Why I'm introducing a paid licensing model

[leokhoa]

I want to share a bit of my story with you.

A few years ago, with my expertise in Cloud Computing and programming, I played a key role in transforming my boss's SaaS into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. I spearheaded the development of a cutting-edge global platform built on Kubernetes, designed to be fast, highly scalable, secure, and consistently reliable. The platform operates like Laragon (tailored for production) – runs smoothly yet remarkably efficient. Thanks to its robust architecture, we achieved near-zero downtime while seamlessly supporting thousands of enterprise clients. As a thank-you, he sponsored me and my family to move to Ibiza, Spain. Everything was good... until my boss sold the company, and the new owners decided I, a former member in the management team, was "high-profile and expensive", they kicked me out. It was a sad time. They don't care that I contributed a lot to the business and will have a baby. I don't want to recall that.

I am living in Spain, a foreign country, with my wife and three kids, including our newborn baby girl. Spain is nice, but the taxes are high. Add a mortgage, bank loans, and the fact that my wife doesn't allow to work because of her visa (she's on a Non-Lucrative Visa), and it adds a lot of pressures on me. Outside of work, I share the responsibility of caring for our children with my wife. My oldest son is only 7. Our Spanish isn't fluent, which adds to the challenges of living in a foreign country. However, despite the difficulties, I don't want to complain or give up. In fact, I truly enjoy spending time with my sons.

Therefore I thought a lot about Laragon, the software I love. I created it to be free forever because I genuinely believe it can help people. But here's the truth: free doesn't pay the bills. I've been taking on jobs to stay afloat, but those jobs eat up my time and my energy, leaving little to no space to grow Laragon.
The skills required for my job were vastly different from the technical expertise needed to develop something like Laragon. If I focus on my job, Laragon stalls. If I focus on Laragon while offering free, my family struggles.

It's been tough. That's why I'm introducing a paid licensing model. It wasn't an easy decision, but it's one I believe in. With your support, I can dedicate more time to Laragon, make it better, while keep my family afloat.

I hope you'll understand and join me on this journey. Laragon is my passion, and with your support, I believe I can make Laragon greater.

Thank you for everything.

If you wish to continue using a free version, Laragon 6 remains free and available. In my situation, I want you to understand that I can't offer you both time to improve Laragon and free. You can explore other softwares but you may face a lot of headaches and they will have the same financial issue.

[husnilkhatimi]

Thanks for sharing your eye-opening journey. Even if we are good at something, we can be kicked out anytime. I really hope Laragon will bring you success. 👍

[ORIONSPACE11]

I paid 10 dollars license fee FOR LARAGON 8.
LARAGON 8 does not work properly.
When I enter the license key again, it says DEACTIVATED license.
So where do I DEACTIVATED my license key?
Why don't you make a CORRECT panel for people who pay money?
Now I have a license key that I bought from you.
And when I enter it a second time, it does not accept it and there is no information about how to proceed.
You are writing a long article because of LACK OF MONEY.
And you are leaving the people who bought it for a fee and helped you VICTIMS. This is not convincing at all.
Now tell me. How can I deactivate the activation and reactivate it?
Since you are selling products for money.
Give FULL SUPPORT for the product you sell.
Or do not sell paid products.
Also state the support you provide CLEARLY.

[billiemead]

I paid 10 dollars license fee FOR LARAGON 8. LARAGON 8 does not work properly. When I enter the license key again, it says DEACTIVATED license. So where do I DEACTIVATED my license key? Why don't you make a CORRECT panel for people who pay money? Now I have a license key that I bought from you. And when I enter it a second time, it does not accept it and there is no information about how to proceed. You are writing a long article because of LACK OF MONEY. And you are leaving the people who bought it for a fee and helped you VICTIMS. This is not convincing at all. Now tell me. How can I deactivate the activation and reactivate it? Since you are selling products for money. Give FULL SUPPORT for the product you sell. Or do not sell paid products. Also state the support you provide CLEARLY.

Wow... Whine much? You paid 10 dollars! Hahaha.... what do you expect? Complainers like you are very sad, want everything on a silver platter for nothing. Suck it up!

[dustingraham]

There will always be critics. I appreciate what you have built here. Thank you! Echoing Husnil's appreciations.

[c4tru]

Have a beer on me, my friend. Cheers! I loved Laragon.

[sapioit]

I paid 10 dollars license fee FOR LARAGON 8. LARAGON 8 does not work properly. When I enter the license key again, it says DEACTIVATED license. So where do I DEACTIVATED my license key? Why don't you make a CORRECT panel for people who pay money? Now I have a license key that I bought from you. And when I enter it a second time, it does not accept it and there is no information about how to proceed. You are writing a long article because of LACK OF MONEY. And you are leaving the people who bought it for a fee and helped you VICTIMS. This is not convincing at all. Now tell me. How can I deactivate the activation and reactivate it? Since you are selling products for money. Give FULL SUPPORT for the product you sell. Or do not sell paid products. Also state the support you provide CLEARLY.

Wow... Whine much? You paid 10 dollars! Hahaha.... what do you expect? Complainers like you are very sad, want everything on a silver platter for nothing. Suck it up!

Just because 10 dollars is not much for you, it doesn't mean it's not much for others. Especially for those at the end of the road. If you think about it, if the author of Lagaron didn't use it as a source of income, he might have been in the same situation as the user complaining, which you are ridiculing.

