General Questions and Purchasing
1. What is SourceGuardian?
SourceGuardian for PHP allows you to quickly and securely encode, compile and encrypt your PHP files to protect not only your intellectual property, but also sensitive information such as database passwords. SourceGuardian enables the time limiting of files as well as locking files to a particular machine or IP address and also includes its own in-built licensing system.
2. What are the benefits of encoding and compiling PHP scripts?
The benefits of encoding your PHP scripts are varied and over time we have found that our customers have different uses for it. Examples include:
- Protecting the PHP application so that it can be distributed in a similar way to a normal application, in the knowledge that the source code will not be distributed.
- Distributing trial versions of a PHP application
- Locking PHP Scripts to one machine so that an application cannot be stolen or 'misappropriated' by staff members for use outside of the organisation. This protects intellectual property from being stolen
- Protecting database passwords
- Part-protecting an application so that most files remain open - ie so that they can be altered - but protecting core functionality
- Telework programmers who wish to ensure that they will be paid after completing their work use SourceGuardian to protect their work. Once they have been paid they provide their client with a fully unlocked version.
- and many others
Ultimately if you have a commercial requirement for using your PHP scripts, then SourceGuardian can help.
3. How do my customers run encoded scripts?
SourceGuardian provides, free of charge, loaders to run encoded scripts on various platforms. Our standard loaders include Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and OpenBSD, but we can create loaders on demand for any platform (for example we created loaders for Linux running on embedded ARM platforms or IBM mainframe for one client).
Please refer to our loader installation page for more information.
4. How much does it cost?
We offer one version of our PHP Encoder, which has every feature that you will need to protect and distribute your PHP code, including a full licensing engine. We have one price of only $249, which includes one year of free premium support. Your encoded files will run on any supported platform, completely free.
5. Do I need to purchase a license to distribute encoded scripts?
There is no need to purchase any additional licenses to distribute your encoded scripts. All your encoded PHP files can be distributed for no additional cost.
6. What license do I receive for the encoder?
You receive a full, time unlimited license to use the SourceGuardian PHP Encoder on one machine. If you need to move the license to another machine this is possible. Your code, once encoded on this machine, can be run on any machine that is covered by our loaders including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and others.
7. What platforms does SourceGuardian support?
SourceGuardian PHP Encoder is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Loaders will run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux including embedded Linux ARM platforms, FreeBSD and OpenBSD and other platforms upon request.
8. What methods of payment do you accept?
Our standard payment methods are credit card and PayPal. We are also able to accept direct bank transfers. Please contact us if you have any further questions.
9. Can I mix encoded and unencoded files?
Yes. You can no problem mix encoded and unencoded files. So you may include encoded files from unencoded ones or vice versa. There are no problems building your PHP classes on other ones defined in encoded files, or having your protected classes derived from open source ones.
SourceGuardian has a special option "Script will work only with other encoded files" available on the "Lock" page in GUI or --conj option from the command line. When enabled SourceGuardian will restrict mixing encoded and unencoded files for better security. This option is off by default but you may turn in on if you use only encoded files in your project.
10. Do you support PHP8?
Yes, the recent version 13 of SourceGuardan fully supports encoding for PHP8.1 including new language features.
Buy Now