topic Re: Another SSA Price Increase! in Licensing

Another SSA Price Increase!

Rex Maximilian — Fri, 17 May 2024 00:58:31 GMT

I've been off the boards for a bit, so I'm not sure this has been discussed previously, but...

There is another SSA price increase! For anyone doing the math, in 2022, 2023 and now 2024, in the span of 24 months, that is a 25% price increase.

Why Graphisoft?

I am still crashing on my MacTel machine. Even on the Apple Silicon version I have to restart every now and then when strange anomalies arise, only in ArchiCAD, and one that tech support says they can't solve.

How can there be justification for raising the price AGAIN when you've just put out a perpetually buggy version of ArchiCAD? Maybe the buggiest one to date. We Mac users to wait months after release for solutions to the crashing. This is seriously bordering on a breach of contract or lack of good faith on GS's part. We paid for software that we had a reasonable expectation of stability for, but to date, there seems to not be a crash proof version... and then you raise the price.

Graphisoft ( @Marton Kiss @Akos Pfemeter) we need a legitimate explanation and most likely a repeal of this price increase. Again, this is the third price increase totaling around 25% in the past 24 months.

My suspicion is that this is a tactic by GS to force perpetual license holders (their most loyal of customers) onto their subscription model.

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon 14.4.1

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Rex Maximilian — Thu, 16 May 2024 19:21:38 GMT

Also, perhaps everyone with a renew coming up should call their GS rep for an explanation and formal request for a more reasonable fee.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

rm — Thu, 16 May 2024 22:23:23 GMT

@Rex Maximilian While I relate to your frustration with price increases, unfortunately the writing is on the wall. They are forcing their longest term perpetual license holders, and dare I say, the smallest firms with tightest of margins into a pricing structure many of us just cannot sustain.

Why GS is so tone deaf to this issue is beyond me! They have virtually made it impossible to get any tech support via a live person on the phone, they have eliminated all the smaller resellers - who often offered the best support. They have become big business answering to shareholders instead of stake holders ( ie, the architects they sell to).

I am sad for all the younger, smaller firms that are looking down the barrel of crippling licensing from GS. For myself, while I maintain an architectural practice, I have started to shift to other revenue streams. GS owns this crippling of the small firm practioneers and as AI becomes more prevalent, they are going to crush mid size firms as well. I use no other software, that has increased pricing anywhere near what GS charges year after year, pure greed!

@Akos Pfemeter - keep killing your clients with fees that far exceed cost of living increases, and eventually you GS will implode.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Rex Maximilian — Fri, 17 May 2024 00:54:55 GMT

Tech support has been non-resourceful on my two inquiries. One having to do with switching display/resolutions on Mac with ArchiCAD running causes the cursor to be non-responsive in the top 1/3-ish of the screen. Only a relaunch will fix it. This ticket was closed after a response of "couldn't replicate it."

Secondly, the crashing of the Mac versions with the caps lock key depressed. The solution was to "Hold down the shift key while you type (really!)," or to disable the caps lock icon in the Terminal.

Months after its release, and they're raising the fee. Shaking my head...

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Rex Maximilian — Tue, 21 May 2024 03:45:59 GMT

@Marton Kiss @Akos Pfemeter
Anything? Can someone please explain and justify this gouging increase every year? Is the plan to price your perpetual license clients out of them and into Collaborate? if you're trying to force our hand? Is there any incentive you can give specifically to perpetual license holders (price breaks) for doing so?

This is a critical moment in the company, we need to hear from you.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Rob Hancox — Tue, 21 May 2024 14:32:14 GMT

Me too! I'm sick and tired of these unjustifiable price increases. Seriously, how much profit do they want to make? I'm not going to upgrade this year, this is adding fuel to to a fire that is already out of control in my opinion. The software is good, but I can't say it's a "stellar" piece of software. Most of the "improvements" have come at the cost of stability and usability. I'm ready for the "**beep** bingo" card for when GS start reasoning for yet another staggering price increase. I've also forgotten to add that this topic was approached back in 2004 and the price differential between countries is staggeringly different too. Why for heavens sake?

