Bit of rant but, I honestly don't understand why the big devs don't offer machine or cloud activation for their plugins. I don't see the need for me to buy another device to use a software product. The usb ilok doesn't offer anything over machine activation. They can be stolen or be broken much easier and unnecessarily take up an extra usb port.

I legit have been turned off from buying empiracal labs' arouser plugin and slate plugins solely because they don't offer that option. Idk, what are your thoughts? iLok, while shitty, is bearable when you don't need a usb device plugged in. I have about 43 licenses for plugins which I don't have any issues with.

 

Spot on @Noobonic

Last year I bit the bullet and bought myself an USB iLok3.

the advantage is that you can move your plugs to another computer and not being limited as to which developers you can buy from - which imo is pretty importent.

But you´re perfectly right: the activation issue should be dealed with differently - it´s not perfect as it is!

 

In my experience most of them do offer this.

As far as I am aware the ones that don't are Slate, ELI and McDSP

 

@phloopy What happens if that usb key dies? How does support handle the licenses? But with machine activation you just sign in into the license manager and you're good to go, so usb doesn't offer any extra convenience.

@5teezo that's my point, there's nothing stopping them. It's just stupid to not offer it. I would buy a perpetual license from Slate for a few products if they offered it.

 

because without dongle you can share your licenses with another user.
I suppose they want to avoid that

 

@Krugen there's an activation limit already. They can limit to 1 activation like JST does.

 

Last edited: Nov 22, 2020

the computer activation is basically a string of text in a computer. obviously much easier to circumvent as a limitation compared to a dongle

thats the only explanation i can think of

 

If it get lost or dies you´re actually able to restore access to your plugs - it takes time and cost you a fee, but it´s possible.
As I said above you can (with the usb iLok) without problems move your plugs from one computer to another.
I have several dongles and I dont fancy any of them at all, period, but I still think it´s the second best solution - at least for me.