Adding License key activation

[creativeinteractivemedia]

I sell WordPress plugins on Codecanyon since 2015, as exclusive author. I noticed a steady decline in sales over time. My top selling item had 50-70 sales per week in 2015, now it has 20-30 sales per week, although the item is constantly improved and actively supported.

One reason might be that there are many websites that are reselling the plugin for much lower price. I guess they simply buy the plugin on CC and then resell it on their websites. When I search the web for the plugin title, I get many results where the plugin can be bought for 5 or 10 USD. They claim that all WordPress plugins are GPL and they can be resold legally.

I want to make the plugin work only after the buyer enters the item purchase code. That would solve the problem with other websites reselling the plugin. The plugin would simply work only on one domain where it was registered. Some of the most popular plugins like Elementor have “license key activation” implemented. I know that it is not a fool proof solution, but I think it would reduce the illegal distribution of the plugin and loss of revenue.

Am I allowed to add purchase code activation to the plugin?

[mgscoder]

Hi,

yes, Author can use Envato API to verify buyer purchase code for their item(s) like WordPress theme/plugin or any item.

More help you can get here:

How to verify a purchase code using the Envato API

This is a community guide for authors who want to implement purchase code verification on their items, websites, and applications. If you have any questions or feedback then please feel free to respond directly to this topic.  This topic is a wiki. All active members of the forums can edit it. Don’t hesitate to make corrections or add in any new information. All contributions are welcome! Just want some working code to get started quickly? There are some functi…

Thanks

[creativeinteractivemedia]

Thanks, I know it is possible to verify buyer purchase code through Envato API.

But is it allowed to implement “plugin activation” using the purchase code in such a way that plugin works on a certain domain only after it has been activated? It would be possible to activate the plugin only on one domain using one purchase code. If buyer does not activate the plugin, it would simply show message to activate, instead of showing the plugin admin page.

[mgscoder]

Plugin activation should work without the license verification. You can hide premium features of the plugin and force customer to register the license using purchase code to get access those features.

[evolutioneerbeyond]

There is a way you can arrange that. you would have to tweek your plugin a little and provide a room for it to connect with a server that you must have created and infused the Envato API verification script. Although this will not serve as a foolproof forever since your source codes are available to buyers, but for the time, it should get buyers who know nothing about coding to continue patronizing for your services.