I'm done with complaining about this, I'll use my wallet to cast my vote.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

CarmelM — Thu, 23 May 2024 01:17:49 GMT

I just received my Archiplus renewal for one license with this "Special offer to help me switch from SSA to a Subscription at a deeply discounted price". Intrigued I called and was flabbergasted once I pressed for details. Firstly I was told that if I signed up for 3 years for the subscription I'd be saving 40% or more and that the price increases would only be 3-4%. I guess it's against Forum rules to mention specific numbers so I can't say what that is.... Bottom line it was 10% more than the already increased SSA annual pricing. Then after 3 years of locking in a discounted price I would then have to pay FULL price for the annual subscription!!! And it gets better....I now would have to pay extra for storage in BIMCloud if it exceeds the basic storage they give you.

My conspiracy hat tells me that Graphisoft want all of our proprietary files so that they can feed their AI model to create software to make us Architects obsolete. Not happy at all.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Rex Maximilian — Thu, 23 May 2024 02:46:45 GMT

For the first time in my entire involvement with ArchiCAD, including reselling for 25 years, I had to have an "awkward" conversation with two of my former clients (who I sold ArchiCAD to back in the day). They called me to ask about upgrading their out-of-date licenses. After informing them I was no longer affiliated with GS, I then proceeded to explain the sad state of affairs to them. We all know the details of that. They were a bit shell-shocked as I was synonymous with ArchiCAD to so many people for so long out here.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Jimmy — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:20:12 GMT

Id be totally fine moving to a subscription model,

existing perpetual license holders were given some financial incentive, ie 75% discount over the next 2 years.
every perpetual license holders has bascially been given the finger by GS.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Barry Kelly — Fri, 24 May 2024 00:32:24 GMT

@Jimmy wrote:

Id be totally fine moving to a subscription model,

IF

existing perpetual license holders were given some financial incentive, ie 75% discount over the next 2 years.

They have given you a discount of subscription fees for the same price as your current SSA/Forward support fees for the next 3 years, with an option to extend that for a further 3 years.

Subscription includes BIMCloud and BIMx Pro, so if you need those it is probably a good deal.

If you don't, stick with your current support and don't pay the extra.

Barry.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

mthd — Fri, 24 May 2024 02:58:38 GMT

I paid my SSA/FW just yesterday and it certainly has increased greatly in the last 5 years as I can remember in my region. It certainly is an area of great concern and the main alternative CAD/BIM software systems are mostly subscription only. The subscription prices being asked are very high because they are not being paid a purchase license fee at the beginning like we have for a perpetual license. So that needs to be taken into account when calculating what the SSA/FW price should be.

An example of Chief Architect : Prices are in USD, a perpetual license when they were available were around $3500, with a yearly SSA fee of $595 per year. The subscription price is $1995 per year. Legacy SSA has recently increased to $695 so SSA is only 35% of a yearly subscription fee.

BTW CA is not in the same category as AC and its subscription fee is highly inflated I feel when compared to true CAD/BIM software.

What is the comparison for us ? Are we paying 100% of the Subscription fee just to remain on SSA, I haven’t calculated the figures but maybe someone here could help us ? I would think that 50% of the subscription fee would be fair in anyone’s region for SSA/FW for AC.

Anyway we all have to make our own decisions as to what we will do in going forward. If we choose to play carnival ride CAD/BIM software, we will have lots of learning to do in order to take a ride with each one of them lol !

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Barry Kelly — Fri, 24 May 2024 03:22:40 GMT

@mthd wrote:

What is the comparison for us ? Are we paying 100% of the Subscription fee just to remain on SSA, I haven’t calculated the figures but maybe someone here could help us ? I would think that 50% of the subscription fee would be fair in anyone’s region for SSA/FW for AC.

Have a look at what a collaborate subscription will cost you.

https://graphisoft.com/buy-now?utm_source=GSHQ&utm_medium=Homepage+Buy+Now+Button&utm_campaign=buyNowCamp

And that is the monthly cost and prices do vary depending on where you are.

That is way more than my company is paying for SSA support.

