Hi @corney I’m sorry to meddle in the conversation but that is a no go price for me too. My clients do not want to pay the extra money involved in studying energy efficiency and therefore I tend to have to rely in my intuition. Bigger cliente do hire specific engineering projects for this.
So, sefaira is a bit out of my way and it’s a shame. Would you consider integrating it back in SketchUp studio. I said it before but I would rather have it than vray
Hi @JQL - no need to apologise and thank you for your feedback.
@corney Hey just some feedback. I am in the same boat as I do MEP, Title 24 reports as well as Manual J on many residences and commercial buildings. Figures the year I decide to pull the trigger on the studio would be the year Sefaira was pulled from the package. That’s my life. But you asked about price.
Honestly most energy programs run between $250 to $450 a year. Many are permanent license’s and no subscription. I realize there are many benefits to Sefaira and I was willing to bite the bullet if I could get a all inclusive package deal even at $1200 a year it would be nice to see if there was a decent “ROI” on the package. However at $2000 a year for a stand alone is asking a little much IMHO. I know it isn’t getting any cheaper to run a business these days but that kind of jump is more than most of the business partners I work with are willing to make. So we have the choice to do without for $300 a year or go all in at $2300 a year. Most of us are going to invest that difference in something else. Heck I could almost afford a new computer every year for that kind of money and geek out with my new toy.
But that is just my opinion and it may not be the proper one or even skewed at best but I got it off my chest. Looks like a elegant piece of software and I wish your company the best.
Jim
Just to add a bit of info: I’ve got some powerful free alternatives that are widely adopted in the industry too. So, between investing my money and time studying sefaira or those alternatives, I might choose the later only because it’s more cost effective.
Hi @corney ,
Yes, I understand you are running a business and so do I, but mine is a very small one which I have just started and I am really invested in it.
I am a Certified Building Sustainability Professional and do get projects accordingly. Your delay in response does effect me as I do have a live project that requires it to be sustainable. I do not agree with investing more of my time for you learnings as I could had given this feedback in your recent Sketchup survey had if you had provided a section for any other comments.
The reason for choosing Sefaira in the first place was knowing its helps in early design, it costs less, it will be a one time payment and I could purchase an appropriate plan to use it on my Sketchup Pro or Revit to reduce my overhead cost. I found out the plans and pricing from a 3rd party review website (Sefaira Reviews: Pricing & Software Features 2022 - Financesonline.com) which I haven’t received from your end yet and not sure if the 3rd party website has the right or outdated information.
The pricing as told to me on call to be $2000/- per year on subscription is not justifiable for me to purchase it as I have better options in the market which does a Detail Energy Analysis, recognised by the local Green Building council and costs much less on subscription basis. I did speak to other Architects in the Building Sustainability circle and they too have mentioned that they bought Sefaira as a one time payment for a fraction of your new price.
Best Regards,
Mithun
Thank you for all the feedback. It’s always appreciated and welcome.
Sefaira was originally part of SketchUp Studio with subscription price of $1,199 per year. It has never been offered as a perpetual license despite what the website referenced says.
The Studio license is a named user license and the agreement states that the license cannot be shared.
The current Sefaira offering for sale is a managed seat and can be reassigned at will. This is very important to quite a few customers where the firm has more than one user but obviously it affects the price - that’s why we are where we are. I can definitely see how for very small firms this is not useful.
A few folks mention free software. What are you looking for from Sefaira that you are not able to get from the free software?
best,
Andrew
Direct integration with Sketchup.
The free software I’m exploring works as a plugin to Rhino, Revit and is being adapted to Blender/Sverchok. I could bring a Sketchup model into any of these platforms easily, but Sefaira works directly with Sketchup so it would be a no brainer if the price was much lower.
As for Rhino and Revit, many of us use them already. It’s not my case. I deal solely with Sketchup.
I’m comfortable doing a lot of stuff in Blender though. I just didn’t dedicate the time I needed to that particular energy analysis software in order to use it. I actaully also didn’t dedicate the time I needed to Sefaira, but that was my go to answer for the problem. Now it will probably not be where I will start as I don’t need that extra cost in my small studio.