What off-the-shelf licensing system will meet my needs?
- by Anders Pedersen
I'm looking for an off-the-shelf license system for desktop software.
After some research on the net -- and of course here on StackOverflow -- I haven't found one the suits our needs. I have a couple of must-have features and some would-be-nice features:
Must have:
Encrypted unlock key
Possibility to automate the unlock
key generation on my website
User info in key so that I can show
name and company in an about box and
perhaps in reports
Nice to have:
License managing tools
Online activation
Nice upgrade possibilities to a
version with concurrent license model
and subscription model
I have looked at Manco, but I find them difficult to work with and the documentation is minimal. Further, I couldn't get the name in the key. Also, the automatic generation of a key on my website has to be done with an application web service, but I would rather program against a DLL.
Next I looked at xheo. It is easier to use and the documentation is better, but the price is substantially higher and here you can only get the user name in the license file that you then have to provide together with the unlock key.
Could anyone share their experiences on what you are using and how it is working for you?