No cut of your sales
Flat plans from $0. Sell ten copies or ten thousand in a launch week and the price stays the same.
Waveform vs iLok, licensing APIs and key plugins
Protect every sale.
Never block a customer.
Dongles, cloud checks, licensing APIs and store key plugins each protect a sale in their own way. Here is how Waveform License Manager compares on what your buyers have to do, what keeps working offline, and what it costs you.
Only a check that runs on the machine keeps a studio working with no connection. Waveform checks a signed key on the device itself, with nothing to plug in and nothing to reach.
At a glance
Five ways to license software, side by side.
Taken from each vendor's own public pages in October 2026. Where another option is stronger, we say so.
| WaveformLicense Manager | iLokPACE Anti-Piracy | Licensing APIsKeygen, Cryptlex, LicenseSpring | Store key pluginsLicense Manager for WooCommerce, Gumroad keys | HomegrownYour own serial check | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A key the moment an order is paid | Yes: WooCommerce plugin and Shopify app | Partly: Shopify integration, or deposits | Partly: You connect your store | Yes: Built in | No: You build it |
| A refund turns the key off | Yes: Automatically, chargebacks too | Partly: Depends on your setup | Partly: Your webhook code | Partly: Varies; Gumroad leaves it to you | No: You build it |
| Works with no internet | Yes: Signed key checked on the device | Yes: USB key or computer; iLok Cloud needs a connection | Yes: Offline license files | No: Each check calls your site | Partly: Only if you sign it |
| Nothing extra for the buyer | Yes: Paste the key in your app | Partly: Licenses live in an iLok account | Yes: A key in your app | Yes: A key in your app | Yes: A key in your app |
| Buyers manage their own devices | Yes: My Licenses page | Yes: iLok License Manager | Partly: Through the API; you build the page | Partly: Varies by plugin | No: You build it |
| Ready-made JUCE activation and demo | Yes: Drop-in kit, added with CMake | Partly: Wrapper or SDK; brandable activation | Partly: C++ SDKs; you build the screen | No: No client kit | No: You build it |
| Code obfuscation and anti-tamper | Partly: Hardening as a service | Yes: Wrapper and Fusion | Partly: Varies by vendor | No: Not included | No: You build it |
| What it costs you | $0 to $249 a month. No cut of your sales. | From $2,000 a year, plus 2% of each perpetual sale | Free dev tiers; paid plans from about $100 a month | Free plugin, paid add-ons | Your time, every release |
Sources, October 2026: PACE iLok pricing and activation locations, Keygen, Cryptlex, LicenseSpring, License Manager for WooCommerce and Gumroad license keys. iLok and PACE, Keygen, Cryptlex, LicenseSpring, License Manager for WooCommerce and Gumroad are trademarks of their owners; we are not affiliated with them. Products change, so check with each vendor before you decide.
What licensing costs you
A flat plan, not a cut of every sale.
Per-sale licensing grows with every copy you sell. Waveform is priced by active licenses, so a big launch week costs you nothing extra. Move the sliders to see your numbers.
Each year, at these numbers
Keep $3,610 more
than paying per sale, on $99,000 of sales
- Your revenue
- $99,000
- Waveform share
- 0.9%
- Per-sale share
- 4.5%
Per-sale figures use PACE's published iLok Starter pricing (October 2026): $2,000 a year for technology access, plus 2% of the selling price of each perpetual license or 5% of each subscription, with a $2.50 minimum per license. Volume discounts may lower that. Waveform uses yearly billing and counts active licenses: the example assumes they equal one year of sales, so if older licenses stay active, choose the plan for your total. Free covers 1 product, Starter 3, Growth 25 and Pro unlimited.
Why teams switch
Strong where it counts. Invisible to buyers.
Nothing for buyers to install
No dongle, no helper app, no extra account. The buyer pastes a key into your software and gets back to work.
Works with no internet
After one activation, a signed key is checked on the machine. Studios, tour buses and offline rooms keep working.
Your store issues the keys
The WooCommerce plugin and the Shopify app mint a key when an order is paid and turn it off on a refund or chargeback. No glue code.
Switch stores, keep every key
A license belongs to your product, not the store. Move between WooCommerce and Shopify and every key keeps working.
An open, documented format
Keys are signed with Ed25519 and documented field by field, so you can verify one in any language, with or without our SDK.
An honest fit check
When something else may suit you better
- You want the binary itself wrapped. iLok's wrapper and Fusion add obfuscation and anti-tamper to the build. We do not wrap binaries; our hardening service strengthens how your product checks its license.
- Your buyers keep everything on an iLok. Some pro audio customers like one account for every license they own. If that is your market, the iLok ecosystem is a real advantage.
- A lab needs its own license server. Floating seats on a closed network suit a local license server better today. Waveform's concurrent seats check in over the internet.
- You only hand out serial numbers. No checks, refunds or device limits needed? A free store key plugin may be all you need.
Moving from another system
Your customers keep the key they have.
On WooCommerce, turn on migration mode while your previous licensing plugin is still issuing keys, and every customer keeps the key they already own. Coming from iLok or a licensing API? We plan and run the move with you.
Questions
The questions buyers ask us.
Is Waveform as hard to crack as iLok?
Not on its own, and we will not claim it is. iLok's wrapper and Fusion add obfuscation and anti-tamper to your binary; Waveform handles the license and leaves your build alone. No offline check is uncrackable. What decides it is how your product checks the license, which is what our hardening service works on, and online mode keeps the final say on the server.
Do my customers need an account, a dongle or an extra app?
No. They get a key by email and paste it into your software. A My Licenses page is there when they want to free up a device.
What happens to my customers if your service is down?
Offline licenses keep working. The signed key is checked on the machine, and each one carries a lease plus a grace period, so a short outage goes unnoticed.
I make Pro Tools plugins. Does this replace AAX signing?
No. AAX plugins are signed with PACE's signing tools whichever licensing you use. Waveform handles the license; the signing step in your release build stays the same.
Can I move from another licensing system without reissuing keys?
On WooCommerce, turn on migration mode while your previous licensing plugin is still issuing keys, and customers keep the key they already have. For moves from iLok or a licensing API, our services team plans and runs the move with you.
Start here
Try it on your own product.
Start free with one product and 50 active licenses, or tell us what you sell and we will tell you honestly whether Waveform fits.