New Pricing and Licensing Model
After reviewing the number of recent plugin license renewals and the number of active licenses I’ve decided I will need to change up my licensing system to ensure enough revenue for further development of the plugins.
What this means is that I will offer a dual option licensing system. You can continue with the current permanent license and renewals if you prefer or you can go with a subscription license. My proposed pricing (USD) for each licensing option is:
1. Subscription License:
Medeek Wall $75.00/year
Medeek Truss $75.00/year
Medeek Foundation $50.00/year
Medeek Electrical $40.00/year
mdkBIM $150.00/year (Wall, Truss, Foundation)
2a. Permanent License: (NEW with free renewals for one year)
Medeek Wall $190.00
Medeek Truss $190.00
Medeek Foundation $130.00
Medeek Electrical $110.00
mdkBIM $340.00 (Wall, Truss, Foundation)
2b. Permanent License: (RENEW for one year)
Medeek Wall $95.00
Medeek Truss $95.00
Medeek Foundation $65.00
Medeek Electrical $55.00
Obviously this pricing is trying to encourage people to migrate to the subscription licensing system, but the upside to the permanent license is that it will never stop working in the future if an active license is not maintained.
This is only a proposed license and price change, nothing is in stone yet. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts and/or any suggestions.
The thinking with this change is that I will have more licenses being renewed/subscribed and then have the ability and resources to bring on extra personnel and further accelerate the development.
P.S.
All of these numbers may be a bit confusing, even I admit it is a lot of numbers to throw out there at once. The main thing to grasp from all of this is that there will be two types of licenses “Permanent” and “Subscription”. With subscription you just pay as you go and an active subscription gives you access to the latest releases of the plugins.
With the permanent license you always have the option to renew the license for another year which adds another year to the exp. update date. However what people sometimes don’t understand is the situation in which you let the license lapse for a number of years. If this happens and then you decide to renew the license you still can and the additional year is not added to the date the license lapsed but to the date when you renew the license. So basically once you purchase a permanent license it holds its value significantly even if you let it lapse and don’t renew it immediately.
P.P.S.
All licenses issued to date are permanent licenses. The downside for the permanent (current) license holders is not that the new pricing is increasing by double but that the renewal pricing is also increasing. I understand that this is not exciting news for existing users, but my plans to expand my operation and the plugin development will require additional employees and hence my pricing structure needs to be able to support that additional overhead. Existing users have four options:
1.) Don’t upgrade their plugins and continue to use the most up-to-date versions that their license allows (this is determined by their license expiration update date). This option will work for many but as I continue to upgrade and release new versions with new features the newest versions of the plugin will become increasingly more attractive.
2.) Upgrade when their license expires as they deem necessary at the updated pricing level for permanent licenses.
3.) Switch to a subscription license when their exp. update date has passed and their permanent license is no longer active.
4.) Future proof themselves by renewing their licenses now and adding a number of years to their exp. update date at the current lower pricing (at a significant savings, approx. 50% discount from the new pricing).
P.P.P.S.
The subscription pricing is also lower than the current NEW pricing so it lowers the entry bar slightly for non-professional and casual users who many only need to use the plugins for a few weeks or months.
The cost for the permanent or professional users is going up, but in my mind that is where the burden should be shouldered. If you are a professional and actually making money with these plugins is a yearly cost of $150.00 too much to ask? is it still good value for the money? That is the question I really need to answer, and any feedback in this regard would be greatly appreciated.
