Open, Enterprise-Grade Licensing & Distribution

Keygen is a Fair Source software licensing and distribution API designed to streamline the management of software entitlements and delivery. It empowers developers to easily integrate license key validation, device activation, and secure artifact distribution into their products.

This SaaS is ideal for developers and businesses of all sizes, from F1000s to indie developers, who create software applications across various platforms, including desktop, mobile, web, and on-premise solutions.

Key Features

• Comprehensive Software Licensing API for validation, activation, and entitlements.
• Secure Software Artifact Distribution API with automatic update capabilities.
• No-code licensing automation via Zapier for integrations with payment and email services.
• Flexible deployment options: Keygen Cloud or self-hostable Community and Enterprise Editions.
• Keygen Relay for secure node-locked licenses in offline and air-gapped environments.
• Developer-first tools including official SDKs, a CLI, and extensive documentation.

Use Cases

Businesses can leverage Keygen to drastically reduce the development time typically spent on building in-house licensing systems. By integrating Keygen's API, they can efficiently manage software licenses, control user access, and ensure compliance across their entire product portfolio, from Go programs to WordPress plugins.

For software vendors, Keygen provides a robust solution for securely delivering software updates and new versions to licensed users. This ensures a smooth user experience and reduces operational overhead associated with manual distribution, while also supporting complex environments like container images and on-premise deployments.

Keygen also addresses the critical need for licensing in environments with limited or no internet connectivity through its Relay feature. This allows for secure, node-locked license distribution, making it suitable for highly secure or air-gapped enterprise deployments.

Pricing Information

Keygen offers a flexible pricing model, including a free tier for development and a free-to-self-host Community Edition for personal and commercial projects. This freemium approach allows users to get started without upfront commitment, with enterprise-grade features available in the self-hostable Enterprise Edition.

User Experience and Support

Designed with developers in mind, Keygen provides an easy-to-use API complemented by official SDKs for various languages. Extensive documentation, an API reference, and a changelog are available. Users can also access community support via GitHub and Discord, or chat directly with a Keygen engineer on Slack.

Technical Details

Keygen is an API-first solution supporting a wide range of programming languages and environments, including Go, Rust, JS, C/C++, C#, Swift, Java, Kotlin, and more. It is cloud-native, offering robust infrastructure, and its Enterprise Edition supports OCI/Docker container registry for self-hosting.

Pros

• Significantly reduces development time and costs for licensing.
• Fair Source and Open, promoting transparency and community contributions.
• Highly scalable, secure, and cloud-native infrastructure.
• Flexible deployment options: Cloud, free self-hosted CE, or enterprise self-hosted EE.
• Comprehensive features for both licensing and secure software distribution.

Cons

• Requires API integration, which may have a learning curve for new users.
• Enterprise-grade features and advanced cloud services come with associated costs.
• Reliance on an external service for core licensing (though self-hosting mitigates this).

Conclusion

Keygen stands out as an enterprise-grade, developer-centric solution for modern software licensing and distribution. Its blend of powerful features, flexible deployment, and commitment to open principles makes it an invaluable tool for any software business. Explore Keygen today to streamline your software's lifecycle management and focus on product innovation.