How does that compare to what you just paid? (you do not have to tell us the actual figures).

Barry.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

mthd — Fri, 24 May 2024 05:27:54 GMT

Yes thanks those prices are for collaboration and I am not in that category so I can’t really make an accurate comparison.

I am happy to stick with AC for the present otherwise I would not have paid it and would have taken an alternative solution for my business model.

If others want to take the CAD/BIM carnival ride, they are entitled to do so if it is in their own business interests.

Revit full is quite overpriced and not worth what they are asking for it. Autodesk has a big market share from AutoCAD and farmed many of them over to Revit. Revit Lt is cheap but they hook you with the bait in spending your energy learning the software.

I may never take a subscription if I can help it, from any one of those companies including GS. That’s just not how I do business. What others do is their prerogative.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Barry Kelly — Fri, 24 May 2024 05:22:29 GMT

@mthd wrote:

Yes thanks those prices are for collaboration and I am not in that category so I can’t really make an accurate comparison.

Subscription is collaboration (Archicad + BIMCloud + BIMx) plus all of the support extras.

SSA/Forward support is just Archicad plus support, and you can pay extra for BIMCloud licenses if you do not just want the free BIMCloud.

So that is exactly the comparison you need to make.

Barry.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

spastor — Sat, 08 Jun 2024 22:43:20 GMT

I've been an Archicad user for 20 years and have always been proud to use it. Graphisoft was a reliable company that made very good software and took care of its users and customers.

In Spain, we paid €550 per license until 2022 for several years. But the change came in 2023 when suddenly we started paying €742, which means a 35%!!! increase in one year. This doesn't stop here because in 2024 we will pay €942, which means a 20%!!! increase.

In two years, the SSA has risen by 62%. I don't know of any other case of such a drastic price increase. Graphisoft, What is the reason for this outrageous price increase? Have we received a proportional increase in the quality of Archicad in return for this increment?

To this is added the fact that, for several versions now, the improvements in the software have been very slight. They are small changes that are well received, but far from being a "revolution."

Therefore, Graphisoft is no longer a "friendly" provider; it has become one of those companies that bleed you dry, taking advantage of the fact that for many of us, it is not easy to switch to another software and adapt our workflow to that new software. The feeling is one of absolute disaffection with Graphisoft.

However, no matter how difficult a software transition may be, you can't pull the string too tight because eventually it snaps.

What a shame!!!

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

rm — Sat, 08 Jun 2024 22:59:12 GMT

Exactly - but it’s not unique to Spain. They are bleeding us here in the US, and from what is posted here, it’s happening all over the world. It’s pure greed, nothing else! The software is no longer a value as it was in the ‘90s through 2000.

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

jl_lt — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 05:09:29 GMT

They either believe people cannot do projects without 3d software anymore or they know that either them or the BIM software industry as a whole is on its last legs and are milking as much as they can while they can to whomever they can. Could be all of this at once.

Also, I dont think for one second they are going to innovate on anything once they get this coveted extra cash flow, quite the contrary:

Everyones´ favorite (by imposition) 2dcad package has been selling basically the same product since 2002, so why not try the same move?

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

Jp1138 — Sun, 09 Jun 2024 10:38:16 GMT

And at least you could stop paying SSA right now and use the software as is as long as it works while you look for an alternative.

Imagine this situation with the new subscription model, where you are totally defenseless, as you cannot just stop paying no matter how much they choose to charge you.

This doesn´t seem the way to earn confidence for the new model, GS...

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

jl_lt — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 22:29:07 GMT

You either die a hero... Or live long enough to see yourself become: Revit?

Re: Another SSA Price Increase!

proto — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:42:36 GMT

It does seem the BIM companies have us over a barrel -- the alternatives aren't at all equal products. But as a small US practice, I fear AC is going to push me into Revit eventually. The whole discount to prepay 3yrs isn't a much of a discount, and the target push of that incentive is for something I don't actually use as a small company: cloud services. I can't help but believe it's more of a business capitalization project for Nemetschek, given how unincentivized it seems to be for the user base that could be the growth seed for the expansion of AC to more of the industry.