Hello,
i already develop some web applications and im interested to sell it.
however,in this modern world...it is very easy to duplicate my web application and share it on torrent or warez site.

should i encrypt my code ?
the bad of this idea is,buyer cannot modify or edit my code and they will feel it is not worth to pay for something that can only be use.

if i dont encrypt my code,
people will steal my code and re-code it back and sell it.

maybe you all can give me some opinions for this matter.

thank you.

Depending the kind of app you have, the majority of your customers probably won't care.

If you are selling some sort newsletter app for example, the majority of your customers probably are not coders, and so won't care if the app is closed-source. If you are selling a CMS or something like that, then chances are there is some web developer behind the scenes that might want to tinker around in the code.

Most of your customers can live with a closed-source app. You hear a big stink about encoding in web dev forums and mailing lists, but remember that the people who write those things only represent 5% of your market. Most people used closed-source apps every day, yours should be no different.

Take a forum system like vBulletin. I've heard Jelsoft employees state that only 5-10% of their entire customer base ever modify their board (that includes plugins and templates). Most of your customers will buy your app for what it is, not for what they can hack it up to be.

A compromise is also possible. For example, you might want to encode only certain aspects of your product (a license system, a core system class etc) to promote legit use. This doesn't really help in cases where people steal your actual code/algorithms, but it will cut piracy of your overall app down.

Also note that there are other ways to make your app extendable. Use of a template system is a must, but feature-wise you can integrate a plugin/hook system as long as you document it well enough.

Originally Posted by Christopher

Depending the kind of app you have, the majority of your customers probably won't care.

If you are selling some sort newsletter app for example, the majority of your customers probably are not coders, and so won't care if the app is closed-source. If you are selling a CMS or something like that, then chances are there is some web developer behind the scenes that might want to tinker around in the code.

Most of your customers can live with a closed-source app. You hear a big stink about encoding in web dev forums and mailing lists, but remember that the people who write those things only represent 5% of your market. Most people used closed-source apps every day, yours should be no different.

Take a forum system like vBulletin. I've heard Jelsoft employees state that only 5-10% of their entire customer base ever modify their board (that includes plugins and templates). Most of your customers will buy your app for what it is, not for what they can hack it up to be.

A compromise is also possible. For example, you might want to encode only certain aspects of your product (a license system, a core system class etc) to promote legit use. This doesn't really help in cases where people steal your actual code/algorithms, but it will cut piracy of your overall app down.

Also note that there are other ways to make your app extendable. Use of a template system is a must, but feature-wise you can integrate a plugin/hook system as long as you document it well enough.

In a nutshell, his answer is good

From a speed perspective the server having to decrypt the code every time the page loads is quite CPU intensive (especially on large sites). Not to mention if there is a server configuration issue which leads to bugs it is difficult to debug (Even if the user can code, they will find it hard to find the line to change).

Most of encryption methods out there have also been hacked, for example a search on google for 'ioncube' gives many sites who can decode it (Some for free), so encryption of your code could just mean the "hardcore hackers" will leak out a unencrypted version.

Like Christopher said, a compromise is possible, for example encrypting the main functions, but not the rest of the code. Though encrypting code can make it a pain for coders to modify the code and possibly improve it.