[joleenshook]

Thank you for all you've done. I've been happy to support you for the free version, and totally get the need to move to a paid version. When will it be live & what is the licensing model?

[songnguxyz]

Welp, it's already live, from Laragon 7 and above will need to obtain a license to use it. 6 and below are free to download and use.

[joleenshook]

Ah ok I didn't see any pricing on the website. Thanks for letting me know, we'll grab the new version soon.

[robisadev]

I wish I could find out how much the license for 7 is without installing it. Sorry to hear about your situation, life is rough.

[Sophist-UK]

https://laragon.lemonsqueezy.com/

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

@worwed34 you can login into your account on lemonsqueezy and remove the device attached to your license. Afterwards, you can reuse the key.

[trananhmanh89]

[Sophist-UK]

Moving to a different country is never a cheap option even if the cost of living once you have moved is cheaper.

That said, if your employer was sponsoring you for a visa, it is possible that losing your employment may in the end result in not having a choice about relocating back to Asia. But at the moment that does not seem to be the immediate problem.

[trananhmanh89]

Moving to a different country is never a cheap option even if the cost of living once you have moved is cheaper.

It is cheaper if he backs to his country. I'm pretty sure, with his profile, very easy to get a job. And his wife and kids will feel better. Euro is not for everyone.

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

Moving to a different country is never a cheap option even if the cost of living once you have moved is cheaper.

It is cheaper if he backs to his country. I'm pretty sure, with his profile, very easy to get a job. And his wife and kids will feel better. Euro is not for everyone.

I don't think we are in the position to give advice for more than Laragon, especially not to suggest a family to leave their home.

Europe is not for everyone? Please delete your GitHub account.

[husnilkhatimi]

I don't think we are in the position to give advice for more than Laragon, especially not to suggest a family to leave their home.

100% agree.

[debpalash]

Laragon was one tool that didn't suck like big names like xampp, mamp and what not. Wish you best of luck and making it free :)

[ppfoong]

Consider relocating to a country with a low tax rate or no tax, such as Monaco, near Spain. Also, consider moving back to Vietnam, the place you are most familiar with.

It is not the right way trying to justify how much other need to pay you, based on your personal/family situation, unless you go for the donation path. When we go for job interview, we can't secure a job by saying I need XXX per month in order to support my family. The same applies when we try to sell a product/service to the market. We can only ask for the amount by justifying the value we provide to the employer/client.

When you go for job interview, you need to know what kind of problems/challenges/visions the company are having, what kind of skillsets/resources you are having, and how your skillsets/resources can provide value to the company by handling their problems/challenges/visions.

When you try to sell a product/service, you also need to know what kind of problems/challenges/desires/pain-points your target customers are having, how much and how fast can your product/service can help them resolving those problems/challenges/desires/pain-points. What are the things you have that make a difference from other related products/services in the market (your unique selling points).

It is OK to charge a fee for Laragon, but the direction must be right.

• You need a clear license agreement document.
• You need to pitch from the points of the values of Laragon, instead of from personal/family situation, unless you are going for donation path.
• If you plan to operate the commercial way, you need to operate in the commercial way, including setting up a company, handling all the accounting, taxes and legal. If you don't have a company to run the business and you run it as individual, most of the companies/organizations/government agencies will not buy from you, the difference in tax calculation could be more beneficial to company too, and in the event you run into financial or legal trouble, it will affect your entire family (compared with private limited company). Regardless you run it on individual or on company, you still have to handle the same accounting, taxes, legal, etc.

[Sophist-UK]

I agree entirely - the suggestion about uprooting your family and breaking all your local ties to return to a country with a lower cost of living is putting things entirely back to front. Leo needs to work out how he can earn enough to support his family - and absolutely not how to disrupt his family, his children's education, the stable family life he has by moving back to a country he may have ties to but the rest of his family may not.

These suggestions by @trananhmanh89 and @ppfoong are just crass and insensitive.

[ppfoong]

His 3rd paragraph starting with "I am living in Spain..." has provided enough information that worth a consideration. "Consider" means you need to have the if-then-else thinking in your mind to evaluate the possible branches, and apply the knowledge you learnt in discrete maths to find the next path that you feel is most suitable for you.

I don't know how you interpret it as "suggestion", so I talk in IT language now, perhaps easier for you to understand.

[Sophist-UK]

@ppfoong Sorry - but you need to have more empathy. Leo has enough on his plate with 1) a new baby and 2) losing his job and income and 3) trying to switch to a chargeable product to get some income without thinking about adding another massive upset to his life by moving.

He needs to get this project going in a way that will generate an income, and you get an income by providing a product/service that meets the needs of your customers (functionality, support, price) and NOT a product or service which meets your needs as a developer. So if Leo is going to focus on something it needs to be that and NOT relocation.

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

May I remember everybody that some folks here wanted an explanation and Leo now followed this wish by giving insights, making his decision transparent.

@ppfoong There's absolutely no justification to give any advice how to plan his life. If you want to pay with your time using XAMPP, MAMP or anything else instead of your money, it's your choice.

If you can't buy a license key unless it's clear what's part of it, go ahead. You are right. But it doesn't justificate to suggest considerations about anybody's life in Spain or elsewhere.

[f-p-r]

Consider relocating to a country with a low tax rate or no tax, such as Monaco, near Spain. Also, consider moving back to Vietnam, the place you are most familiar with.

