How Guild works

When you first open your dashboard, Guild walks you through a short setup wizard. It has four steps:

1. 1

   Store brand — Add your store name, logo, and description.

2. 2

   Connect Stripe — Link your Stripe account so you can receive payments. Guild uses Stripe Connect — your money goes directly to your bank.

3. 3

   Set pricing — Choose a one-time price or a recurring subscription for your first product.

4. 4

   Create your product — Name your product, set it live, and you're ready to sell.

A product is what you sell — a community, course, tool, or any digital offering. Each product can have multiple plans (pricing tiers).

Each plan can unlock different apps (see below) — so a higher-tier subscriber can get a premium Discord role or extra course content while a free member gets basic access.

Apps let you automatically deliver access to external platforms when someone buys. You assign apps to plans — so each pricing tier can unlock different things.

When you enable the License Key app, Guild auto-generates a unique key for every buyer. Keys look like GLD-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

Buyers can view their license key in their account at guildly.co/account under their purchase. If you set Allow buyer reset to off in your app config, buyers must contact you to reset their hardware.

Guild exposes a public REST API for license key validation and activation — meant for your software to call at startup or install time. No user authentication is needed for the public endpoints; just the key string.

Base URL: https://guildly.co/api/license-keys

{
  "valid": true,
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "reason": null,
  "key": "GLD-ABCD-EF23-GH45-JK67",
  "activationCount": 1,
  "maxActivations": 3,
  "hwid": "your-device-hwid",
  "hwidResetCount": 0,
  "expiresAt": null,
  "product": {
    "name": "My Software",
    "slug": "my-software",
    "image": null
  }
}

// Key not found
{ "valid": false, "error": "License key not found" }

// HWID mismatch
{
  "valid": false,
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "reason": "Hardware ID mismatch",
  ...
}

// POST body
{
  "hwid": "cpu-serial-or-machine-id",
  "metadata": {
    "appVersion": "2.1.0",
    "os": "Windows 11"
  }
}

// 201 — first activation (or new device slot used)
{
  "valid": true,
  "activated": true,
  "bound": true,
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "key": "GLD-ABCD-EF23-GH45-JK67",
  "activationCount": 1,
  "maxActivations": 3,
  "hwid": "cpu-serial-or-machine-id",
  "hwidResetCount": 0,
  "expiresAt": null,
  "product": { "name": "My Software", "slug": "my-software", "image": null }
}

// 200 — re-activation on same HWID (count NOT incremented)
{ "valid": true, "activated": true, "bound": true, ... }

// 403 — HWID bound to different device
{
  "valid": false,
  "activated": false,
  "reason": "Hardware ID mismatch — this key is bound to another device"
}

// 400 — max activations reached
{
  "valid": false,
  "activated": false,
  "reason": "Maximum activations reached"
}

// 403 — key revoked or expired
{ "valid": false, "activated": false, "reason": "Key has been revoked" }
{ "valid": false, "activated": false, "reason": "Key has expired" }

{
  "success": true,
  "message": "License deactivated — HWID cleared"
}

// 403 — buyer reset is disabled by the seller
{ "error": "Device reset is disabled for this product. Contact the seller." }

// 400 — key is not active
{ "error": "License key is not active" }

// 401 — not signed in
{ "error": "Unauthorized" }

{
  "id": "clxyz1234...",
  "key": "GLD-ABCD-EF23-GH45-JK67",
  "hwid": null,
  "hwidResetCount": 2,
  "status": "ACTIVE"
}

// 400 — not active
{ "error": "License key is not active" }

// 401 / 403 — not signed in or wrong user
{ "error": "Unauthorized" }

{ "success": true }

// 400 — already revoked
{ "error": "Key is already revoked" }

// 403 — not the seller
{ "error": "Forbidden" }

// 404 — not found
{ "error": "License key not found" }

{
  "keys": [
    {
      "id": "clxyz1234...",
      "key": "GLD-ABCD-EF23-GH45-JK67",
      "status": "ACTIVE",
      "activationCount": 1,
      "maxActivations": 3,
      "hwid": "some-device-hwid",
      "hwidResetCount": 0,
      "activatedAt": "2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
      "expiresAt": null,
      "revokedAt": null,
      "membership": {
        "id": "...",
        "status": "ACTIVE",
        "user": { "email": "[email protected]", "name": "Jane Doe" }
      }
    }
  ],
  "total": 42,
  "page": 1,
  "totalPages": 1
}

A checkout link is a shareable URL that takes someone directly to a payment page for your product. No embed, no code — just a link.

Use them in emails, social posts, bio links, QR codes, or anywhere you want to sell.

1. 1

   Go to Dashboard → Links — Find the Checkout Links section in your dashboard.

2. 2

   Create a link — Choose a product and plan. Optionally set a custom name or expiry.

3. 3

   Copy and share — Paste the link anywhere. Guild tracks conversions automatically.

Create discount codes that buyers can apply at checkout.

The affiliate program lets other people promote your product and earn a commission on sales they refer.

1. 1

   Enable affiliates — Dashboard → your product → Affiliates → turn on the program and set your commission rate (%).

2. 2

   Affiliates apply — Anyone can apply to be your affiliate. You approve or reject applications.

3. 3

   They share their link — Each approved affiliate gets a unique referral code (e.g. ?ref=THEIRCODE).

4. 4

   You both earn — When a sale comes through their link, they earn their commission. You can see all referral sales in your dashboard.

Guild uses Stripe Connect — meaning your payments go directly to your connected Stripe account. Guild never holds your money.

The Members section shows everyone who has access to your product.

Every store gets a public storefront page — a landing page for your product that you can fully customize without writing any code.

Go to Dashboard → Storefront to edit it. You can add, remove, and reorder these section types:

Want to sell directly from your own website? You have two options:

<iframe
  src="https://guildly.co/embed/YOUR-PRODUCT-SLUG"
  width="100%" height="480"
  frameborder="0"
></iframe>

You can invite other people to help manage your store. Team members can access the dashboard but do not have billing or Stripe access.

1. 1

   Go to Dashboard → your product → Team

2. 2

   Invite by email — The person will receive an invite to join your store.

3. 3

   They accept — Once accepted, they can log in and manage your store alongside you.