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You do realize that they haven't really changed their pricing model, right? They just changed how it's presented. It's always been a subscription if you want ne
by cweagans 11y ago
You do realize that they haven't really changed their pricing model, right? They just changed how it's presented. It's always been a subscription if you want new features in an IDE (which most people do). I pay like $100/year for PHPstorm upgrades, and it's well worth the cost given the benefits that one receives from using the software (mostly in terms of productivity).
Yes, renting software is a skeezy model. Yes, they should still allow people to purchase perpetual licenses (which, for the record, you can still do until November). Yes, this could have been communicated differently and with more notice.
No, it's not the end of the world. A company has to make money, and at the end of the day, I'd much rather give my money to Jetbrains than many other companies because I know they make excellent tools that facilitate my ability to produce excellent software.
- teacup50 11y agoSorry, but they have changed their pricing model; the previous model provided a perpetual license with a year of updates, and the new model is simply rental, which access terminating once you stop paying. I don't rent my tools.
- cweagans 11y agoSo don't. There are plenty of other tools out there that you can use. Did you previously pay the yearly fee to continue getting upgrades?
- sgdread 11y agoNow you paying not for upgrades, but the fee to use. No payment - you can't use it.
- cweagans 11y agoMy point is, if you were paying the yearly fee before so that you can get upgrades, you were paying a subscription anyway. Yes, you could still use it if you didn't pay, but you paid. Why do you care?
- teacup50 11y agoYou don't seem to understand how the choice defines the relationship. Imperfect Analogy Time Imagine a deli that you go to every morning. It's the only one in the neighborhood, but they make great bagels, so you don't go out of your way to find a new deli. Now imagine the deli adopts a subscription pricing model -- no other options. If you want food from that deli, you have to subscribe month-to-month. If you don't want to subscribe, you have to walk 5 blocks out of your way to go to a different deli. You decide to subscribe because you were going there every morning anyway. Over the coming months, however, the food keeps getting worse. The service grows poor. You wind up waiting longer for your food. But you're invested in the deli, and it'd be a hassle to leave, so you put up with it. Eventually you bail, of course. But for a number of months, you were stuck in that gray area in there in which the deli can take advantage of the fact that, if you drop your subscription, you'd have to have expended significantly more effort and time to come up with an alternative. Unlike a deli, tools are a lot harder to replace.
- mikeash 11y agoKeeping prices the same while providing less for the money is still a change in the pricing model. Before, the choice after a year was to pay for an upgrade or keep using the old version. Now the choice after a year is to pay for a renewal or find a new tool entirely.
- tobltobs 11y agoSo leasing a car for 1000$ per year is the same as buying a car for $1000?