Next phase of subscription transition announced

[Richard Doll]

Dear Community Members, 

Following my recent Graphisoft Insights post on the Subscription transition update, we know how important this topic is for you as our clients and anticipate your comments and questions. To streamline communication, we’ve created this thread to gather everything in one place. We’ll also use it to identify topics that may need further clarification, which we’ll address on our FAQ page.

Please note that while we cannot respond to individual questions in the forum, your local representative is available for personalized support.

Best regards,
Richard

Link to Insights article: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Graphisoft-Insights/Important-update-Next-phase-of-subscription-...

[StefanV_BCP]

So much conflicting emotions about this. 

One thing is for sure - I don't like this, because you are changing the dynamic between customers and the company.

Before, we had some mutual agreement, partnership if you will. Now I feel that you treat us simply like an ATM, which is ok if you are ready to take an extreme heat from the users.

The room for mistakes, and justification why something is not working or its missing will be almost none since is only fair that we demand the tool for our money worth.

Personally i believe that you should leave the choice to the user Perpetual+ SSA, or Subscription. 

Cheers,

Stefan 

[Florin Luca]

I have to say that I agree with most of what you said, except for the “taking the heat” part. They don’t care and we are not organized enough to take them on. Please forgive me if I am too jaded, and definitely don’t intend any offense to you Stefan, but how on earth are we going to make them feel the heat?

I have one issue: I find the proposed subscription model appalling. Why? Because if I stop paying I have no software and I have no way to use my files, and ultimately I have no business. I resent becoming an indentured servant! That’s just me, I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong. /s

I have a small residential firm, and if this is what it takes, I will go back to hand drawing. I don’t have that many years left anyway. But all the people coming after me, better consider this seriously. Varoufakis was right when he said we are in an era of techno-feudalism. And we all know how much fun the original feudal system was!

Before any of you jump on me, defending this great GS proposal, I would like to add that when the news about switching to a subscription model came out a few months back, the perpetual license holders were assured by the company, and by some moderators, that we are fine. That we get to keep our original agreement, we have nothing to worry, nothing will change.

Well, it doesn’t look that way, now does it? And no, I’m not that naive, I was sure they will find a way to nail us, but it feels good to point it out.

That being said, I actually have no problem paying a monthly fee — after all, under my SSA/Forward agreement, I pay $1,000+ per year to get new releases, which is another form of subscription. The difference being that I get to keep the software if I stop paying!

Why can’t we have a subscription model, albeit at a higher price then the current SSA, that allows us to keep the software when we stop paying?

Structure it such that it can only take effect after a set amount of time to avoid gaming the system (paying one month or so and then stopping).

Too simple a solution to consider? Thoughts?

[Barry Kelly]

I feel really bad about this decision to end SSA/Forward subscription.

Because I was saying at every opportunity, “don’t worry, you are not being forced into the subscription, you can carry on with SSA/Forward”.

Seems that this is no longer the case.

Graphisoft have changed their mind, which of course is their right to do.

Whether this works out good or bad for them I don’t know, I just hope they have done their research.

So now we have a perpetual license available only until end of 2026 (version 30).

After that, subscription only.

For the company I work for, after the discounted swap over to subscription (if we choose to go that path), we will be paying approximately 5 times the amount in subscription (we have yet to see if there will be any negotiating of this with our distributor) as we do now for our SSA.

So paying 5 times as much to run software that we have already paid for up front – I am not sure that is going to happen.

And that is for each license that we have.

Then comes the issue, if we switch to the discounted 3+3 year subscription, then at some point in the future we decide to cancel (so say in 6 years at version 34 or what ever it is then), we wont be left with version 34, but only 30 instead.

Or maybe it will be 29, as that is the version we would be on when we start the subscription (FAQ says this is what we will fall back to?)

Either way, at best we will be left with version 30 after working for years on projects up to version 34 or so.

If we cancel the subscription, we can’t save back to 30, because we no longer have access to the newer versions to save back.

Pending negotiations with our distributor, my recommendations to my company will be to renew our subscription this year and again at the end of 2025.

This will take us to the end of 2026 (version 30) which will be the last perpetual license upgrade.

Then I recommend that we don’t switch to the subscription (that will be too expensive anyway), and we carry on using version 30 into the future and Graphisoft will be getting no payments what so ever.

I would much rather that we carry on paying our SSA support and upgrading year on year, but it seems Graphisoft do not want this.

As I said, we are yet to talk with our distributor to negotiate any deals, if that is possible.

I recommend everyone else to talk with their distributors as well to figure out what is the best option for them.

Maybe Graphisoft have factored in that they will lose some old customers like us, but with subscriptions at approx 5 times the cost of SSA/Forward support, they will make up for it.

Again, that is their decision.

I just feel let down as a long time customer (since version 6.5), paying up front for the software (100+ licenses over the years) and support fees every year.

I really hope Graphisoft is listening and might reconsider cancelling SSA/Forward support, but I am not holding my breath.

Barry.

[mthd]

Uh Oh ! Not a happy announcement but I saw it coming from a representative who gave me a little hint a couple years back that SSA/FW was likely to be replaced by a subscription only going forward. This announcement just confirms it. Let’s put this straight, AC is not perpetual, that is not the correct terminology because it does have an eventual end.

Well it’s a more open playing field now and we will just use what we have or find something else that is truly perpetual ? I cant see how this move is in the interests of AC/GS but it certainly is for Nemetschek who have other CAD packages available in their stable.

I can’t go back to a drawing board because that is not feasible for me. I can however keep my options open and repay this company by not using any other of its other CAD packages. I am only a customer of truly perpetual software from now on.

The future of Archicad and any other CAD products that are subscription only, is greater competition. It will force all these CAD products to improve or be the best in the business or you will not get hired.

Welcome to real the world of competition for business !