Canvas licence
A Canvas licence is three things: code under the GPL, a key tied to your account, and the service that key unlocks. This page explains where each one applies.
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1. What you receive
Every Canvas plan gives you the same three things.
- The code, under the GPL v2 or later. The theme and the Canvas Core plugin are free software. You may use, study, modify and redistribute them under that licence. Nothing in the code is obfuscated or set to stop working on a date.
- A licence key. The key identifies your account to our servers and records which sites are using it. You enter it once during setup, or later on the Canvas licence screen.
- The service the key unlocks. Theme and plugin updates, demo package downloads, Canvas AI credits and the ability to insert and edit premium blocks in the editor.
The key governs the service. It has no hold on the code, and that is deliberate. GPL code on a server you control cannot meaningfully be restricted, so what a licence sells is the service around it: staying current, importing demos and generating with AI.
2. Sites and seats
Your plan sets how many sites can have Canvas activated at the same time.
- Starter, 3 websites.
- Pro, 10 websites.
- Agency, 100 websites, plus multisite network activation.
A site is one WordPress installation on one domain. Activating Canvas uses one seat and covers both the theme and the plugin, so a site never needs two keys.
Deactivating from the Canvas licence screen returns the seat to your pool immediately, so you can move a licence around as projects finish.
Plans differ only by seats, by monthly AI credits and by the Agency plan's multisite activation. There is no feature ladder: every plan ships every block, pattern, template and demo.
3. Staging and development
Staging, development and local copies of a site you have already licensed do not use another seat. You are meant to test an update before it reaches visitors, and you should not have to pay twice to do it.
If a copy is counted by mistake, deactivate it on that copy's Canvas licence screen and the seat returns.
4. Client sites
Client sites are allowed on your own licence when you build and manage them. They count towards your seats like any other site, which is why the plans are sized the way they are.
If you hand a site over and stop managing it, the new owner needs their own licence to keep receiving updates, demo imports and AI. The site itself keeps rendering either way, so a handover never breaks the design you delivered.
If you would rather your client saw your brand than ours in the WordPress admin, the White Label add-on covers that.
5. Multisite networks
The Agency plan adds network activation. Activate once for the network and every subsite validates against that one licence, so none of them needs a key of its own.
The Starter and Pro plans licence individual WordPress installations. A multisite network needs the Agency plan.
6. White Label
White Label is an account-level add-on that works with any plan, at $99 a year. It replaces the Canvas name and logo in the WordPress admin with your own, hides the licence and demo screens from the people you hand the site to, and points the support link at your own help desk.
It changes appearance only. It never changes what Canvas does, and it does not move the licence to your client. On a multisite network it is a network-level setting.
7. What expiry does, and what it does not do
When a Canvas licence expires, the website keeps working. Every page renders as it did, premium blocks included, and visitors see no notice or watermark. What pauses is the service behind the key: theme and plugin updates, demo imports, Canvas AI and editing of premium blocks in the editor. Renew and all of it returns. If a licence check cannot reach our servers, Canvas carries on for a 14-day grace period first.
That is a contract, not a courtesy, and the detail is below.
What keeps working:
- Every page renders exactly as it did, including premium blocks.
- Headers, footers, page titles, sliders and popups keep rendering.
- Demos you imported stay in place, with their content and their settings.
- Nothing is hidden from visitors and no watermark or notice is added to your pages.
What pauses:
- Theme and plugin updates.
- Downloading and importing demo packages.
- Canvas AI text and image generation.
- Inserting and editing premium blocks in the editor. Existing ones stay on the page.
Nothing is lost while a licence is lapsed. The grace period means an outage on either side is not your problem: Canvas treats the licence as lapsed only once checks have failed for the whole 14 days.
An installation that has never been licensed is a different case. Until a key is activated, premium blocks do not render on the front end. Free-tier blocks, and everything accessibility, security or data export related, always render.
8. Transfers
Moving a licence between your own sites is expected: deactivate on the old site, activate on the new one, and the seat moves with you. Changing a site's domain works the same way.
A licence belongs to the account that bought it. Keys are not for sale, resale or transfer to another person or business. If your business changes hands, raise it in the support forum before the account moves.
9. Prohibited uses
- Sharing, publishing, reselling or sublicensing a licence key.
- Activating on sites you neither build nor manage, to avoid buying a larger plan.
- Working around the licence checks that gate updates, demo downloads, AI and premium editing.
- Using our servers through a modified client to obtain updates, demo packages or AI credits your plan does not include.
- Redistributing our demo packages, update service or AI service as part of another product.
The code stays GPL through all of that. These restrictions are about the service behind the key, and about fair use of servers we pay for.
Questions
Anything this page does not answer belongs in the support forum, which is listed with the documentation and your dashboard on the contact page. The wider agreement is the Terms of Service.