How to license a sharepoint solution?

Question

Let's assume that you've created a SharePoint solution - a WebPart, a feature for a List Template, whatever - that you are planning to sell as a product.

How would you go about handling licensing of your solution?

I'm looking for some input in at least the following areas:

1. Code-wise:

   1.1. Where do you keep the license itself? as a file somewhere? (then what happens in farms?) as a property in the property bag of the farm?

   1.2. Do you implement "home-calling" - where your solution validate the license every now and then against your company's servers?

   1.3. Any other best practice in this area will be welcome...

2. Business wise: How do you license - per user? per server? per instance (in case of WebParts or List Templates)?

Thanks.

Answer 1

1.1 You have to put in in the documentation and in the distribution files.

1.2 I would not do that for a sharepoint web part.

1.3 Invest in layout, documentation, support... Not just in the product itself.

1. Nobody will be able to answer that without knowing detailed information about your product, your market, your competitors, the alternatives, etc. Consider this book if you are serious about pricing.

Answer 2

I could tell you what we do:

1. We have a separate farm solution that handles trial/registration support for all our products
2. The license is eventually stored in the farm property bag (you have to support multiple servers)
3. We have a page to enter license key under the central admin solution's page
4. We license by front-end, you can know the number of front-end in the farm in code.
5. All products have a product name and the license key is a one-way encryption containing the product name. the trial support solution handles key validation.