Is this for an or a commercial plugin/software you plan to sell? What is your budget range for code protection tools?
The genuine version 15 includes several critical updates for modern PHP environments:
IonCube compiles code to bytecode, which strips away much of the original structure. Even after decompilation, you don't get clean, maintainable source code.
If budget constraints prevent any commercial licensing, look into built-in optimization tools like PHP OPcache, or native extension architectures to protect sensitive proprietary logic.
Some developers might think, "I can just decode ionCube-protected files if I need to," which leads them to consider using a nulled encoder for reverse engineering purposes. However, security experts caution: