All IGEL OS Editions include licenses for the IGEL Universal Management Suite (UMS) and licenses for the IGEL OS devices. The licenses assigned to the actual devices or UMS servers enable software features. Licenses are the technical solution that IGEL software checks for valid entitlement before it runs or allows features.
IGEL OS Licenses
The IGEL OS devices need to be licensed with device licenses to function properly.
WE and ISL
Licenses used for IGEL OS devices are called Workspace Edition (WE) Licenses or IGEL Subscription Licenses (ISLs).
WE licenses are technically the same for IGEL OS 12 and IGEL OS 11 devices.
You can use ISL to license IGEL OS 12 devices starting from IGEL OS 12.7.2.
Starting from January 1 2026, the Workspace Edition License are replaced by the new IGEL Subscription License (ISL). This only applies to newly purchased licenses. Existing Workspace Edition licenses remain valid. You can find more information here.
License Deployment
The device licenses can be deployed as described in Deploying Licenses. For the typical deployment, you need the IGEL License Portal (ILP) and the UMS.
IGEL UMS Licenses
You can use different feature sets of the UMS based on the UMS License. This is called the feature-based license model. For an overview of which features are included in the Essential, Standard, and Enterprise UMS License, see IGEL OS Editions.
The IGEL OS Editions that are offered for specific business needs (for example, Healthcare or Government) also include the Enterprise UMS License.
License Deployment
Standard and Enterprise features require a dedicated Standard or Enterprise UMS License, which can be generated in the ILP and must be imported into the IGEL UMS. The license service in the UMS verifies the imported UMS license and applies the corresponding feature activation. In the ILP, you have the UMS License assigned to your account based on the purchased IGEL OS Edition. For details on how to license the UMS, see How to License the IGEL UMS.
All registered UMS instances within one ILP account get the same UMS License level, that is, you cannot have UMS Essential License for one UMS instance and UMS Enterprise License for the other UMS instance.
Risk of Loss of Functionality
Downgrading the UMS License (for example, deploying a Standard UMS License after an Enterprise UMS License) results in a loss of functionality with immediate effect, and therefore has a huge risk on production environments.
The functions are limited, but no data is deleted - if an upgraded license is later applied, previous features, configurations, and assignments are restored.