No stand-alone license?

[Poe]

We previously used stand-alone and private server perpetual licenses.  We'd pay the subscription for couple years, then maybe let it expire for a couple years.  Then they'd offer a decent rate to resubscribe, so we'd pay the subscription for another couple years.

Now their reps tell me they removed the stand-alone license, now only offer the on-demand perpetual license and a term based license.   Can anyone tell me if this is true?  Their website heavily steers you toward the term license, but it says to contact them for other licenses and it talks about stand-alone.

They also appear to be forcing people into a term/subscription business model by starting to add features to the subscription instead of the actual license.  For example the multiboard features will go away if I let the subscription expire.  Am I crazy or is this true?

BTW - They're offering $5k to resubscribe (standard) by the end of the month, $12k for an on-demand perpetual license and $5k each year for term based.  Is this what other people are seeing?

[ajb]

I haven't looked into standalone licensing, but otherwise that matches what I've been seeing.  Our rep did offer a free additional year of subscription if we resub before the end of the year. 

Also FYI, if you haven't seen the other thread, they will no longer allow reactivating expired subscriptions--you'll just have to buy a whole new license. 

I've been comparing perpetual/term costs for new seats and the cost of a new term license exceeds the cost of a perpetual license after about 5yrs, but with the free year of sub we were offered that shortens to 3yrs.  Of course that assumes they don't jack the prices up again in the meantime. 

They must have some way of providing standalone--or at least local server-based--licenses though, otherwise that cuts themselves out of a lot of high security environments that don't allow phoning home.  But it's possible they will ONLY offer those licenses to people who can demonstrate that sort of requirement.

[Bud]

Its staggering how much Altium hates their customers.

[thm_w]

- Tell them your company doesn't have internet access for whatever reason, see what they say.
- Tell them you wont be subscribing unless its for a standalone offline license, see what they say.

I'm sure their sales people are told to limit or restrict who they sell standalone to, or maybe they get less commission.
And the price they "offered" you is literally the website price, if you said "ok I'll buy through the website" they'd go apeshit trying to stop you.


https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-plans-to-end-the-program-for-reactivating-expired-subscriptions-in-2023/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-price-rises/

[Poe]

Their website lists three license options: term, perpetual and "other".  If you select "other", they ask a bunch of questions about your company.  I asked what the 'other' license types were and they said there are just two license types.  I asked then why they posted the "other" option.  No reply.

If you already have a perpetual license, there's never a financial point that 'term' makes sense, since it's the same price as a subscription and offers the same thing.

ajb - I get the same cost/benefit. A customer without a perpetual license can purchase a new license every three years for the same price as the term option..... but ... the perpetual license gets a new seat every three years.  Sure some seats will be older, but hell we have engineers that are still using Protel99.  Altium only releases actual upgrades every four years or so anyways.

thm_w - I like the "I'll order it online" idea.

[ajawamnet]

Hey everyone - I mentioned this topic on the main forum... they moved it to the lounge so as to not piss anyone off.   These guys are something else...