

Ask HN: Best way(s) to distribute a self-hosted, non-compiled product - jnankin

Say you have a product written in Ruby, Python, PHP etc. and you would like to distribute it as a self-hosted solution.<p>What are the best ways to go about doing this without having to worry about people ripping off your code?<p>I assume answers will fall into some of the following categories:<p>- compile&#x2F;obfuscate code (i.e. cpython)<p>- submit product as a virtual image (like github enterprise)<p>- just don&#x27;t care and rely on your bundled licenses<p>Each has their own up&#x2F;down sides.  Discuss. :)
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firstprimate
I am going with the last option. Rely on bundled licenses. Seeing as I also
provide a fully managed service, I include all software updates etc. for those
who pay the annual license.

The rest are not my customers and worrying about them is a distraction.

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sdrinf
There was a pretty dense discussion on the first option at Stackoverflow:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5069791/challenge-
maximiz...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5069791/challenge-maximize-
cost-of-obfuscations-reverse-engineering)

The most viable target market for self-hosted products are still entreprises ;
deployment via virtual images might be the most feasable solution for all
parties involved.

Second-best option, specifically for eg. PHP, might be compiling the code into
executables (via eg. [https://github.com/facebook/hiphop-
php](https://github.com/facebook/hiphop-php) ), and distributing distro-
specific executables.

Re: 3rd option, the specific worry about distributing code in any form isn't
piracy (as pointed out by firstprimate, those aren't your customers); rather,
blatant ripoffs engaging in marketing-only competition using a rebranded
version of your own product.

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rotnewson
The github way is pretty good because most businesses use some sort of
virtualization (usually vmware) once they become a certain size.

But really it depends on who you are selling to and what you are selling, some
companies just have the customer pay for a server and then the company ships
it out with a guy to install it (better for small businesses that don't have
dedicated sysadmins).

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gesman
[http://zencrypt.com](http://zencrypt.com) for PHP obfuscation. It's not NSA-
grade encryption - but it works for 99.9% hosting accounts without need for
specialized libraries.

It obfuscates your code well.

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wmf
People don't buy software any more anyway; they only buy cloud services.

~~~
jnankin
I can tell you for a fact that this is not true when you're dealing with
enterprises or software that is vital for the operation of your business.
These types of customers demand to have products hosted internally.

