> The application is meant for anyone with a shared hosting account or VPS... FWIW, I'd never allow installation of a non-"open source" app on our servers. I p

> The application is meant for anyone with a shared hosting account or VPS... FWIW, I'd never allow installation of a non-"open source" app on our servers. I put "open source" in quotes since our definitions might differ. You can release a commercial product with source available for your customers to see but the product can be under a non-open source labs certified license. Providing the source, in your case, doesn't mean your customers can give the thing away or show the source to someone else. Just specify it in contract. If there was absolutely no way that we can have the source and the app does something absolutely amazing so we must have it, then we'd install it on a separate slice away from all other apps. I'm not saying that open source apps are somehow safer but at least with open source apps I can go in and try to see what it's doing and what the quality of the code is. But seriosuly, why worry about source? Rely on social contract, copyright and legal contracts to enforce your ownership. If someone wants to copy your app, they'll find a way no matter what. When people deploy their web apps, they allow anyone to see their source (JS, CSS, HTML) anyway. Another option is to obfuscate but that doesn't solve much.