umm does anyone know of a free php encoder that will enable me to set up a licence system for my commercial script? like make trial versions that expier etc and licences that expier after a year and so on?

abit like zend guard but with the large price tag

If it's a commercial script which you sell and MAKE MONEY, then why do you want a php encoder for FREE which will help you sell the software? That's not ethical.

Mini

I use eaccelerator ( http://eaccelerator.net/ ) for a while now (since turck mmcache went dead) and I am very happy with it.

Two efficient PHP encryption software:

- IONCube
- SourceGuardian

I know ionCUBE offers online encoding where rather than buy the software, they will encode your script online for $2 or something like that.

I prefer Zend myself, and have been looking for a similar solution in which a script can be Zend encoded for a few bucks. Does anyone know of such a place?

There's currently a website offering services to decrypt PHP software encrypted by Zend. I'm not going to post it but you should know its out there. I don't think it works with Zend Guard 4 though... yet. As far as I know, Ioncube is currently the best solution though.

IonCube can be decrypted as well, so can just about any php encoding. The idea is to make difficult enough so that its just easier to buy the license.

All of the major companies offering PHP encoders have had their solutions compromised at some point - nothing is 100% safe or secure, it's a fact of life it will eventually be broken. ionCube released v6.5 of their encoder in January which fixed the problems, and Zend then released Guard v4 in April/May time which fixed some of the problems with their product as well. Both now offer obfuscation functions in addition to their original protection, so that offers extra protection for you (even if it requires a bit of work, thought & preparation beforehand).

For ionCube, their Pro version of the encoder has a licensing option and costs $270 or so for a license. Zend Guard includes licensing for the yearly cost of $995, or $597 for a small business. You can also purchase Zend Studio and Zend Guard together at a discount price of $799 until the end of August. If you decide to go with Zend, before you purchase try contacting their sales department to see if they can offer it to you for a lower price :)

You *can* find cheap PHP 'protectors' out there. The problem with these is that in the vast majority of cases they use the PHP eval() function to make the code work, and so people can easily get at your source code. You'd be far better off sticking with one of the big players, Zend or ionCube, as you know they've worked pretty hard to make sure their solutions are as secure as humanly possible, and, will then react if any problems come up. You very much get what you pay for with these kind of utilities :)

For example, if your product sells for $99, you'll only need 3 copies to pay for ionCube or between 6 and 10 to pay for Zend Guard. It's really a small price to pay for the protection and peace of mind you get.

If it's a commercial script which you sell and MAKE MONEY, then why do you want a php encoder for FREE which will help you sell the software? That's not ethical.

Mini

IMHO thats not very helpful or relevant to the question. I also feel like exploding when people capitalise the word "free" for no apparent reason. Its the developers choice whether he wants to pay for something or not, and I dont particularly see how its unethical to take advantage of resources available for free, to which the program authors have no objections to...

If we go by your lines, why dont they charge for PHP? Its not like all scripts are opensources and free :)

Waisyarzi,

I wont even bother to go to the trouble and explain why you are comparing apples with oranges.

Mini

If it's a commercial script which you sell and MAKE MONEY, then why do you want a php encoder for FREE which will help you sell the software? That's not ethical.

It's not that it's unethical, (which it isn't), and if it were then most of us would be guilty by using gcc to compile applications that help us make money and using Linux rather than a paid for OS. The real point is that it's just not very smart to use a free and opensource solution because as well as being insecure, it carries the business risk of either being unsupported already or becoming so at any point in the future. Whilst a paid for solution is no guarantee of support or product longevity, for critical services it is more prudent to invest in a solution where you're most likely to get product support and assistance when you need it and where sales revenue is used to fund futuer development and maintainance than to put your faith in the good will of people who give their time for free and who make no money from the venture.

Most sane people would not choose to entrust their business website with someone offering free hosting that was provided out of the goodness of their heart because they had spare capacity at the time, as it could quite literally be here today and gone tomorrow. Even if without fundamental flaws, using free software that needs to be maintained (encoders need to keep up with PHP) for critical business functions that is offered on a similar basis is equal lunacy and a ticking time bomb.