License FAQ

GlanceDock’s licensing is built around one hard line: the app never makes a network request to license itself. No activation, no accounts required, no telemetry, ever. Here is how that works, in plain words.

What is a license key?

A license key is not a code looked up in some database. It is a cryptographically signed message, verified locally by the same class of math a browser uses to check a TLS certificate without calling anyone.

Your key carries a small payload (your name, the product, the major version, and the email you purchased with, if any) signed once when it is issued. The app has the matching public key built in, so it can confirm the signature is genuine entirely offline. Tampering with a single character of the payload (say, editing the name) breaks the signature, and forging a signature without the private key is computationally hopeless.

Why are keys named?

Your name (and the email you purchased with) lives inside the key, and your name shows in the app’s About box as “Licensed to <your name>”. That is the primary, proportionate deterrent against sharing: posting your key publicly means publishing your own identity for strangers to install under. The goal is simply to make buying easier than pirating, not to make pirating impossible.

Does the app ever phone home?

No. The free/paid gate is enforced by code inside the app, offline. License keys are verified by local cryptography. GlanceDock talks only to the services you configure; nothing about your machine or usage is ever sent anywhere.

What if I never buy?

You keep the free tier forever: a hard floor, not a trial. Free means up to 3 widget instances total across all monitors. The gate lives at widget-add time only: nothing is ever deleted or disabled. If a key is absent while your layout already holds more than three widgets, everything keeps rendering; you just can’t add a fourth.

What about revocation?

Every key has an id. Revocation is only for keys that have been publicly leaked, never for suspicion. A leaked key’s id is added to a revocation list that ships bundled inside every new release, with no network check. On the next update, a leaked key drops to the free tier; existing widgets still render, they just can’t add more. This escalation ladder ends here: someone who refuses all updates keeps a frozen old build, and that accepted residual loss costs less goodwill than online activation would.

I lost my key. Can I get it back?

Yes. Your key is delivered in your receipt email, so that is the first place to look. If you can’t find it, support can reissue it from your order record. (Once website accounts launch, registered buyers will also be able to re-copy their key from their account page.)

What do founders get?

The Founder license ($9) is on sale during the public beta, before stable 1.0. It covers every 1.x release forever, and it is price-locked on all future majors: when 2.0, 3.0, and beyond ship, a founder upgrades at the original $9 they paid, no matter what the public price becomes. Founder status is recorded with your license at purchase and shows as a founder badge on your glancedock.com account and roadmap posts (coming with the buyer area); the app’s About box itself just reads “Licensed to your name”, verified fully offline. From 1.0 onward the Standard license is $19.