Comparison
Licensr vs. the alternatives
All of them can check a license key. The difference is everything around it: who owns the payment, what happens after the sale, and how much you build yourself.
Licensr vs. Keygen
Keygen is a powerful licensing API. Licensr includes the payments, the storefront, and the customer portal that you would otherwise build yourself, at a lower price.
Licensing with payments included
Best for plugin and app developers who want a single product that handles Stripe Connect, a hosted storefront, subscription lifecycle, and license enforcement, without stitching it together.
- Stripe Connect, 0% revenue share
- Hosted buy page at /buy/your-slug
- Full subscription lifecycle included
- Domain-mode + anti-extraction guard
- Official JS/TS, C++, and C# SDKs with offline JWT verify on JS and C#
- From $19/mo (vs $49/mo on Keygen)
Licensing API for engineers who want full control
Best for teams with complex licensing requirements: floating seats, self-hosted deployments, granular policy control, or air-gapped enterprise environments.
- JSON:API by default (more verbose responses)
- Floating / concurrent licenses
- Community Edition (self-hosted)
- Granular per-key entitlements API
- Auditable Fair Source code
Payment processing included
Licensr uses Stripe Connect: your account collects revenue directly. Keygen is licensing-only; you wire your own payment processor.
Revenue share
We charge a flat monthly fee. Keygen is also flat-fee, but you still pay Stripe or Gumroad separately on top.
Hosted buy page (branded storefront)
/buy/your-slug is live the moment you create a plan. Keygen has no storefront; build your own checkout UI.
Subscription lifecycle (renewal, dunning, cancellation)
Stripe webhooks, grace periods, and license state transitions are handled for you.
Customer self-serve portal
Branded sign-in page and portal with your logo and colours. Customers manage their own seats and billing. Keygen requires you to build any customer-facing interface.
Pricing (first paid tier)
Licensr Indie is $19/mo for up to 250 active licenses. Keygen Standard 1 starts at $49/mo.
License key validation API
Seat / node-locked activation
Domain-mode activation
Bind a license to a domain instead of a machine, essential for WordPress, browser, and SaaS plugins.
Domain-origin guard (anti-extraction)
Even if someone extracts your API key and license key, they cannot replay it from an unauthorized domain.
Trial licenses
We support time-limited keys via expiry dates. Keygen has first-class trial policies.
Floating / concurrent licenses
Keygen supports heartbeat-based floating seats. We use node-locked activation.
Offline validation (signed tokens/files)
Licensr issues short-lived EdDSA-signed JWT tokens verified against a per-plugin JWKS. Keygen issues cryptographically signed or encrypted license files (Ed25519/RSA) with an embedded data payload and a configurable TTL, which is more mature, at the cost of implementing the crypto scheme yourself.
Feature-based entitlements
Licensr plans carry a flat feature_flags JSON object, returned on every validate/token call. Keygen has a first-class Entitlements API resource attached to policies, which is more granular, at the cost of extra API surface.
Perpetual fallback (limited access after expiry)
Both keep a degraded mode working past natural expiry: a per-plan toggle in Licensr (expired → entitlement="limited"), a policy's expirationStrategy: MAINTAIN_ACCESS in Keygen.
API style
Keygen uses the JSON:API spec by default (application/vnd.api+json) across many resource types (licenses, machines, users, policies, entitlements, releases, and more). Responses are significantly more verbose than a simple REST API.
Native SDKs
Official SDKs for JavaScript/TypeScript (npm), C++ (CMake git), and C# (NuGet + Unity UPM). JS and C# verify offline JWTs locally; C++ mints and stores the token today. Keygen's only official SDK is for Go; other languages rely on community wrappers or raw HTTP.
In-dashboard integration guide
Step-by-step walkthrough in the admin panel with your real API keys and plugin slug pre-filled.
Public developer docs
Webhook events + replay
We log every inbound Stripe webhook with full payload and a replay button.
Multi-tenant (independent teams)
Keygen supports environments. We provide full tenant isolation with separate Stripe accounts per team.
Self-hosted option
Keygen ships a Community Edition (Fair Source, not true open-source). On our roadmap.
Setup wizard / guided onboarding
Free tier
Both offer a free plan: Keygen allows 100 Active Licensed Users, we allow up to 25 active licenses.
Skip the JSON:API. Get to a live buy page in 15 minutes.
Free tier, no credit card required. Payments, storefront, and licensing in one.