Comparison
Keylight vs Keygen — done-for-you SDKs vs a flexible API
Keygen is a flexible, language-agnostic licensing API you wire yourself. Keylight ships finished SDKs — Swift, Rust, JavaScript — with offline leases and Stripe built in.
Start Free| Keylight | Keygen | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform focus | Cross-platform, Swift-first (Swift · Rust · JS) | 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 | Swift, Rust, or JS apps wanting done-for-you SDKs | 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 more opinionated on purpose: finished SDKs for Swift, Rust, and JavaScript, with Stripe already wired. If you want licensing done rather than assembled, opinionated 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 SDK-stack 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. The Rust and JavaScript SDKs follow the same pattern on their stacks. 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. Keygen’s language-agnostic API fits any language or platform — Python, Go, C#, Windows, Linux — where Keylight has no SDK yet. 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 Swift, Rust, and JavaScript paths are already decided. Pick Keygen when you want the primitives. Pick Keylight when you want it done.
Where Keylight fits
Swift, Rust, or JavaScript app, and you’d rather ship than assemble? Keylight. Stripe wired in, finished SDKs, offline leases, feature flags in the lease, multi-product and multi-tenant built in. The SDK 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 ships finished SDKs — Swift, Rust, and JavaScript/TypeScript — each with a built-in licensing state machine and Stripe-native minting, so you're not assembling the licensing layer yourself.
Is Keylight a Keygen alternative for Mac apps?+
Yes — and for Tauri, Electron, and Node apps too. For developers who want licensing done rather than assembled, Keylight covers the SDK, offline verification, and Stripe in one setup across Swift, Rust, and JavaScript.
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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