The trial is generous and routinely wasted — started on day one, spent on apps nobody evaluated, gone by the time decisions are due. Here is what the trial actually is, and how to spend it like it matters.
NG Firewall's app model has three tiers: a free core that never expires, subscription apps, and — bridging the two — a free trial on the apps so you can test the paid layer on your own network before money is discussed. This page keeps a narrow promise: it explains how the trial works and what happens when it ends. The full app-by-app free-versus-paid list is a bigger topic, and it is covered properly in this site's companion Arista install set — this page will point you there once, honestly, instead of repeating it badly.
Trials hang off your account, not off a code you type into the box. The appliance is registered to your free ETM Dashboard account during setup, and app trials are activated against that registration — the rack shows each app's state, so you can see what is trialling and how long is left. This is one more reason the registration step in the wizard is part of setup rather than paperwork: an unregistered box cannot start its trials.
Fourteen days is not enough time to 'try everything', and it is exactly enough time to answer one or two specific questions on your real network: does Web Filter's category database match how your office actually browses? Does the reporting show you what you hoped? Go in with the questions written down. The classic waste is enabling every trial on day one, being too busy with the install to look at any of them, and reaching the decision meeting with the window already closed and no evidence gathered.
Nothing about the end of a trial holds your network hostage. That is the honest design, and it is why 'test it first' is real advice here rather than a sales line.
Which specific apps are free forever and which are subscription — Web Filter, SSL Inspector, Policy Manager, WAN Failover and the rest, app by app — is maintained in the companion Arista install guides on this site, including a page devoted to what stays free when the trial ends. Read that list before you start any trial clock: it tells you which apps even need your fourteen days, and which ones you can evaluate calmly because they will still be there, free, next month.
See the rack and its apps in the setup video, then plan your own trial order before you start any clock.
▶️ Watch Full VideoApp trials run 14 days, and the rack shows each app's trial state. The trial applies to the subscription apps; the free core apps are not trialled at all — they simply stay free.
Only the trialled app switches off. The gateway keeps routing, internet access continues, and the free core apps keep working with your configuration intact. Subscribing later turns the app back on with its settings preserved.
Trials and licences are activated against the appliance's registration. The free ETM Dashboard account created during setup is what the box is registered to, and it is also where the appliance can be managed centrally — an unregistered box cannot activate a trial or a licence.