We've been building software on the Mac for more than 20 years. Over that time, we’ve used many systems to license and distribute our apps. As a result, we know first-hand what it takes to ship outside the Mac App Store successfully.

Over the past few years, alongside developing Squash 3 and the next generation of RapidWeaver, we’ve been quietly building DevAnt, A Licensing and Distribution Platform for Mac Developers.

Squash 3 and RapidWeaver both use the DevAnt platform.

DevAnt handles many essential things when shipping apps directly, including crash reports, analytics, distribution, and activation. Unfortunately, all of these things are very complex once you dig into adding each component.

We wanted to share a little more information on licensing and activation as it's an essential part of DevAnt.

We know activation is an area where many developers struggle, especially with an emerging array of ways to license an app. However, DevAnt can already handle every type of activation, including lifetime licenses, renewable licenses, and subscriptions, as well as the number of activations per license.

As an app developer, you have to stitch together many different services and open-source code to get close to the level of functionality you need. We know this is a pain and a big time sink.

DevAnt is the solution for quickly and securely shipping apps direct to customers.

We’re not ready to launch DevAnt just yet, but if you’re a Mac developer interested in the project, head to the DevAnt webpage and sign up to learn more. See less