Good luck trying to save money moving to Monaco. Almost no taxes, but heavy prices for all, no public medical services...
Monaco is only good for you if you have so much money that you would'nt mind where to live. In general, low/no taxes countries are only good for rich (or almost rich) people, unless you get a very well paid job there, wich is not easy.

[imaxenio]

I don't know where Leo got the idea that it would be good to have a paid license for a project that uses Open Source Software, it seemed like a nice project and that people would make contributions to the project, fix bugs and even donate to the maintainer. But paying a license for this seems like an abuse and lack of respect to the other contributors of the open source software that make up this project, therefore if this project does not return to its origins I withdraw my support and recommendation and proceed to uninstall it from my teams.

[ppfoong]

The type of license of Laragon itself remains unclear until today. It never mentioned to be open source, nor its source code opened to public. Even if v7 going for commercial approach with licensing fee, the "license" itself remains unclear, there is no black and white on its terms and conditions, yet.

Anyhow, Laragon makes use of open source components including Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc. and should abide to the terms and conditions of all those open source components in order to package them in Laragon and redistribute them. Basically, just to mention/acknowledge those open source components, their license (Apache, GPL, MIT, ...), and some need to attach their full license terms.

There is no issue having paid license for open source software, or software that contain open source components. Most Linux distros have dual licenses -- the commercial license and the open source license, such as RedHat & Fedora, Ubuntu Community & Ubuntu Pro, SuSE Enterprise & OpenSuSE, etc. Docker is also open source, and it has multiple licenses including the free Docker Personal, and the paid Pro, Teams, Business. Kubernetes is open source, and there are commercial forks such as D2iQ.

The current issue is, the Laragon license is still unclear. It was not an issue in the past, being a hobbyist project that shared out to the public, as downloaders are thinking that it is "download and use at own risk, with no string attached, and no obligation from the developer". When it becomes a chargeable product, proper license is crucial as people will start asking "what am I paying for?" and the next question will be "am I willing to pay for the amount in return to get what am I paying for?"

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

I can only speak for myself, but as far as I know, there should be a license though there doesn't have to.

In Germany, it's the Urheberrecht and other laws to which everything defaults if there is no further information. I bet other EU countries have similar laws. And as Laragon is made in Spain, that is it.

Don't think that complicated: if it's not Open Source, then it's not Open Source. If it's not MIT, then it isn't.

I also don't know why people would ask "what am I paying for?" when people know exactly, what they pay for. Maybe you don't know it, but others do.

That said, @leokhoa needs to improve and it looks that he is willing to do so. Give this man and his family some patience, he's neither Microsoft, nor Oracle, nor any other big tech company.

[imaxenio]

I also live in Spain and I am one of many self-employed people who pays 45% of the little they earn in taxes. What is annoying and that we have already seen in many projects that begin their journey as free or open source, is that they take advantage of the Fomo of the community to grow, improve and contribute when it is allowed, and then when they grow they move to paid models when you have the entire system set up around a project, and then they coerce you with a payment to update or have to change everything to another Stack. It would seem good to me if you put a link for Donations and that everyone contributes what they can to help you, or that you make public the control panel code, which is the only thing you have and that the community can help you maintain the code or contribute to improve the design, operation, etc... I and other communities to which I belong would be willing to support the project and spread it to grow the image and talent of this developer as a person, and that he is worth much more than what he can earn by charging a license now. For me and many more colleagues in the sector, all credibility has been lost, and of course, I stop recommending Laragon in my reviews, I even removed the star from the repository and stopped recommending it. This practice bothers me enormously. I love donating and contributing to open source projects to value the work of developers and help them improve, but I hate being imposed a price or license.

[Sophist-UK]

Yes - ok - a small charge of say $20 or $30 for a license is going to be a minor annoyance, but it is so small you are just going to pay it and move on. As soon as it gets more than this, especially when it is 500% times this, people don't just pay it and move on, they start to think about whether it is value for money and what the alternatives are.

Maybe they will pay it, maybe stick with Laragon v6, maybe decide that they won't see updates in v6 and move to something else. BUT IN THE END, they will have lost their enthusiasm for Laragon and the PR and community spirit which comes with that - and once that has gone you will NEVER get it back. And Leo is burning through this goodwill at a pretty good rate and soon it will be all gone.

[discuzvnnet]

@leokhoa Mình thấy tạo ra 1 phiên bản và thu phí nó thì không có gì là sai cả , nhưng bạn nên suy nghĩ lại giá trị ban đầu của laragon là gì , giá đã hợp lý chưa ? và tại sao không có bản free song song cùng bản thu phí ?

[harisjanu]

though i cannot buy version 7.0 right now, but i can help u get a domain and offer you free hosting for one year.....hope it may help our brother in worries...u can contact me any time and i will buy the domain and provide u free hosting for 1 year instantly....love laragon and appreciate your effort brother

[Sophist-UK]

I am sure that Leo will appreciate the offer, however several of us have already made the same offer and he has not taken us up on it.

[harisjanu]

NO problem..sharing is caring...every one offers what is in their domain.....May he succeed in his goals...anyways i will be buying version 7 soon as laragon is working very well with vs code especially without any difficulty

[Sophist-UK]

There is likely to be a revised pricing model soon.

[jcc5018]

@leokhoa So, while i understand the need to make an income, I am struggling a bit to understand what enhancements are being added to justify the cost. Other than keeping the various components up to date, which most users can do themselves if they need to.

