Feature: Licence keys

Generate and deliver licence keys automatically.

Every sale gets a unique, trackable licence key. Delivered with the order, revocable on refund, verifiable against your own validation endpoint. Built for software, plugins, fonts, digital assets, and anything else that needs a per-customer activation token.

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14-Day Free Trial
No Credit Card
0% Platform Fees
Available from Growth plan
Auto
Key on purchase
Instant
Delivery
Revoke
On refund
API
Verifiable
● The problem

Selling software without proper key delivery is a support nightmare.

Stripe Payment Links do not generate licence keys. Gumroad charges 10% forever. Payhip gates it behind Pro at $99/mo. A lot of indie devs end up sending keys manually, one email at a time, and losing evenings to refund disputes that revoke nothing.

Who uses this

Built for anyone selling activatable software.

01

Indie software and apps.

Desktop applications, utilities, games, developer tools. Generate a key on purchase, verify at launch against your activation endpoint.

02

Plugins, themes, and extensions.

WordPress plugins, Figma plugins, VS Code extensions, Shopify apps, anything where the activation key gates feature access.

03

Fonts and digital assets.

Commercial font licences, stock asset bundles, design kits. The key becomes your proof-of-purchase and licence tier tracker.

● How it works

From checkout to activation, automated.

Three things happen on every licence-key sale. All of them without you doing anything.

01

1. Key generated on purchase.

The moment payment clears, Shoprocket generates a unique licence key bound to the order, the product, and the customer. Format is configurable: UUID, short alphanumeric, or custom pattern.

02

2. Delivered with the order.

The key appears on the order confirmation page, in the confirmation email, and in the customer account area. Available immediately, no manual fulfilment step.

03

3. Verifiable against your endpoint.

Your application calls a Shoprocket API endpoint with the key to verify validity, plan tier, and expiry. We handle the lookup, you handle the activation logic.

In the dashboard

See every key, tied to its order and customer.

The licence-keys section of your Shoprocket dashboard lists every key generated across your catalogue, with the originating order, customer email, product, purchase date, and current status (active, revoked, expired). Search by key, email, or order number. Bulk actions for revoke, re-issue, or export.

  • ✓Every key linked to its originating order and customer
  • ✓Search by key, email, or order number
  • ✓Bulk revoke or re-issue for edge cases (chargebacks, support re-delivery)
✦ Licence keys · Auto-generated
Pro License3 issued
SR-9F2K-7T4M-QX01
Order #1042
Active
SR-3B8N-2P6R-LM55
Order #1041
Active
SR-7K1D-9W3E-ZZ09
Order #1039
Revoked
Revoked automatically on refund
● Beyond the basics

The details that matter when you actually ship software.

The reason most generic checkout tools do not work for software sellers: they handle the first 80% and leave the edge cases to you.

01

Multiple keys per order.

Site licences, team packs, bulk purchases. Configure a product to generate N keys per unit sold. Each key unique, each separately revocable.

02

Custom key formats.

UUID, XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX blocks, or your own pattern via a format template. Integrate with existing validation logic without rewriting it.

03

Refund revokes automatically.

When an order refunds, its keys flip to revoked state and fail validation from your endpoint. No manual step, no customer support queue of "did you remember to revoke the pirate refund?"

04

Existing key import.

Migrating from another platform? Bulk-import your existing keys as CSV with their customer mapping and purchase history. Keys keep working, customers keep activating, nothing breaks.

05

Tier and expiry metadata.

Each key carries plan-tier and expiry info. Your validation endpoint reads these from our API and enforces accordingly. Lifetime licences, annual subscriptions, upgrade paths, all supported.

06

Developer-first integration.

Full REST API + webhooks for key events (created, revoked, validated). Auto-generated OpenAPI docs. Hook it into your license server, customer portal, or CI pipeline.

● Side by side

Licence keys: Shoprocket vs the usual workarounds.

How the common alternatives stack up against a platform built for it.

