Regular covers one brochure a client owns. Extended is for one product that charges end users — a SaaS, a paid community, a template sold inside a larger paid thing. It is not unlimited redistribution of the ZIP. This is a working note from the VicanTheme journal, written for founders and agencies productizing software or selling access on top of a pack. The catalog we keep returning to is HTML templates, because files you can host beat a locked builder when the brand has to last.
If you already know the industry, skip ahead to the recommended demo — Stride — and use the headings as a checklist rather than a speech.
The split in one sentence each
Regular: one end product that does not charge users to access the software the theme skins. Client websites count. Internal tools count. A fashion house on Stride with a lookbook request counts. Extended: one product, but that product may charge users. A paid lookbook platform you sell to many brands, skinned with Stride, is the extended conversation. A single atelier site is not. If you are unsure, start regular.
Extended is not a factory license. You may not dump the source into a marketplace of your own or give every customer the ZIP as a souvenir. You may charge for access to the larger product. Lumen as a photographer’s public archive is regular. Lumen as the UI of a paid stock platform you operate is a different fact pattern. Reel as a studio slate is regular.
Client work that stays regular
Agencies overbuy extended because it sounds safer. A paid client invoice does not make the website a product that charges users. The client’s guests viewing a lookbook for free are not your SaaS customers. Five regular licenses for five atelier sites is the correct arithmetic. One extended license does not cover those five. Worldwide folklore from other marketplaces sometimes says otherwise. Read ours.
Membership on the client’s site — a club, a waiting list — is their end product, not yours. If you are merely implementing Chamber or Stride, you stay regular. If you are selling a hosted members product to many clubs, you have become the vendor. That is the line. Write it in the SOW so a founder cannot claim the agency promised unlimited white-label. Promises are how license disputes start.
Product facts that push you to extended
Users log in and pay you to use the thing the theme dresses. You sell the theme as part of a paid kit. You run a multi-tenant app whose public face is the pack. Those are extended conversations. A donation link on a brochure is not. An atelier appointment fee collected off-site is not your software charging users. Stride’s public drop date is marketing, not a platform.
If you plan to change later, do not pirate the gap. Launch on regular if the first URL is a brochure. When the product appears, come back and license correctly before you take payment from end users. We would rather amend the commercial relationship than pretend a brochure purchase covered a platform.
How to explain it without fog
Tell the client: we paid for one website, not a template business. If they later sell access to software the theme skins, they need extended on their own account. Keep the original ZIP in the archive. Hand over the built site. Card checkout stays USD on Razorpay. The license type should appear on the invoice line so accounts payable can see it. Mystery about extended is sales language.
If your founder wants unlimited brands on one purchase, the answer is no, regardless of regular or extended. Unlimited is not a SKU we sell. Count end products. Count whether those products charge users for the software. Buy that many licenses of the right type. It is dull. Dull licensing is how fashion groups, archives, and film studios stay out of embarrassing email. VicanTheme will not decorate the dullness.
Do this in order
- Open the live demo on a phone.
- Replace photographs before you restyle the CSS.
- Connect the real enquiry or booking tool last.
Questions people actually ask
Does extended let us resell the HTML ZIP?
No. It is not source redistribution. It covers one product that may charge users. The pack is still not your template shop.
Can we upgrade from regular later?
Ask with the order id before you take user payments on a productized skin. Do not wait for a complaint to discover you needed the other seat.
Keep reading: Fashion atelier website design: layout that does the job and Best HTML template for fashion atelier sites in 2026. Or browse Guides in the journal.
