What is the best way to sell php scripts today?

Question

PHP

Good afternoon everyone. For one project, I wrote and developed a specialized CMS script.
I want to start selling it. But I don't know how to send the code. In general, I do not mind passing it as is, in order to improve stability, make it easier to find errors and bugs, and so on. On the other hand, it will instantly (if suddenly the script is popular) bring it to pirated resources for free distribution.
Obfuscation is certainly good, but it is of little use. Backdoors are also a half solution. The only thing left is legal prosecution of sites seen using my product without a license.
Only the SaaS model remains, but this will require significant labor costs.

Answer 1

sell not a script, but setup+maintenance

Answer 2

I imagine that those who do not want to pay for your CMS will not pay for it anyway. Either they will hack, or they will find another, free system, fortunately, there are a lot of them now.
If your system will provide some competitive advantages (functionality, speed, design, etc.), then companies that want to pay will not even look for a way to hack it.
In fact, there are open source systems that you can use for free for non-commercial purposes, otherwise you have to pay. And people pay for one of the following reasons:
Big companies feel more confident when they use paid software. In this case, the developer seems to have some obligations to clients;
- paid support, for the same reason;
I just want to support a good project.

Answer 3

I am selling one script, the question was also “how to protect yourself from free distribution?”.
My script code is completely open, I earn on those. support and copyright removal services (although there is no special protection in the script).
I think just those. support is the main income that no one can take away from you.

Answer 4

Commercial PHP code protection systems:

• ionCube from $199
• Zen Guard $600

Answer 5

In any case, if the product is worthy and there will be sales, sooner or later it will be used illegally. So there are three options here - either follow violators, or SaaS, or sell not only the product itself, but also support, maintenance, updates, etc. In general, I support the idea of ​​​​selling integration services and not a product - after all, you can expand the staff as you grow. Many people like this approach much more than selling a product.
It would be interesting to hear at least in general terms, what kind of script is this, or is it a mystery with seven seals?

Answer 6

Many Chinese in the US approached this issue in an original way: they sell disks with a code through eBay.

Answer 7

If your script is posted on torrents, you can say you have achieved success and you have a bright future. Because this event will mean that you already have a large audience of customers and the script is popular. To start placing it on torrents, you still need to try very hard. The exception is if you come up with a brilliant idea that no one has yet thought of and everyone needs this development (although in this case, in a month or so you will have clones, including free ones).

Answer 8

Zend Encoder - as far as I know, obfuscation is reinforced concrete.