Effective June 16, 2008, we announce New CS-Cart Upgrade Policy.
On purchasing a license, you will get access to new CS-Cart versions, upgrades for a period of one year. To have the ability to receive new updates after the period is over, you will need to buy a one-year maintenance plan.
The maintenance plan will be available at the following prices:
$49.50 – if the plan is purchased within one month after access to updates is closed;
$89.50 – in case the plan is purchased after one month upon access termination.
After purchasing such a plan, you will receive updates and the right to install new CS-Cart versions released within the following year. The new versions can be installed only on the licensed domain for which this plan has been purchased.
No updates may be used to upgrade the licenses for which the yearly maintenance plan has not been bought.
The new policy will affect only the licenses bought on June 16, 2008 and after. For all the licenses bought prior to this date, customers will retain full access to all new versions and updates as before. Please note that the purchase of maintenance plans provides access to new CS-Cart versions, but no fee is charged for the right to continue using the software without upgrade.
Should you need any further information regarding the new upgrade policy, feel free to contact us. The existing CS-Cart license holders should submit tickets via Customer Help Desk, whereas potential customers can make requests using the contact us form.
Personally I think this is a good way to go, as long as CS actually release updates during the subscription period.
It would be a shame if they enforce this policy and dont release an update during the maintenance period.
Kayako have this option, what I like about the way they work is you can let the maintenance run out… wait for them to update and re-subscribe at that time.
Certainly makes sense to have a constant revenue stream from their perspective, which rewards for their ongoing development.
Agreed. This should help hire more developers and produce better upgrades and more functionality.
[quote name=‘SWS’]Personally I think this is a good way to go, as long as CS actually release updates during the subscription period.
It would be a shame if they enforce this policy and dont release an update during the maintenance period.
Kayako have this option, what I like about the way they work is you can let the maintenance run out… wait for them to update and re-subscribe at that time.
Certainly makes sense to have a constant revenue stream from their perspective, which rewards for their ongoing development.[/quote]
While this policy works out well for the people that purchased before the June-08 cutoff, it also alienates purchasers after that date. For example… we purchased the 1.35sp4 last year while the 2.0.x branch was being put together. Eventually, 2.0.x came out. Then month after month the updates and fixes were rolled out with bug fixes and features.
Earlier this year, 2.0.13 was released, and our one year support ran out right as version .14 was released, which then stopped us from applying the latest fix, and now .15 was released a few days ago, with more bug fixes. So what this does is leave us with a version that still has bugs in it - unless of course we cough up the extra to renew the maint/upgrade period.
We opted to just switch back to our other cart which has maintenance and version upgrades for life with no maint contract.
What might have been a better idea is to implement this in a little different way. A better way of doing this if you were going to charge an annual fee for maint. - might have been to offer free upgrades for the current or purchased version for the life of the product. Ex. 2.0.x - 2.0.xx. Then only requiring the maint fee if a new version comes out such as 2.1.x which is already being discussed.
This way, if it takes over a year to get the product stable and without bugs in it, the purchaser ends up with a fully working product like he/she expects to have when paying for it, instead of being left behind with a product that is not bug free, and possibly left open to security issues without the updates - in other words, they didnt get what they paid for… .a fully functional product.
I think this cart has potential, but it needs to be in a way that doesnt eventually drive away the new customers that weren’t grandfathered in to the upgrade policy.
So if you purchased v1.3.5sp4 initially, then by your own argument, you should only receive updates for v1.3.5 for free? and not v2.0 as that wasn’t the “stable release” at the time you purchased.
Am I understanding you correctly?
Isn’t the upgrade fee $50/year? You consider that a deal breaker for your e-commerce business?
Yes, but we inquired ahead of time on whether the 2.0.x version would be a free upgrade, since the 1.3.5x version was becoming obsolete at the time. If it would not have been a free bump, then we would have just waited until 2.0.x was released before purchasing.
The upgrade price is $89 for another year maintenance plan. Its not the amount of money that is the issue. The issue is that when you purchase something, you expect it to be complete and working correctly. We paid $265 for a license and I see now its up to $285 for a new license for the next person that comes along, who would also be expecting a fully functional product. If the bug fixes drag out for over a year like they did with this version, then you have to cough up even more to get your store up to date with fixes to bugs and security issues that were there when the license was purchased. This is why I think version specific fixes should be free until that particular branch is retired for the next. Like Windows, linux, etc. the patches for broken components and security issues are free within that version. When a new version comes along, and you want it, you have to pay for it.
So in answer to your question, it was a deal breaker- I’m not a big fan of being nickled and dimed.
My input into the post was more for the sake of helping cscart keep people like me from moving on… like I said earlier, the cart has potential… so the more people that jump on board and stay on board, the bigger and better it can become.
“X” is finally getting off that “not included” mod stuff in the upcoming release and adding more of the mods into part of the product like they should be- which has been long overdue.
It was just a bit frustrating waiting for a full year for the bugs to get worked out, and then being asked for more money to get the updates that accomplish that. The $49.50 is correct is you upgrade within 30 days of the maintenance plan running out and $89 if you wait until after that period.
Anyway, that’s just my point of view and opinion on the upgrade policy. It only affects the ones that didn’t come along until after the policy went into effect, so its not a big deal.
i understand… I dont make the rules, CS has to keep income coming in to grow and support their product and they chose a yearly maint fee, similar to Vbulletin, as that method.