I really dislike subscriptions, and your software was liked because it was free, and fairly easy. Laravel HERD is recently introduced for a subscription with less functionality. (as far as mysql and other services are concerned.) Which is why I came back to laragon for my new machine. Only to get hit with this licensed version for v7.

Obviously, I'll just go back to v6. But again, what am I even paying for for v7?

You might need to separate products if you do this. I have no idea what goes into programming something like Laragon, but if its just keeping things updated, vs adding extra features, they really need to be defined better.

And keep in mind, $50 a year may be a bit much for hobbiest or people who are just getting started.

There is a point where a lower price point might generate a higher return, as more people would be open to buying in. If the price goes too high, fewer people will use the service. Sell 100 licensees at $50, for $5000, or sell 1000 at $10 for $10k. I dont know what the magic number is, but personally, $50 a year would make me look for an alternative solution, or just sticking with v6.

But $10 a year, or maybe even $20 if the features are substantial enough, I'd do it.

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

@jcc5018 you can now see what is planned for active support by @leokhoa for 7.1 here: https://github.com/leokhoa/laragon/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+milestone%3A%22Laragon+7.1%22

[Sophist-UK]

@jcc5018 Jon

1. Your pricing message is one I have been saying for several weeks ever since the first v7 announcement. I am hopeful that there will be a pricing change announced in a couple of weeks or so, and that it will address your comments.

2. I would anticipate that there may need to be an interim v7.01 release to address any licensing changes as a next release, with v7.1 a bit longer away.

[Sheldon-Monk]

I agree with jcc5018.
Having owned three IT companies before retirement, and prior to that being in exec mgmt for two start-ups, I really think you (leo) need to get your parts organized and tested before making your changes public. Doing it the way you are doing it, is in my opinion, asking for nightmares you aren't aware of, including having your work taken advantage of. You are in fact, "taking a hobby into a business structure", which can offer you all kinds of protections, and values, but you really need to learn more about business, as the primary owner of that business. I hope you do. The product is good. It has value and should have a price put on it. But I think your 'shot-in-the-dark' effort to set a price is probably not your best option. I contend, like jcc5018 seems to, people, really customers, will pay. How much? Certainly not $50 at the opening gate. $10, maybe $15, yes I can see that. Pricing over time always increases.
Then there is the model where $50 could make sense. Many manufacturers/publishers set a high manufacturer's "suggested" retail price, known as MSRP; then they put it on sale, nearly constantly, especially as an initial offering at a considerably discounted price. In this case, maybe $15 for a 'Grand Opening' sale price. Then you can also work on add-on products, sold separately. That way, everyone WINS, customers get what's of value to them in the way of add-ons, you get a growing installed base, you support your family, the product gets better/upgraded over time, you build a much larger identity, which has value.

[Sophist-UK]

@Sheldon-Monk I agree with this strategy - I used it with my own (non-IT) business where we opened with a special offer £7/day price with a plan to increase it a bit after an opening offer period and then increase it again annually and within 5 years once we had regular clients we were charging £15 a day for the same service. That said, for $15 you cannot afford to provide formal support - and commercial customers where time is literally money want to know that they will get prompt and professional support and are prepared to pay something for it. Commercial customers can also put a value on the cost of creating and supporting e.g. their own development environments, and if Laragon can provide it at a fraction of this cost, then perhaps $100+ is a reasonable amount - so you need to assess what the value of your software is and also what the competition charge (with free V6 being a competitor).

BUT the only way to find out is to ask a bunch of existing commercial customers i.e. do some market research - and (@leokhoa take note) the risk of pricing yourself too high is that your existing customers cease being enthusiasts that recommend the software to others and indeed cease being users altogether and you kill off your own market before you get going.

[Sophist-UK]

@Sheldon-Monk A gross and incorrect generalisation based on non-knowledge resulting in a libel (if I could be bothered to take action which I can't).

1. Leo's name is Leo not Lou. If you can't even get that right when his name is on this web pages dozens of times...

2. Jon was asking for better non-commercial pricing of c. $10 and my response was "Your pricing message is one I have been saying for several weeks ever since the first v7 announcement. I am hopeful that there will be a pricing change announced in a couple of weeks or so, and that it will address your comments." So what exactly has prompted you to tell me incorrectly that Leo and I are focussing on commercial possibilities?

3. In fact you are saying exactly the same things publicly that I have been saying publicly literally for months and that several are saying to him privately.

So I suggest that you stop criticising others (and libelling them) based on a wrong interpretation of public facts and a wrong guess about what is being said privately.

[Benoit1980]

Leo, how can I contact you personally, please? I may have an idea for you. Thanks.

[leokhoa]

@Benoit1980: Sure, here is my personal email: leokhoa@gmail.com

[Benoit1980]

Thanks Leo, email sent. Hope it is not in your spam.

[gcyrillus]

Hello, I understand and have no trouble with a paid Licence, nothing can be free for ever.

I am surprised of the price and i will explain why:
I am a cook and i try to code a bit as a hobby. I was happy to find Laragon.
It is perfect when you have a single family computer for a faux debutante like me and of course students.
It is a great tool for beginners they can skip to learn how to setup a local server on their machine and go straight to the first lesson they are interested in.
But i believe 50$ is too much for these users.

