Limitations¶
BCDock runs real Business Central containers - the same images Microsoft publishes - but there are important restrictions you should understand before using the platform.
This page is the consolidated reference: the actual constraints, what they mean in practice, and what's coming. The buyer-facing summary on the marketing site links here.
Sandbox and testing use only¶
BCDock runs Microsoft's Business Central container images. Microsoft's terms for those images state that the image is "intended and supported by Microsoft only for test and development purposes" and is "not supported in production environments".
Our own rule is separate and firmer: you must not use BCDock for live business operations or financial transactions. That is BCDock's rule about BCDock, not a statement about what Microsoft permits. Microsoft says not supported, and we say not allowed here.
You also keep whatever Business Central licence your own use requires. See Microsoft NAV/BC on Docker EULA for their terms in full; the quotes above are from that document as read 2026-09-06.
| ✓ Allowed | ✗ Not allowed |
|---|---|
| AL extension development & testing | Production workloads or live operations |
| Staff training and onboarding | Processing live customer or financial data |
| Demos and proof-of-concept evaluations | Replacing a Microsoft BC SaaS subscription |
| Integration and regression testing | Revenue-generating business operations |
| Migration testing before production cutover | |
| Version compatibility checks |
If your use case isn't on the allowed list, talk to us first - there are edge cases we're happy to discuss (internal-only training, public-facing demos with synthetic data, etc.) but they need explicit confirmation.
Provisioning time¶
Environments are not instant. Time depends on whether pre-built resources already exist for your chosen BC version × country combination.
| Scenario | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Pre-built version, warm pool | ~7-15 minutes |
| Pre-built version, cold pool | longer (pool create plus env create) |
| Not pre-built - first time for this version × country combo (built on request) | ~78 minutes (one-time) |
The longer wait only happens once per version × country combination. All subsequent environments on that combo provision in the warm-pool window above.
Free trial caps¶
Free trial accounts have two independent caps:
| Cap | Limit | What happens at the cap |
|---|---|---|
| Active runtime | 7 hours total across all environments | Running envs auto-suspend; resume requires a paid plan |
| Stored time | 100 hours (~4.2 days) total across all environments | Per-env auto-suspend after grace period |
| Wall-clock expiry | 14 days from signup | Trial ends, all envs suspend; upgrade to keep them |
Trial counters live on the company, not the user. Trial is one per human - if you delete your account and re-sign up with the same email, you don't get a fresh trial (the trial-history flag set at anonymisation time blocks both buckets).
Active runtime is metered per-second across all environments simultaneously. Stored time is metered per-environment-day. Hibernating cuts active billing instantly; the env continues to consume the stored bucket until you delete it.
Differences from Microsoft BC SaaS¶
BCDock is a developer tool, not a SaaS ERP. Feature-by-feature:
| Feature | BCDock | BC SaaS |
|---|---|---|
| Production licence | ✗ Sandbox only | ✓ Full commercial |
| AL extension dev | ✓ Full support | ✓ Full support |
| Web services / OData | ✓ Full support | ✓ Full support |
| Multi-company | ✓ Full support | ✓ Full support |
| Power Platform | ✗ Not available | ✓ Native integration |
| Azure AD SSO | Manual configuration | ✓ Built-in |
| AppSource extensions | Manual install | ✓ One-click |
| Automatic BC updates | ✗ User-managed | ✓ Microsoft-managed |
| Uptime SLA | Best effort | ✓ 99.9% guaranteed |
| Compliance certs | Azure-level only | ✓ SOC 2, ISO 27001 |
| Microsoft support | ✗ BCDock support only | ✓ Included |
Hibernation and resume¶
| Operation | Typical time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hibernate | ~1-3 minutes | Container gzipped to blob storage; pool slot freed |
| Resume (same BC major version) | ~7-15 minutes | Container restored on any compatible pool |
| Resume across major BC versions | ~10-25 minutes | Adds the BC platform upgrade; CLI/portal will prompt for confirmation |
Cross-major-version backwards resume is not supported (e.g. you can't take a v28-hibernated env and resume it onto a v27 pool). Forwards is the documented escape hatch.
Regional availability¶
Currently provisioning in:
australiaeast/australiasoutheastwestus2westeurope(limited; check with us before relying on it)
Each region has its own pool family, image cache, and Key Vault. Cross-region env moves are staff-driven today (not user-initiated yet); reach out via support@bcdock.io if you need an environment moved between regions.
Pool sharing¶
Pools host 2-9 environments each. Environments on the same pool share:
- The pool VM's compute (CPU, memory) - sized so that typical concurrent usage doesn't contend
- The pool's reverse proxy
- The pool's network egress
They do not share:
- BC databases (each env has its own)
- File system (each env is a separate Docker container)
- Credentials (each env has unique admin password)
A pool can host environments belonging to different companies. Tenant isolation is enforced at the API layer (every query carries a company-scoped filter) and inside the BC containers themselves - one company's container can't reach another's. Full posture detail in security/posture.
Compliance scope¶
- Azure-level compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001) inherits from Azure. We run on Azure.
- BCDock-level compliance is currently best-effort. We don't claim SOC 2 or ISO 27001 for the BCDock platform itself - that's a Phase D milestone that needs ≥1 paying enterprise to justify the audit cost.
- Data residency: pick a region; your data stays in that region's pool, blob storage, and Key Vault. We don't replicate cross-region without explicit configuration.
- Sandbox containers are not in scope for HIPAA, PCI, or similar regulated-data regimes. Use synthetic or anonymised data.
Detailed posture: security/posture.
What's not on the roadmap¶
- Power Platform integration - would require BC SaaS, not sandbox containers. Not happening.
- Production hosting - not supported by Microsoft for these images, and not something we allow. Not happening.
- Automatic BC version updates inside an environment - design choice. Each env is pinned to its BC version; resume across versions is the upgrade path. This keeps the version lifecycle predictable for testing.
- AppSource auto-install - Microsoft's marketplace doesn't expose programmatic install for sandbox containers. Manual install via
bcdock env publishis the path.
Questions¶
Anything unclear, or a use case you're not sure fits? Email hello@bcdock.io.