Zend Guard vs. ionCube [closed]

Question

I've developped a php script and I want to protect my files, so what do you think is the best choice for doing this.

• ionCube starting from 199$
• Zend Guard 800$

Is there any other cheaper tools or even free ?

Passus

Zend Guard requires PHP 5.4, which is in extended support, meaning no more bug fixes, and it will soon be dropped from receiving security patches. They don't seem able to get a new version out supporting PHP 5.5 (when PHP 5.6 is already out). Unless part of what you're selling to customers is the experience of them wanting to choke you to death over Zend's incompetence, I would avoid Zend Guard. – Adjure

Zend Guard does not support PHP 7 and bcompiler does not support PHP 7 which limits the choice to ionCube PHP Encoder. – Opera

Answer 1

No amount of obfuscation will protect your files. If they are sufficiently popular, someone will decode them and distribute the versions that don't need IonCube or Zend to decode.

DRM won't stop piracy, but it will get in the way of your paying customers. You'll limit your potential customer base to those that can run the loaders to decrypt your software, which is a much smaller pool of people than all people with PHP web hosting. You'll also vastly increase your customer support load as you help people install the loaders and troubleshoot why your software won't run.

Most importantly, by creating this extra work and frustration for customers, and by preventing them from customizing their copies of the script, you'll lower their happiness with your product. That will result in less referrals, less positive reviews on blogs and social media, and in the end, less sales for you.

The best thing you can do to protect your files AND your sales is to not use DRM. Protect your business by offering incentives to be a legitimate customer, like technical support, free minor version upgrades, customer only discussion forums, etc. Not only will these make it desirable to purchase the script from you instead of download it from a pirate without those benefits, but it'll make your customers happier and more likely to spread the word, leading to more customers.

Vincents

There are no good dezenders to decode files encoded with ZG5.5 for PHP 5.3, while 5.2 dezenders (even old ones) provide reasonable amount of successful decodes. – Inoperable

I disagree. I do protect my intellectual property with ioncube. There is no reason why should I share this with others if I write software for living. In some cases, yes, I can share the code, and for others - no, and here the ioncube helps (especially if you sell licensed copy installed on customer's server). Everything depends what you are doing. I also disagree the idea that my customers can modify the code I wrote, simply because they are amateurs. If I deliver the app, I take the responsibility, if somebody modifies that code why should I care. – Clayberg

@dan why don't we have a decoded copy of latest whmcs version?? – Fetterlock

I disagree as well. Customers should be able to modify front end logic on their own but should not be allowed to make modifications to server side components. If your product is developed well enough, front and back end components will be separated in a way that makes encoding the backend non intrusive on the customer's ability to modify the front end program. – Cormier

@Clayberg Because it's not worth decoding. It's so cheap, it's better to just pay... and it's so bad, you need updates all the time, so if you pay someone to decode it for you will will probably have to pay them more to keep it secure and working... which WHMCS is already doing for you for much cheaper. – Cleavers

Answer 2

for both zend and ioncube there are services that decode them, but these softwares latest versions are very expensive to decode like 125 euro for 25 files . this is more than the price of script itself .so you don't need to worry much about it and can easily use either zend or ioncube (I use ioncube).

@dan : I had a script that I was giving free support for life with a very low price and with a lot of features,guess what? somebody stole the code and they spread it all over the internet after that all my customers started calling me about it,kinda were upset that they paid,even though they were getting support... long story short ... trust me encoding your script and forcing people to certain hosts is way way better than your script being shared on internet for free by some dorks. and about not loading on their hosts,I have made a file that test either ioncube is installed on the server or not,and I give this file to them before they buy my script to test it on their server.

Coyotillo

Answer 3

you should encode a part of script, for example core controller can be encoded and leaving the view files this will allow your customers to make minor changes by themselves

Infuse

Answer 4

1. It should be possible to properly encode your php & js files, by having all the symbols converted to nonsense symbols, by removing all comments, and by changing filenames. I don't believe that the encryption software in this area is measured by it's cryptographical properties, but rather by it's deployment properties (i.e. 1-click deployment etc.)
   

2. This is something that almost all serious internet companies do. Try "View Source" in GMAIL, and tell me if something there is readable to you.
   

3. @Dan: There are a lot of models to make money, the "software-support" model is only one of them. For example, I would like to set up an internet company, and I don't like the thought that the hosting company can look and copy my source code.

Saturated

1. Yes, the term is "obfuscation"; 2. Similar, but the goal is different - the term is "minification"/"minimization"; 3. Agree 100%, +1. – Rabkin

Answer 5

bcompiler extension is what will help you to encode/decode php files for free, however you'll have to take care of protection/license limitations scheme yourself.

Inoperable