Originally published on the Keylight blog.
The thing that stops developers from moving their licensing isn't the work. It's the fear of one specific moment: a paying customer opens the app after you've switched, and it tells them they're unlicensed. That's the nightmare — you reach for lower fees and customer ownership, and the bill comes due as a wave of "I already paid for this" support tickets.
It's a reasonable fear, and it's also avoidable. Migrating onto Keylight doesn't require invalidating anything, re-issuing anything, or asking customers to do anything. This post is about the one rule that keeps everyone working, the two situations you might be in, and why a scary-sounding "major version" jump changes none of it. When you're ready for the click-by-click mechanics, the companion piece covers them: How to Import an Existing Customer Base into Keylight.
Why migrating licensing feels risky
A license check is binary in the moment a customer experiences it: the app either lets them in or it doesn't. So any change to the system behind that check feels like it's playing with a live wire. Switch the layer that answers "is this person allowed in," the thinking goes, and you risk every existing customer getting the wrong answer at once.
