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Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon

Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 Licensing

Licensing Summary

For the most part Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 has the same licensing model as Crystal Reports Basic for Visual Studio 2008. 

  • Internal and external client application redistribution is free. 
  • Internal redistribution of server applications is free.

License Change

The only change with this transition relates to external distribution of server applications. 

A server application is any application (WPF, Webform, Winform) where the runtime engine is integrated in a way that allows more than one user to access the rutnime.

Distributing server applications now requires additional licensing.  The Crystal Reports Developer Advantage license provides the additional licensing required.

All other scenarios continue to be free for Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010.

For More Information

Licensing for almost all Crystal Reports scenarios, including commercial hosting scenarios is covered in this whitepaper.  This provides easy-to-read, summary information of whats in the various product End User License Agreements (EULAs).

Before Posting A Comment

Please read the whitepaper before posting a comment.  I will not be replying to comments that are answered in the whitepaper.

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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Currently I redistribute a VS application to industry partners and academia at no charge. The current release candidate created under VS2008 includes embedded CR. Will I be required to purchase the CRV redistributable license from SAP? When will pricing be posted and where?
      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      If its built with CR Basic for VS 2008, then no redistribution license is required.  If its built with CR for VS 2010, then the Crystal Reports Developer Advantage license is required - it's a one-time fee of $2,495 US and is available on our eStore at http://store.businessobjects.com.
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      In VS2008, I have in prerequisites "Crystal Reports Basic for Visual Studio 2008 (x86, x64)" but in VS2010 this is missing, even after install cr4vs2010, what I do wrong?
      Now, I undrstand I need to pay a licence for redistributable but still not found in my research how can I get and add the package in the bootstrapper for vs2010?
      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Please see this post for more information on the runtimes: Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 Runtimes
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      I have purchased one lic for Crystal Reports XI developers edition. My application was in vs2005. In term of runtime which runtime version I will get to redistribute with version XI..We are currently using cr runtime for .net framework 2.0. More over i want to migrate the application to VS 2010. I am using same version of crystal report i..e XI developer in development but whats about licensing in VS 2010 in term of crystal reports tools for vs 2010 and cr reports redistributable for visual studio 2010 [.net framework 4.0]

      Author's profile photo Daniel Haver
      Daniel Haver

      Runtimes are developed for each version of Crystal Reports so if you were using XI, then you were likely using the runtime for XI.   For Crystal Reports 2011, the respective runtime is delivered in CR for Visual Studio 2010.   For either runtime, if you are building a server based application that will be redistributed, you will need to purchase a copy of Crystal Reports each time the application is deployed by a customer.    Please refer to the licensing whitepaper at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-21575 for more information.   When referencing this guide, please note that we no longer offer the Crystal Reports runtime server license (formerly known as the Crystal Reports Developer Advantage).  

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      See this blog: Update on the CR for VS 2010 Release for an update on the release.
      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      I've updated the blog above with news of a Beta 2 release.
      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Author's profile photo Baby C S
      Baby C S
      Hi,

      We are an australian based company who is in the software business for years.Till last year, our software was client-server application. Now we are releasing the web interface for it. In our client-server application we use crystal report for reporting. We have registered license for crystal 8.5 and 11. Now for the web, we are planning to use the same crystal features. So we have downloaded the crystal report for vs2010. Now do we need to purchase redistribution license? If so what is the pricing?

      Thanks
      Baby C S

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Yes, you will need a redistribution license.  It is called the 'SAP Crystal Reports runtime server license'.  It is a fixed price license, not an ongoing royalty, and applies to the CR 2008 runtime and the CR for VS 2010 runtime.  You can buy it from our online store or from a distribution reseller for $AUD 3,805. Thanks, Blair.
      Author's profile photo Baby C S
      Baby C S
      Hi Blair,

      To make ourself clear about the licensing, we are elaborating it a bit.
      a) We have a web application and what it does is, it has some print feature for some information
      b) When user presses the print, we call up the report we have designed in crystal report and passes on the selection formula

      This is what we do in our project. Till this time, we had only a client-server application in which the client has the crystal viewer and when they click on print, we open up the crystal viewer, so the users can see the data and can click print.
      We are in a point where we cannot ask the user to buy licenses as we are moving to web technology. We have the crystal license for our crystal reports and we design the report using crystal.

