What is the best way to distribute (sell) a commercial project (angular 9 + php), locally or on a shared server?

Question

Electronic commerce

I am writing a project in Angular 9 + php. How best to monetize it?
I personally see 2 ways:
1) Locally. That is, to throw off the source code to a person, he installs it on his server and uses it. Payment 1 time.
2) On the server. That is, organize monthly access to the program.

I can do it in 2 ways. But I think it will be easier to implement locally after all. What needs to be done so that a person simply does not resell my code, which I will throw off to him? After all, there is essentially js compiled + php code. Well, if you organize your service with a monthly payment, then you need to competently approach the issue of security and data storage.

Answer 1

first, do not mix business models (one-time payment and subscription monthly/quarterly/yearly) and the type of use (SaaS or installation on the client's server)
1) A regular subscription is likely to give more profit per customer (LTV) than the cost of acquisition (CAC) and it is better for a business to choose it. But it all depends on the prevailing market conditions for your product - perhaps subscriptions are not taken in this type of business. To understand, you need to study the market and make some test sales. Even if the client uses the software on his server - you can also license it by subscription. And for a subscription, it is important to choose the right frequency of its payment so that its business model develops (LTV > 2 CAC in no more than six months) - some companies take, for example, at least 3-6 months of payment - because less than they do not pay off the costs of attracting customers in a reasonable time.
2) To protect your software from theft - the most reliable option is to sell only access to your server, about data protection and the cost of servers - look at the Lightsail AWS service - there are 3 data centers with low ping in one region, do replication and backups so that the data is secure from loss and were highly affordable, cheap vps prices from $3.5/month.
Installation on a client server - this is usually only necessary for corporate clients for whom information security is critical - such clients are willing to pay for it!
And there are a number of clients - for whom the administration of their server / hosting is not convenient.
Whatever software you choose to obfuscate and protect the code on the client's server, it will still be broken. Nobody needs to dig into your code - but to break it so that you can use it for free - they will do it!
Therefore, the best barrier against code protection is the price! To protect themselves from all sorts of "storekeepers" and others who will be engaged in "breaking" the protection.
So the solution is 2 rates:

1. regular low-cost subscription to a SaaS service in the cloud (quarterly/monthly/yearly) for customers who pay a little
   
2. high cost regular subscription with installation on the client server (quarterly/monthly/yearly) for corporate clients who are willing to pay a lot
   

Answer 2

And you do not just throw off the code, but install it on their server. Turnkey, so to speak. It depends on what project, if you have the opportunity to mass-sell your product, then why not monetize it as a service?

Answer 3

1. Rental of functionality as a service: X.
2. Contract and sale of a license to use a closed source copy: 100X.
3. Agreement and sale of license to use the open source copy: 300X.
Code closure: ionCube.
Immediately implement all the options and the problem is solved.

Answer 4

The problem is not how to install, but how to find a buyer.
and for this you need to invest a lot of money in promotion
and the project itself must be such that they pay for it

Answer 5

I don’t know how reasonable it is, but I think you can look towards the IonCube Encoder. Transfer important information to a specific file and encode it. Including interesting features that I would not like to disclose, but if this file is not included in the project, then the project will not work.