Licensing & Trial
See Pricing for current prices. Tier features:
| Tier | What you get |
|---|---|
| Free | 1 actively-monitored vault, all core detection features (encryption, scheduling, notifications), PAR2 protection + repair at Light (5%) redundancy |
| Pro (yearly) | Unlimited vaults, email/ntfy alerts, drive health (SMART), report export, PAR2 at Standard/Archival redundancy on every vault, updates while subscribed |
| Lifetime (one-time) | Everything in Pro, plus all future updates forever |
Core detection (scanning, corruption/missing/move detection, database encryption, scheduling, OS notifications) is free on every tier — paying unlocks scale (multiple actively-monitored vaults, higher PAR2 redundancy) and extra convenience/enterprise features, not the basic safety net.
If you have more vaults than Free allows
FileGriffon never deletes your data because a trial ended or a subscription lapsed. If you’re on Free with more than one vault (created during a trial, or kept from a previous Pro period), only your oldest vault stays actively monitored — the rest are paused, not removed: still fully visible in the dashboard, still browsable, just not scanned until you upgrade again. See Vaults for the full behavior.
Trial
A free trial (14 days) is available via Settings → License → Start Trial. Trials are issued by FileGriffon’s license server rather than tracked purely on your machine, specifically so that resetting your system clock doesn’t extend it.
Note: only the 72-hour activation grace period below applies when FileGriffon can’t reach the license server. There is currently no separate grace period when a trial or subscription itself expires — Free-tier limits apply immediately (see “If you have more vaults than Free allows”).
Activating a license
- Settings → License → enter your license key → Activate.
- This contacts FileGriffon’s license server once to verify and store your activation locally.
- After that, license checks happen fully offline — no ongoing internet connection is required for day-to-day use.
If activation can’t reach the server
If the license server is unreachable when you try to activate, FileGriffon runs fully unlocked for 72 hours while it keeps retrying in the background. This grace period is a one-time allowance per install — it won’t repeat every time you’re briefly offline.
Deactivating
Settings → License → Deactivate License releases the license from this machine (e.g. before moving it to a new one).
A note on activation
Your activation is tied to this machine specifically, so it can’t simply be copied or transplanted to another computer — that machine will just show as unlicensed. Treat your license key itself like a credential too and don’t share it — someone else activating it on their own machine still uses up one of your seats.