Protect source code of your website

Question

I'm having a question, maybe some other faced the same problem. Imagine you've build your own CMS and someone asks you to build a website for them. They give you FTP access to their hostingserver and you want to use your CMS for it. Is there a way to protect the source code of your CMS?

Answer 1

There are obfuscation frameworks, but ultimately they can be hacked too. Obfuscation is more like a deterrent.

However, I wouldn't worry too much - there are many open-source CMSs out there so there would be little point getting at yours.

Answer 2

Depends on how CMS is written. If it's in PHP, then there's Zend and I heard (but didn't check) about some kind of PHP compilers.

If it's .NET or Java, then you ship compiled and obfuscated modules and don't include source code.

And also care that in 99,9% of cases your CMS has much more value for you than for your customer. I.e. with the myriad of open-source CMS on the market they have little sense to misuse yours.