I recently moved from two licensing / ecommerce providers I’d used for years to FastSpring (http://www.fastspring.com/) in conjunction with LimeLM (http://wyday.com/limelm/). I am very impressed with the features and services of both and want to recommend them to Xojo developers and share a bit about my experience.
LimeLM offers a sample Xojo project (http://wyday.com/limelm/help/using-turboactivate-with-real-studio/) that was very easy to implement into my Xojo app. It generates a unique serial number that can be used on either Windows or Mac, which is great in avoiding dual licenses/purchases when customers work on both platforms. The LimeLM files install directly into the Xojo app’s folders on both Windows and Mac, which eliminates the need for complicated installation scripts to other locations on the hard drive or into the registry. It also makes it easy to use drag and drop DMG installers on the Mac. The LimeLM product dashboard makes it very easy to add, manage and customize individual user licenses. The licenses are easily configured for trial periods, number of activations/deactivations, and detection/control of installation on virtual machines or hypervisor.
LimeLM integrates easily into FastSpring with the PHP code it provides for the Fulfillment Actions section of the FastSpring Product page (http://wyday.com/limelm/help/automate-license-generation-with-fastspring/). This PHP code can also include custom fields for features such as subscriptions, expiration dates and other unique needs (http://wyday.com/limelm/help/license-features/).
There’s a monthly fee for LimeLM based on volume, but it’s been well worth it. In addition to the better features and service, it allows me to generate product keys independently of FastSpring and avoid their e-commerce fee when FastSpring is not involved in automatically providing the serial number or taking the payment.
FastSprings service has been great too, with zero problems in delivering licenses, making payments and handling of inquiries from my customers. They also provide integration of my product sales into a MailChimp database so that customers can receive emails, manually or via auto-response.
Service and responsiveness from both companies has been excellent. This is not a paid endorsement. I’m just a very satisfied customer who faced a number of challenges with other services and wanted to share my experience with the Xojo community.
Search terms: eSellerate, RegNow, DigitalRiver, Kagi, SoftwareShield, RegCode, license, licensing, serial numbers, DRM, digital rights management, selling apps