I've been trying to decide whether to purchase AD Expert or an F360 subscription. Both AD and F360 are excellent CAD packages; Alibre is offering some great Black Friday pricing; I really hate software rental and want to buy AD, but when I took a harder look at Alibre licensing, I just couldn't justify it due to Alibre's node-locked license model. Here's why, and Alibre, I hope you'll consider this because you have a great product except for the licensing model:
1. Node locked licenses are soooo 1990s; this is 2021 and working from home is no longer optional. Like most, I routinely do work in the office that I want/need to be able to continue at home. Alibre allows you to move your license manually (slightly klunky), but much more importantly, you can only do this while the product is under maintenance. Your licensing pages neglect this critical detail. This is super important because it means that annual maintenance is not optional, it's a necessity given how most folks work these days.
Admin edit - you do not need to have an active maintenence contract to move licenses around. Maintenence is fully optional.
2. Even if working from home were not an issue, a node-locked license means I would need to pay maintenance if I wanted to upgrade my computer (something I expect to do every 3-6 years). This is less critical than the working from home issue because maintenance might not be required *every* year, but it still undermines the own-vs-subscribe advantage.
Admin edit - you do not need an active maintenance plan to relicense software on any machine, including a new one.
3. The competition, from my perspective, is Fusion. F360 offers features that are competitive with AD Expert and also includes CAM and Eagle electronics CAD. The annual maintenance cost ALONE of AD Expert is comparable to the annual subscription cost of F360 (with a 3-year subscription).
So even though I hate software rental, and am not a fan of Autodesk, Alibre's licensing model is sufficiently restrictive that it undermines AD's main differentiator: own vs. rent. I'd love to buy AD Expert, but I can't do that under your current licensing model. If I could buy it and then pay maintenance only when I needed/wanted new features, that would be great.
Admin edit - you can do this already.
I hope you'll consider adopting permanent floating licenses as your standard license model...that would go a long way towards making Alibre's own vs. rent argument compelling. The node locked license is simply too restrictive in 2021.
Admin edit - we also have floating licenses available, not that you need it for what you are asking above. Contact sales if you would like to inquire about them. They aren't the default because the internet requirement to open the software on floating licenses isn't something most people want.
1. Node locked licenses are soooo 1990s; this is 2021 and working from home is no longer optional. Like most, I routinely do work in the office that I want/need to be able to continue at home. Alibre allows you to move your license manually (slightly klunky), but much more importantly, you can only do this while the product is under maintenance. Your licensing pages neglect this critical detail. This is super important because it means that annual maintenance is not optional, it's a necessity given how most folks work these days.
Admin edit - you do not need to have an active maintenence contract to move licenses around. Maintenence is fully optional.
2. Even if working from home were not an issue, a node-locked license means I would need to pay maintenance if I wanted to upgrade my computer (something I expect to do every 3-6 years). This is less critical than the working from home issue because maintenance might not be required *every* year, but it still undermines the own-vs-subscribe advantage.
Admin edit - you do not need an active maintenance plan to relicense software on any machine, including a new one.
3. The competition, from my perspective, is Fusion. F360 offers features that are competitive with AD Expert and also includes CAM and Eagle electronics CAD. The annual maintenance cost ALONE of AD Expert is comparable to the annual subscription cost of F360 (with a 3-year subscription).
So even though I hate software rental, and am not a fan of Autodesk, Alibre's licensing model is sufficiently restrictive that it undermines AD's main differentiator: own vs. rent. I'd love to buy AD Expert, but I can't do that under your current licensing model. If I could buy it and then pay maintenance only when I needed/wanted new features, that would be great.
Admin edit - you can do this already.
I hope you'll consider adopting permanent floating licenses as your standard license model...that would go a long way towards making Alibre's own vs. rent argument compelling. The node locked license is simply too restrictive in 2021.
Admin edit - we also have floating licenses available, not that you need it for what you are asking above. Contact sales if you would like to inquire about them. They aren't the default because the internet requirement to open the software on floating licenses isn't something most people want.
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