Bitrix24 Self-Hosted Editions and Licensing Explained (2026)

What Self-Hosted Bitrix24 (Alaio) Actually Is

Self-hosted Bitrix24 is a perpetual-style on-premise deployment: you buy a licence, install the software on your own server or private cloud, and own full control over where data lives - but you must renew annually to keep receiving updates and support.

Unlike the cloud version, which requires no hardware and updates automatically, the self-hosted (on-premise) edition runs inside your infrastructure. The administrative panel gives you access to the backend, PHP/JS source customisation, AD/LDAP integration, configurable security policies, and unlimited storage bound only by your hardware. Cloud gives you speed-to-start; self-hosted gives you data residency, source-code access, and compliance control.

The cloud pricing model scales primarily by features available; self-hosted pricing scales by user count. That single distinction shapes every licensing decision.

If your primary reason for considering self-hosted is cost, read the TCO section below carefully - the arithmetic changed significantly in October 2024.

The Two Current Editions: Business and Enterprise

As of 2026, Bitrix24 self-hosted ships in exactly two editions - Business (50-500 users) and Enterprise (1,000+ users) - priced on the official self-hosted pricing page.

The legacy "Corporate Portal" naming was retired; never use it when comparing or quoting. Here is how the editions compare:

Prices sourced from bitrix24.com/prices/self-hosted.php - verify before purchase as pricing may change.

The key architectural differentiator is the web cluster: Enterprise allows you to distribute load across multiple application nodes, which matters for portals serving hundreds of concurrent users or requiring near-zero downtime. See Self-Hosted Bitrix24 High Availability: Master-Replica Cluster Setup for what that infrastructure looks like in practice.

How the Licensing Model Works

The licence fee is a one-time purchase that includes 12 months of updates and technical support; from month 13 onward, continued updates and support require an annual renewal at 50% of the edition price - a policy in effect since 1 October 2024.

The flow works like this:

The full self-hosted licence lifecycle, from initial purchase through the active update window, the renewal decision point, and the consequences of letting the licence lapse.

flowchart TD
    A[Purchase Licence] --> B[Year 1: Updates + Support Included]
    B --> C{Renew before expiry?}
    C -- Yes --> D[Pay 50% of edition price\nAnother 12 months of updates + support]
    D --> C
    C -- No --> E[14-day grace period]
    E --> F{Renewed in grace?}
    F -- Yes --> D
    F -- No --> G[Portal locks\nNo updates, no Marketplace,\nno cloud services, no REST API]

Key mechanics to know:

• Year 1 included. The initial purchase price covers the first 12 months of updates and support. There is no separate "maintenance" fee in year one.
• 50% renewal rate. From year two, renewal costs 50% of the edition price annually. For Business at $3,590, that is $1,795/year. For Enterprise at $24,990, that is $12,495/year. (Source)
• 14-day grace period. After the licence expires, you have 14 days to renew before the portal locks. Do not confuse this with older Russian-market windows - the international grace period is 14 days.
• What "locked" means. A lapsed licence does not destroy your data, but it disables product updates, Marketplace installations, REST API methods, telephony (VoIP), open channels, push notifications, cloud backups, and most cloud-dependent services. The portal shell remains accessible but is effectively unusable for a modern business. Full details are covered in the Bitrix24 On-Premise Updates & Maintenance guide.
• Renewals are annual only. You cannot purchase two years at once.

Self-Hosted vs Cloud: An Honest TCO Comparison

At the 50-user tier over three years, cloud is typically cheaper than self-hosted once server costs and the 50% renewal are factored in - the case for self-hosted is data sovereignty and control, not price.

This is where many buyers are misled. The arithmetic changed on 1 October 2024 when Bitrix24 raised the renewal rate. Here is a transparent three-year comparison at the 50-user level:

Cloud Professional price is illustrative - verify current pricing at bitrix24.com/prices. Server costs vary by provider, region, and spec.

The conclusion is clear: at 50 users and a standard server, cloud is equal or cheaper on pure software cost and materially cheaper once infrastructure is included. The break-even point shifts as your user count grows - at 250-500 users, the per-user economics of self-hosted improve, especially if your infrastructure already exists or is shared with other systems.

The genuine reasons to choose self-hosted are not price:

• Data residency. Regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, government) often require data to stay within a specific jurisdiction. Cloud data centres may not satisfy local data-protection laws such as the UAE PDPL, Saudi Arabia PDPL, Brazil's LGPD, or EU GDPR. Self-hosted puts you in full control of where data physically resides.
• Source-code access. You can modify PHP and JavaScript at the platform level - integrations and UI changes that are simply not possible in cloud. See Customizing Beyond Cloud Limits: What Becomes Possible with Self-Hosted Bitrix24.
• Security posture. You control firewall rules, encryption at rest, penetration testing, and backend access policies. See Self-Hosted Bitrix24 Security Hardening: 25-Point Checklist.
• Integration depth. Direct database access, internal ERP/HR system integration via local network, and support for AD/LDAP/SSO without routing credentials through a third-party cloud. See Active Directory, LDAP and SSO Integration with Self-Hosted Bitrix24.

