Activating Your License

3 min readUpdated October 31, 2026

Activating your license connects your site to the WC Account Portal store so WordPress can offer plugin updates and you can get support. It takes one paste and one click on the License tab. The portal works without activation, but you will not get updates.

Activate your license#

Find your license key in your purchase confirmation email or in your account at wcaccountportal.com.
Go to WooCommerce > Account Portal > License.
Paste the key into License Key.
Click Activate License.

When it works, the message “This site was successfully activated.” appears in the license box and Status changes to Active.

License tab before activation with an empty License Key field, Activate License button and Not activated status

Note

The key is never shown again after activation. Once active, the License Key row shows a row of dots and a Deactivate License button. If a key is saved but this site is not activated (for example after the activation was removed from your account), the field shows “Leave blank to use the saved key”: click Activate License with the field empty to use it.

License tab after activation with success message, hidden key, Deactivate License button and Active status

Status values#

Status	What it means	What to do
Active	The license is activated for this site.	Nothing. Updates come through the normal WordPress update screens.
Not activated	No activation for this site.	Paste your key and click Activate License.
Needs attention	The last activation attempt failed and could not be undone.	Click Deactivate License to remove it, then activate again.

Move a license to another site#

Each activation uses one site of your plan. To move it:

On the old site, go to WooCommerce > Account Portal > License and click Deactivate License. You see “This site was successfully deactivated.”
On the new site, activate the key as above.

If you no longer have access to the old site, you can also remove its activation from your account at wcaccountportal.com.

What counts as one site#

An activation belongs to the site’s address. The plugin treats http:// and https://, and the address with and without www., as the same site. A different subfolder (example.com/shop) or port counts as a different site.

The plugin makes no exception for staging or local sites: each address you activate on uses one activation of your plan. See Plans, Site Limits and Upgrading.

Error messages and fixes#

SureCart’s messages say what went wrong; the License tab adds a hint under most of them:

Message contains	Fix
“not a valid license” or “enter a license key”	Copy the key again from your purchase email or your account, without spaces.
“revoked”	This key can no longer be used. Buy a new license at wcaccountportal.com/pricing.
“limit” or “activations”	The license is active on as many sites as it allows. Deactivate it on a site you no longer use, or upgrade your plan.
“not valid for this product”, “not yet activated” or “Not found”	The key may have been bought for a different product. Check your purchase, and contact support if the key is for WC Account Portal.
“cURL”, “timed out” or “Unknown error”	Your site could not reach api.surecart.com. Ask your host to allow outgoing connections to it.
“Could not verify your license right now”	The licensing service could not be reached. Your key is kept; try again later.
“The activation for this site was removed”	The activation was removed from your account. Click Activate License to reconnect.

For developers#

Activation uses the SureCart Licensing SDK bundled with the plugin (in its licensing folder). It stores the license key, license ID and activation ID in the option wcaccountportal_license_options.
The site address sent for an activation can be changed with the surecart_licensing_fingerprint filter (arguments: the normalised address, the raw site URL and the SDK client). Every plugin that bundles the SureCart SDK runs this filter, so check that $client->slug is wc-account-portal before you change anything.