A freelance might find usefull the portable version to show a single customer where he is up to and eventually runs at Home Laragon. 50$ can seem to be a fair price for such a tool.

For companies or skilled professionals, i have no idea if they do use Laragon.?

For me, as a faux debutante, i will stick to the version 6.0 which runs fine for me. I would have paid to contribute for the later versions if the price was not that high for me.

This is just my thoughts and i might be totally wrong.

I wish you the best and to your family too.
I will also keep advising and talking about Laragon that i like very much!
and I wish you lots of success with Laragon, you deserve it

edit: Since this comment, i realize that the download link of version 6 of Laragon no longer appears on the download page and nothing about version 7 says it needs a paid licence. I cannot really anymore advise Laragon since only v7 is linked to be downloaded and that without a working licence you'll have to deal with intrusive popups )

I did grab the 10$ dollar licence^{(that i can afford to participate somehow to the cost or time spent for users)}, downloaded v7 but never installed it and will probably not, sticking to v6 that runs fine for my usage.

[leokhoa]

@dcog989 : Well said. I uploaded the portable version of Laragon to GitHub so everyone can download, fork, and create their own variants with ease. I never intended for this to become a source of drama. Sorry, but I can no longer dedicate my time to developing Laragon for free.

[Sophist-UK]

Thanks for the info. I think this project needs to decide what it is - either purely commercial or an open source community. If the former, close / lock the repo. If the latter, embrace what open source means and allow people to contribute by means that are not just financial and reward them by access to the software for testing and personal use - just as thousands of very successful projects do.

For me, I'll uninstall and find an alternative.

I am a passionate advocate of open source, but in this specific case I can actually see a way for Laragon to be chargeable, earn Leo a living and yet still have a lot of the qualities of open source in terms of harnessing the enthusiasm and synergies of a non-commercial community who get a great product at a cheap price and respond by contributing back to make it a better and better product that can get more and more users.

Leo could if he wanted work WITH the community, whereby he focusses on the commercial side and on developing the UI and the coordinating functionality that can only be handled inside the executable - whilst the community handles a lot of the more peripheral development of scripts and configuration files for installing and configuring individual services to keep up to date with technical advances and to make configuring these services easier and easier. The result could be a fantastic tool that looks great and is leaps and bounds ahead of both v6 and the competition and which would deliver so much value that people won't think twice about paying for a license. This is my vision, and inside my head I have a lot of the ideas fleshed out, waiting for the opportunity to synergise them with others in the community and for the opportunity to have Leo listen to these ideas (which will be given for free for him to consider even if he ultimately decides otherwise). As I say, I don't see any real conflict between having a chargeable product which is part proprietary and part the result of community contributions where these are both developed in a cooperative approach.

But this is NOT what is happening right now - rather than getting the best of both worlds, we currently appear to be seeing the worst of it. The enthusiastic community had already waited two years for a major upgrade to a free tool and instead received a minor upgrade and huge bill. And instead of developing and selling a compelling vision of future enhancements that would justify people spending a large sum on a minor technical upgrade, instead he wants to shut out most of the community that he genuinely needs in order to make this a success whilst focussing only on pricing and on fixes to minor technical issues.

As Leo has just said, this shouldn't have become a source of drama - and unfortunately it has unfortunately become a drama - but in my view it has NOT become a drama solely because it has become a chargeable license [1] , but rather because of the way it is being pitched which is lacking in the vision, professionalism and engagement that is needed to justify the large commercial license fees being demanded.

---

[1] It is easy to prove that this is a value-for-money and professionalism issue by looking at edge cases:

Even if the commercial license were $10 per seat, IMO it would be highly unlikely that any significant enterprise would consider purchasing a license.

• Enterprise customers have legal reviews of all licenses, and Laragon doesn't have a legal license for them to review.
• They need to have all the underlying open source products listed and they need to have the license details of all these other products presented to them too.
• They want to know where the product will be going before they invest in implementing any product, and there is no vision setting a direction.
• They want to be confident that Laragon only uses widely respected open source software (like PHP and Apache) which are considered secure, and not minor packages that might not be - and they need to be reassured that if a security issue is identified in any of them that the Laragon team will be all over it like a rash to ensure it is mitigated within hours rather than years.
• They will want to know what the support service levels are - if their environment is down, they want to know that someone will be on the phone immediately and for as long as it takes until they get it back up again.

On the other hand, do we really think that any user non-commercial, small-commercial or enterprise is genuinely worried (given the power of today's computers) about whether the executable has "a core binary size around 2MB and RAM usage around 4MB" rather than 200MB and 400MB? Seriously???? Come on??!!

As you can see, literally none of these issues are technical - they are almost all about professionalism and communication.

[dcog989]

@leokhoa - I didn't intend for this to be "drama"! Just offering my perspective - which I think will be very common. Lots of people are hobby / fun coders and will not give out their credit card, especially just to try something. You then lose all those people from growing the project.

Consider that I knew nothing about the project, I found https://laragon.org/ (the org strongly suggesting open source), there's no mention anywhere on the site of payment required, I download and install, start the app - and only then discover I'm getting redirected to 'lemon' and asked for money! It has 'Nigerian Prince' vibes!!

I use / contribute to many OS projects, and many of them are financially successful for the developers even though the software is free (for non-commercial use / reduced feature set). Premium features for the commercial release? Market your skills to companies for consultancy?

