This blog is for everyone who has ever added a user to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization and wondered what the difference was between a "Full" and a "Limited" license.

The License Type selection is available on the user form towards the bottom. It defaults to "Full", but also provides options for "Limited", "Device Full", and "Device Limited". We are going to talk about the difference between limited and full here. As a quick note, the difference between a device license and a standard license is that the standard license is tied to the user, and the device license is tied to the workstation or access device.

Full License

The full license is pretty self-explanatory. It gives you access to everything through both the web and Outlook clients, as well as programmatically through the API.

Limited License

In CRM 4.0, the limited license type only allowed read-only access. The limited license continues to provide read-only access to the entire system
through the Dynamics CRM clients, but has been expanded in CRM 2011 to include some basic create and update permissions for the standard entities, as well as enhanced permissions for working with custom entities through the API.

Through the Dynamics CRM web/outlook/mobile client:

• Accounts, cases, contacts, leads, activities, custom activity entities, and notes
  • Users with limited licenses have almost full access to these record types. They are able to create, update, append, and append to through the Dynamics CRM client on any record created by any user
  • Assign, share, and delete are limited to only records created by the user
• Custom non-activity entities
  • Users with limited licenses receive only the append to permission for these records while working through the Dynamics CRM clients (in addition to the global read-only granted by the limited license).
• Follow and post activity feeds against accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, and standard entities

Through API only:

• Custom non-activity entities
  • While these cannot be created/edited through the Dynamics CRM clients, these permissions are available through the API for users with limited licenses
  • Assign, share, and delete are still limited to records created by the same user
• Follow and post activity feeds against custom entities

Important overall limitation of limited license

• The limited license cannot assign, share, or delete any records created by other Dynamics CRM users through either the clients or the API

Further information on the difference between the license types can be found in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Pricing & Licensing Guide – February 2012 Edition.

Happy CRM'ing!