      Moving forward, we have 2 options in our web environment:
      a) When user clicks on print in the web software, which is hosted in the users intranet company server, we could show a crystal report viewer and they can click on print from it
      b) When user clicks on the print, we will internally - programmatically manage the data to the cystal object (which we use in our .net code) and then generate a pdf and send it back to the screen.

      Does the above scinarios need licensing (i hope not 🙂 ). Why we ask this again is that, still we are not sure whether we use the "Server application" technology here, as there is only one user (the IIS user) who generates the reports and shows to the user. There might be a lot of users logging in into the website, but IIS does the job for them.

      Baby CS

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Hi Baby,

      The definition of a server app in the license agreement is:

      “Server Application” means an application developed by Licensee that a) utilizes the Runtime Software, b) allows more than one
      user to access the Runtime Software either directly or indirectly through any middle tier application(s), and c) adds significant and
      primary functionality to the Runtime Software. A Client Application installed in a Windows terminal server environment (e.g. Citrix or
      Microsoft Remote Desktop Platform) is a Server Application.

      So in your case, the software allows for multiple individuals to share the same runtime software.  The runtime server license is required.  Note that this is a fixed price license that is not typically passed on to the end user of the application.

      The fact that the runtime software is running under the same IIS userid does not change the license. 

      We created this fixed price license to make it easier for ISVs like yourselves who are transitioning from client based applications to server based applications.  The old (2008 and earlier) licensing required ISVs to buy one copy of CR Developer for each customer to whom they want to distribute the server application to.  If you're distributing your server app to more than 5 customers then the new runtime server license is a better deal.

      Thanks, Blair

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      If I have SERVER APPLICATIONS, one using CR 2008 runtime and other using CR 2010 runtime, how many SAP Crystal Reports Runtime Server License I have to buy ?

      If we distribute off-the-shelf SERVER APPLICATION developed from VS2008 and using CR2008 Basic Runtime Engine as reporting engine, do we need to buy SAP Crystal Reports Runtime Server License per each copy sold ?

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      1 copy of the runtime server license will cover both the CR 2008 runtime and the CR for VS 2010 runtimes.  It will also cover the CR for Java runtime.

      One license will grant you unlimited redistribution of this runtime software.  You do not need one copy per deployment of your app.

      Thansk, Blair

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Great! I can foresee our off-the-shelf product will be launched to the world soon using CR2008 Runtime as our reporting engine. Now I may encounter another issue. Some of our customers may select to have the SERVER APPLICATION hosted outside their organization so as to get better bandwidth access. In this case, can our customers host the solution outside their organization? If yes, can we provide the hosting service in Virutal Server Environment under the condition that our customers have to purchase our off-the-shelf product so as to entitle the runtime license.
      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      If you (the ISV) host the app - either directly or indirectly - and provide application access in exchange for money in a SaaS model, then that requires an OEM contract.

      If the customer chooses to deploy your software to a hosting vendor of their choice, and the software that is hosted is used exclusively for that customer, then that is covered under the runtime server license.

      Virtualization does not impact the licensing model.

