The rule
A licence covers one live store or website. Places where you build and test don't count, so you can take your time.
These never use your activation
- The Shopify theme editor.
- Shopify theme previews: an unpublished theme, a preview link, and
*.shopifypreview.comaddresses. - Your own computer:
localhost,127.0.0.1, private network addresses, files opened from disk, and addresses ending in.local,.testor.localhost. - Staging sub-domains of your activated domain. Once
yourshop.comis activated, these are free:staging.,stage.,dev.,test.,preview.,uat.andqa.yourshop.com.
These count as a live store
- Your own domain, such as
yourshop.com.www.yourshop.comcounts as the same domain. - A published theme on a plain
.myshopify.comaddress. Many Shopify stores run on that address before they connect a domain, so it is treated like any other live store. - Any other sub-domain, such as
shop2.yourshop.com, is a separate site.
Building a store before launch?
Keep the Orbital theme unpublished while you work and use the editor and previews. Nothing is used up. If you do publish while the store only has its .myshopify.com address, that address takes the activation. When you connect your real domain, open a ticket and we move it for you. See Move your licence to a new store or domain.
Building for a client?
You can build one site for a single client with your licence. The licence then belongs to that client. Each extra client site needs its own purchase. Full details are in the Licence.