Keylight vs Creem — licensing, not payments

Creem and Keylight get compared, but they’re not competing — they’re two halves of the same job. Creem takes the money and handles the tax. Keylight decides who gets to run your app, on which machines, for how long. Put them side by side and the question answers itself: you probably want both.

What Creem gets right

Creem is a clean merchant of record. It charges the customer, and it handles VAT and sales tax so you don’t have to register and remit across jurisdictions. The checkout is indie-friendly, the setup is fast, and for a lot of solo builders it’s a sharper, simpler option than the older merchant-of-record platforms. If your priority is selling without becoming a tax department, Creem does that well.

It will also hand a buyer a license key. For a single product with a key emailed at checkout, that can be all you need.

Where Keylight is different

Creem is payment-first. The licensing is a checkout feature, not the product. That’s the line.

A real app license is more than a string in an email. It’s a device limit that’s actually enforced. It’s an offline check so the app works on a plane. It’s a trial that converts, a Pro tier you can gate, a key you can revoke after a refund. Creem’s keys don’t do that. Keylight does — it’s built for exactly that half:

await licensing.checkOnLaunch()
if licensing.state == .licensed { enablePaidFeatures() }

Offline checks run on Ed25519-signed leases your app verifies locally. Feature flags ride in the lease. Device activations are tracked server-side and enforced. The Swift SDK handles activation, trials, and expiry as a state machine. None of that is Creem’s job — and that’s fine, because it doesn’t have to be.

How they fit together

You don’t pick one. Take payment with a processor, license with Keylight. Stripe is the first-class path — a charge mints the license automatically with no webhook code. Other providers, Creem included, connect by webhook: Creem handles the sale and the tax, then tells Keylight to issue the license.

If a key in an email is genuinely all your product needs, Creem alone is enough. The moment you need device limits, offline use, trials, or feature gating, add the licensing layer.

Where Keylight fits

Shipping a Mac or Swift app that needs real licensing — not just a key at checkout? That’s Keylight. Swift SDK, offline leases, device limits, feature flags, automatic minting on payment. Bring whatever payment provider you like for the money.

Already selling on Creem? Moving the licensing to Keylight doesn’t break your existing customers.

Plans start at $19/month, with a free tier. Keep your processor. Add real licensing.