A floating license is a Templater license that lives on a server instead of on one computer. Machines running After Effects borrow a seat when they need it, and hand it back when they are done, so a pool of seats can serve many more machines than it has seats.
That is the whole idea. The details decide whether it saves you time or costs you an afternoon, so this piece covers how the lease works, who should choose it, how to set it up, and what the docs say to do when it breaks. We will also be plain about the cases where a floating license is the wrong purchase.
How a floating license works
Most software licenses tie themselves to a machine. Templater’s Standard license does the same. You activate it on one computer, and it stays there until you deactivate it. A floating license works the other way around. Templater’s floating license keys do not activate Templater directly. They activate a separate piece of software called Dataclay License Manager, or DataclayLM, which you install and configure yourself. The machines that run Templater are then pointed at that server.
When a Templater machine needs a license, it asks the server for one. The server hands over a lease from its pool of activations. When After Effects quits, the license is released and goes back into the pool. If a machine disappears while it holds a lease, say because it crashed or was shut down mid-job, DataclayLM releases the license on its own after a length of time that you set. Nobody has to find the dead machine and clear it by hand.
The number of seats matters here, and the documentation gives a clear example. A floating key can carry several seats. If your Templater Rig floating key has 10 seats, you activate that key once, on the machine running DataclayLM. After that, an unlimited number of client machines can have the floating build of Templater installed. They all lease seats from the server, and up to 10 of them can hold an active seat at the same time. Machine number eleven has to wait until somebody drops a lease.
Two limits are worth knowing before you buy. First, one DataclayLM server can be activated with only one floating key at a time. Second, the seat count is the real ceiling. The number of installed copies does not matter. The number of copies running at the same moment does.
Why would anyone want this? The documentation points to one case in particular: virtual machines. With a node-locked license, every time you reboot or spin up a new virtual machine, Templater has to be deactivated and reactivated manually. That is fine for one workstation that you reboot twice a year. It is a miserable routine when machines come and go all week. A floating license replaces that routine with a lease that happens in the background.
Picture a studio that renders a large batch of versioned videos and adds machines for the busy days. Each new machine gets the floating build of Templater, the server address and the port. When the job ends and the machines are shut down, their seats return to the pool. Nobody keeps a spreadsheet of which machine holds which activation. This is a scenario we built from the documented behavior, not a customer story, but every step in it is something the license manager does.
If you run Templater on a handful of fixed desks and nothing ever moves, you may not need any of this. We will get to that.
Floating, Standard or metered: which one fits
Templater has two license key types, Standard (node-locked) and Floating. The type is set when you buy, and each type matches a different build of Templater. The keys are not interchangeable. A Standard key cannot activate the floating build, and a floating key cannot be activated in the standard build. If you bought the wrong type, contact support. Do not try to force it, because the software will not accept it.
That makes the choice a purchase decision, not a setting you can flip later. So it is worth thinking it through before you check out.
Standard is the right answer for most people. Our own documentation says the Standard license is sufficient for most users. It is allocated to a specific computer. If you get a new machine or your staff changes, you deactivate it and activate it somewhere else. You can do that from Templater Preferences or from your profile on the Dataclay website, and you can even do it from the website when the old machine is out of reach. If your team is small and the machines are stable, Standard is simpler. There is no server to run, no firewall to open and nothing that can go down.
Floating earns its place when machines are not stable, or when many people share a small number of seats. Virtual machines are the clearest case. Our docs also say a floating license lets any number of workstations on the same network share a license, one system at a time, so it can suit a group whose members use Templater at different times.
The trade-off is real. A floating license adds a server that you must keep running. The documentation says to treat the machine running DataclayLM as a server that should always be on and reachable, because a client that cannot reach it cannot lease a seat. It also says you will need to adjust networking and firewall settings so client machines can talk to it, and that specific networking setups are out of scope for our support. In other words, you own that part. If nobody on your team is comfortable with that, think twice.
Metered usage is a third model, and it is not really a floating or Standard question at all. It supports pay-as-you-go output. It combines a perpetual license for Templater Rig, which can be Standard or Floating, with a free QUE license that gives you access to the QUE Meter. You buy QUE Credits when you are ready to output customized videos. Spot check, replicate and render each consume one credit per output, and your balance is shown in both Templater and QUE. If that fits your volume, you can read more about it in our post on introducing QUE Meter.