For a full multi-year model, see Self-Hosted vs Cloud Bitrix24: Complete 3-Year TCO Analysis.

Edition Capabilities in Detail

Business covers the full CRM, task management, HR, and automation toolkit for teams up to 500 users in a single-structure organisation; Enterprise adds multi-branch management, web clustering, and 24/7 priority support for large or distributed companies.

Business Edition (50-500 users)

The Business edition is the right starting point for the vast majority of self-hosted deployments. It includes:

• Full CRM (leads, deals, contacts, companies, quotes, invoices)
• Task and project management (Gantt, Kanban, Scrum)
• Intranet, document management, and knowledge base
• Website and landing page builder
• Marketing automation and email campaigns
• Telephony integration (SIP, VoIP connectors)
• Open channels (WhatsApp, Telegram, live chat, email, social)
• Business process designer and workflow automation
• REST API, Bitrix API, and D7 API for custom integrations
• AD/LDAP/SSO integration
• Source-code access and Marketplace

User tiers: 50, 100, 250, 500. You purchase the tier that matches your maximum concurrent user count - not the total number of employees who have ever had accounts.

Enterprise Edition (1,000+ users)

Enterprise is designed for large organisations with complex structural requirements:

• Everything in Business, plus:
• Multi-branch / holding structure - manage multiple departments, subsidiaries, or franchise units with separate permission trees under one installation
• Web cluster - horizontal scaling across multiple application servers for high-availability deployments
• 24/7 priority technical support included in the licence
• Expandable in increments of 1,000 users

If your organisation has geographically distributed offices that need a single unified portal with separate administrative boundaries, Enterprise is the minimum viable edition. For high-availability architecture options, see Self-Hosted Bitrix24 High Availability: Master-Replica Cluster Setup.

How to Choose Your Edition: A Decision Checklist

Work through this checklist top to bottom - your first "Yes" answer identifies the minimum edition you need.

→ Choose Enterprise if any of the following apply:

• You have 1,000 or more named users
• You need multiple independent departments/subsidiaries with separate admin boundaries under one portal
• You require a web cluster for load distribution or near-zero-downtime deployments
• You need 24/7 vendor priority support as part of the licence

→ Choose Business if all of the following are true:

• Your user count is 500 or fewer
• Your organisation has a single structural hierarchy (one company, one admin tree)
• You do not require horizontal web clustering
• Standard support response times are acceptable

→ Consider staying on Cloud if:

• Your team is under ~100 users and you have no hard data-residency requirement
• You have no dedicated IT staff to manage a server
• Budget certainty matters more than data control
• You are still piloting Bitrix24 and not yet committed to a long-term deployment

→ Pick your user tier (Business only):

• Up to 50 users → 50-user tier
• 51-100 users → 100-user tier
• 101-250 users → 250-user tier
• 251-500 users → 500-user tier

When in doubt, buy the tier you need now - upsizing to a higher tier later is possible, but it requires purchasing the new tier licence and crediting any unexpired portion. Plan your user count for at least 18-24 months ahead.

If you are unsure about hardware requirements for your target user count, Self-Hosted Bitrix24 Hardware Sizing Guide: 50 to 1,000+ Users provides reference specifications.

What Happens When Your Licence Expires

If a self-hosted Bitrix24 licence is not renewed within the 14-day grace period, the portal enters a locked state: Marketplace, REST API, telephony, open channels, and cloud-dependent services all stop working, though locally stored data remains intact.

This is a significant operational risk that organisations often underestimate. A summary of what gets disabled:

The practical impact: any integration that uses REST API - including most CRM automation, third-party connectors, and telephony - stops immediately. For organisations running active sales pipelines or customer support operations, even 24-48 hours of lockout is a serious incident.

Best practice: set a calendar reminder 30 days before expiry. If you work with a Bitrix24 Gold partner, they typically manage renewal reminders as part of a support plan. See Self-Hosted Bitrix24 Support & Maintenance Plans for what managed renewal coverage looks like.

Getting the Licence: Working with a Gold Partner

Bitrix24 self-hosted licences for international markets are purchased through authorised partners; a Gold partner can quote exact pricing for your edition and tier, manage activation, and handle implementation in one engagement.

ACP Group is a Bitrix24 Gold partner with experience across 1,300+ projects. When procuring a self-hosted licence through a partner:

• You receive the official licence key directly from the Bitrix24 ecosystem
• The partner handles activation, initial server setup, and first-year configuration
• Renewal reminders and account management are typically included in a support plan
• Custom development, integrations, and training can be scoped alongside the licence

For a full picture of what implementation involves and how long it takes, see Bitrix24 Implementation Cost & Timeline: Real Data from 1,300+ Projects. For a guided managed deployment where ACP Group handles hosting and maintenance, see Managed Self-Hosted Bitrix24: We Deploy, Host and Maintain It for You.

Exact licence pricing for your specific edition, user tier, and region is available directly from ACP Group at acp-24.com.