Per-PC Licensing, Explained: What It Actually Protects

Why per-PC licensing is the structural default for local software

Checked 26 September 2026: per-PC licensing isn't a policy decision layered on top of otherwise-flexible software - it follows directly and naturally from Sellhelm actually being a program that runs on a specific machine, the way desktop software has worked for decades before browser-based subscriptions became the dominant model in this specific industry. AutoDS, Hustle Got Real and Easync are all reachable from any device precisely because the software itself runs on their own servers, not on the seller's machine - a login grants access to a remote system, rather than a specific installation. Sellhelm's licence and its installation are, in a real sense, the same thing: the software genuinely lives on the licensed PC.

What running Sellhelm on a second PC actually requires

A seller wanting Sellhelm on a laptop as well as a desktop, or running a genuine second eBay shop from a second machine, needs a second licence - covered in more depth in our piece on running two shops on one licence. This is precisely why Sellhelm sells Pair, at £149 for two licences, and Crew, at £249 for five, rather than a single higher-tier subscription that unlocks additional capability on the same installation - the packs are simply more licences, at a lower price per licence the more are bought at once, not a different, more powerful version of the software itself.

What this structure genuinely protects

A login-based system, usable from any device, has a specific vulnerability a per-PC licence doesn't: a single paid account can, in principle, be shared across several people or several separate operations simultaneously, in a way that's genuinely difficult for the vendor to detect or prevent without invasive monitoring. A licence tied to a specific machine has no equivalent vulnerability - it simply doesn't run anywhere else, which protects the pricing model the same way it protects the vendor's own revenue: a price that assumes one licence covers one operation stays accurate, rather than quietly undermined by casual sharing that a login-based system is more exposed to by its very nature.

What this genuinely costs a seller who switches machines often

A seller who regularly works from a laptop while travelling, and a desktop while at home, faces a real, specific cost under this model that a login-based subscription doesn't impose - either a second licence, or working exclusively from one of the two machines. This is a genuine limitation worth stating plainly rather than talked around: a seller whose actual working pattern involves frequently switching between several machines should weigh this cost directly against a browser-based alternative, covered honestly in our piece on why Sellhelm runs on your own PC, rather than assuming a single licence will quietly cover a working pattern it wasn't built for.

Can a licence move to a different PC?

A licence tied to a specific machine is not necessarily locked to that exact piece of hardware forever - a genuine hardware replacement, like an old PC failing and being replaced, is a normal, expected event a licensing system needs to accommodate reasonably, and Sellhelm's own account area covers licence keys and downloads for exactly this kind of situation. What per-PC licensing prevents is running the same licence on two machines simultaneously, not a seller ever moving their own single installation from an old machine to a new one over time as hardware naturally gets replaced.

The honest trade-off, restated plainly

Per-PC licensing is neither simply generous nor simply restrictive - it's a structural consequence of a specific software model, with a genuine cost for one kind of seller and a genuine protection for the pricing that benefits every seller using the model. A seller running one single, focused eBay shop from one main machine pays this cost precisely zero times, since a single licence already covers their entire actual working pattern. A seller genuinely needing several machines pays it directly, and should factor that into the real comparison against a login-based alternative from the start.

How this compares to a subscription's own device rules

It's worth noting that subscription tools aren't necessarily unlimited in device access either - AutoDS's own Advanced plan permits up to three separate stores, a cap of its own kind, distinct from device access specifically but a related structural limit worth being aware of when comparing the two models honestly. The genuine difference isn't "one model has limits and the other doesn't" - both do, in different forms. It's that a subscription's limits are typically expressed in terms of stores or logins accessible from anywhere, where Sellhelm's are expressed in terms of physical machines, a different axis entirely rather than a strictly more or less generous one.

Why the pricing couldn't simply be unlimited-device instead

A reasonable question worth addressing directly: why not simply sell one licence covering unlimited devices, the way some desktop software does for a single named user? The honest answer is that Sellhelm's own per-PC model exists specifically because the software's job includes connecting to and syncing with a real eBay account and real supplier data continuously - running that same connection simultaneously from multiple unlicensed machines would meaningfully complicate the software's own reliability and support model, for a capability relatively few sellers actually need on a genuinely regular basis. The Pair and Crew packs exist precisely to serve the sellers who do need this, at a lower marginal cost per licence, rather than solving it through an unlimited model that would change the underlying economics for every other customer.

A genuine middle path worth knowing about: remote access to a single licensed PC

A detail worth naming for a seller weighing the multi-device cost described above: the per-PC limitation applies to where Sellhelm itself is actually installed and running, not necessarily to where a seller is physically sitting while they use it. A single licensed desktop, accessed remotely from a laptop through ordinary remote-desktop software while travelling, is still one installation on one licensed machine - the software itself never runs on the laptop at all, it is simply being viewed and controlled from it. This is a genuinely different situation from installing and running a second, separate copy of Sellhelm on the laptop directly, and it is worth knowing as a real, available option for a seller who mostly works from one main machine but occasionally needs access while away from it, rather than simply assuming outright that a second licence is the only genuinely available way to cover this specific, occasional need.

A specific, common case worth naming directly: a shared family computer

A related, practical scenario worth addressing plainly: a household with one shared family computer, used by more than one person for entirely unrelated purposes alongside a single eBay shop, still only needs one licence, provided the shop itself is genuinely one operation run from that one machine. The per-PC model counts machines, not people using a machine - a spouse or family member who also uses the same computer for their own, unrelated activities does not create a second-licence requirement on its own, since Sellhelm's own single installation and its one connection to a specific eBay account remains exactly the same single instance regardless of how many different people happen to share the physical device it runs on for their own entirely unrelated purposes.

A longer-standing precedent worth naming: this is how desktop software has always priced

Checked 28 September 2026: per-machine licensing is not a novel or unusual restriction invented for this particular category of tool - it is, historically, the dominant way desktop software of every kind was sold for decades before internet connectivity made a server-hosted, login-based subscription model practical at scale. Professional design, accounting and engineering software has long been licensed per installed machine rather than per named user with unlimited device access, precisely for the same structural reason described throughout this piece: the software genuinely runs on that specific machine, and the licence simply reflects where the actual installation lives. Seen against that longer history, Sellhelm's model is closer to a return to a well-established, long-proven norm than a new or unusual restriction invented specifically to limit what a seller can do with a single purchase.

A worked example

A seller running a single eBay furniture shop entirely from one home-office desktop buys a Solo licence for £99 and never encounters this specific limitation at all, since their actual working pattern never involves a second machine. A different seller, running the shop from a desktop at home and a laptop while travelling for supplier visits, needs Sellhelm on both - buying a Pair licence at £149 covers this exact situation, at £74.50 per licence rather than £99 each bought separately, the structure existing specifically to serve sellers in this second, genuinely different situation rather than the first one described above.

Questions people ask