Web Designer, Entrepreneur

Are you planning to buy PHP scripts for your website? Then you gotta read this.
I can tell you buying a complete and working PHP script has a lot of advantages. It is cheap, it is very easy to install on your server and the best of all your website is up and running in no time with just a little effort. But before you jump into buying I would like to share my experience with you that could actually make you reconsider your decision.

So should you or should you not buy?

I bought several PHP scripts over the past few years and I’ve been happy with all of them …. until now.

When you are getting PHP script from someone else these days, it is most likely that the script is encrypted and protected with some kind of license key management. It is understandable the developers want to protect their work and their intellectual property. All is great, you can easily control the look of your site by simply editing the template and in many cases you can even add new functionality to your site or you can just go to the developers and have the script customized to your needs.

So where’s the problem?

Several months ago I purchased a PHP script for one of my websites. Everything was great until a few days ago. I went to my website only to find out that instead of the pages I expected there was a message displayed saying I have an invalid license key and I should check the license key or contact the developers in order to get my site back up. Surely enough, the license key was correct. I checked it several times.

Few days and several emails to the developers later there was no sign of getting any help whatsoever. Then, I found out the whole thing (PHP script with rights etc.) was sold to someone else who apparently ignores all emails. Luckily for me I was able to get a hold of the original developer who restored my license and even promised to send me copy of the files that do not require the license key (oh, what a relieve that was).

The conclusion

The conclusion? Unless there’s an open source PHP script built by a community of developers I think it is better to spend more money on PHP scripts that have no encrypted files and no license management crap embedded. Or even better, if you have tons of extra money on your hands you should hire someone and have the script built from the ground up.

Anyway, no matter what your decision is, always make sure you have full access to all the files of your script and that you can have it customized by any developer.

Spending some more money on your website development can actually safe you from a lot of stress and you’ll save some money in the long run too.

Good luck!