A few months ago I chose Lemon Squeezy for Picmal because it offered two things at once: payments and license management, with affiliate support included.
But after using it for a few months, I ran into two real problems:
- The checkout process is unreliable. I've seen developers who switched to Stripe improve their conversion rate just by making that change.
- Each licence is linked to a customer and a purchase. That works fine for direct sales, but it breaks down with platforms like TheAppSquad, which buy a batch of licences in advance and handle their own sales.
So I looked for alternatives. I spoke to the founder of Creem, emailed Polar, and spent a few evenings going through options. Here's what I found.
A distinction that matters first
Most licence tools work in one of two ways:
Licenses that are ready to be purchased — created after a purchase, always linked to the customer. This is how most platforms usually work.
Standalone licenses are generated independently and are not linked to any specific purchase. This is a must if you want to work with resellers.
If you're only doing direct sales, you'll never reach this point. But if you ever want to expand how you distribute your work, this distinction becomes very important.
The tools
Lemon Squeezy
The all-in-one option is the one most indie developers go for first. Everything you need to manage payments, licences and affiliates is in one place. It deals with VAT as a Merchant of Record, which is important if you're selling worldwide.
The problems I had were that the checkout didn't always work properly, which meant I lost sales, and I couldn't get standalone licenses without buying something. If you need licensing that is suitable for resellers, this won't work for you.
This is best for:
- direct sales
- simple products
- getting started quickly
Creem
I spoke to the person who started the company. It's reliable, and it's easy to sign up. It works in a similar way to the Lemon Squeezy, but costs less.
Polar.sh
It is developed with the developer in mind and is open-source friendly. It was a nice, clean experience. We've got the same problem though – the licenses are linked to purchases, and they've confirmed that they're not planning to change this.
LicenseSeat
This one is different. It's just a tool for creating licenses, and it costs a monthly fee. It lets you make your own licenses, which is exactly what I needed for the reseller use case. It works with Stripe, so you can link payments without having to start from scratch.
This is perfect for anyone who needs to give out licenses through other companies or for those who want to separate licensing from payments.
Amore
Lucas is the developer behind Amore. I know him, and he's really serious about solving the problem of getting Mac apps that aren't from the App Store without all the usual hassle. So it's a really good choice.
It puts Sparkle (the main way to update macOS) into a simple interface. You can drag and drop your app, write release notes, and publish. It also automatically creates DMG, supports beta channels, phased rollouts, and signing — all in one place. There's even a command-line interface (CLI) if you want to automate releases or integrate with continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD).
Payments and licences are on the roadmap, built on Stripe. This is worth keeping an eye on if you want everything in one place for Mac distribution.
Keygen.sh
It's powerful and flexible. You can use it in different ways, like with floating licenses, node-locked, offline validation and complex entitlement models. If you're creating something for businesses or teams, it's worth checking out. You can also self-host, which is a good option.
For a simple indie product, it's probably more than you need.
None of these tools solve the reseller case in a single, easy-to-understand place. If you're into direct sales, Creem is definitely an upgrade from Lemon Squeezy. If you want a standalone licence, the only real option is LicenseSeat. Amore is the one to watch if you want everything to be put together for Mac distribution in the future.
I hope this helps you understand the options and helps you decide which one to choose. If you have a different approach in mind, please let me know. I haven't made my mind up yet.
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