I have up until recently developed only in-house custom applications and I have never had a need to protect this software with any type of licensing/protection mechanisms. I’m now working on a new project for a software app that I plan on distributing to a relatively small number of clients (1000 or so) and I need to consider some type of licensing/software protection solution that I can easily integrate into my application.
I’m also looking for specific product recommendations (if possible) based on users experiences. With vast assortment of product offerings out there, I’m having a very hard time wading through them all.
I would like to stick with a software option over a hardware dongle type solutions so that I can make distribution and activation as painless as possible for my customers…but would consider hardware options if need be. I have tried the KeyLOK hardware evaluation kit but it seems to be a little difficult to implement and it would force my customers to wait days before they could initially activate and use my application.
Here are some of the variables I’m trying to take into consideration:
- Application per License cost will be around $1000.00
- Small user base of around 1000 sites
- Cost efficient (under $25 per site coast)
- Easy to implement into the existing VB.Net based application
- Easy for users to register/upgrade/renew
- Can easily add new licensed modules to existing customers software.
- Can be modified to take into account different licensing schemes such as single site/single system, single site/multiple systems, multiple site/ single systems ….etc.
- License registration and tracking via Internet
- Software distribution is very controlled and it’s not a techie type user audience, so hacking is not a major concern but I would like to protect the application as much as possible.
I’m sure I’m probably over looking some other issues so any guidance provided would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time.