Why do we use IonCube?
Cart2Quote has a single mission - to be and stay the most complete Quotation Extension on the market for the Magento platform.
We're working full-time, day in, day out, improving and extending our module. We do this because we love the Magento platform and we're proud of our module.
To be in it for the long run, to be a reliable partner for the users of Cart2Quote, and to stay the best, we decided we need commercial viability.
Commercial viability.
• It's not a part-time job (anymore) - we need the revenue to support our developers. We can't give our software away.
• We're committed to stay on top and be the best quotation module out there. We need income for that.
• We're in it for the long run, and we’re dedicated to being a reliable partner to you, our valued customers.
We have researched many, if not all, of the options out there, but we have not found a better alternative than IonCube to protect our work from theft and other mischief, and that security enables us to make a part of our software freely available via our licensing software.
We protect our software to prevent the advanced features from becoming freely available on the internet. An important part of the encryption is to enable our licensing system. We have one software version and by using the license, the advanced features are unlocked.
IonCube protects and enables
• Without encryption, there is no licensing and no free version.
• To use the advanced features of Cart2Quote you need to order a license.
• The encryption of the 6 files further prevents users from using the advanced features without payment.
Are there any downsides for the storeowner to using IonCube?
Yes, there are two potential disadvantages that come with using encrypted software. First of all, developers are a bit more limited when altering and customizing the module themselves. To increase the freedom of developers, we have encoded only a very small part of the script. Only our core controllers are encoded. We left the entire model and view files completely open source as this will allow developers to make changes by themselves. Need to customize the module? You can either purchase the open source version, or you request a customization. We are happy to make the module a perfect fit for your business. Request a quote here.
The second downside is that the encrypted files take a bit longer to load, because they need decryption by IonCube when they load, but Cart2Quote only encrypts 6 controller files and this will not have a significant impact on your site performance. Magento itself has some downsides that have a much greater impact on your load speed.
If your site performance is slowing down, there are some very good solutions on the market that help you to improve the speed of Magento. Have a look at this caching option or maybe even better the newly introduced (late 2014) HHVM
The downsides of IonCube:
• Limited freedom in customizing the module yourself.
• Some impact on the speed performance.
Are we hiding something in the encrypted files?
Well, it's encrypted, so you could say that we hide everything in those 6 files. But it’s not anything questionable. We are not hiding anything nefarious in those 6 files. We are not collecting your customer data, product data, prices, order quantities, or anything like that. Our users who have the open source version can verify this. We do track general usage of our module for licensing and analytics purposes.
We do track general usage
• We do receive general information.
• We don't receive customer or product related data.
• We do use this information to continue to improve our software.
Conclusion
• Only 6 controller files (out of more than 350 files) are encrypted.
• The speed performance impact is minimal with Cart2Quote's encrypted files.
• We protect our software to remain commercially viable, and to be a reliable partner that continuously improves our software.
• The encryption enables the licensing system which enables us to provide a free version forever.
Did you know?
Magento uses IonCube to protect the EE version of their software!