Advice Request How does license management works with G-Data (regarding activation/deactivation) ?

[IkariGradius]

First I'd like to say hi to all, it's been a long a while, and I've been busy. I hope the whole community is doing well in those hard times

I tried G-Data yesterday and I must say so far I'm really impressed with their latest version. Not long ago it used to be a ressource hog, however they seem to have turn things around nicely. So much I'm actually thinking about purchasing a license.

However I would like to know how does licensing works in G-Data, especially regarding activation/deactivation when changing devices. A long time ago (more than 5 years), they use an old system where 1 activation counted as 1 license, and there was no way to deactivate said license. So if you reformatted your computer often, you ended up asking support to reset the license often and they would think it was abused.

Have they change things around ? Is there a way to deactivate the license within the software or an online console to free up a licenses and manage devices, to the likes of ESET and most other AVs ? I'm asking as I tend to reformat qui often, so with a 3 years license I would be reinstalling G-Data dozens of times. Also I haven't found any useful info on their website regarding that matter.

If anyone's G-Data users over here, I'd be glad to be informed on that please.

Thanks to all, and see you around

 

[CyberPanther]

First of all I would like to welcome you for joining MalwareTips.
Unfortunately, G Data is not offering home users to manage licenses and devices.
The user has to contact G Data support team in regards license management.

I faced this issue and I changed to F-Secure which allows you to manage licenses and devices.
Most vendors allow users to manage their licenses and devices.

My recommendation for you is use Bitdefender or F-secure to manage license and devices.

Hope this will suffice.

 

[IkariGradius]

First of all I would like to welcome you for joining MalwareTips.
Unfortunately, G Data is not offering home users to manage licenses and devices.
The user has to contact G Data support team in regards license management.

I faced this issue and I changed to F-Secure which allows you to manage licenses and devices.
Most vendors allow users to manage their licenses and devices.

My recommendation for you is use Bitdefender or F-secure to manage license and devices.

Hope this will suffice.

Thanks for your answer. That's gonna be a deal breaker for me then. It's probably fine for most users that reformat/change devices not often, but it's not gonna work for me. I've used most AVs out there, and most of them user some kind of device management. ESET, Emsisoft, F-Secure, Bitdefender, Norton, Webroot, Trend Micro, Sophos, Malwarebytes... the list goes on.

Some companies, such as Avast, don't allow you to manage your licenses directly, but handles licenses in a way that you won't get stuck (if you have a 5 devices licenses, you can change devices as much as you want as long as you don't use more than 5 devices at the same time).

That's a shame as I really like G-Data and respect this company. If they change this in the future, I'll probably give them a shot.

PS: I'm not actually new here, it's just been a while since I've logged in

 

[Indingo]

I have been a GDATA user for (6-7) years now. You can keep installing freely and it will override the (least used) of your active computers or the one that has not had its signatures updated in the longest time. If you want to deactivate computers to free up slots for activation - it can be done quickly in the online management console on the (my GDATA) part of their website - all you need is the login credentials / GDATA login ID and Password. It’s actually very simple.

 

[CyberPanther]

I do really apologize for providing wrong information.
I had an issue with my GData subscription, on my brother's subscription for Internet Security he was able to manage the devices.

You might refer to the below image:

I hope this will assist.

 

[IkariGradius]

Thanks a lot for your answers @Indingo and @ab14 !

Now that's a very good way of managing licenses, and the web console seems very nice. I'm really impressed with Gdata. It's way lighter than it used to be and has a very good protection. Definitely a product I'll keep a watch on and might buy in the future.