      Thanks, Blair

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      If the software, the CR Runtime Engine, that is hosted is used EXCLUSIVELY for a customer, we can bill that customer either DIRECT or INDIRECT in exchange for money. But if the runtime engine is shared by more than one customers, we need an OEM contract. Am I right ?
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Dear Blair,

      If we distribute SERVER APPLICATION from Crystal Report Basic for Visual Studio 2008 EXTERNALLY, it is free but REGISTRATION is required. However, if we distribute SERVER APPLICATION developed from VS2008 integrated with Crystal Reports 2008, we need SAP Crystal Reports Runtime License to distribute SERVER APPLICATION EXTERNALLY.
      In both cases, if we host the app - either directly or indirectly - and provide application access in exchange for money in a SaaS model, then we requires an OEM contract.
      I'm very confused to the CR licensing model. Please help!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Could you clarify the licensing requirements based on my previous post to this blog? Things seem to be changed. I have a VS2010 C# non-server application that is redistributed. I have removed CR based on your previous blog response as I cannot afford the $2500 license fee.
      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Apologies for the confusion.  Only server applications require the runtime server license. Desktop applications continue to have free redistribution.  See this whitepaper for a comprehensive treatment of Crystal Reports licensing: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/70bd6328-4128-2d10-7882-d7b95418dbaa
      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      I have just another scenario. We are developing an application for our sister company. That will be a web application which will allow user to generate pdf from crystal report.

      Do we need runtime license for that?

      Also if we restrict to no of user to one only! What is the requirement and do we then need license as well?

      Thanks.

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Please read this doc for answers to your questions.  If it doesn't address your scenario then I'm happy to answer your question here.

      http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/70bd6328-4128-2d10-7882-d7b95418dbaa

      Licensing in general depends on 2 things: internal or external usage, and server or client app.  Everything is free except for external usage of server apps.  Internal is defined as usage by employees or contractors of the licensee.  External is defined as everyone else.  If the license is held by your company, and the users are in a different company, then that would be external usage.

      Thanks, Blair

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Hello,

      we are the ISV, which develops .NET server application directly for one customer using VS 2010. We would like to use Crystal Report Runtime from CR for VS 2010 embedded on the server side. CR Runtime will be used only for internal purposes on the customer side. Reports templates will be designed on our side using designer included in CR for VS2010 addon.
      We are not sure about licensing.
      There is information on the product page, that CR for VS2010 is free of charge, but in the licensing document (here: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/70bd6328-4128-2d10-7882-d7b95418dbaa&overridelayout=true) is following text in second section:
      “The SAP Crystal Reports designer and SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 addon uses a named user license. This means that every individual that has access to Crystal Reports requires a license.”
      Question is: Do we need any license for development time when we use SAP Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 addon or not?
      Next question is related to runtime. Does the customer require SAP Crystal Reports runtime server license for all instances of the server application inside the organization? How many licenses they need? Do they need any other license?
      If we (as application provider) would have SAP Crystal Reports runtime server license, does the customer require any license?

      Thank you in advance

      Regards,

      Ondrej

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Hi Ondrej,

      1) The license for SAP Crystal Reports for VS 2010 is free.  Every developer that wants to use it, can do so at no cost.

      2) Since it sounds like you're developing server applications for sale, then you (the ISV) will need 1 copy of the runtime server license which grants the ISV unlimited redistribution of the runtime.  The customer does not need it.  It is the ISVs responsibility to ensure proper licensing before redistributing the runtime software.

      Note that the runtime server license covers redistribution of the CR 2008 runtime, the CR for Java runtime, and the CR for VS 2010 runtimes.

      Thanks, Blair

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      After reading the licensing document "SAP Crystal Reports Licensing" and all Blog posts I still can not figure out whether we need a "SAP Crystal Reports, Runtime Server License by SAP" or not.

      We develop an online banking Web Application in house, no part of the app is developed outside our company.
      We host the Web Application on our servers (installed, setup and deployed by our inhouse staff) in a data center.

      We do not sell, redistribute or transfer the Web Application software to any other company.
      The Web Application can of course be used by anybody through the web.

      Do we need a "SAP Crystal Reports, Runtime Server License by SAP"?

      Thanks for your help.
      Markus

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Good question.  The answer is covered in page 5 of the whitepaper. 

      Since no money changes hands in exchange for application access, this is not considered a commercial hosting service, so no OEM contract is required. 

      But since you are exposing a server application externally to users other than employees or contractors, you will require 1 copy of the runtime server license.

