Announcing Subscriptions

[Max]

Hey, put that pitchfork down! I saw you.

We're happy to announce a new way to access Alibre products - monthly and yearly subscriptions. Let me get right to the big questions:

What happens to my permanent license, my maintenance payments, etc?
Nothing. We are not getting rid of permanent licenses, and permanent licenses will continue to have optional maintenance. No one with a permanent license will have a single change to their software or the way they interact with us.

Why is Alibre doing this?
It's become obvious that many people, probably many of you, really enjoy the ability to plan your expenses and, most importantly, to always keep your software running if you decide you need to forgo maintenance for any period of time. We agree - that is not going away.

On the flip side, many customers are attracted to the predictability and ease-of-entry that comes with subscriptions. So, we're just going to have both - and you can decide which one you prefer based on what makes sense for you.

Are Subscriptions available everywhere?
No - subscriptions are currently available only for places in the world to which Alibre sells direct. Primarily the US and Canada. We have no timeline on rolling it out more broadly, as this will require deep discussions with our international partners.

How is this different from other CAD vendor subscriptions?
A few important reasons.

1) We do not keep your data - it works exactly like Alibre products work today, just with monthly or yearly renewals.
2) In the same way that permanent licenses have a grace period for talking with the license server, so do Subscription accounts. What does this mean practically? As long as you have Internet once every few weeks, you can use your software. That means you can get on a plane and use it, go on vacation, go in the middle of the Sahara - you get it. Flexibility is built in, so you don't have to worry about whether you have internet "right now" for your projects. Most subscriptions make you log in every time you use it, so you're out of luck with no internet. Not ours.


Hopefully this helps to dramatically expand the Alibre community as we welcome in tons of new folks. Let us know what you think

 

[JimCad]

I hate subscriptions and will not do it. I have bought all of my software and will never go monthly.
I can see that some people may want it but Me? Never?
Please don't ever stop us buying our software and perhaps upgrading with maintenance as we can afford it.
Thank you.
Jim

 

[oilman]

I hate subscriptions and will not do it. I have bought all of my software and will never go monthly.
I can see that some people may want it but Me? Never?
Please don't ever stop us buying our software and perhaps upgrading with maintenance as we can afford it.
Thank you.
Jim

I feel like perpetual licenses are like buying a book. You pay once, it's yours forever. You can read it as many times as you want - no extra cost. You might pay for a new edition if you want the updated content, but the original book is yours forever.

Subscriptions, on the other hand, are like having a library card. You pay a small fee each month and you get to read all the books you want. You always have access to the newest books, and you can change your reading list whenever you like.

Which one's better really depends on your needs and budget. If you have the cash and you know you'll use the book a lot, buying it makes sense. But if you need lots of different books, or if you prefer to spread out your costs, a library card can be a really good deal.

But I totally agree with you - it's important to have options and choose what works best for us. I'm glad to hear Alibre is committed to keeping perpetual licensing.

 

[JimCad]

As a pensioner on limited funds and a VERY small amount of savings I chose to spend the money (and risk death by wife if she finds out). I my or may not have sufficient funds in the future for monthly outgoings and if I couldn't afford the monthly fees I would be unable to use it.
As I improve my skills with Alibre I'll be looking for bits of freelance work to bring a few quid in but I'm a LONG way off that yet.
Jim

 

[Max]

As a pensioner on limited funds and a VERY small amount of savings I chose to spend the money (and risk death by wife if she finds out). I my or may not have sufficient funds in the future for monthly outgoings and if I couldn't afford the monthly fees I would be unable to use it.
As I improve my skills with Alibre I'll be looking for bits of freelance work to bring a few quid in but I'm a LONG way off that yet.

We get it, Jim! Not to worry, your perpetual license isn't going anywhere.

 

[JimCad]

Thanks Max.
Jim

 

[Max]

Sure thing. We are not under the impression that many people here, who already have perpetual licenses, will either be excited or care about this. However, had we said nothing, the questions would have flooded about what happens to existing licenses, so we wanted to be proactive in talking about it

 

[BobSchaefer]

Just so I'm clear, if a new user comes in, they will have the option to go on a subscription or to buy the software with maintenance, correct? Also, those of us that are not currently on maintenance anymore, will still have the option later to go back on maintenance if/when we want, correct?

 

[Max]

Correct.

 

[JimCad]

Sounds fair enough to Me.

 

[Abhijit]

This is great, flexible options for a variety of use case scenarios.

A request sir, if it's feasible to have a unified Online Store, to renew maintenance online or subscribe and get access within minutes as opposed to needing to contact resellers.
UX wise, I have always found such an arrangement impacting my purchasing decisions unless I am 100% convinced already.
It'd be very simple and convenient to manage directly.