Whichever key type you choose, you also choose an edition. Rig prepares an After Effects project for dynamic content, maps data from a source to the project, and previews how elements change. Pro adds desktop automation, so you can replicate or render batches of versioned compositions. Bot is the fully automated version. It can check for incoming data periodically, pull new data in and render as a background process, or take data through a command line interface. The edition decides what features the license turns on, and the key type decides how the license is held. Our Templater licensing guide walks through the combinations, and the Templater page describes each edition.
One last point on the choice. The aescripts + aeplugins marketplace has its own floating license server, and people sometimes assume it will work with Templater. It does not. Templater uses a different licensing mechanism than the one used by many plug-ins sold through that marketplace. If you want floating licensing for Templater, you install and manage it with DataclayLM, even if you bought through aescripts.
Setting one up, and what to do when it goes wrong
The setup has two halves. First you build the server, then you point the clients at it. Do them in that order, because the clients have nothing to connect to until the server is running.
The server. DataclayLM runs on Windows 10 or newer, Windows Server 2019 or newer, macOS 10.15 or newer and Ubuntu 22.04 or newer. You download a .zip file for your operating system from the Dataclay downloads page, extract it and run the installer. On a Mac that is the .pkg file. On Windows, it is the .exe file, and you right-click it and choose Run as Administrator. On Linux it is the install_wizard_linux.sh script, which you run with sudo. Administrator privileges are required in every case.
After installation, the application launches and walks you through activation. You enter your floating license key and click Activate. If it works, you see a confirmation and land in the main interface. Then open Settings. There you can set the port the server runs on, how long a lease lasts, how many CPU threads it uses, where the log file gets written and whether the server starts automatically. The documentation says the default settings are enough in most cases. Click Save Settings before you leave the page, because changes you do not save are lost. At the bottom of the Settings page you can also restart, stop or deactivate the server, and you can find the public IP address that your Templater users will need.
A word about where to put it. The licensing mechanism generates a fingerprint to identify the machine being activated. We recommend running DataclayLM on physical hardware inside your own network, preferably on-premises. The reason is specific. If you install it on a cloud-based virtual machine, a server reboot changes the activation fingerprint. That desynchronizes your DataclayLM server from Dataclay’s licensing server, and then deactivating from the machine will not work. You would have to deactivate the key on the website and activate it again. It is recoverable, but it is the kind of problem you can avoid by choosing the right host the first time. We also recommend a dedicated machine for DataclayLM instead of sharing it with a Templater workstation, although the docs confirm that sharing is possible.
If you want to see who is using what, the Leases tab shows which clients currently hold licenses, along with the most recent clients that released or dropped theirs. The Logs tab shows recent connection activity, including successful requests and errors. The Export Logs button saves the server’s logs to a file you can hand to your IT team or to support. A terminal icon in the lower right corner of the window opens a viewer for the application’s own messages, which helps when the app itself will not activate or behaves oddly.
The clients. On each machine that will lease a seat, install the floating build of Templater. In the Templater installation files, find the Floating Installers folder and run the installer for your operating system. Then open After Effects, click Preferences in the Templater panel, and find the Templater Features Floating section. Click License Server and enter the IP address and port from your server. With Templater 3.0 or later you can also enter the address and port for up to two failover servers, which is a good idea if the server being down would stop a deadline. Click Save, and restart Templater so the change takes effect.
After that, three buttons appear in the same section. License Info shows the server address and port, plus the edition of the license in use. Request License asks the server for a seat. Drop License gives the seat back to the pool right away, which is polite when you are leaving your desk and a colleague is waiting.
If you bought through aescripts, the manager app installs the standard node-locked build by default, so the floating build takes a few extra steps. Right-click Templater in the All Products view and choose Reveal Installer Files. If that option is disabled, click Install to make the app download the files. It will launch the standard installer, which is the wrong one, so exit that wizard. Then open the Floating License Support folder, where the floating installers have MFG_FLOAT_AES at the end of the filename. For After Effects 2021 and earlier, you download the separate legacy installer, and its floating files end in LEGACY_MFG_FLOAT_AES. The installation wizard asks for your license server addresses and port numbers as it runs.
Now the part nobody enjoys, which is when it does not work. The documentation lists the common failures and a fix for each.
