Moonbase vs Keyzy
Keyzy was made by a plugin developer for plugin developers: a C++ library, a JUCE guide and a WooCommerce plugin, at a price small studios can start on. Moonbase covers the same ground, then the rest of the business: checkout, tax, accounts, downloads and email.
Keyzy gives you a static C++ library for Windows, macOS and Linux, with online, semi-online and offline activation, trials tied to the device, and upgrade and edition licenses. Its WooCommerce plugin creates a license with each order, and gives customers a page to download license files and remove activations.
That makes your WooCommerce store the centre of the business, with FastSpring and Zapier connections as the alternatives. Payments, tax, installer downloads, subscriptions and email then come from WordPress plugins and the services behind them, each set up and paid for separately. Customers activate by typing the serial from their order into your plugin.
Moonbase puts the license on the same customer record as the order, subscription, download and newsletter opt-in. Checkout embeds on any website with Moonbase as merchant of record, customers activate by signing in rather than copying a serial, and the JUCE module ships the activation, trial, license and update screens that a library leaves to you.
Licensing is one part of selling software
Keyzy handles the license. Somebody has to handle the rest.
Between a plugin and a paying customer sit eight jobs. On the left is who does each of them alongside Keyzy. Every tag that is not Keyzy is another vendor, another integration or more of your own code.
- Activation and validationKeyzy
- TrialsKeyzy
- Store, cart and checkoutWooCommerce
- VAT and sales taxyour store
- Licenses per order and refundKeyzy plugin
- Accounts and devicesWooCommerce
- Installers and updatesWooCommerce
- Email by ownership and useanother tool
- Activation SDKs and a JUCE UI
- Trials, offline activation, add-ons
- Store, cart and checkout on your site
- Merchant of record for VAT and tax
- Licenses follow orders and refunds
- Customer accounts with self-service
- Installers, release notes, in-app updates
- Campaigns and segments by DAW and usage
- 10,000
- validations free every month
- €0
- monthly fee
Inside your plugin
An activation UI you don’t have to build
Keyzy’s KeyzyClient library handles activation, validation and offline license files from C++, and its JUCE guide covers linking it into a Projucer project. Its samples leave the screens to you: asking for the serial is marked as your UI code. Moonbase’s JUCE module ships those screens, with your name, logo and colour.
Activate
Opens your website, where the customer signs in, buys or starts a trial. Offline activation is one click away.
Trial
Days left, what the trial includes, and an unlock button that opens your website to buy.
License
Who it is licensed to, seats in use, and a deactivate button to move to another computer.
Update
A new release with its notes, and the installer downloaded inside the plugin.
Your product name, logo and accent colour throughout, or a headless controller if you’d rather draw your own. A ready-made activation UI also ships for Electron, Tauri and Gorilla Engine, and SDKs for C++, Rust, .NET and Node.js cover everything else. Read the JUCE module docs.
Why sign-in matters
A login that unlocks better prices, not just the license
Licensing tools that offer a user login use it to unlock the license, and stop there. The prices live in whichever store you connect, behind a separate account of its own.
In Moonbase, the account a customer signs in with to activate is the one your store knows them by. Signing in also unlocks the prices meant for them, which gives customers a reason to sign in and gives you a way to reward the ones who have already bought.
Upgrade prices for what they own
Owners of an older version, or of a license whose updates are ending, see their upgrade or renewal price, and checkout names the license it extends.
Loyalty pricing
Discounts only for owners of certain products, or for customers who already own a few of yours.
Offers for their segment
Prices and sales for a list or segment, like lapsed subscribers or customers running your plugin in Ableton.
How the pricing works
A plan priced by licenses, or a meter priced by use
Keyzy prices licensing alone, so a store, card processing and tax come on top. Moonbase bills two things separately: a fee on each sale, which covers the store, card processing and tax, and license validations, which are not part of that fee.
- Starter1 product, 20 licenses
- Free
- Single1 product, 1,000 licenses
- $24/mo
- StudioUnlimited products, 3,000 licenses
- $49/mo
- BusinessUnlimited products, 10,000 licenses
- $99/mo
As published on keyzy.io/pricing in November 2026. Payment processing, tax and your store are separate.
Moonbase- License validations
- €5 per 10,000
- Billed on top of the transaction fee, not included in it. The first 10,000 each month are free. Activations, launches and trials all count, with no plan limits on products or licenses.
- Selling through Moonbase
- 5% + €1 per order
- Covers card processing, merchant-of-record tax, checkout, file delivery and customer accounts. License validations are billed separately, as above. Some payment methods and currencies add a surcharge.
