Course vs Site Licenses for Cloning Software: What Each Buys
Course license versus site license for cloning software is a unit comparison, not a cheaper-SKU contest. Buy a course term when the users are students in a dated class and the grant should die with the roster. Buy a site seat when the users are a lab or campus that must keep the tool after grades post. SnapGene appears below because it publishes both a classroom term and campus installs. It is an example, not the winner. Academic versus commercial cloning-software licenses already decides whether you may buy the list at all.
Buy the Classroom Term or the Lab Seat, Not a Cheaper SKU
A free classroom grant can still be the wrong object for a standing core. A campus site agreement can still be the wrong object for a six-week module. The question is what the unit includes: who may click, for how many weeks, on which machines, and what stops on the end date. Do not pick the line that looks cheaper on a screenshot. Qualification — academic versus commercial — is a prior contract fact. Quote shape — per-seat versus per-feature — is a different axis and already has its own page.
Who, How Long, Which Machines, What Expires
SnapGene’s free course-license page is the clearest public classroom term in this category. Licenses are for students, activated during the course, and they expire when the course ends. Eligible offerings are undergraduate courses at accredited universities and high-school courses, with a six-month cap. Not every course is eligible. Only the instructor may request the grant, and that instructor must hold an active SnapGene subscription. Free course licenses are not given to instructors. If the vendor suspects misuse, it reserves the right to suspend access.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s BARC page is a public site-license example for the same product: a campus SnapGene package subject to a number of total installs, with off-campus use gated through a named VPN group so clients can reach SnapGene’s license servers. Guest wireless will not activate it. That is a boundary-and-install unit, not a roster unit. A generic site-license explainer draws the legal distinction this page needs: a site license grants use inside a defined location or organization. Volume licensing is still a count of individual seats at a discount. Ask which unit the campus actually signed.
| Dimension | Course license | Site license | Fit implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who may use it | Students only on the SnapGene grant; instructors are excluded from the free student seats | People inside the named site or organization boundary | Teaching staff still need another seat; visitors may be out of a site boundary |
| Duration | Course duration; SnapGene cap is six months and review can refuse a course | The site agreement term, not the semester roster | A year-long lab course may not fit a six-month grant |
| Machines / network | Often the student’s personal computer | Counted installs; UNC requires campus network or a named VPN group | Homework fits a course grant; a shared bench install fits a site |
| What expires | Access ends when the course ends | The site agreement; over-install is a contract problem | Constructs made in class are not a standing lab license |
| Best-fit job | A dated class whose users disappear at grades | A core or department that keeps cloning software as infrastructure | Match the boundary: roster or lab, not the cheaper line |
Prefer the course term when the roster is the boundary and the vendor’s cap covers the calendar. Prefer the site seat when the lab, not the class list, is the boundary and people must open maps in July. A hybrid is common: the instructor keeps a research subscription; students ride the course grant; the core keeps a counted install. Write those three objects on one sheet. Do not pretend they are one SKU. The SnapGene classroom grant is not free in the operational sense if the instructor must already hold a paid subscription and if teaching staff cannot sit on the student seats. That cost belongs on the course-term row. It is not a reason to declare the site license cheaper, and it is not a reason to skip the expiry date.
This Is Not Qualification and Not Per-Seat Versus Per-Feature
If the lab is crossing from campus to a company payroll, the question is whether the academic list still applies. That is Wave4. If the research group is choosing between named-user seats and a method pack, that is Wave6. This page does not rematch either axis. A later page in this series will compare a SnapGene course term to a cloud ELN subscription as different quote families. Do not collapse that comparison into this one. Course versus site is who-and-how-long inside cloning CAD. Course versus cloud ELN is a classroom term versus a record-system seat.
A Pricing Card Is Not an Official Synthesized Price
After the units are defined, product names may appear as category examples. ZettaGene is molecular biology software; ZettaNote is an electronic lab notebook. Neither is the subject of this license-unit choice. On 3 September 2026, the Zettalab pricing page showed a Standard card with $16.99 struck through and $9.9, while the same-page FAQ said all features are available for 10/month and individual features at $5/month each. Record both statements. Do not average them into one official Zetta price, and do not use either figure to claim that any cloning-software SKU is cheaper than any other.
Ask the vendor to write the unit on the quote: classroom term, site boundary, named research seat, or feature pack. If the quote only says “academic discount,” it is not yet a unit. Buy the classroom term or the lab seat. Do not buy a screenshot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a course license replace a lab site license after the semester?
No. A course grant expires with the class. A standing lab needs a site or research seat that survives the roster.
Is a site license the same as buying many individual seats?
No. A site license is use inside a named boundary. Volume licensing is still a count of seats at a discount. Ask which unit the campus actually signed.
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