Altium Price Rises

[ajb]

They recently released a new 3-tier subscription thing. They removed Multiboard from the "standard" tier.  This clown they have running the marketing ship's gotta go   https://www.altium.com/altium-designer/subscription  I really don't use multiboard - it's hard enough to get Altium to do a single PCB correctly with minimal bugs...

Hmm, I wonder what the price tiers are like.  I could live with the standard features if the price point for that was reasonable--say a few hundred bucks a year, assuming enterprise will be at the current ~2k/yr?

EDIT: according to the online chat the Standard tier is US$1995 and pro is US$2990, so lol nope.  It boggles my mind how they can justify gutting so many features from the standard tier for that amount of money.

[thm_w]

If they removed multiboard and made Standard cheaper that would be fair enough. But we all know that doesn't happen.

And they are straight up saying: if you pay less your support will be worse, and have lower priority, lol.

Hmm, I wonder what the price tiers are like.  I could live with the standard features if the price point for that was reasonable--say a few hundred bucks a year, assuming enterprise will be at the current ~2k/yr?

EDIT: according to the online chat the Standard tier is US$1995 and pro is US$2990, so lol nope.  It boggles my mind how they can justify gutting so many features from the standard tier for that amount of money.

The price is listed right on the website, but maybe you got a discounted version.
$4k and $5k USD.

[ajb]

The price is listed right on the website, but maybe you got a discounted version.
$4k and $5k USD.

Ahh, I didn't see that you could select an option and see the pricing openly now.  Kinda nice that they don't hide it I guess?  Anyway the pricing the chat bot gave me was for the subscription only, not counting a license.  So it'd be US$2-3k *on top of* a perpetual license.  Which brings up another question: so if you bought a perpetual license for a version that included multiboard, and then don't pay for the Pro sub, I guess you just...lose that feature?

Also the Pro tier includes "Multi-Site License usage (Geo Scope)", not sure what that is, but I wonder if it intersects with what they used to call floating licenses?  Shouldn't a subscription-based software license inherently be multi-site, since presumably you'd need to be logged in to validate the license anyway?

[thm_w]

They have some crazy license restrictions where you can't buy a license in one country and use it in another.
Usually this is because of heavy discounts in certain countries (eg Russia and China) where they believe either: competition is higher, or pirated use is higher. But since Mr Blue is not around any more I'm not sure if anyone can comment on that.

Global licenses can be used wherever you are in the world. With On-Demand and Private Server licensing, this geographical assignment allows your company to share a license or seats of a license throughout all of your locations.

When one of your teams is ending their workday, another team across the world can use those same licenses. Licenses must be released before being shared. The result is optimized license utilization and flexibility for your business.

[Black Phoenix]

Usually this is because of heavy discounts in certain countries (eg Russia and China) where they believe either: competition is higher, or pirated use is higher. But since Mr Blue is not around any more I'm not sure if anyone can comment on that.

Second one. I'm yet to see a company in China that have official licencing of any software. Last one I do some work for, Windows, Office, Solidworks, Photoshop and PCB solution was all cracked versions. Same with most personal computers at home.

Except if it is a laptop or a desktop bought from Dell or Lenovo or any SI, all software is cracked since there are no laws against it here or are not enforced. The Chinese call it "Sharing".

That's also applied to any product that is copied into oblivion with different brands selling the same thing, just changing the logo or some physical lines.

[ajawamnet]

The IP lawyers here in D.C. told me it's called "Efficient Infringement"

[dastructhm]

I always wonder the meaning of the word "Altium". Does anyone know?

[EEVblog]

I always wonder the meaning of the word "Altium". Does anyone know?

They inherited rights to the name from someone, I think it was one of the companies they have bought over the years. When looking for a new company name they realised they already had right to one that was pretty unique.

[EEVblog]

And they are straight up saying: if you pay less your support will be worse, and have lower priority, lol.

A lot of people would actually be happy with that tradeoff.

[thm_w]

And they are straight up saying: if you pay less your support will be worse, and have lower priority, lol.

A lot of people would actually be happy with that tradeoff.

Absolutely, if there was a cost savings.
I probably should have worded it instead as: pay the regular amount and we admit to giving you poor support at the lowest priority. Pay us more to queue jump.

[labnet]

I've just been on the renewal treadmill for our 5 licenses.

Here's something new
Quote, 'it will not be possible to Reactivate lapsed subscriptions from January 2023'
Sounds like a veiled threat.
Prices are now AUD15k for perm licence, $2200/annum subs.
I remember when it used to AUD5k!

[Hydron]

They want GBP 2k + VAT now for continuing our subscription, 21% more than last year! Only paid about 4k+VAT for the perpetual license (inc. the first year of subs) in the first place ~2 years ago. AUD2200 is an absolute bargain compared to that! (Is that discounted for number of seats?)

Time to seriously think about whether updates are worth the money, even given the whole no-reactivation thing (and a new perpetual license being 10k!).