[Sophist-UK]

Or take a commission on relevant (for web dev) paid software that Laragon facilitates the purchase and download of. But for that you need a BIG base of non-enterprise customers. (And you need to stop being unreasonably worried about keeping your executable memory usage below 10MB!!) Or offer to add specific relevant (for web dev) functionality for enterprise customers (if you ever get them) - if an enterprise customer wants specific support for (say) a beta release of PHP or e.g. Apache Netbeans they could pay for a few days work to have it added for them. Or ...

But all of these ideas require a customer base with either a large base of non-commercial and small commercial licenses or a large base of enterprise customers, and to get that you need to get your marketing spot on!!

[jordantrizz]

I use / contribute to many OS projects, and many of them are financially successful for the developers even though the software is free (for non-commercial use / reduced feature set). Premium features for the commercial release? Market your skills to companies for consultancy?

Have you financially contributed? If so which projects?

[Benoit1980]

Hi all,

I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for Leo and the incredible product he's built. It's clear how much time and effort he's poured into this, and it's made a huge difference for all of us for many years.

I believe it's important to respect Leo's vision for his product and his right to make decisions about its future, including how it's commercialized.

Let's remember to show Leo the appreciation he deserves.

[OmarHasan16]

Thanks for letting me know, we'll grab the new version soon. As a student I want support to What is lifetime pricing.

[BenoiQuerne]

Hi Leo,
Laragon helped me in the past.
Now my turn to give back, will definitely take the paid version.
I am also expat in Spain since 2021 with 2 kids :) and know the everyday life struggles in the area of Balears
Kindly

[ucsendre]

Dear @leokhoa
Thank you for the great software.
Could you please place a link on the official Laragon website to the licensing page? ([https://laragon.lemonsqueezy.com/]https://laragon.lemonsqueezy.com/)
One more thing. I think the update options of Perpetual (Lifetime) license versions should also be explained a bit more. Now it says: "Updates: 5 year of free updates" which is clear, but what do we have to do after 5 years? Buy another Perpetual (Lifetime) license for the same server? Or will we be able to get paid updates? What will be the price of paid updates?
I wish you all the best.
Endre

[kohlercode]

Laragon is cool. I am speaking from decades of experiences with xampp, mamp etc... I will get a license now.

@leokhoa If you still live in a country with high taxes, learn about PANAMA.
Foreign income here is 100% tax free. All your money is yours.
I live here for about 10 years now, without paying a single $$ income tax.
Tax on non-food products is only 7%.
Monthly electrical bill about $30 for a family.
Panama is safe, no mandatory school system, but good private schools available if needed.

[johndodev]

Don't come in France 😄

[leokhoa]

@fullstackfreelancer : Thank you so much for the info! I absolutely love Spain and the EU, but Panama sounds really exciting. I'm definitely going to dig deeper into it.

[johndodev]

Years of using this software for free

🤣 this sentence alone should justify to reward the creator at some point.

[andy4w1255]

Appreciate everything from you.

[nomidevo8]

@leokhoa
We loved your work.
Thanks for giving us a professional tool.
These line hit my heart man "If I focus on my job, Laragon stalls. If I focus on Laragon while offering free, my family struggles."
I'm feeling sorry, You really great man, But Here I'm in struggling period, so I cannot get a paid version. But I hope your life will get good success in future My Friend. We are waiting for your success man. Good LUCK !

[Kev2d]

Look, I get it, you license your software and want to get paid for your efforts, fair enough. But Laragon popping up a damn browser window twice every time I open it, and then nagging me again after a short while, is just ridiculous. Once is enough. Thanks for the good application.

[Sophist-UK]

Laragon v7/8 is NOT nag-ware it is paid software. If you use it without paying you are in breach of license conditions.

If you don't want a popup, and you want to use it legally, then use v6 instead which is free.

[Kev2d]

Never said it was nagware, but by any normal human definition, that’s exactly what nagware is.

[husnilkhatimi]

@Sophist-UK in the updated website, its allowed to be used unlicensed https://laragon.org/pricing

[Sophist-UK]

I stand corrected - not sure when @leokhoa agreed to that.

In which case, I agree that if he is going to allow non-commercial use, then the nags should not be unreasonably frequent.

[NMorgana]

I’ve been using Laragon for quite a while (the free version), and honestly, I was really impressed by how friendly and easy it is to manage all my projects. That experience is what finally made me decide to acquire a license.

I completely understand your decision, life simply isn’t free, and as for myself, I also can’t keep profiting from something without giving back. You’ve built something truly valuable here, and I’m grateful for it, so thank you for all the effort.

Wishing you and your family all the best, and looking forward to seeing Laragon continue to grow!

[byneurabot]

Yeah. I will do same thing. I will continue to use it. I notice it's true valuable. Engineers should life of his work.

