Comparison

PermitCore vs Keygen

Both are API-first license management platforms with real offline, node-locked, and floating licensing support. The practical differences are in pricing model, self-hosting, and what's built in versus what's an add-on.

Reviewed September 27, 2026. Keygen's figures and capabilities are taken from its official documentation, self-hosting guide, and pricing page. Keygen's paid tiers use a live slider calculator rather than fixed published prices — we could not extract exact dollar amounts for the Std/Ent tiers from the page content, so those are marked accordingly below rather than guessed. Pricing on either side can change; verify current numbers directly with each vendor before deciding.

Pricing

Tier PermitCore Keygen
Free€0 — 50 activations/mo poolFree ("Dev") — 100 active licensed users, 10 product releases
Entry paid€29/mo — 1,000 activations/mo pool"Std 1" tier — price via calculator, not published as a fixed figure
Mid€59/mo — 10,000 activations/mo pool"Std 5" tier — price via calculator
Top / Enterprise€299/mo — unlimited pool, self-hosted option"Ent" tiers, custom pricing above 1M active licensed users

Both explicitly avoid taking a percentage of your revenue — PermitCore's Store charges 0% commission on sales, and Keygen states it charges "a fair, flat monthly or yearly fee" with no revenue share.

Where they're genuinely similar

Both platforms support the same core license models out of the box: node-locked, floating/concurrent, offline, and metered/usage-based licensing, plus device activation tracking. Neither locks these behind a separate product — they're part of the core API on both sides.

Where they differ

Built-in storefront
PermitCore includes a license Store connected to your chosen Stripe or Paddle account (0% PermitCore commission) on every plan from Starter up. Keygen's pricing page doesn't describe an equivalent built-in storefront.
Self-hosting
Keygen offers a free Community Edition (Keygen CE) for self-hosting in addition to an Enterprise Edition — a genuinely more open self-hosting path than PermitCore's, which reserves self-hosting for the Enterprise plan.
SDK count
PermitCore ships 8 official SDKs (.NET, Node.js, Python, Java, C++, PHP, Go, Unity). Keygen's pricing page doesn't enumerate specific SDK languages.
Browser-created key encryption
The default Admin workflow encrypts keys client-side with a passphrase. Validation receives plaintext; Store delivery and optional escrow use server-managed access. See the workflow boundaries. Keygen's pricing page doesn't describe an equivalent client-side encryption model.

Other comparisons

PermitCore vs Cryptolens (Devolens) · PermitCore vs LicenseSpring · PermitCore vs Cryptlex

Try PermitCore free

No credit card required for the Free tier. 3-month free trial available on paid plans.