Today an iLok stick could be much less painful and small. Back in the day they were huuuuuugeee
I still have a dongle because I beta test for a few companies, and sometimes the betas will only work with a dongle (or I can only figure out how to make them work with a dongle because the instruction manuals often arenāt written yet when I get the software, and I donāt want to lose testing time having to figure this out with support). Most of the time I activate to my PC hardware itself when allowed, so I donāt have to worry about internet connectivity. I think in 3-4 years Iāve not had my cloud activations work once, which I was able to sort out quickly (my internet wasnāt down, Iād just left my laptop in airplane mode).
As far as new machines go, I went through that process earlier this year. Most plugins allow two machine activations. So I got everything up and running on my new PC, confirmed it was working/loading my projects and running all audio/drivers correctly. Then I uninstalled and deactivated plugins on the old PC to free up that spare license. It took about a day, which is about how long Iād expect it to take to set up all my music software. TBH I think the total time I spent on Ilok in that day was maybe 30 minutes. Vast majority of the time was pointing installers to the custom folders I like to use for VSTs.
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iLok = instant PTSD for me. I donāt want to swear so let me just say it was a real kerfuffle to deal with and Iām happy I moved away from anything using it. Bye bye Akai!
Dongles are awful but I donāt find iLok all that bad.
It takes about two minutes to validate a plug-in.
iLok charges a $25 fee for license transfers. So if you want to sell the license, you have to cough up $25. Buy an Eventide plugin on sale for $30? You pretty much canāt sell it because of the fee.
Iāve never quite understood the hatred, maybe it dates back to the days of the dongle or it used to be more unstable. Ilok can be a bit of a pain if your laptop dies without you deactivating it and you have to reset your licensesā¦ but tbh I have had no stability issues or anything and I think itās important that devs can have some degree of protection against piracy without needing to roll their own solution every time, otherwise the incentive to create cool stuff disappears.
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Ah I didnāt know this. Thatās a reason to hate on it for sure
To end users, iLokās biggest selling point is āitās not nearly as terrible as it used to beā. Not exactly a stellar value proposition compared to all the others on the market where you just register a serial number and thatās it.
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Has iLok been hacked? Because that is / should be / was itās biggest selling point to their end users.
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The use of ilok is a clear signal to the customer that they are of secondary importance. Please donāt support these companies.
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TBF, I only use iLok Cloud for my Sugar plugin, which is indispensable for me. Never had much of a problem with it. Although I donāt have Wi-Fi yet so hotspotting my phone when Iām doing something ITB is a wee pain. But itās worth it. Could be a problem without access to the interwebs tho 
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i think every AAX plug in requires PACE in order to work in pro tools. I could be wrong about this. .but have some memory of reading a developerās woes when porting their products to AAX and getting the PACE signing procedure to work while not actually requiring PACE/iLok for authorization.
so, just throwing it out there but thereās not always a choice other than not participating in some formats which might effect a companyās longevity or business plan or whatever.
i do appreciate when developers get rid of all copy protection w/their plug ins. some have done this and said itās not effected their bottom line at allā¦ people who buy things still buy the things and people who pirate still pirate.
but that doesnāt work for everyone and i can see multiple sides of the argument and just accept whatever people have to do to make things work for them. beyond that i have no dog in the fight. thereās so much available these days that if someone likes or dislikes a copy protection thing they can generally find alternate tools that suit their needs.
i use ilok licenser and then thereās like 5 or 6 other companies that have their own dedicated software licenser/portalā¦ and thereās companies that still use serial numbers or no copy protection at allā¦ ya just download the installer from your customer account and install.
itās all the same to me. not gonna get on a soap box about beyond this one here 
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I hate Avid and ProTools with a passion.
ilok is, as someone above said, itās not as bad as it used to be.
I prefer simpler copy protection schemes. I dislike anything where the computer phones home, or that needs a helper app thatās supposed to launch on startup.
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Truly my sentiment. I simply will not buy a product if it uses iLok.
Somewhere along the way (years ago now) I apparently (according to iLok) accidentally creating two accounts at the iLok website. Then, when I had to replace my laptop, and then tried to install a couple of VSTs that use it, I wasnāt able to authenticate my login. I think I did eventually figure it out, but it was such a hassle and I canāt remember what I had to do to get it working, I just skip those VSTs now that I have yet again replaced my laptop in the last year. So, consider them wasted money, and just stay away from anything that uses iLok.
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Yep, that was me. There was a time when iLok/Pace was absolute garbage and was well known for destroying systems due to faulty installations. I personally fell into this in the early 2000ās when something I got required it. I canāt recall the specifics, but I encountered issues with it not working correctly, had to update or re-install the driver and afterwards my system would no longer boot (BSOD error).
Back then, full system backups werenāt as easy (external storage limitations) and online/cloud backups didnāt exist, so recovering from that (reinstalling from scratch) was a huge, multi-day ordeal. I completely swore off iLok for 10-15 years after that.
Things change and improve though, so at some point I caved (might have been for Sonnox plugins) and I havenāt had a single issue for probably 5-6 years of usage. That includes updating the software/driver countless times. Itās been basically flawless and has become my preferred solution unless the developer offers a straight serial number with no online verification (which is almost never the case anymore).
Why? Itās fairly simple (for me), iLok is going to be around longer than a lot of these developers will be, so as long as I have the software installer, I have access to what I paid for. Iāve lost access to many software synths and FX over the years where the developer went out of business and their licensing servers shut down. Some of that stuff would have lost support due to Windows updates, but a lot of it wouldnāt have (especially the VST2 stuff). I donāt sell hardly any software, so the transfer fees arenāt a big deal, and many other vendors implement those anyway.
Sure, itās possible the system burns me again at some point, Iām mostly afraid of the dongle dying and going through that whole ordeal, but Iām good with it for now. Itās been far more consistent and easier to deal with overall than a lot of developerās proprietary systems.
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Iām not using a dongle yet, but Iām thinking about it as a backup.
It currently reports that itās managing 150 licenses (not products).
I like
- Straightforward to authenticate newly purchased software
- Customer support. Theyāve always been really helpful and have replied in a timely manner
- Cloud location. If all software for which I have a 2nd license supported that, I would keep it on there
- Very easy to transfer licenses between people/companies
- Less dependency on smaller organizations in case of issue
I donāt like
- Have to disable the antivirus on Windows to get it installed. It tells me itās going too deep into my system, which means it could break it. Also, If I donāt do it before upgrading Iām left with nothing and have to relaunch the installer left behind by the app
- Transfer fees too high for software below $100
- Locations get reset at times for unknown reasons. It wasnāt always because of a hardware change
i can understand the questions / discussion regarding iLok , but if you want a specific pluginā¦ its unlikely to offer the option of ilok / another optionā¦ most plugins i see only offer 1 x option.
so you either use it or dontā¦
I hate iLok ā¦ it is truly a miserable idea. Having said that, is not like Iām NOT gonna buy a mpc because the stupid free software uses itā¦ that is just being silly.
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This is a great point. Iām dealing with this right now with a favourite soft synth that was produced by a single guy.
Nothing I bought for $30 is worth the effort in trying to sell.
I donāt love the fee, and think itās a scam, but it is what it is. Itās easier than dealing with an infinite number of small companies and remembering account information.
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