If license activation fails on the server, check that the key was entered correctly and that the machine has a working internet connection. Make sure outbound HTTP and HTTPS traffic is allowed. Restart the application and try again, and read the latest messages in the application log viewer.
If Templater cannot connect to the license server, confirm that the server is started and running. Check that the IP address and port you gave your users are correct. Look for firewall or antivirus software blocking the port, and make sure the machine running DataclayLM is reachable from the client’s network. The Logs tab will show errors related to incoming client connections.
If licenses are not being issued, first confirm there are licenses available to lease out. Open the Leases tab to see whether every seat is already leased. If seats are free, restart DataclayLM and review the logs. If the application is unresponsive, restart it, read the log viewer, and if the behavior continues, export the log and open a support ticket. If the log export itself fails, check that the folder is writable, or try saving to your Desktop or Documents folder.
One more fact to keep in mind for later. Floating clients are not individually licensed, so deactivation happens on the server machine, not on each workstation. If you ever need to clear a floating key, the Dataclay website also lets you deactivate licenses, and it works for both Standard and floating keys. Keys marked floating, expired or revoked show those tags in your account.
If you are weighing where this fits among the rest of your setup, our posts on on-premise video automation and on how Templater handles batch rendering cover the machines that will lease your seats. For a trial first, the 30-day trial is a fully featured version of Templater Bot.
The short version
Buy a floating license if your Templater machines come and go, if you run virtual machines, or if a group of people shares a few seats. Buy Standard if your machines stay put, because it is simpler and our docs say it is enough for most users. Remember that the choice happens at purchase, the two key types do not swap, and the floating route means you now run a server that has to stay on.
If you take the floating route, put DataclayLM on a physical machine you control, give it its own box, write down the IP address and port, and set up a failover server if downtime would hurt. If you are unsure which route fits your studio, ask Dataclay support before you buy, since changing key types afterward is a conversation with them. The Dataclay learning pages are a good place to start reading.
We covered the mechanics up there. Here are the questions people ask before they commit to one license type or the other.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a floating license in plain terms?
A floating license is a Templater license that moves between machines automatically instead of staying on one computer. Your key activates a license server called DataclayLM. Machines running Templater lease a seat from that server when After Effects starts, and the seat returns to the pool when After Effects quits. If a machine vanishes while holding a seat, the server releases it after a time you configure.
Can I swap a Standard key for a floating one later?
No, not on your own. The key type is set at purchase, and each type matches a different build of Templater. A Standard key cannot activate the floating build, and a floating key cannot be activated in the standard build. If you bought the wrong type, contact support. Decide before you buy, especially if you plan to use virtual machines.
How many machines can use one floating key?
As many machines as you like can have the floating build installed, but only as many as the key has seats can be active at once. With a 10-seat key, you activate the key once on the DataclayLM machine, and up to 10 client machines can hold a seat at the same time. An eleventh machine waits until a seat is released. DataclayLM can be activated with only one floating key at a time.
Where should I run DataclayLM?
We recommend physical hardware inside your own network, preferably on-premises, and a dedicated machine. The license generates a fingerprint for the machine it is activated on. On a cloud virtual machine, a reboot changes that fingerprint and desynchronizes your server from Dataclay’s licensing server. Then you have to deactivate the key on the website and reactivate it. You can install it on the same machine as Templater, but we do not recommend it.
Does Templater work with the aescripts floating license server?
No. Templater uses a different licensing mechanism than the one many plug-ins sold through the aescripts + aeplugins marketplace use. You install and manage a floating license with DataclayLM instead. If you bought through aescripts, you can still install the floating build through their manager app by revealing the installer files and running the one ending in MFG_FLOAT_AES.
What if the license server goes down?
Clients cannot lease a seat while they cannot reach the server, which is why the machine should stay on and reachable. With Templater 3.0 or later you can enter the IP address and port for up to two failover servers in Preferences, under the Floating section. For problems connecting, check that DataclayLM is running, that the address and port are correct, and that no firewall or antivirus blocks the port.
Do I need a floating license to run Templater on cloud machines?
No special Dataclay license is required to run Templater on Windows Server machines in a cloud environment. A floating license is useful there because node-locked licenses need manual deactivation and reactivation whenever you reboot or spin up a virtual machine. Adobe’s standard license agreement does not permit After Effects on a server, so talk to Adobe about that.
