<p>What's the best value for money c# code protection? Some just use obfuscation, others add win32 wrapping, some cost a fortune. So far I've come up with <a href="http://www.eziriz.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.eziriz.com/</a> who's Intellilock looks promising. Any other suggestions? Any reasons why this is not a good idea?</p>

<p>I know its impossible to completely protect but I'd prefer the ability to protect my code so that it would require a lot of effort in order to recover it. I do hope to sell my products eventually, while also releasing some for free.</p>

[{'answer_id': 71212, 'author': 'Silver Dragon', 'author_id': 9440, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/9440', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>First of all, no matter what kind of protection you\'ll employ,a truly dedicated cracker will, eventually, get through all of the protective barriers. It might simply not worth it employing high-level code obfuscation; rather focus that time into making a better application.</p>\n\n<p>One way to look at this problem, is that people pirating your software are not your target audience; focus on paying customers instead.</p>\n\n<p>With that said, Visual Studio includes the community edition of <a href="http://www.preemptive.com/dotfuscator.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Dotfuscator</a>, which is fairly decent (for it\'s value); I would look into that, if needed.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 73346, 'author': 'Roger Ween', 'author_id': 6143, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/6143', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>The Dotfuscator community edition does nothing more than renaming your methods (to my knowledge). That is far away from a reasonable protection.</p>\n\n<p>If you want a free obfuscator you may try <a href="http://www.foss.kharkov.ua/g1/projects/eazfuscator/dotnet/Default.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this one</a></p>\n\n<p>Other than that, Intelliclock looks like a good decision if price matters.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 1769047, 'author': 'logicnp', 'author_id': 51919, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/51919', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Our <a href="http://www.ssware.com/cryptoobfuscator/obfuscator-net.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Crypto Obfuscator</a> product is affordable - license does not cost thousands of dollars - and provides strong obfuscation to your assemblies.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 2647292, 'author': 'Daniel Dolz', 'author_id': 307280, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/307280', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I have tried many, and I think <a href="http://www.bithelmet.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BitHelmet obfuscator</a> is the best choice nowadays.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 2647341, 'author': 'MadBoy', 'author_id': 218540, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/218540', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p><a href="http://www.smartassembly.com/product/editions.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Smartassembly</a> does very decent job. It\'s very very good, and easy to use. It even makes it harder to look at obfuscated file since it even makes it harder to decompile.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Why choose {smartassembly}?</p>\n  \n  <p>{smartassembly} is a first-rate .NET Obfuscator, and will thus protect your .NET Intellectual Property.\n  But, beyond that, {smartassembly} additionally offers you, and every .NET developer, the most efficient and easiest way to:\n      Further secure your .NET application (Strings Encoding, Anti-disassembler &amp; Anti-decompiler options, Strong Name signature...)\n      Deploy your .NET application in one file (Dependencies Merging, Compression and Embedding)\n      Remove all non-useful code and metadata (Pruning)\n      Perform other code optimizations (Memory Management, Automatic Sealing of Classes...)\n      And debug your obfuscated and deployed assembly (automatic unhandled exception reporting via 24x7x365 managed Web Service).</p>\n  \n  <p>This comprehensive feature-set to efficiently produce better software, protected, optimized, and improved, definitely distinguishes {smartassembly} of all other .NET "protection and/or optimization solutions" available on the market.</p>\n  \n  <p>And its user-friendliness, which allows every .NET developer, whatever his level of competence or expertise, to easily take advantage of all these capabilities, advantageously completes this uniqueness, to your benefit.</p>\n  \n  <p>By efficiently enabling every .NET developer to deliver a smart version of his .NET application, in no time, and with unmatched ease, {smartassembly} definitely takes the Improvement and Protection of .NET software forward!</p>\n  \n  <p>With {smartassembly}, you’ll take your valued .NET application to the next level! </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Price range is also affordable:</p>\n\n<p>Product Name   Product ID      Price in Euros      Price in US$</p>\n\n<p>{smartassembly} Standard Edition – Single User     #300056706  € 349.00    $ 499.00</p>\n\n<p>{smartassembly} Professional Edition – Single User     #300056708  € 499.00    $ 699.00</p>\n\n<p>{smartassembly} Enterprise Edition – Single User   #300072534  € 649.00    $ 899.0</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 3037799, 'author': 'Marcel', 'author_id': 366378, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/366378', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p><a href="http://www.eziriz.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.eziriz.com/</a> application work reasonble. But the SUPPORT S*CKS. They NEVER reply. So I would advice you to look for something else.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 5381613, 'author': 'Timwi', 'author_id': 33225, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/33225', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p><strong><a href="http://www.aldaray.com/Rummage" rel="nofollow">Rummage</a></strong> offers reasonable professional-grade obfuscation for a very modest price. (Disclosure: I work for the company, Aldaray Ltd.)</p>\n'}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/71146', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/10957/']