But there are many other customers for whom a subscription model is going to be worse. Sure, offering a subscription-oriented model makes sense for some kinds of customers. I think JetBrains miscalculated just how much people like the current licensing model. If I ever miss a renewal, my yearly costs jump by 30%.īut none of those details really explain why the internet got so upset. It's only cheaper for me if I keep renewing promptly. It does make it cheaper, especially for new users (which is great!), but the situation for existing users is a little more murky. Is this a sign that the prices will jump in the near future? JetBrains certainly tried to promote this new licensing model by saying that it would make their software more affordable. And even then, the prices given are all listed as promotional prices that are only good until Jan 31, 2016. But here's the deal: if I ever let my subscription lapse, it looks like I end up losing my grandfathered discount. New users will pay $119 per year, which is a lot less than the old, introductory price of $199. Huzzah! Well, that's only applicable for users who already own IntelliJ. Under the new model, I'll only pay $89 for a year. My last IntelliJ upgrade was $99 for the year. OK, so users lose some ability that they previously had, but the software is cheaper, right? Customers win a little and lose a little, so maybe it's a wash. For people in an internet-restricted environment, it looks like this perk is no longer available. But it doesn't look like the JetBrains license server supports personal licenses. The licensing FAQ indicates that it's allowed for an employee to use their personal license at work I've often taken advantage of this. But it does create an interesting challenge. This is not an uncommon practice for enterprise or specialized software. And customers in an internet-restricted environment will be able to install a license server inside their network to manage the license pool. Now, JetBrains has given a gracious window - the software only has to dial the mothership once every 30 days. I guess, under the new model, development grinds to a halt until the purchase goes through.Īnother controversial aspect is that the software will need to phone home. I've seen companies who forget to renew their licenses promptly or who have long and convoluted processes to approve the expenditure. For a developer with an unstable income, it might be perfectly fine to stay on an older version of the software until they've stashed enough cash to afford the upgrade. That's probably going to impact indie developers the most. The first change, and probably the biggest, is that the software will apparently stop working when you stop paying for your subscription. This all sounds great! What's the problem? These customers will probably notice no big difference - they will renew for a year at a time, and probably get a small discount as well. I know a lot of people who just need ReSharper or IntelliJ. There are also plenty of single-platform shops. Rather than committing to a year of use, they can choose to only pay for what they need in any given month.īut that's just one type of customer. This arrangement is especially good for consulting shops that do one project in C# and the next project in Java. A subscription model has apparently been a common request, and some of the feedback to the announcement has been positive. Instead, you can rent access to their software on a month-by-month basis. After that date, JetBrains will no longer sell these perpetual licenses. Starting November 2, though, that all stops. It was a simple model that worked just fine for many people, and most customers upgraded every year. Once the license expired, any software you had received under that license would continue to work, but you would need to buy another license to get further upgrades. Previously, buying a JetBrains product got you a perpetual license and a year of upgrades. Yesterday's big news, at least for many developers, is that JetBrains - maker of popular tools like IntelliJ and ReSharper - is moving to a software-as-a-service subscription model for their products. But the content in this post predated either of those follow-ups. The next day, they followed up to say that they were listening to the feedback, and two weeks later made a final post with significant refinements from their original announcement. NOTE: This post was originally written after JetBrains announced a controversial new licensing model.
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