 

[GIOV]

It is important to note that AD has changed its promises several times and with the same staff. I remember that my salesman, a good guy, gave me 3 perpetual seats... Now I only have one with the new version. I remember that he gave me several very useful complementary programs such as Design Check and Alibre Motion... Also Toolbox...and Alibre Cam.... None of that has lasted in the new versions. The Staff did not defend the integrity of the package that their customers purchased on a permanent basis.
I strongly hope that this tradition of looking out for the customers in the early time (ADV11), will be reestablished and not give false fumes that in the future may fade away.
I wish you well.

 

[Max]

Giov, during the time you describe, which is about 10-13 years ago, licenses were named-user licenses. That meant while you may have had access to 3, you are the only one who could use it. We did that out of convenience because at the time there was not a straightforward mechanism to disable on one computer and enable on another. We now have that ability.

Regarding some of the add on programs that were offered in the past, some have gone out of business. Some have developers that no longer work as developers. Some wanted to change terms in ways we could not accept. Times change, packages change.

It has always personally frustrated me that this was the case. At the time we were not in positions to make decisions that couldn't be overruled. However when we got Alibre back and finally had complete control, we made a conscious and public decision to limit add-ons we include to prevent this very situation. We explained at the time that we were going to focus only on Alibre Design, and let add on providers make all commercial decisions and sales themselves.

This is how it should have always been. We have a very short list of very long term partners (like Keyshot) that we continue to partner with, but keeping out of the add on bundling game has been very intentional since we returned, precisely to avoid the situation you describe from "old Alibre" from happening again, as well as ensuring our company focus was exclusively on our CAD software at all times.

So, I hear you. I agree with you. But I think we are today and have been for 5+ years where we need to be on this issue.

 

[GIOV]

Thank you for your response Max.

What I am asking is that in house they can develop much needed add-ons to a prototype and they are parts of the program like AlibreScript is. That is Alibre Design Check (Stress and Flow) and Alibre Motion. It would be very good and necessary to develop an acceptable prototype and if the customer needs something more specific, he can have the option of a more specialized and therefore more expensive program offered in the list of suggestions.

Small companies like mine are grateful with programs like Alibe Design, that give the necessary tools to emerge in quality engineering giving you a distinction among other products that are more and more every day.

Thank you again for your response Max ,

GIOV

 

[nenad]

Hello,
Even though I prefer permanent licenses in general, I think in some cases it's good to have subscription offer as well. Especially as a monthly option (unlike e.g. Onshape). It might be useful if someone needs temporary license for limited time (additional project, temporary employee, etc.). And price seems quite fair
I do have one question - If user has permanent Pro license, and would like to have Expert for limited time (month or two, e.g for sheet metal project), how this case would be handled? Could existing product, e.g. Pro be activated to Expert, and after subscription expires, it would automatically revert to Pro?

 

[Ex Machina]

I think that nothing is inherently bad.

Subscriptions are a good way for a small consulting company to get off the ground. Pay for the CAD system only the time of year that you need to be using it. That's the reason that Fusion360 skyrocketed as it did. But there is always temptation. When you have someone as a subscriber, it's tempting to squeeze him to the limit of leaving so that you can extract the most profit out of him. Sounds bad but it happens. For example, Fusion 360 had its ethos and approach change significantly as soon as Carl Bass stepped down as Autodesk's CEO.

Since then they have fallen into the trap of thinking they are entitled to a continuously larger share of the profits of a company because their software is instrumental to creating them. Not the user using it. The software itself. And even then it's not true, because for the design part of it at least, Alibre outperforms Fusion.

So, what I want to say is this. Subscriptions can do a lot for the software. You can quickly scale up teams to respond to work influx, you can collaborate more efficiently with clients as a remote engineer and many more. The optimal setup for a small company would be 1 perpetual license and the rest of them being subscriptions. But remember that Alibre is providing a service that no other CAD company is providing currently. It is like a business partner to small and medium enterprises, not a supplier! Or a tax collector... It helps its customers. Actively. Not just enough so that the marketing guys can claim they do.

To summarize, Software as a Service is a great approach for a CAD company to get market share and apply its approach to doing business. As long as Alibre's approach does not change, we will all benefit. And Alibre will convert that difference in approach to an increasing market share. Pricing of that subscription needs to also make sense to people around the world with different buying powers. Not just the US and Europe. Even though it's not going to be international off the bat, it'll be hard to change the subscription price once it's out there.

P.S. Alibre also needs to communicate its performance a bit better. But that needs to be done regardless.

 

[JimCad]

That makes a lot of sense.
But not for Me.
I'm just a retired old geezer.

 

[chiawei0306]

When I change my annual subscription to a monthly subscription,
I will pay a fee after the change
Here's why

 

[Max]

?

 

[chiawei0306]

OK , ready to design
thank you MAX