Switching guide

Switch licensing systems. Keep every key.

Moving from another licensing plugin, or from keys you built yourself? Waveform runs beside your current system, reuses the keys it already issued, and takes over without asking a single customer to do anything.

Plan your switch with us See the five steps

The plan

Five steps, and no day when things break.

Both systems run side by side for as long as you need. Nothing changes for a customer until their software update arrives, and then they type the key they already have.

  1. 01

    Set up Waveform beside your current system

    Install the WooCommerce plugin (on Shopify, the app), connect your account and register each product you sell. Your current plugin keeps issuing keys exactly as before.

  2. 02

    Turn on migration mode

    In Waveform, Settings, migration mode makes every new order reuse the key your previous plugin issued, instead of minting a second one. License Manager for WooCommerce is supported out of the box. Any other plugin, or your own system, connects through one filter, waveform_adopt_license_key.

  3. 03

    Bring your past licenses across

    Licenses sold before the switch are imported with their original keys, so existing customers are covered too. A key needs at least 16 letters and digits to carry over; a shorter one gets a fresh key. We run this step with you, so it is done once and checked.

  4. 04

    Ship an update that checks with Waveform

    Add the JUCE kit, the TypeScript SDK or a call to the REST API to your software and release it. Customers enter the key they already have, and it activates.

  5. 05

    Retire the old system

    Once new orders and your current release both run through Waveform, switch the previous plugin off. Every key stays valid and nobody is asked to do anything.

Built to fail safe

Every doubt ends with a working key.

A license under a different key can be fixed. No license at all cannot. So whenever a previous key cannot be used, Waveform issues a new one rather than leave a customer empty-handed.

  • Off until you turn it on

    Migration mode is off by default, and installing the plugin changes nothing about the keys your store issues until you switch it on.

  • No key handed out twice

    A key another order already holds is refused, never quietly moved, so two customers can never end up sharing one license.

  • Quantities stay in order

    An order for several copies maps each copy to its own previous key, the same way every time the order is delivered.

Also covered

  • Keys you generated yourself, kept in your own database or a spreadsheet, import the same way.
  • Moving between WooCommerce and Shopify needs no migration at all: both issue keys from one account, and keys already in customers' hands stay valid.
  • Subscriptions keep their history: a renewal stays a renewal, it never becomes a new sale.
  • Your software can check the same open, documented token format whichever store sold the license.

Prefer we handle all of it? Moving off another licensing system is part of our implementation service.

Start here

Tell us what you are moving from.

Name your current plugin or system, roughly how many licenses you have, and what your software is built with. We will reply with a plan.

Plan your switch with us See plans Switching FAQ