How do you make plugins that have auto-update and licensing built in?

[ad_1]

I’ve developed a few plugins which are being used on a number of live client websites I manage. Unfortunately, updating the plugins on each website is a manual process (manual upload) and is rather time-consuming.

Does anyone out there have a solution to enable the usual “There is a new version… update now” functionality you get with plugins downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory?

Assuming there is a solution, is there any way to build in some sort of licensing so that clients (that potentially stop using my services) don’t get free updates forever and ever?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I’d like to avoid a marketplace like codecanyon.

[ad_2]