Author Topic: Altium Price Rises  (Read 25139 times)

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Offline ajb

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #50 on: September 06, 2022, 02:54:41 pm »
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.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2022, 02:57:25 pm by ajb »
 

Offline thm_w

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #51 on: September 06, 2022, 08:58:10 pm »
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.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2022, 09:01:49 pm by thm_w »
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Offline ajb

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #52 on: September 06, 2022, 10:21:50 pm »
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?
 

Offline thm_w

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #53 on: September 06, 2022, 11:43:39 pm »
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.

Quote
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.
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Offline Black Phoenix

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #54 on: September 07, 2022, 01:22:05 am »
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.
 
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Offline ajawamnet

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #55 on: September 18, 2022, 02:56:24 pm »
The IP lawyers here in D.C. told me it's called "Efficient Infringement"

Offline dastructhm

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #56 on: September 28, 2022, 02:20:15 am »
I always wonder the meaning of the word "Altium". Does anyone know?
dastructhm = data structures and algorithms
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #57 on: October 03, 2022, 09:05:25 am »
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.
 
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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #58 on: October 03, 2022, 09:06:57 am »
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.
 

Offline thm_w

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #59 on: October 03, 2022, 09:50:41 pm »
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.
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Offline labnet

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #60 on: November 24, 2022, 05:13:50 am »
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!
 

Offline Hydron

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #61 on: November 28, 2022, 05:31:10 pm »
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!).
« Last Edit: November 28, 2022, 05:33:36 pm by Hydron »
 

Offline mooreaa

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #62 on: February 26, 2023, 10:31:29 pm »
My renewal was going up $100 each year. Last year was $1995 for Standard. This year they are wanting $2495. Quite the jump.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #63 on: February 28, 2023, 02:40:49 am »
My renewal was going up $100 each year. Last year was $1995 for Standard. This year they are wanting $2495. Quite the jump.

Those share dividends don't pay for themslves.
 
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Offline Kean

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #64 on: February 28, 2023, 11:25:40 am »
It's amazing how much effort they've made in calling & emailing me recently to try get me to reactivate...
 

Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #65 on: February 28, 2023, 11:48:28 am »
Same here. Call every two weeks.

Offline tszaboo

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #66 on: February 28, 2023, 03:21:50 pm »
It's amazing how much effort they've made in calling & emailing me recently to try get me to reactivate...
Did you already get the threats that you need to pay more if you want to come back?
 

Offline Kean

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #67 on: February 28, 2023, 03:24:25 pm »
Did you already get the threats that you need to pay more if you want to come back?

 :-+ :-DD
 

Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #68 on: February 28, 2023, 04:15:37 pm »
It's amazing how much effort they've made in calling & emailing me recently to try get me to reactivate...
Did you already get the threats that you need to pay more if you want to come back?

I want to let you know that the program for reactivating the subscription for your Altium Designer perpetual license(s) ends in 2023.

If you don’t reactivate your subscription before the program ends, you won’t get the latest version of Altium Designer and other subscription benefits without having to purchase a new perpetual license. However, we have a special offer you can take advantage of now.

If you reactivate your subscription now you’ll get 14 months total subscription time. This is an opportunity to save up to EUR 10,050 when compared to buying a new Altium Designer license.


Offline Gerhard_dk4xp

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #69 on: February 28, 2023, 04:24:52 pm »
+1

Got another one of these today. The program should end  December last year.
Seems they could not persuade a lot of people.

Gerhard
 

Offline floobydust

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #70 on: February 28, 2023, 08:26:32 pm »
Who's paying for the failed products? $millions on development and now they sit and rot, orphaned. What an absolute waste of resources and money.
The bonehead that came up with the failed products needs a toss. Imagine all the bug fixes and killer features they could have added to AD.
"Altium has flexed its pricing power in the six months to December 31, offsetting headwinds and helping the electronic design software business maintain its full-year guidance of 15 per cent to 20 per cent revenue growth."
When your only corporate strategy is to jack up prices  :horse:
 

Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #71 on: March 01, 2023, 01:57:44 pm »
What ticks me off even more at this point is that the"standard" tier license is now site-locked. I kinda wonder what tier I would get if I reactivated my license? I mean, site-locked is a total non-starter for me. I work from home, my office, the office of customers, holliday locations, my inlaws place, a roadside restaurant, whatever.

 :palm:
 
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Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #72 on: March 02, 2023, 02:36:24 am »
What ticks me off even more at this point is that the"standard" tier license is now site-locked. I kinda wonder what tier I would get if I reactivated my license? I mean, site-locked is a total non-starter for me. I work from home, my office, the office of customers, holliday locations, my inlaws place, a roadside restaurant, whatever.
 :palm:

Yeah, that's dumb, that would also be a total non-starter for me too.
 

Offline EEVblogTopic starter

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #73 on: March 02, 2023, 02:39:52 am »
Who's paying for the failed products? $millions on development and now they sit and rot, orphaned. What an absolute waste of resources and money.
The bonehead that came up with the failed products needs a toss. Imagine all the bug fixes and killer features they could have added to AD.
"Altium has flexed its pricing power in the six months to December 31, offsetting headwinds and helping the electronic design software business maintain its full-year guidance of 15 per cent to 20 per cent revenue growth."
When your only corporate strategy is to jack up prices  :horse:

That's nothing. Altium spent more than a decade focussing the company on FPGA's and hardware (I was part fo the hardware group for 4 years). The PCB package literally became "optional extra", I'm not kidding. The result was the share price declined from $5 to 10 cents and stayed there until the founder was booted out in a hostile takeover by his mate who he bailed out by buying his company at an insane premium whcih gave him enough votes to boot him out  :-DD
 
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Offline floobydust

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Re: Altium Price Rises
« Reply #74 on: March 02, 2023, 04:21:23 am »
Altium users are once again subsidizing corporate waste and idiocy  :palm:
"full-year guidance of 15 per cent to 20 per cent revenue growth" based on nothing added? OUCH. All the energy goes into pricing strategy instead of bug fixes/new features. Sigh.

I find 95% of managers, marketing, executives, CEO's are actually clueless about what they are managing, having never i.e. done a schematic and PC board from end-end.
Then they focus on catering to investors, and it becomes a milking a cow that died a while back and isn't chewing much cud.
 


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