Selling software is mostly a delivery problem. The product is a file or a web app the buyer already knows how to use; what you need to get right is the key that unlocks it, issued once, to the right person, the moment they pay, without you sitting at a keyboard. This guide covers how licence keys work in an online store, what to decide before you sell, how to set it up in Vonza, and how marketplaces that sell software compare. The product page is sell software licences.
What a licence key product is
A licence key product is a product whose deliverable is a code. The seller loads a pool of keys, each sale takes one from the pool and hands it to the buyer, and the seller's software checks the key when the buyer enters it. The store's job is the middle part: hold the keys safely, issue exactly one per unit sold, show it to the buyer in a way they can find again, and let the seller see how many are left.
That is different from a digital download, where every buyer gets the same file. With keys, each buyer gets something unique, which is what makes it worth keeping the pool and the issuing in one place.
What to decide before you sell
Where the keys come from. If your software already has a licensing system, you will generate keys there and import them. If it does not, the store can generate keys for you and your software only needs to accept the format.
How many to load. Load more than you expect to sell in the first stretch, and watch the count. Running out of keys means a sale with nothing to deliver.
How the key is priced. A one-time price suits a perpetual licence. A subscription suits software you keep updating, and a one-time price with instalments suits a higher-ticket tool. You can also sell more than one tier as separate products, such as a personal and a team licence.
What else the buyer needs. A key alone is not much use without the download and the instructions. Decide where those live and how the buyer gets to them.
Step 1: Create the licence key product
In Vonza, open Products in your dashboard, create a product and choose Licence key as the kind: "a software key issued per sale". Give it a name, a description and photos or screenshots like any product, and write highlights that say what the licence covers, how many machines or seats, and how long.
The template in the "Software & licences" category gives you a finished product page to start from if you would rather edit than write.
Step 2: Load the keys
There are three ways to fill the pool:
- Generate. Vonza makes keys for you, up to 1,000 at a time, in the shape
XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. The characters 0, 1, I, L and O are left out so a key read aloud or typed from a screenshot cannot be mistaken. - Paste. Paste keys from your own licensing system, one per line.
- Import a CSV. Upload a file of up to 5,000 keys, each up to 200 characters, when your system exports them that way.
Keys are encrypted at rest and hashed, and in the admin you see only the first and last four characters of each. One key is issued per unit sold, and each key is issued once. Keys that have not been issued can be revoked if you need to pull a batch, for example after changing your licensing scheme.
Step 3: Price it
The Pricing rail offers one-time, free, pay what you want, subscription (charged every week, month or year) and instalments. For software the useful patterns are:
- One-time for a perpetual licence, with a compare-at price struck through during a launch.
- Subscription for software with ongoing updates or a hosted part.
- Instalments for a higher-ticket tool, so the buyer pays in parts.
- Pay what you want for a side project or an open-core tool where you want supporters to choose.
You can also run a scheduled sale with a start and an end date. Instalment plans may depend on your Vonza plan.
Buyers pay through your own connected Stripe or PayPal account, with PayPal for one-time payments, or Paystack for sales in Nigerian naira. Apple Pay, Google Pay and Klarna come through Stripe.
Step 4: Think about delivery beyond the key
The key is issued automatically. The download and the setup notes are up to you, and there are a few ways to handle them on the same store.
The simplest is to put the download address and the setup steps on the product page's details sections and in your receipt message: the buyer gets the key and knows where to use it. If the download itself should only be reachable by buyers, sell it as a digital product, with files delivered through private links that expire, and sell the key and the download together as a bundle of two of your products at one price.
After payment you can send the buyer to the order page (the default), show your own message, or redirect them to an address on your site, such as a getting-started page.
Step 5: What the buyer sees
On the thank-you page and on the receipt, the buyer sees their key hidden apart from the last four characters, with Show, Hide and Copy buttons, so a screen share or a screenshot does not leak it by accident. The same key sits on the downloads page in their Vonza account, so "I lost my key" has a self-service answer: sign in and look. In the admin you see the first and last four characters of each key, enough to match a buyer's question to the key they were issued without the full key ever being shown again.
Step 6: Sell the key where your users are
A software product rarely sells from a storefront alone. The store gives each product its own address, page title, meta description and keywords, so the product page can rank for your software's name. Beyond that:
- Put a buy button on your link in bio for the audience that found you on social.
- Give the product a one-product checkout page with its own link, to use from your app's own website or from inside the app's trial screen.
- Add an order bump: a second tier, a plugin pack or a year of priority support, offered as a tick box under the buy button.
- Offer a one-click upgrade after payment, charged to the same card within 15 minutes.
- Fire your Facebook, Google, Google Tag Manager or TikTok pixel per product so ads can measure purchases.
Step 7: Watch the pool and the numbers
Keep an eye on how many keys remain unissued and load more before you run low. Insights shows views, paid orders, revenue after refunds, conversion and traffic sources for 7, 30 or 90 days. The Customers section lists everyone who bought, so a security notice or a major update can go to every licence holder by email.
How marketplaces for software compare
Many developers start on a marketplace or a payments-only platform. The trade is a share of every sale for not running a store. The figures below are from each vendor's own pages, with the date each was read.
- Gumroad charges 10% plus $0.50 per transaction on sales through your profile or direct links, and 30% when a new customer finds you through its Discover marketplace, on its pricing page read on 5 November 2026. Its features page, read on 14 November 2026, says it can generate licence keys for software sellers. See Gumroad alternatives.
- Payhip lists a Free Forever plan at $0 a month plus a 5% transaction fee, Plus at $29 a month plus 2%, and Pro at $99 a month with no transaction fee, each with all features; the pricing page was read from a 9 November 2026 archive copy on 14 November 2026. Its digital downloads page says it handles the generation, storage and issuing of software keys. See Payhip alternatives.
- Lemon Squeezy lists $0 a month and 5% plus 50¢ per sale, with some payments subject to additional fees, and says it issues licence keys automatically after each sale and can deactivate and re-issue them, on pages read on 14 November 2026. See Lemon Squeezy alternatives.
- SendOwl sells plans by volume, from $39 a month for up to 5,000 orders and $10,000 in sales a year, and lists software and licence keys with auto-generation among its product types, on pages read on 14 November 2026.
Vonza is priced as a subscription that includes the store alongside courses, email, funnels and the rest; the plans are on pricing, and the dated side-by-side is on selling fees compared.
Where to start
Export or generate a first batch of keys, open Products in your Vonza dashboard, and create a licence key product. New to Vonza? The store is part of every Vonza plan with a 14-day free trial, and the sell software licences page covers the feature in detail. Selling a template, a preset pack or an e-book beside the software? Sell digital products shows how downloads work on the same store.
