Introducing license upgrades, renewals, and new integrations

We built Keyforge's payment integrations to remove the backend work from software licensing. Connect your payment provider, and Keyforge handles the full license lifecycle: creation on purchase, extension on renewal, expiry on cancellation. No webhooks to write, no database to maintain.

Until now, that meant Stripe. Today, we are extending the same integration to Polar and Lemon Squeezy, and launching new features available across all three providers: license upgrades, license renewals, and perpetual fallback.

Polar and Lemon Squeezy integrations

Both integrations work the same way the Stripe one does. Connect your account in the Keyforge dashboard, link your products, and Keyforge takes care of the rest.

One-time purchases generate a license immediately after a completed payment. You can configure the expiration as perpetual (buy once, own forever), timed with an offset from the purchase date (for example, one year from purchase), or timed to a fixed date. The customer receives a personalized email with their license key and product details automatically.

Subscriptions create a timed license matching the billing period. The license is automatically extended on each successful renewal and expires at the end of the last paid period when a subscription is cancelled. Plan changes sync automatically: if a customer upgrades or downgrades through the billing portal, their license is updated to reflect the new configuration without any work on your end.

Both integrations configure webhooks on your account automatically. You provide a restricted API key with only the permissions Keyforge needs, and your credentials are encrypted at rest.

License upgrades

Upgrades let customers move to a higher license tier directly from the customer portal. You configure up to three upgrade options per product in the Keyforge dashboard, each mapping to a higher-priced product in your payment provider.

When a customer purchases an upgrade, their existing license is updated immediately. They keep the same key and gain the new tier's configuration: higher device limits, an extended expiration, or any other differences between the tiers. No new key, no manual update.

This works with all three payment providers and for both one-time and subscription products.

License renewals

Renewals allow customers with expired timed licenses to extend their access from the customer portal. You configure up to three renewal options per product, each offering a different extension duration.

When a customer renews, they complete a standard checkout and their license expiration is extended right away. No support ticket, no manual action required.

Renewals pair naturally with perpetual fallback: customers whose licenses have lapsed can see their limited-access status in the portal and renew without needing to contact support.

Perpetual fallback

Perpetual fallback is a product setting that changes how expired licenses behave. Instead of becoming immediately invalid, an expired license enters a fallbacked state. Your application decides what limited access looks like in practice.

if (data.status === 'active') {
  // Full access
} else if (data.status === 'fallbacked') {
  // License expired - grant limited access
} else {
  // No valid license - prompt for a key
}

For subscriptions, this is useful for giving customers a grace window to re-subscribe or for letting them retain read-only access to content they created while subscribed. For one-time timed licenses, it creates a natural nudge toward renewal rather than a hard cutoff.

We wrote a dedicated post on perpetual fallback patterns and use cases if you want a deeper look at when and how to use it.

Getting started

All three payment integrations are available now. Head to Payment Accounts in the dashboard to connect Stripe, Polar, or Lemon Squeezy. Once connected, go to Payment Products to link your products and configure upgrades and renewals. Perpetual fallback access is a separate setting configured on the product itself.

For a full setup walkthrough, see the payment integration documentation.