      Thanks and apologies for the delayed response.

      Blair.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Good day Blair,

      Our company would like to develop client-server application based on Crystal Reports for VS 2010 for internal usage only. Development and support will be realized by our employees only. I have read this blog and whitepaper (http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/70bd6328-4128-2d10-7882-d7b95418dbaa) and I have understood that we are able to do this without purchasing license. Is it right?

      If my proposal is right could you point me in accordance with what clause of EULA we can do that. I didn’t find appropriate terms in EULA.

      I look forward to your reply.

      Best regards,
      Alex

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      My good friends in the SAP legal department have made this a little harder than it used to be 😉  Now all our products have a generic EULA in the installer, which incorporates product specific terms like redistribution rights by reference in this clause:

      4.     PRODUCT SPECIFIC USE RIGHTS.  Additional terms relating to your use of the Software are found at www.sap.com/company/licenses/product-use-rights, which are incorporated herein by this reference.  You acknowledge and agree that these additional terms form an integral part of this Agreement.

      After navigating to www.sap.com/company/licenses/product-use-rights, and waiting for the fancy map to load, click on the map for your region, then click on the 'Access Agreements' link under 'Software License Agreements'. 

      Then click on 'SAP BusinessObjects Product Use Rights' in the list.  THEN, you'll have to login to SAP.COM (sorry, your SDN account won't work here).  Your reward after all that is a 29 page PDF (for North America) that has the combined product use rights for all our products.  What you're after is in sections 5.4.2.1 and 5.4.2.1, reprinted below:

      5.4.2.1 Definitions Applicable to Crystal Reports Developer:
      “Client Application” means an application developed by Licensee that a) utilizes the Runtime Product, b) is installed fully on an end user‟s machine, with all report processing local to that machine, and c) adds significant and primary functionality to the Runtime Product.

      5.4.2.4 Distribution of Client Applications. Subject to Licensee‟s compliance with all of the terms herein, including without limitation section 5.4.2.6, Licensor grants Licensee a personal, nonexclusive, limited license to Distribute Client Applications.

      OK... so it's a lot harder than it used to be.  Which is why I maintain that whitepaper to help make it easier.

      Cheers, Blair

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blair, thanks for your answer!
      Blair, you have given a clause for "Client Application" only. Could you answer please, is this license contain sections about Server Application similar to "Client Application" section? As I've understood this Server Application is also free for internal usage. Is it right?

      Best regards,
      Alex

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Yes, server apps are free for internal use.  Here's the legalese:

      5.4.2.1 Definitions
      ...
      “Internal Installation” or “Internally Install” means installing into production Client Applications and/or Server Applications on one or more computers within Licensee’s company or organization only in connection with Licensee’s internal business purposes.
      ...
      “Server Application” means an application developed by Licensee that a) utilizes the Runtime Product, b) allows more than one user to access the Runtime Product either directly or indirectly through any middle tier application(s), and c) adds significant and primary functionality to the Runtime Product. A Client Application installed in a Windows terminal server environment (e.g. Citrix or Microsoft Remote Desktop Platform) is a Server Application.
      ...
      5.4.2.3     Internal Installation of Client Applications and Server Applications.  Licensor grants Licensee a personal, nonexclusive, limited license to Internally Install the Runtime Product with Client Applications and Server Applications.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      We are product a client/server application in VS 2010 and would like to include Crystal Reports.  The rendering/runtime would be on the server component.  Our package is distributed to our clients and runs on their hardware.  We would be producing the reports and shipping them with the software (i.e. no embedded designer).

      Am I correct in understanding that we would need only a single SAP Developer Advantage license (~$2500 USD) and that would cover redistribution to all our our clients?

      Thanks in advance!

      Author's profile photo Blair Wheadon
      Blair Wheadon
      Blog Post Author
      Yes, you are correct.

      If you ever deliver a hosted version of your product, that would require an OEM contract as hosting is not covered by the runtime server license (formerly Developer Advantage).

      Thanks, Blair