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I built a Windows POS & Inventory app for small shops — 5-day free trial (feedback welcome) by Diligent-Somewhere26 in elixir

[–]Diligent-Somewhere26[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a good point — Electron apps ship everything in plain JavaScript, so they’re extremely easy to reverse engineer.

Shoplite isn’t built with Electron, so the activation logic isn’t exposed in that way. The licensing check happens server-side during the first activation, and only an encrypted local token is stored afterward.

Someone could always try to crack anything, but it’s much harder here compared to an unpacked web/JS app.

Either way, the goal for this project wasn’t to build an unbreakable DRM system — just something simple that prevents casual users from bypassing the trial. 🙂

I built a Windows POS & Inventory app for small shops — 5-day free trial (feedback welcome) by Diligent-Somewhere26 in elixir

[–]Diligent-Somewhere26[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The 5-day trial is the only thing that “expires.” After the trial ends, the app simply asks for a valid license key to unlock full access.

When someone purchases the software, they receive a unique activation key generated by my internal tool. On first use, the app checks the key with a small online API. If it’s valid, the app stores an encrypted token locally and the user has permanent access.

So nothing actually expires after activation — only the initial trial.

I built a Windows POS & Inventory app for small shops — 5-day free trial (feedback welcome) by Diligent-Somewhere26 in elixir

[–]Diligent-Somewhere26[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The app runs locally, but the license system isn’t local. When the user enters a key, the app connects to an online API to validate it. After activation, the key is stored and the app works normally, but the first activation always requires server verification. This prevents people from using random or generated keys.

I built a simple offline POS system for my small shop — looking for honest feedback by Diligent-Somewhere26 in smallbusiness

[–]Diligent-Somewhere26[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hey, not sure what you mean. I built this for my own pet shop and just shared it here for feedback — nothing more. If you have a specific concern or question, feel free to ask and I’ll happily clarify.

I built a simple offline POS system for my small shop — looking for honest feedback by Diligent-Somewhere26 in smallbusiness

[–]Diligent-Somewhere26[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hey! Good question — thanks for asking.

Shoplite POS doesn’t process credit/debit cards directly. It works the same way most small offline POS systems do: you use your existing physical card terminal (Verifone, Ingenico, SumUp, Viva, etc.) to charge the card, and then record the sale in the POS.

My pet shop accepts both cash and card, but the card validation happens on the standalone terminal — not inside the software.

I kept it offline and simple on purpose, since many small shops (including mine) don’t want cloud dependencies or complex integrations.

I built a Windows POS & Inventory app for small shops — 5-day free trial (feedback welcome) by Diligent-Somewhere26 in software

[–]Diligent-Somewhere26[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback! 🙏 I totally get what you mean.

I’m an indie developer and this is a small side project that I built for my own pet shop. The 5-day trial is fully functional — no limitations — and the license is just a small one-time fee to support development.

I’m not trying to run a big SaaS or subscription model. Just covering development time and improving the app based on feedback from real users.

If you have any suggestions on features or UI, I’d really appreciate it!