Key generation
Manual / Gumroad / Stripe-only
Manual (email each customer), or Gumroad-generated with 10% fee, or custom-built on top of Stripe Payment Links.
Shoprocket
Auto-generated on purchase, unique per sale, formatted to your spec. No platform cut.
Delivery to customer
Manual / Gumroad / Stripe-only
Manual email (you), Gumroad email (10% cut), or custom webhook handler you have to build and maintain.
Shoprocket
Automatic on order confirmation page, email, and customer account area.
Refund handling
Manual / Gumroad / Stripe-only
You remember to revoke the key manually. Most sellers forget. Refund + pirated activation is common.
Shoprocket
Key auto-revokes on refund, fails validation immediately from your endpoint.
Validation endpoint
Manual / Gumroad / Stripe-only
You build and host your own activation server. License-server logic is yours to write.
Shoprocket
Query our API from your app with the key. We return active/revoked/expired + metadata.
Multi-key per order
Manual / Gumroad / Stripe-only
Custom code, usually skipped. Site licences = one key for the team, which is usually abused.
Shoprocket
Configure N keys per unit sold. Bulk, team, and site licences work natively.
Migrating existing keys
Manual / Gumroad / Stripe-only
Spreadsheet mapping customer to key, hand-imported or hand-coded lookup.
Shoprocket
Bulk CSV import preserves customer and purchase mapping. Existing keys keep working.
Platform fee
Manual / Gumroad / Stripe-only
Gumroad 10% + $0.50 per sale. Payhip 5-2% or $99/mo Pro. Stripe-only = free but DIY everything.
Shoprocket
$49/mo flat on Growth plan, 0% platform fees on every sale.
Plan availability
Manual / Gumroad / Stripe-only
Gumroad from free. Payhip varies. Stripe-only = free but you build it.
Shoprocket
Included from Growth plan ($49/mo) and up.
● Common questions

Licence key questions, answered.

Based on what indie software sellers actually ask before they switch.

Can I customize the key format?+
Yes. Out of the box we support UUID (36-char), short alphanumeric (8-12 char), and the XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX pattern most software uses. For custom formats you configure a template string per product (e.g. ABC-{8}-{8}) and we generate keys that match.
How does my app verify a key?+
Call our licence-verification API endpoint from your application with the key and product ID. We respond with validity status (active/revoked/expired), plan tier, expiry date, and the customer ID the key was issued to. You enforce activation based on that response. Full REST API with auto-generated OpenAPI docs.
What happens when someone refunds?+
The order refund automatically flips any keys tied to it into revoked state. Your verification endpoint starts returning revoked for those keys immediately. No manual step on your end, no window where a refunded customer keeps activating.
Can I issue multiple keys per order? (Site licences, team packs)+
Yes. Configure your product with a keys-per-unit value (e.g. 5 keys per team-pack purchase). Shoprocket generates five unique keys on checkout, all tied to the same order for revoke purposes.
Can I migrate my existing keys from another platform?+
Yes. Export your current keys as CSV with customer email and original purchase date, then bulk-import into Shoprocket. Existing keys keep working for activation, and their customer history stays intact for support lookups.
What about annual subscriptions with licence keys?+
Each key carries an expiry metadata field. For annual licences, the key expires at the end of the paid period. Your verification endpoint sees the expiry and enforces accordingly. Subscription renewal extends the expiry on the same key, so the customer never has to swap in a new activation code.
Is there a limit on how many keys I can generate?+
No limit. Generate as many as you sell. Keys are stored against the orders table with their own index, so search and validation stay fast even into the hundreds of thousands.
Which Shoprocket plan do I need?+
Licence keys are available from the Growth plan ($49/mo) and up. If you are selling one or two simple digital products without licence validation, the Starter plan ($29/mo) covers you. For keys specifically, you want Growth or higher.
Is Shoprocket really 0% platform fees?+
Yes. Your payment processor (Stripe, PayPal, etc.) still charges their standard processing fee, that is the cost of moving money, but Shoprocket adds nothing on top. 0% platform fees applies to every plan, including sales with licence keys.
What is actually different about Shoprocket?+
Shoprocket has been building commerce software since 2013. v3 is a ground-up rewrite on a modern stack for what commerce looks like now. The licence-keys-specific wins over Gumroad / Payhip / Stripe-only: 0% fees, multi-key-per-order native, auto-revoke on refund, bulk import from CSV, custom key formats, and a proper REST API. Take the 14-day trial and judge for yourself.

Ship software. Stop sending keys by hand.

14-day free trial. No credit card. Licence keys from the Growth plan ($49/mo) with 0% platform fees.

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