Trial, licensing, and seats
The free trial
Every install starts with a 60-day free trial - the full app, no account, no credit card. When the trial ends, buy a license to keep making new backups. Restoring what you already backed up is never blocked (see below).
Editions and seats
A license covers a number of machines (seats):
- Solo - 1 machine
- Home - 3 machines
- Pro - 5 machines
See Pricing for current details.
Activating a license
After you buy, activate on each machine from Settings > License. Activation issues a small signed license file for that machine. From then on, the app verifies your license entirely on your own machine - offline, with no account and no validation server to call. Your license is a signed file, not a login.
Freeing a machine
If you reinstall, retire, or replace a computer, free its seat so you can activate a new one:
- The clean way - on the old machine, choose Settings > License > Release this machine before you wipe or retire it. That frees the seat immediately, and it never counts against any limit.
- If the old machine is already gone - open Settings > License > Manage machines on your new computer. It lists the machines using your license by when each last checked in (no machine names are ever sent to us). Free the seat of the one you retired, and your new machine activates right away - no waiting, no email.
To discourage sharing one license among many people, self-service transfers are limited over a rolling window. If you hit that limit, release a machine cleanly from its own copy of Nyx Backup (which is always free and unlimited), wait for the window to pass, or email support@nyxbackup.com and we will sort it out.
Two more safety nets, so you are never truly stuck: Nyx Backup automatically frees a seat once a machine has not checked in online for 60 days (a dead or reinstalled computer), and support can free a seat for you at any time.
A machine that runs offline is never blocked from backing up or restoring; it only checks in online occasionally to keep its seat. Being over your seat limit pauses new backups on that machine, never your restores.
Updates and support
Your purchase includes free updates for the period shown at checkout. After that window, the app keeps working and you can renew for continued updates.
Security and critical bug-fix releases stay free for the full 24-month support period, whether or not your update window is still open. You are never left on a known-vulnerable build to save money.
What happens when a license lapses
- Backups - starting a new backup requires a valid trial or license.
- Restores - never blocked, ever. If your trial or license lapses, you can still browse and restore every snapshot you have, in the app or with the free Recovery Tool. Your data is yours.