Affordable license?

[tom66]

It looked to me like they were repositioning into the high-end of CAD and expecting the increased cost to give more income than that lost through cheap users. But if they've now got a starter license perhaps they just think money grows on trees.

I think it's a response to KiCad.  v7 is not that far off Altium parity for a lot of designs.

[jc101]

A new Altum license just dropped:
US$2k/year for individuals and small startups.

I wonder if they will offer a reduced subscription for small companies that already have a perpetual licence.

[David_AVD]

A new Altum license just dropped:
US$2k/year for individuals and small startups.

I wonder if they will offer a reduced subscription for small companies that already have a perpetual licence.

I was offered an update to the current version for around $2K and I have a perpetual licence.

[jc101]

So was I last December, just in GBP.  I declined but made them an offer over 50% less as a take it or leave it, they accepted. As a very small company it wasn’t affordable otherwise. I was happy to let it lapse but as someone paid for some work I made them the offer.

[asmi]

A new Altum license just dropped:
https://www.altium.com/altium-designer/licensing/individual
US$2k/year for individuals and small startups.

As I understand, this is a subscription only license, not perpetual. So you lose access to all your designs once you stop paying. Which is kind of ridiculous as all your time investment into libraries and learning how to walk around AD's bugs minefield goes "puff". From my own experience, it took me about a full year to completely realign my workflow for AD, that inlcudes not only learning the tool and migrating libraries, but also upgrading all sorts of little tools I've developed over time to help with my project workflow.
But the price of perpetual license is now in the stratosphere as per their website (it says "starting at 17K CAD", which is about 12.6K USD), so I guess they are trying to force new users into that subscription "you keep paying while we hold all your designs hostage" nonsense. Or maybe they want new users to haggle better with sales reps - I got my perpetual license for just 3.5K USD in June 2020, in the thick of COVID, by basically calling them up holding a credit card in hand and saying - "I will buy a license RIGHT NOW if the price is right". Something tells me they will be willing to offer deep discounts off their list price, as many small biz shops and one-man-bands simply won't be able to afford it.

[Sal Ammoniac]

If I retire later this year, I can offer my Altium license with the subscription at a big discount if anyone is interested. Will swap for a Tesla .

You're on. Here's a picture of the Tesla. Send me your postal address and I'll ship to you.

[EEVblog]

A new Altum license just dropped:
https://www.altium.com/altium-designer/licensing/individual
US$2k/year for individuals and small startups.

As I understand, this is a subscription only license, not perpetual. So you lose access to all your designs once you stop paying.

Yep, that's what they count on. They have learned their lession with perpetual licenses. Customers buy them and them don't upgrade for 5-10 years.
That sucks for regular income and sustaining the company share price.
And there is probably no guarantee that it'll still be $2k next year...

[nth_degree]

2k is a lot more reasonable. I may bite

[asmi]

Yep, that's what they count on. They have learned their lession with perpetual licenses. Customers buy them and them don't upgrade for 5-10 years.
That sucks for regular income and sustaining the company share price.

Well as long as they keep update sub price reasonable I think many would keep paying. I know I do, because if I would ever need to renew my lapsed license I know I can't afford that. The only reason I do have the license is because I managed to get it at a very deep discount to begin with.

And there is probably no guarantee that it'll still be $2k next year...

Considering that their update sub price for perpetual license goes up every year, I'm pretty sure it won't be that long until it goes up.

[asmi]

2k is a lot more reasonable. I may bite

Update sub for perpetual license is about the same, so in your shoes I would gather up a bit more dosh, call them up and ask if they are willing to sell a perpetual license for say 4k, once you have that, you can still choose to extend your update sub annually, but at least you won't be locked out of all your work once you stop paying, so you can think of those extra 2K as insurance policy against that. Call them towards the end of month and make it clear that you are ready to close the deal RIGHT NOW if the price is right, and that whatever price you have in mind is all you can afford, and see if they agree. I think they will if they realize that they either get something out of you, or get nothing.

The only situation when I can see usage of sub-only licensing is if someone is only doing a contract work, and no designs outside of that. Then I can see why you might want to hop-on hop-off the license and won't really suffer from lapses because your design will be in hands of your customer.

