowplayer can be part of your product. Get a simple algorithm to generate product keys yourself on your application or on your web server. The application can be installed on your client's environment without Flowplayer branding.

The Unlimited licence costs 1450.00 $ / 950.00 € and this price includes all bug-fix releases. The upgrade to the next feature release costs 395.00 $ / 295.00 €.

Free license F.A.Q.

Are the additional terms in the Flowplayer open source license compliant/compatible with the GPL 3.0 license?

Yes. The Additional Terms to the GPL 3.0 license added by Flowplayer are consistent with terms allowed under section 7 of the GPL 3.0 license as follows:

The requirement that those that convey the program and assume contractual liability must indemnify Flowplayer is allowed by section 7.f.
The exclusion of a grant of trademark rights except as expressly granted in the additional terms is allowed by section 7.e.
Requiring those that modify the program to mark the program in a particular way is allowed by section 7.b which allows "requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal notice or author attributions . . . " and 7.c which allows both prohibition of misrepresentation of the origin of the material and allows a requirement that such material "be marked in reasonable ways as different from the original version".

Does the license note that "The GPL requires that you not remove Flowplayer copyright notices from the user interface. See section 5.d below." limit what I can do with Flowplayer?

Yes, as explained further in the product details Trademark FAQ below, you must include the copyright notice and author attributions. If you are conveying verbatim copies of the source code, these features remain intact (otherwise, it is not a verbatim copy). If you convey modified source code, you are only licensed to do so consistent with section 5.d, which requires the display of appropriate legal notices, section 7, which allows certain additional permission and restrictions, and the additional restrictions in the Additional Term, which requires certain notices, consistent with section 7.

Does the dual-licensed structure used by Flowplayer violate the GPL?

No. Flowplayer is the copyright holder and therefore can license the material under different multiple licenses. The official FSF FAQ supports this interpretation. http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#HeardOtherLicense.

Are the logo/backlink requirements allowed under the GPL?

Yes. The GPL expressly allows the additional restrictions to maintain certain author attribution and that modified versions of the code "be marked in reasonable ways as different from the original version." See sections 7.b and 7.c. The original version has the logo and backlink. Any modified version must include the changes outlined in the additional term which we believe are reasonable ways to provide the author attribution to Flowplayer and mark that the modified versions are different.

Trademark policy

Flowplayer's trademark policies are designed to provide our users with the full benefit of open source licensing while protecting Flowplayer's trademark rights. It is important to us that our trademarks continue to identify our video player and that no confusion exists between our video player and video players created by our users using our code. We've tried to keep things simple by allowing anyone using Flowplayer and customizing its included features (or not) to use and distribute it without any further changes or permissions. However, for those who make more extensive changes to the Flowplayer, making full use of the open source nature of the Flowplayer, we simply require that (1) you not use the Flowplayer trademarks, or those confusingly similar to them, to identify your modified video player; (2) you provide notice that you modified our code; (3) that you continue to provide attribution to our efforts by providing the fullscreen and canvas notice that says "Based on Flowplayer source code".

Trademark FAQ

Do I have to include the Flowplayer trademark?

Yes, under the GPL license, you must include the copyright notices and author attributions unless you modify the code, in which case you must include the alternate notices and attributions.

What do I have to do if I modified the code?

If you have modified the code, you must do three things regarding copyright notice and author attributions. First, change the full-screen notice from "Flowplayer" to "Based on Flowplayer source code". Second, in the dialog box interface for the player, keep the link to "About Flowplayer free version #.#.# ..." and the copyright notice must remain, and add an additional notice, stating that you modified Flowplayer. A suitable notice might read "Flowplayer Source code modified by ModOrg 2009". Third, the notice on the canvas should read "Based on Flowplayer source code".

What do I do if I use third-party plugins not provided by Flowplayer Ltd?

If you use third-party plugins we consider it the same as using a modified Flowplayer version and you have two options: You can do the three things described above regarding the copyright notice and author attributions, or you can purchase a commercial license.

What if I want to remove the attribution to Flowplayer altogether?

You have two options. You can either purchase a commercial license, which does not carry the attributions and notices, or you can use another player.

There are third-party plugins in this website. Can I run those on the Free player version?

The following plugins require changes to the attributions and notices, or require a commercial license: LiveRail, Adotube and MediaMelon.