A comprehensive enterprise guide to Oracle Coherence licensing—covering Standard, Enterprise, and Grid Edition pricing, Processor vs Named User Plus metrics, virtualisation risks, compliance pitfalls, and cost optimisation strategies for IT asset managers.
Oracle Coherence is a distributed caching and in-memory data grid platform that helps organisations scale applications by keeping frequently used data in memory. It is widely used in finance, e-commerce, and telecommunications where low-latency data access is critical. For a broader view of Oracle's middleware licensing landscape, see our Oracle Fusion Middleware Licensing guide.
Coherence comes in three commercial editions with progressively increasing capabilities and costs:
The entry-level edition for small deployments. Allows unlimited cluster nodes, but only up to two can host partitioned (sharded) cache data. Suitable for limited caching needs at a lower cost point—approximately $800 per processor at list price.
Advanced features for larger clusters, including full data partitioning, queries, and high availability across many nodes. Often used in finance, e-commerce, and telecom applications that demand low latency and resilience. Priced at approximately $11,500 per processor.
Full-featured edition with all Enterprise capabilities plus multi-datacenter federated caching, real-time data analysis, unlimited compute clients, and integration options (e.g., GoldenGate HotCache). Designed for continuous availability across sites and the most demanding use cases. Priced at approximately $25,000 per processor.
Each higher edition builds upon the previous one. If your use case involves simple caching with a couple of cache servers, Standard Edition One may suffice. But if you require large-scale distributed caches or cross-datacenter clustering, you will need Enterprise or Grid Edition. Choosing the right edition is the single most impactful decision for managing Oracle Coherence licensing cost—Grid Edition is over 30× the price of Standard Edition One per processor.
Also read our guides on Oracle Forms Licensing and Oracle Data Integrator Licensing.
Oracle Coherence offers two licensing metrics. Understanding these is critical for cost management:
You pay per processor (CPU cores) on the servers where Coherence is installed and running. Oracle uses a core factor to account for different CPU types—for example, Intel cores have a 0.5 factor, meaning two cores count as one licence. This model allows unlimited users and is commonly used for server-side middleware like Coherence.
You pay per Named User Plus (individual or device) authorised to use the software, with a minimum of 10 NUP per processor. This model can be cost-effective if only a small, known group of users or applications accesses Coherence.
If you run Coherence on a server with 16 Intel cores, that equates to 8 processors after applying the 0.5 core factor. You would need either 8 processor licences or at least 80 NUP licences (8 processors × 10 NUP each)—regardless of how few users actually access the cache.
In practice, large enterprises often opt for processor licensing to cover all potential users, while smaller or internal deployments with limited user counts might save costs with NUP licensing. For more on Oracle's licensing metrics, see Understanding Oracle Licence Types.
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Oracle Coherence list prices vary significantly by edition. For the latest pricing, see the Oracle Price List Guide. All prices below are indicative list prices in USD, not including annual support.
| Edition | Per Processor (List) | Per NUP (List) | Notable Limits / Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Ed. One | ~$800 | ~$16 | Only 2 cache nodes with partitions (small clusters) |
| Enterprise Edition | ~$11,500 | ~$230 | Full partitioning, querying, HA within a cluster |
| Grid Edition | ~$25,000 | ~$500 | Multi-datacenter (WAN) caching, unlimited compute clients, advanced features |
Annual support fees are typically 22% of the licence cost. For example, a Grid Edition processor licence costing $25,000 would incur approximately $5,500 in support costs per year. For more on Oracle support costs, see Oracle Support Fees Explained.
Suppose an enterprise needs Coherence for a large application on an 8-core Intel server (core factor 0.5 = 4 processor licences required):
| Scenario | Licence Cost | Annual Support | Total Year 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Ed. (4 Processors) | 4 × $11,500 = $46,000 | ~$10,120 | $56,120 |
| Enterprise Ed. NUP (20 users) | 40 × $230 = $9,200 (min 10 NUP × 4 proc = 40) | ~$2,024 | $11,224 |
| Grid Ed. (4 Processors) | 4 × $25,000 = $100,000 | ~$22,000 | $122,000 |
The choice of edition and licensing model dramatically affects cost. In the NUP scenario above, 20 actual users on Enterprise Edition costs just $9,200—but only if those 20 users are strictly the only ones accessing the cache. If indirect users exist (applications pulling data from Coherence for end users), NUP licensing becomes impractical and processor licensing is the safer choice.
Coherence cost scales directly with CPU cores. Running on high-core-count servers or multiple nodes increases licence count. Optimisation: Consolidate cache services onto fewer, larger servers. Running two larger Coherence nodes instead of four smaller ones might halve your licence costs.
If using NUP licensing, the number of individuals or devices accessing Coherence drives cost. Optimisation: Use NUP only for small-scale internal systems. If user counts are difficult to track or could grow, switch to processor licensing to avoid non-compliance from underestimated users.
Higher editions cost dramatically more. Optimisation: Evaluate whether you truly need Grid Edition features. Some organisations have discovered they were licensed for Grid Edition but never used its federated caching capabilities—downgrading to Enterprise Edition delivered immediate savings.
Annual support at 22% compounds every year. Optimisation: Negotiate support fees in large bundles, cap support inflation contractually, and eliminate unused licences to cut support bills. See our guide on Oracle Contracts & Licensing Agreements.
Check if you already have Coherence rights through other products. Oracle WebLogic Suite (the highest edition of WebLogic Server) includes Coherence Enterprise Edition at no additional cost. Similarly, some Oracle middleware (SOA Suite, WebCenter) includes restricted-use Coherence for internal caching.
If you own Oracle WebLogic Suite, you may already have full Coherence Enterprise Edition rights included. Verify this in your contracts before purchasing separate Coherence licences. However, WebLogic Enterprise Edition (not Suite) only covers limited session caching use—always confirm the exact terms of bundled licences.
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| Pitfall | Description | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Accidentally Installed Components | Coherence is often bundled with Oracle Fusion Middleware installations (e.g., WebLogic). Even if not actively used, simply installing it can be flagged in an audit. Remove or disable Coherence components if not in use. | Critical |
| Under-Counting Processors | Miscounting cores (especially in virtual environments) or failing to account for the 10 NUP per processor minimum leads to under-licensing. Apply the official core factor correctly and verify physical core counts. | Critical |
| Indirect Usage | Users who don't directly interact with Coherence but access it via an application layer still require NUP licences. Oracle considers all endpoints that benefit from Coherence-cached data as licensed users. | High |
| Virtualisation "Soft Partitioning" | Running Coherence on VMs (VMware, Hyper-V) does not reduce licensing requirements. Oracle treats these as soft partitions—you must licence every physical core in the underlying hosts where Coherence could run. | Critical |
| Open-Source Confusion | Oracle offers Coherence Community Edition (CE) as free open-source. It lacks Oracle support and certain enterprise features. Accidentally using a paid-only feature on CE creates compliance exposure. | High |
| Edition Mismatch | Using Grid Edition features (e.g., multi-datacenter federation) while only licensed for Enterprise Edition creates a shortfall Oracle will identify during audits. | High |
Running Coherence on VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or other "soft partitioning" virtualisation means Oracle requires you to licence every physical core in the entire host cluster where the Coherence VM could potentially run. This can create enormous unexpected costs. Use Oracle-approved hard partitioning (Oracle VM Server, Oracle Linux KVM) or dedicate physical hosts to contain the licence scope. Always document your environment to prove where Coherence is running. For more details, see Oracle Licensing Rules for VMware.
For comprehensive audit preparation, see our Oracle Audit Strategic Guide.
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