VisualSVN Limited does offer trial periods, but the fear of a hard stop—the server locking administrators out of the GUI—drives panic. However, a crucial technical detail is often overlooked: VisualSVN Server is built on top of open-source Subversion. Even if the commercial license expires, the underlying repositories usually remain accessible via command-line tools. The "lockout" is often limited to the management console, but to a busy IT admin, this feels like a total system failure.
To obtain a valid license key, you can: