By Buğra Ömer Aydemir · Updated 15 October 2026
Keygen alternative: Carcha Seal compared with Keygen
This page compares Keygen and Carcha Seal for licensing a desktop app. The Keygen column uses only what Keygen publishes on its own site and repository, checked on 15 October 2026; follow the sources for anything that may have changed. Where Keygen does more, the table says so.
Keygen and Carcha Seal side by side
| Keygen | Carcha Seal | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Keygen Cloud (hosted), Keygen CE (free to self-host, community supported) and Keygen EE (self-hosted, paid license). Source code under the Fair Core License. | Runs on your own server under a written agreement with Carcha Labs and a server license (a new installation runs a 14-day evaluation). The public server at seal.carchalabs.com is a demo. |
| Price | Cloud is priced by active licensed users (ALUs, activity in the last 90 days); a free Dev tier up to 100 ALUs and 10 releases. | Not published; ask Carcha Labs. |
| License models | Licenses with entitlements and device activations. | Node-locked licenses with seats, expiry, end of updates and features. |
| Floating / concurrent licenses | Yes, on every Cloud tier. | Not in version 1. |
| Offline use | Offline licenses on every Cloud tier. | Ed25519-signed leases verified in the app; 72 hours between check-ins plus 7 days of grace on the default policy (both per policy). |
| Computers that never go online | Keygen Relay distributes node-locked licenses in offline and air-gapped environments. | Request file, license file and deactivation file; customers upload the request at /offline. |
| SDK for Electron / Node.js | Published examples for Electron and Node.js among many languages. | Electron main process and Node.js 22.13+ (@carchalabs/seal-electron, MIT). A native module verifies leases a second time. |
| Try without signing up | Free Dev tier (account required). | Browser sandbox, npx @carchalabs/seal-quickstart and a desktop demo, no sign-up. |
Which one fits
Choose Keygen if
- you need floating or concurrent licenses, or license models beyond node-locked seats;
- you want a hosted service priced by active users, or a free self-hosted edition;
- you ship in many languages besides JavaScript.
Choose Carcha Seal if
- your app is Electron or Node.js and you want the lease format to be plain standards you can verify yourself (JWS, Ed25519, JWKS);
- you want offline activation by files built in, and clock-rollback detection in the SDK;
- you are moving from Thales Sentinel and want its concepts mapped (migration guide).
Add license keys to an Electron app with Carcha Seal · How offline verification works · Try it without signing up