No monthly fee and no tiers. Every fee is on our pricing page, with a calculator for your validation volume.
Feature comparison
MoonbaseLicensing
Seats per license, set per product
An activation limit per serial
Timed or endless, optionally behind a sign-up or newsletter opt-in
One trial per device and product
Machine file uploaded in the customer’s account, signed license file back
Offline and semi-online, with license files from your store
Activation opens your website, and the same sign-in unlocks their own prices
Customers type the serial from their order
Deactivate in the plugin or from their account, activate on the new computer
Remove activations on a WooCommerce page; online and semi-online only
Upgrade pricing for owners, add-ons and bundles
Upgrade, edition and bundle licenses
Sales from other stores recorded through the API
Dealers, with their sales tracked separately
In your plugin
Drop-in JUCE 8 module with themeable activation, trial, license and update screens
Static library with a Projucer guide; the UI is yours to build
macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android
Windows, macOS and Linux
C++, Rust, .NET, Node.js, Electron, Tauri, Gorilla Engine
C# samples and a REST API
Release notes and the installer, downloaded in the plugin
Selling
Embeds on your own website, whatever it is built with
Or FastSpring and Zapier connections
Collected and remitted worldwide
Your store’s job; on WooCommerce, that is you
Same record as the order; refunds revoke, renewals extend
Through the WooCommerce plugin, or Zapier for other stores
Billing and licensing in one place
Subscription licenses through WooCommerce Subscriptions, a paid Woo plugin
Hosted releases, open to everyone, signed-in customers or owners only
WooCommerce downloadable products
Customers and marketing
Products, licenses, devices and subscriptions, on your website
A page listing license files and activations
Klaviyo, Mailchimp, MailerLite, Brevo and Mailjet
WordPress plugins for your email tool
From what your plugin reports, for campaigns and discounts
Prices only owners see, upgrade paths, cross-sells
Upgrade licenses from Keyzy; pricing rules from your store
- Built in
- Partly, or you build it
- Not available
Keyzy details come from its own website and documentation, checked in November 2026. If something has changed, tell us and we’ll correct it.
An honest take
When Keyzy is the better fit
- You run a WooCommerce store you are happy with, and want licensing that plugs straight into it.
- You want customers to activate with a serial number alone, with no account to create.
- You would rather link a precompiled static library than build licensing from source.
Switching
Moving from Keyzy
Import customers and licenses
Upload CSVs or use the API. Each license keeps its key code, seats and expiry, and your old IDs stay attached for reference.
Bring your sales history
Imported orders give every customer a lifetime value from day one, so owner pricing, upgrade discounts and segments work straight away.
Ship an update with a Moonbase SDK
Customers activate by signing in with the email they bought with, setting a password the first time. The license they own is already in their account.
Move checkout when you’re ready
Licensing works with sales from another store through the API, so the store can follow in its own time.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Import your customers and licenses by CSV or through the API. Each license keeps its key code, seats and expiry, with its Keyzy ID stored alongside for reference, and past orders can come too so every customer has a purchase history. Customers then activate the update built with a Moonbase SDK by signing in with the email they bought with.
No. Moonbase’s cart, checkout, customer accounts and downloads embed on any website with a script tag, whatever the site is built with. Moonbase is the merchant of record, so VAT and sales tax are collected and remitted for you.
Yes. moonbase_licensing is a drop-in JUCE 8 module with a themeable UI for activation, trials, offline activation, license details and update prompts, or a headless controller if you’d rather build your own screens. It is open source under the MIT license and has no third-party dependencies.
Yes. The plugin saves a machine file, the customer uploads it in their account, and downloads a signed license file that the plugin verifies locally. The JUCE module includes the whole flow, and you can turn offline activation on or off per product.
Keyzy prices by number of licenses: free for 20, then $24 a month for 1,000 on one product, $49 for 3,000 and $99 for 10,000. WooCommerce, payment processing and tax come on top. Moonbase has no monthly fee, and bills selling and licensing separately. Selling through Moonbase costs 5% + €1 per order, which covers card processing and merchant-of-record tax. License validations are not part of that fee: the first 10,000 each month are free, and each further 10,000 cost €5.
Comparing other licensing tools? Compare Moonbase with LicenseSpring and Keygen.
Choosing where to sell? Compare Moonbase with Paddle, FastSpring, Gumroad and Shopify.
Upgrade your business
Let's talk about your setup
We’ll give you an honest assessment of whether Moonbase fits, including whether to keep Keyzy for anything. No pressure, no generic sales pitch.