I am wondering if people who sell these scripts that cost a few hundred dollars make a lot of money? It seems like everyone I encounter on the net are poor guys waiting tables and make a huge deal out of $20 dollars. I created a script that no one else has on the net, and a few people have contacted me on buying this script and I declined.

However someone offered me $300 for it, so it makes me wonder if I should distribute this script publicly? I know that once it gets popular someone will try to rip off the script and distribute it on their own, or share it for free. I am wondering if it is worth it? I know I myself have been willing to spend a few hundred or thousands of dollars on advertising or a script that I feel will give me a return on investment, so that is why I have to ask if there are a lot of other people out there who are willing to spend more.

I am wondering if people who sell these scripts that cost a few hundred dollars make a lot of money? It seems like everyone I encounter on the net are poor guys waiting tables and make a huge deal out of $20 dollars. I created a script that no one else has on the net, and a few people have contacted me on buying this script and I declined.

However someone offered me $300 for it, so it makes me wonder if I should distribute this script publicly? I know that once it gets popular someone will try to rip off the script and distribute it on their own, or share it for free. I am wondering if it is worth it? I know I myself have been willing to spend a few hundred or thousands of dollars on advertising or a script that I feel will give me a return on investment, so that is why I have to ask if there are a lot of other people out there who are willing to spend more.

Sure, just use something like ionCube (PHP) and encode it. Also, use a licensing system that is good :)

Yeah but as you know a lot of people ignore the licensing system :P Hmm, I never looked into ionCube, I heard of it but never used it. So for a good script how many people do you believe on average buy these scripts? If I can get 1 - 3 sales per week at $300 that would be great.

So then go ahead and start selling the script.
Dont be apprehensive of losing revenues when someone else comes up with something similar.
In the first place you will start to make revenues only when you sell the product.

Go ahead and distribute it as you please.

Yeah but as you know a lot of people ignore the licensing system :P Hmm, I never looked into ionCube, I heard of it but never used it. So for a good script how many people do you believe on average buy these scripts? If I can get 1 - 3 sales per week at $300 that would be great.

I am talking about a licensing system like WHMCS uses, where the script will only continue to work as long as the license is active, and the script calls home to verify the license is still active :)

Sorry for the run-on sentence :D

I am talking about a licensing system like WHMCS uses, where the script will only continue to work as long as the license is active, and the script calls home to verify the license is still active :)

Sorry for the run-on sentence :D


Hmm, but a coder would be able to locate that code and remove it to prevent it from checking.

So then go ahead and start selling the script.
Dont be apprehensive of losing revenues when someone else comes up with something similar.
In the first place you will start to make revenues only when you sell the product.

Go ahead and distribute it as you please.

Do you think $300 is a normal price for such a script? I may make it $200 to be more reasonable.

Hmm, but a coder would be able to locate that code and remove it to prevent it from checking.

It would be very difficult if it is encoded :) But yes, anything is possible. Unfortunately, some level of piracy is a reality for all products.

If this were me in this position. I would 1) do the licensing system. 2) get the md5s of every non-editable files (not the config file)

and combine those two systems into multiple files all over the place. So is someone edits a file to take out the licensing section, the md5 changes and the script refuses to work.

Two problems 1) constant md5 use may put a little strain on the server. 2) its still defeat, but with clever placing of checks and balances, it will be hard to completely remove the safety systems.



--Daniel L

If the script is properly encoded, there is no way to remove the license check.

Sure you can decode it, but there's other ways to get around piracy if you're really interested.

Look into phpaudit for licensing as well. It's not the greatest script (clumsy to use at first) but it works very well for most situations.

As for price, consider what the script does and if $300 is worth it for the consumer. Also do not forget about yearly renewals for download access, as once a script/program is sold there is no recurring income. You could lower the initial price but charge for renewals, installation, premium support etc.

Loads of people will pay $300 for a script.

I used to sell software that would create a turnkey site in a certain niche in about 15 minutes and charged near $500 for it.

$300 isn't bad.

Also, find the call back ip or hostname, and fake it out, and then reverse it.. not very hard, hell i probably just said too much.

I am talking about a licensing system like WHMCS uses, where the script will only continue to work as long as the license is active, and the script calls home to verify the license is still active :)


I won't buy programs that work like that.

I won't buy programs that work like that.

I guess then you don't use Windows, Office, Adobe software or many of the other software products which all require similar levels of remote activation?

Lots of popular PHP products include license checking and have done for many years. Unfortunately it's simply a fact that if they didn't, piracy rates would be much higher.

I guess then you don't use Windows, Office, Adobe software or many of the other software products which all require similar levels of remote activation?



No they don't; what was being suggested was:

"I am talking about a licensing system like WHMCS uses, where the script will only continue to work as long as the license is active, and the script calls home to verify the license is still active"

I would not buy a program that will stop working if it cannot verify my licence because the network to its "home" becomes unavailable.

I am talking about a licensing system like WHMCS uses, where the script will only continue to work as long as the license is active, and the script calls home to verify the license is still active :)

Sorry for the run-on sentence :D

I have this problem with my scripts, how can I make such a script to check home for a license.

No they don't; what was being suggested was:

"I am talking about a licensing system like WHMCS uses, where the script will only continue to work as long as the license is active, and the script calls home to verify the license is still active"

I would not buy a program that will stop working if it cannot verify my licence because the network to its "home" becomes unavailable.

And on top of that the script would be slower as everytime it runs it has to call home.

And what happens when your script get's popular - will the home server be able to handle all the script requests phoning home?

I think an encrypted file with date() and time() based expiry would be best - the only way around that is if the end-user changes the time on the server, and if your script uses cookies they can't do that or all the cookies will break.

basically stick a time-based expiry routine in the main function library (or other big required file), and when the user pays to renew they download a new function library with updated date() and time() checks.

If the script is fairly involved then it's going to take a bit of development work to keep it in line with what your users expect from it. It will also probably require support. That's your biggest weapon against piracy -- your expertise and custodianship of the code. If you produce a reasonably popular script then it's less likely to be ripped off anyway. Google and word of mouth will send people toward the official project; and it's not worth trying to chase down every clone.

If you come at monetizing your work from that angle, rather than locking down the code, then it's possible to make a decent (and defensible) profit from $300 scripts. Collaborate with people and they'll be happy to work with you.

Most of the time the people selling those scripts make very few sales. Because of places like nulledscriptz , where they are dedicated to cracking the $$ scripts and making them free, not many people would be willing to put up that much money. Then of course it gets into the reselling pyramid.

Most of the time the people selling those scripts make very few sales. Because of places like nulledscriptz , where they are dedicated to cracking the $$ scripts and making them free, not many people would be willing to put up that much money. Then of course it gets into the reselling pyramid.

I would 100% disagree, both from my own experience and the information available on other companies out there. vBulletin is trivial to pirate yet has 78,000 licenses sold.

PLENTY of products have large numbers of sales.

Is every product a success? No. Is it due to piracy? Normally not!

serious site owners are willing to pay for scripts because a. they get a year of upgrade and support. b. nulled scripts may have backdoor c. found out their site will be shut down.

it wise to invest 500$ for piece of mind and earn back from the site.