[Chijiokecalls]

### how to change or upgrade from one license key to another. thanks

[rfrkk]

關於 Laragon 作者決定要收費這件事，我想跟大家分享一下我的看法，其實這件事蠻值得討論的。

簡單來說，我的觀點是支持而且樂觀其成的。原因有幾點：

• 開發者也是人，要吃飯養家的嘛。
  當一個專案的維護已經影響到作者的現實生活時，與其讓他放棄這個專案，還不如讓他有個能持續下去的收入。我們省下的那些設定環境的時間和精力，就是這個軟體的價值所在，為好東西付費是很合理的。

• 這是一個專案從「佛心分享」走向「商業產品」的正常過程。
  有穩定的收入，作者才能更專心地把 Laragon 功能做得更強、修掉更多 Bug、增進更加效能。這對我們這些長期用戶來說，絕對是好事。一個有人專職維護的產品，肯定比單靠熱情發電的專案更有保障。

• 我也完全能理解為什麼有些朋友會反彈。
  畢竟免費的東西用習慣了，突然要錢當然會有點錯愕。並且不可否認Laragon的執行效能肯定是第一名，能掛載的模組種類和自由度也肯定是第一名。仍然有許多缺點可以談，例如操作部分功能不好使用，文件不詳細，改版過慢...

• 最終，市場會決定一切。
  如果 Laragon 真的好用，它的價值也對得起那個價格，那大家自然會願意買單。如果不行，大家也會去找其他替代方案。這很公平，也將會是督促作者把產品做得更好的最大動力。

總之，我個人是支持作者的勇敢決定，這對 Laragon 的長遠發展是好事。希望 Laragon 能變得越來越好！

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

This is the Google Translate translation of this comment:

Regarding the Laragon author's decision to charge a fee, I'd like to share my thoughts, as this is a topic worth discussing.

Simply put, I support and am optimistic about it. Here are a few reasons:

Developers are human too; they need to eat and support their families.

When maintaining a project starts impacting the author's daily life, it's better to provide them with a sustainable income than to force them to abandon the project. The time and effort we save in setting up the environment is the value of the software, and paying for good things is reasonable.

This is a normal process for a project to transition from a "generous sharing" to a "commercial product."

With a stable income, the author can focus more on making Laragon more functional, fixing more bugs, and improving its performance. This is definitely a good thing for us long-term users. A product with dedicated maintenance is certainly more secure than a project relying solely on enthusiasm.

I also completely understand why some people are reacting negatively.

After all, we're used to using free things, so suddenly having to pay is naturally a bit of a shock. And undeniably, Laragon's execution performance is top-notch, as is the variety and flexibility of its mountable modules. However, there are still many shortcomings to discuss, such as the user-unfriendly operation of some functions, insufficient documentation, and slow update speeds.

Ultimately, the market will decide everything.

If Laragon truly delivers on its promise and its price justifies its cost, then people will naturally be willing to buy it. If not, people will seek alternatives. This is fair and will be the biggest motivation for the developers to improve the product.

In short, I personally support the developers' courageous decision, which is good for Laragon's long-term development. I hope Laragon will continue to improve!

[Sophist-UK]

I was also going to provide the same translation, but you beat me to it! 😁

I also support Leo trying to make a living from his software - however because Laragon is not the only software available that does this kind of thing, if you are wanting to charge serious amounts for a commercial license, then Laragon needs to have a compelling business case & significant unique selling points. IMO this means:

• a modern UI, developed with modern tools
• support for the complete range of functions that a developer might want - and there are swathes of functionality supported by Laravel that is NOT supported by Laragon
• comprehensive documentation
• excellent support.

Leo's pitch was essentially as follows:

• Buy expensive commercial licenses now, which will
• Allow me to work full time on creating the above

But his existing customer base was almost all hobbyists who were / are never going to buy expensive licenses - but who would mostly pay for a very cheap license to support Leo whilst the software was not yet at a commercial standard. But potential commercial customers are much less likely to buy an incomplete product with poor documentation and support based on a promise that it will get better, and to reach these potential commercial customers so they found out about about his software he needed / needs either to advertise heavily ($$$$) or rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from the hobbyist community.

So he had a difficulty - how to get enough money initially to allow him to work on it full time in order to make the product worth the money for new commercial customers?

The good news was that at that time, he had a sizeable enthusiastic community of hobbyist users who might be willing to:

• Contribute peripheral code and documentation, reducing the amount of effort Leo himself would need to make, and allowing the needed quality improvements to be achieved quicker; and
• Pay a small no-brainer license fee for access to incremental improvements in functionality; and
• Continue to evangelise about this great product and avoid expensive advertising

I spent a lot of time counselling him not to squander the massive amount of goodwill he had from the hobbyist community, but instead to harness and leverage it to help him get to a commercially viable product faster.

I had some success, in that he did eventually agree to offer a cheaper non-commercial license to the existing hobbyist community, but quite a lot of good will had been squandered already by that point, and he didn't get the mass conversion of licenses he needed to fund the development and by holding the community at arms length and insisting that the product should be entirely closed with himself as the only contributor the net result has been only minor improvements. And eventually, Leo got tired of me suggesting a different way, and he stopped listening.

So here we are, a year down the line, with new (free) competitors entering the market, and a reasonable amount of resentment from many long-time users who were previously the evangelists who Leo is relying upon to spread the word to potential commercial customers who will pay the big bucks. And if any of those competitors decide to harness a community of enthusiastic hobbyists who want to contribute by making their product partially or fully open source, then Laragon is going to be rapidly overtaken in both functionality and by the free publicity of evangelistic users.

[felixdotgo]

Totally agree to paid for good software, as a Vietnamese I can a part imagine how hard to living in another country. Just go back to use Windows as main OS for work and paid $20 for 2 devices. When I passed my 2 months probation, I'll spent more for Laragon. Wish you all the best.

[r-brown]

@leokhoa I wish you all the best as you take this next step. Moving toward a licensing model can really help you build a more secure future.
If you ever want guidance on licensing strategy or anything related, I’m here to help.

