LicenseFlow offers software vendors a licensing API with a free tier and self hosted deployment

LicenseFlow provides an API for issuing, activating and metering license keys for desktop, SaaS, embedded and AI software, with offline activation, a free tier of 100 licenses and a self hosted option.

LicenseFlow, a software licensing platform for developers and software vendors, announced in October 2026 the availability of its licensing infrastructure with a perpetual free tier covering 100 active licenses and an option to run the full platform on a vendor’s own servers. The service gives companies selling desktop applications, software as a service (SaaS), embedded devices and AI (artificial intelligence) products a ready made system for issuing, activating and checking license keys, so that they do not need to build and maintain licensing in house.

What LicenseFlow does

Software licensing controls who can use a product, on how many devices and with which features. Many vendors build this logic themselves, which ties pricing changes to engineering work. LicenseFlow separates licensing from billing: product tiers, features and usage limits are defined in a dashboard, and the vendor’s application checks each user’s license through an API (application programming interface).

The platform supports subscription, perpetual and usage based licensing models. Its core capabilities include:

• Activation and verification. License keys can be activated on a device, verified and deactivated through the API or the official SDKs (software development kits).

• Hardware binding. Licenses can be locked to specific devices.

• Entitlements. Features can be switched on or off based on a customer’s plan, without changes to the vendor’s backend code.

• Offline activation. LicenseFlow generates cryptographically signed license files using Ed25519, a digital signature method, for desktop, embedded and air gapped systems that have no internet connection. The Python and .NET SDKs include a default offline grace period of 72 hours.

• Usage metering. Applications can record usage metrics against a license.

• License checkout for automated pipelines. A command line tool lets build systems check out a license for a set period and release it when a job ends, which supports continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflows.

The company also lists floating license pools, a customer portal, and keyless licensing based on user identity with seat delegation, which works with any identity provider.

SDKs and deployment

According to the company, LicenseFlow provides seven native SDKs. Public SDKs are available on GitHub for Node.js and TypeScript, Python, Go and .NET, along with a command line tool for Windows, macOS and Linux. The SDKs cache license checks to reduce API calls and keep applications running during short connectivity losses.

For organizations that need to keep licensing data in their own environment, LicenseFlow ships Docker Compose files and Helm charts for Kubernetes, allowing the full stack to run on premise or in a private cloud. LicenseFlow can also be used alongside billing and tax providers acting as merchant of record, such as Paddle, with the billing provider handling payments and LicenseFlow handling license entitlements.

Industries and pricing

LicenseFlow publishes guides for desktop software, native macOS licensing, SaaS, embedded and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, API and cloud virtual machines, computer aided design (CAD) and building information modeling (BIM) software, geoscience and GIS (geographic information system) tools, audio and VST plugins, AI products and mobile apps.

The free tier covers up to 100 active licenses, and paid self serve plans are available, with custom pricing for enterprise and self hosted deployments.

About LicenseFlow

LicenseFlow is an API first licensing platform for software vendors. It allows developers to issue, activate, verify and meter license keys across desktop, SaaS, embedded, mobile and AI products, with offline activation, entitlements, official SDKs in several programming languages and a self hosted deployment option. More information is available at licenseflow.dev.

Media contact

Name: LicenseFlow Team

Company: LicenseFlow

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Website: https://licenseflow.dev/