Comparison
Keylight vs Keygen — a Keygen alternative for Apple apps
Keygen is a flexible, language-agnostic licensing API you wire yourself. Keylight is the opinionated, Apple-native version: Swift SDK, offline leases, Stripe built in.
Start Free| Keylight | Keygen | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform focus | Apple-native (Swift SDK) | Language-agnostic API |
| App integration | Native Swift SDK + licensing state machine | REST API + community SDKs |
| Payments | Stripe-native — licenses mint on payment | Bring your own; wire webhooks |
| Offline verification | Ed25519-signed leases, SDK verifies | Cryptographic license files you verify |
| Setup | Turnkey: connect Stripe, drop in the SDK | Flexible, more wiring |
| Hosting | Hosted | Hosted or self-host (CE) |
| Best for | Indie Mac/Swift devs who want it done | Teams wanting an unopinionated API |
Updated June 2026
You’ve heard of Keygen. It’s the licensing API most people name first — language-agnostic, open-source, deep. Keylight is narrower on purpose: built for Apple, with the Swift SDK and Stripe already wired. If you’re shipping a Mac app, narrower is faster. Here’s the honest split.
What Keygen gets right
Keygen is real infrastructure. The API is language-agnostic, the policy model is deep, and you can self-host the community edition if you want to own the whole stack. It’s mature, well-documented, and it doesn’t lock you into a payment provider or a platform. For a team that wants to design its own licensing flow and wire it exactly how they like, Keygen hands you the primitives and gets out of the way.
That flexibility is the selling point. It’s also the work.
Where Keylight is different
Keygen hands you primitives. Keylight hands you the finished flow for one platform.
With Keygen you pick the payment provider, wire the webhooks, choose the policies, and write the client code that reads license files and decides what your app does. Powerful. Also a project.
Keylight makes the Apple-app decisions for you. Connect Stripe — a payment mints the license, no webhook code. Drop in the Swift SDK — checkOnLaunch() and a switch over .licensed, .trial, .expired, .invalid. Offline checks run on Ed25519 leases the SDK verifies locally, with feature flags signed in. You’re not assembling a licensing system. You’re turning one on.
Other providers connect by webhook. Stripe is just the path that’s already done.
When Keygen is the better pick
Easy cases. If you’re not on Apple — a Windows app, a Linux daemon, a cross-platform tool — Keygen’s language-agnostic API fits where Keylight is focused today. If you need to self-host licensing for control or compliance, Keygen has that and Keylight doesn’t. And if you want a deep, configurable policy engine to model something unusual, that flexibility is the whole point.
Keylight is the opposite trade, on purpose: less to configure, because the Apple path is already decided. Pick Keygen when you want the primitives. Pick Keylight when you want it done.
Where Keylight fits
Mac or Swift app, and you’d rather ship than assemble? Keylight. Stripe wired in, native Swift SDK, offline leases, feature flags in the lease, multi-product and multi-tenant built in. The Apple decisions are made so you don’t have to make them.
Plans start at $19/month, with a free tier. Wire Stripe, drop in the SDK, ship.
Frequently asked
Keylight vs Keygen — what's the difference?+
Keygen is a flexible, language-agnostic licensing API you wire yourself, including bringing your own payments. Keylight is an opinionated, Apple-native layer: native Swift SDK, offline Ed25519 leases, and Stripe-native minting out of the box.
Is Keylight a Keygen alternative for Mac apps?+
Yes. For indie macOS and Swift developers who want licensing done rather than assembled, Keylight covers the SDK, offline verification, and Stripe in one setup.
Does Keygen handle payments?+
No — Keygen is bring-your-own-payments; you wire checkout webhooks to it. Keylight connects to Stripe and mints licenses automatically on payment.
Can I self-host licensing?+
Keygen offers a self-hostable community edition. Keylight is hosted; you keep your own Stripe account and customer data.
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