[byneurabot]

Anyone should live from her talent and competences. @leokhoa

[worwed34]

[leokhoa]

@worwed34 : Sorry, you contacted LemonSqueezy so we did not know.
Your case is answer correctly here:
https://laragon.org/pricing#faq

18. What If I reinstall Windows or change devices, how can I transfer or reactivate my license?
    You must first deactivate it from the previous installation it's attached to. This ensures your license stays within the allowed device limit. Here's how:

`1. Visit https://app.lemonsqueezy.com/my-orders
2. Log in and click on your Laragon order under My Orders
3. Under Licenses, click your license key (e.g., XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXX)
4. A popup will appear with an option to deactivate the license

Once deactivated, you can reuse the license key on a different device.

[Sophist-UK]

@leokhoa Leo - @worwed34 Mustafa clearly stated that he had to reformat his PC, the likely implication being that he couldn't boot the old Windows installation and so wouldn't have been able to deactivate the previous license. In these circumstances (and as Mustafa requested) you probably need to take administrative action to deactivate the license for him so that he can then reactivate it on the new Windows install.

[leokhoa]

@Sophist-UK : Thanks, @worwed34 can do that himself with the above instructions.

[worwed34]

The license issue I previously experienced has been resolved.
Issue: Shortly after purchasing the license, I had to format my computer due to a system problem. When I tried to enter my license again on the same machine, it was not accepted.
Result: The support team reset my license quickly, and everything is now working without any problems. Thank you.

[Ookma-Kyi]

If I buy an extended license, can I renew it at an upgrade price or do I need to buy a new one? I ask because as an open source developer I am also using my own funds to fund the project. My project doesn't make any money at all, which is considered noncommercial. I understand the developer's situation because I'm also facing financial constraints.

[CDOBITOS]

Quiero compartir un poco de mi historia con vosotros.

Hace unos años, gracias a mi experiencia en computación en la nube y programación, desempeñé un papel clave en la transformación del SaaS de mi jefe en una empresa multimillonaria. Lideré el desarrollo de una plataforma global de vanguardia basada en Kubernetes, diseñada para ser rápida, altamente escalable, segura y de fiabilidad constante. La plataforma funciona como Laragon (adaptada para producción): funciona de forma fluida y con una eficiencia notable. Gracias a su robusta arquitectura, logramos tiempos de inactividad casi nulos, a la vez que brindamos soporte continuo a miles de clientes empresariales. Como agradecimiento, nos patrocinó a mí y a mi familia para mudarnos a Ibiza, España. Todo iba bien... hasta que mi jefe vendió la empresa y los nuevos dueños decidieron que yo, un antiguo miembro del equipo directivo, era "de alto perfil y caro", y me echaron. Fue una época triste. No les importa que haya contribuido mucho al negocio y que vaya a tener un hijo. No quiero recordarlo.

Vivo en España, un país extranjero, con mi esposa y mis tres hijos, incluyendo a nuestra bebé recién nacida. España es un país agradable, pero los impuestos son altos . Si a eso le sumamos una hipoteca, préstamos bancarios y el hecho de que mi esposa no puede trabajar debido a su visado (tiene un visado no lucrativo), la presión aumenta. Fuera del trabajo, comparto la responsabilidad del cuidado de nuestros hijos con mi esposa. Mi hijo mayor solo tiene 7 años. No hablamos español con fluidez, lo que añade más desafíos a la vida en un país extranjero. Sin embargo, a pesar de las dificultades, no quiero quejarme ni rendirme. De hecho, disfruto mucho pasando tiempo con mis hijos.

Por eso pensé mucho en Laragon, el software que me encanta. Lo creé para que fuera gratuito para siempre porque creo firmemente que puede ayudar a la gente. Pero la verdad es que lo gratuito no paga las cuentas. He estado aceptando trabajos para mantenerme a flote, pero esos trabajos me consumen tiempo y energía, dejándome poco o nada de espacio para desarrollar Laragon. Las habilidades requeridas para mi trabajo eran muy diferentes de la experiencia técnica necesaria para desarrollar algo como Laragon. Si me concentro en mi trabajo, Laragon se estanca. Si me concentro en Laragon mientras ofrezco lo gratuito, mi familia tiene dificultades.

Ha sido difícil. Por eso estoy implementando un modelo de licencias de pago. No fue una decisión fácil, pero creo en ella. Con su apoyo, puedo dedicar más tiempo a Laragon, mejorarlo y, al mismo tiempo, mantener a mi familia a flote.

Espero que me entiendan y me acompañen en este viaje. Laragon es mi pasión, y con su apoyo, creo que puedo hacer de Laragon algo mejor.

Gracias por todo.

Si deseas seguir usando la versión gratuita, Laragon 6 sigue disponible. En mi caso, quiero que entiendas que no puedo ofrecerte tiempo para mejorar Laragon y la versión gratuita. Puedes explorar otros programas, pero podrías tener muchos problemas financieros y el mismo problema financiero.

hola , acabo de comprar dos lic de laragon, mi correo es aldo_pc@cip.org.pe, y solo me ha llegado 1 licencia y cuando quiero activar me sale error

[CDOBITOS]

hola , acabo de comprar dos lic de laragon, mi correo es aldo_pc@cip.org.pe , y solo me ha llegado 1 licencia y cuando quiero activarme sale error