keygen.sh

What It Is

Keygen is a software licensing and distribution API built for developers. It covers license key validation, device activation, entitlement control, software releases, signing, automatic updates, and license-protected downloads. It offers both the hosted Keygen Cloud and self-hostable CE/EE editions, positioning itself between “building a licensing system from scratch” and “buying a fully closed-source SaaS.”

Core Capabilities

On the licensing side, Keygen supports perpetual, time-limited, floating, node-locked, user-locked, feature-based, metered, and offline license models. It also provides license key validation, device activation, metadata, Webhooks, and related capabilities. On the distribution side, it supports scenarios such as license-gated CDN, private Docker registry, private npm/Ruby gems/PyPI packages, binary apps, and Electron/Tauri apps. The main article demonstrates the Go SDK, HTTP API, CLI, and release-signing workflow. The CLI can generate Ed25519 keys, create releases, upload artifacts, publish releases, add tags, and revoke versions.

Deployment, Open Source, and Pricing

Keygen describes itself as Fair Source and uses the Fair Core License. Its code can be viewed, cloned, forked, modified, and used on GitHub, but it is not a traditional fully open-source license. CE is free to self-host and can be used for both personal and commercial projects. EE requires a valid license and adds request logs, audit logs, custom environments, permissions, import/export, OCI/Docker, SSO/SAML, and dedicated self-hosting support. Keygen Cloud can be tried for free during development with no upfront commitment; specific pricing is not disclosed in the main article.

Pros and Cons

The main advantage is the integration of licensing and distribution, allowing teams to protect both the application layer and the download layer. The documentation covers Quickstarts, API Reference, self-hosting, CLI, Zapier, Stripe, Electron, and more, making it developer-friendly. Cloud provides TLS, high availability, backups, encryption at rest and in transit, and claims SOC 2 Type II compliance. The drawbacks are that self-hosting requires Docker, Postgres, Redis, and network operations capability; CE only comes with community/best-effort support; EE/Cloud pricing information is limited; and new features in self-hosted editions may arrive later than on Cloud.

Who It’s For and Access from China

Keygen is suitable for commercial desktop software, CLI tools, developer products, private package distribution, SaaS products with local components, and AI/SMB/enterprise software teams. Teams that prioritize compliance and SLA guarantees may want to look at Cloud or EE first, while indie developers and small teams can start with CE. The main article does not specify access or payment conditions from mainland China. Before production use, it is recommended to test the API, Dashboard, Docker Hub/GitHub pulls, and Stripe-related payment flows. Alternatives should be evaluated separately based on licensing, distribution, and self-hosting capabilities.