Thought I might purchase zend guard to encode some of my php products to be distributed. However they seem to require zend optimizer installed on the server to be decoded and run. How many hosts out there install zend optimizer by default? 80% of them? This could become a major issue if I'm going to market my php product seriously.
I would say its not that universal at all. I have had plenty of problems with shared accounts where Zend has not been activated by default. (ex. some servers at hostgator)
The good: Most reputable hosting providers have Zend Optimizer installed. In some instances, hosting providers may not have installed Zend Optimizer, but give you access to the php configuration file on a per-domain basis, the php.ini file. With that type of flexibility, adding Zend Optimizer is relatively easy. The bad: Many cheap-o hosting providers are currently running Zend Optimizer 3.3.3 with PHP 5.2.10 and higher. This combination is incompatible and will trigger a number of what appears to be random segfaults. We use Zend Guard pretty extensively to maintain control of distribution of our product. Be aware that Zend is not 100% secure as there are a number of "dezenders" in the warez world. Be sure to obfuscate as this makes it a bit more difficult to decode. Also, be sure you follow some notion of OOP coding as procedural code is easier to decode (besides making the code easier to maintain). The bottom line: Of the various compilers available, our favorite is Zend Guard. If you find that a number of customers are having a hard time finding a host, have one available to refer them to. Hope that helps. -Bing
Thanks for the informative post. I have decided to not go with zend guard to encode my project. It just doesn't seem right in providing ease of installation & usage to the users.