A summary of dongle manufacturers

I’ve picked 3 dongle manufacturers who have professional websites, and make a positive impression regarding support and quality.  All support Java Native Interfaces (JNI).

  • Aladdin Hardlock. They make a very competent and professional impression.  Website is a bit business oriented (as opposed to developer oriented).  They provide a lot of tools for tracking your product, which may or may not be useful.  Java, as well as Mac and Linux are supported.  Demo can be ordered here for free.  Rental, feature based, and sold software models are available.  To provide the licensing models we need, we will want the Hasp HL Pro setup.  I haven’t found  a pricelist on their website.  I have not determined whether or not drivers are required for their dongle.
  • Matrix software protection system:  These guys seem pretty professional, and they have German and Swiss offices, which could be valuable in the case of problems.  The usb dongle is driverless.  Linux, Windows and Mac are all supported.  These guys have two model series ML and MK, differing in paranoia level (MK only posseser of master key can reprogram the dongle). Price for a single USB dongle is 34 EUR, for 100 dongles price per dongle is 22 EUR.  You can order an evaluation kit for 40 euros here.  A lot of big name guys use them.  No mention of Java Native Interface (JNI), so I called their customer rep in CH, and asked about it, and yes there is one.  He tells me you will have to include a seperate dll with your java code to support the dongle calls.  I imagine this is the case with all options.
  • Microcomputer Applications Inc (Keylock).  These guys are awesome, because they provide you with a checklist for evaluating hardlock manufacturers, which you can download here.  I looked over it, and it’s very useful.  The evaluation kit is free and can be downloaded here.  Windows and Linux supported, no Mac.  Price is 21 USD per dongle, for orders of 10-24.  Unfortunately they require drivers and a dll (see this link).

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