Nu-Coder looks like a great encoding solution, but it's quite young in the encoding arena and from what I can tell, there isn't broad support for PhpExpress amongst web hosts yet. From reading the installation aspect of Nu-Coder, access to the PHP.ini and the ability to restart Apache are necessary. There are a number of hosts that will grant this kind of access, but it seems like there's an equal number that won't allow this. Is there any kind of work around to this? I thought I saw some talk on this forum about including PHP headers, but I'm not sure I'm understanding exactly how that will cure the problem. Would it "compile" the headers into the "encoded" PHP scripts so that a runtime extension is not required? And is NuSphere coordinating with web hosts to expand support for PhpExpress? I guess I'm just looking for a justification to actually buy Nu-Coder since it integrates with PhpEd and is far cheaper than alternative solutions. I just can't swap sales for personal satisfaction. Thanks.

Anyone have any insight into this?

No I think you have that wrong, there are headers added to encoded files, but atm only to inform the client that he/she requires the phpexpress plugin for his PHP installation. I don't think that including a decoder in the file itself would be technically possible, as it would have to interpret the bytecodes from the compiled file and execute them.

The fact is that this method (access to the .ini) is pretty much the only viable solution for this and the other encoding methods as well.
There was some talk about using the dl()-function (if the host allows that) but I've looked in the docs since then and it seems that this is not supported for multithreaded webservers like apache (which is pretty normal if you think about it). If it would even work, the module would only be inserted in the current thread, so that means you would have to load it again for each thread, not really optimal.

However you turn it, special things like this will probably always need a modified ini file.

Btw: I've always been a Zend Safeguard owner and have recently moved to NuCoder because my annual Zend license expired again and I can't cough up the close to $1000 to renew it and Zend uses pretty much the same method (a header with a notification).

Not exactly. I talked about forking server (unix), not multithreading.
IMHO windows is not a good platform for best web servers Just compare resource consumption and you'll see that any unix/linux can run without GUI and will take less than 64M or about for its core and default processes while in case of Windows(XP) you just can't live on a machine with less than 512M. IMHO it's better to have those extra 300-400M for disk caching rather than for tons of unneeded dlls.

Blizz, how has Nu-Coder worked out for you? I know that IonCube and Zend Guard are the most widely supported platforms right now, but both are more expensive and less convenient than Nu-Coder.

Well the product is new, so obviously it still has to evolve.
For example I would like a tad more support in PhpED (encoding a single file isn't really possible yet and has to be done from the commandline).
Perhaps a way to suppress the headers. If I encode my own files I know they are encoded so obviously I don't need the extra 871 bytes per file
Telling it to empty the target folder first or something and a few more small things like that.

Technically I can't tell you if the encryption matches or surpasses the level of Zend because I wouldn't know how to compare them.
But as it compiles/encodes the PHP file as well (instead of obfuscating it like some products out there do) this raises the bar significantly for people after your source. And that is what I'm after.

I don't know how well the phpexpress module combines with a server where Zend's optimizer is already installed.
For me personally that doesn't matter the code I sell is usually for companies with their own servers. Perhaps in your case it could be a problem if they don't work together, no idea tbh.

But - and here comes the sales pitch -
The license is extremely cheap compared to Zend Guard (as you already stated) and the product integrates with my favorite PHP Editor.
On top of that it's a perpetual license. You might not receive updates after the support period expires, but you can still encode files, which is more than I can say from Zend, and last time I purchased that one it cost me $799.

I've spend a lot of money on Zend products in the past: their editor (several times), their encoder and so on. Hard earned money that I really don't have to spare. But in the end the money I spend on NuSphere has brought me a lot more working satisfaction. Sure, sometimes there are problems and issues with their products, but they listen and then fix them. Too bad Van Dyke already has the slogan
So if this will be like any other NuSphere product it will become great.

Obviously all this is my personal opinion about the matter (and given that Dmitri just solved the problem I had with DBG by building me a brand new fixed version, I'm probably a bit - a lot - biased). But hey, been a customer since 2004 and never regretted it.

If you use "encode on upload" and upload a single file, it will be encoded.

--noheader (1.4.1 and up)
--header fname (1.4.2)

AFAIK there are no compatibilty problems with ZO or IC.