[asmi]

In the end my sales rep managed to secure a 40% discount for me for extending my support sub, so it came to 1815 CAD (+13% tax, for a total of 2050.95 CAD). It shows once again that they are willing to give deep discounts if you ask for it and convince them that it will be objectively hard for you to afford a full price.

[Daixiwen]

Is anyone paying Altium the normal price?

[johnboxall]

Is anyone paying Altium the normal price?

Only the people who pay whatever is asked for a new car.

Just saw the graduate offer - 12 months and some certification course for AU$135 then renews at AU$2625 for the following year.

[EEVblog]

They are now targetting Eagle users:
https://www.altium.com/go-altium
But using the <$250k year entry level pricing.

[asmi]

They are now targetting Eagle users:
https://www.altium.com/go-altium
But using the <$250k year entry level pricing.

LOL. This time they only offer sub-only license. Last time they offered a perpetual license for the same migration, and the price was almost the same. But since Eagle is sub-only I guess it's a fair game. Still I wouldn't go for such an offer.

[thm_w]

They are now targetting Eagle users:
https://www.altium.com/go-altium
But using the <$250k year entry level pricing.

hah, they are saying fusion360 costs $2,100 a year because they include the $1,600 signal integrity package. If you don't include that its only $500 per year, half of what Altium is offering (not saying its worth it, just typical marketing).

"An Individual License can be renewed for another year for USD 1,985. The promotional price of USD 995 will no longer be available after your initial purchase. Offer expires June 30, 2023."
Still, not a bad deal at all, as you probably don't need to prove you have a f360 license.

And looking at fusion360 analysis, it appears different, its a PCB level visual analysis of trace impedance. I don't think Altium does this?

[nctnico]

They are now targetting Eagle users:
https://www.altium.com/go-altium
But using the <$250k year entry level pricing.

hah, they are saying fusion360 costs $2,100 a year because they include the $1,600 signal integrity package. If you don't include that its only $500 per year, half of what Altium is offering (not saying its worth it, just typical marketing).

"An Individual License can be renewed for another year for USD 1,985. The promotional price of USD 995 will no longer be available after your initial purchase. Offer expires June 30, 2023."
Still, not a bad deal at all, as you probably don't need to prove you have a f360 license.

And looking at fusion360 analysis, it appears different, its a PCB level visual analysis of trace impedance. I don't think Altium does this?

AFAIK Altium can't do impedance viewing (or crosstalk). Last year I converted an Altium layout (made by a contractor) to Allegro just to check impedances & crosstalk. And that did turn up with some problem areas that needed to be fixed in the layout.

[asmi]

AFAIK Altium can't do impedance viewing (or crosstalk). Last year I converted an Altium layout (made by a contractor) to Allegro just to check impedances & crosstalk. And that did turn up with some problem areas that needed to be fixed in the layout.

Theoretically it does, but I'm yet to figure out how to set it up and get it to do what I want it to do.

[PlainName]

Sure you're not thinking of the PDN analyzer addon?

[asmi]

Sure you're not thinking of the PDN analyzer addon?

No I'm talking about SI simulation.

[thm_w]

Sure you're not thinking of the PDN analyzer addon?

No I'm talking about SI simulation.

But there is no cool visual.

https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/configuring-running-signal-integrity-analysis
https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/interactively-routing-controlled-impedance-pcb

They are using some Simbeor plugin, but just a basic version. The full 3D field solver starts at $3,000/yr

Skip to 25:00 or so:

[nctnico]

Sure you're not thinking of the PDN analyzer addon?

That is not the topic. As a side note though: I've seen some results from Altium's PDN analysis for DC and that looks pretty good.

[PlainName]

I gave it a try, and to me the colours were the wrong way around (red = OK, green = not so good) with no way to change them. OK, that's not that much of a biggie, but it's distracting and every time I opened it I'm thinking, "Eh, that's not what it looks like, wish I could change it."

[nigelwright7557]

Altium already has a big market share on the enterprise level.

There are dozens of free or cheap packages out there.
The trick is finding one that not only does what you need but one you find easy to use and is relatively bug free.

[asmi]

They are using some Simbeor plugin, but just a basic version. The full 3D field solver starts at $3,000/yr

That's good stuff, I happen to know folks behind this sim.