Desktop apps
You built an app. Now you need a key system, a store and a mailing list.
That is the moment most desktop software stops. Not because the app is not ready, but because the day you decide to charge for it, you find out you have three other products to build first.
The part nobody warns you about
You do not fail at building the app. You fail at the checkout page, the license server, the refund you have no way to enforce, and the customer who reinstalled Windows and wants back in. Each is small. Together they are another six months.
What Bloom does about it
No key to send at all
Ship a download with nothing in it. On first launch your app claims a license locked to that machine. Nobody has to receive an email, find it, and paste anything.
Reinstalls, handled by you
A license is bound to a machine id you choose and send. Reset it from the panel when somebody gets a new laptop, which is the request you will get most.
One place the money and the licence meet
You take the payment however you already do. Issue the licence from the panel, from Discord, or from the API in the same breath, and the buyer has something that works rather than an email to wait on.
Versions that mean something
Send the running version with the check. You decide what an old one gets: still valid, a nudge to update, or refused.
The model that fits
Auto-issue on first run
A downloadable app can ask for a license itself on first run. Every step you remove between paying and using is a refund you do not get.
You ship a downloadable app with no key. On first launch it claims a hardware-locked license tied to that machine automatically. You can revoke (block) any issued license from the Licenses page if a user refunds or abuses it. Great for downloadable software and trials.
The integration is one HTTPS call, and the panel hands you the code for it in JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, C# or PHP. There is nothing to install.
What people ask
- Does it work offline?
- The check is an HTTPS call, so it needs a connection at the moment it runs. Most apps check on launch and cache the answer for a while. That is your code and your policy, and Bloom does not force a schedule on you.
- Windows, macOS, Linux?
- All three, and anything else. There is no SDK to install: it is one HTTPS request from whatever you already write in.
- What about trials?
- Issue a license with an expiry date. The check returns invalid once it passes, with the reason, so you can show something better than a locked screen.
Something else on your mind?
Ask before you sign up. It reaches a person, and you get an answer by email.
Ask usWhat Bloom does not do here
There is no installer builder and no auto-update service: Bloom licenses the app you already build and ship. The validation call also needs a connection at the moment it runs, which is why most apps cache the answer between checks.
Bloom does not care what it is
The same account, the same call, whatever you happen to have built.