FLEXlm is a popular software license manager. It is commonly used in corporate environments to provide floating licences to multiple end users of computer software.

High-priced computer software can frequently be licensed in a variety of ways. A license to use a piece of software may be associated with a specific machine (in FLEXlm speak, node-locked ), permitting it to only run on that machine (node in a Computer network). Alternatively, a company may buy a pool of floating licenses and these licenses may be allocated dynamically to machines, a license being checked-out when a user begins using the software on any given machine and checked-in when the user finishes using the software. In this way, for example, a company might buy a pool of 50 licenses but support a user community of hundreds of occasional users of the software (so long as no more than 50 users ever want to use the software simultaneously).

FLEXlm supports both usage models.

Originally developed by Globetrotter, FLEXlm is now owned by Macrovision and has now been renamed to FLEXnet.

It is frequently seen in IRIX on Silicon Graphics machines.

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