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-...

[Archibaltic]

Graphisoft doesn't seem to understand why we pay for licenses to work in the cloud!.

Well, in my case it is a necessity, but only when we are working on larger projects.

Then the cost of the license is included in the contract with the client and is of secondary importance to us - then we pay and do not complain. Graphisoft can forget that we will pay absurdly high fees for monthly licenses.

Not to mention annual, when we don't know how much we will actually earn - it's a freelance profession, sometimes it's better, sometimes worse, and other times you do something completely different and ArchiCad rests.

My declaration to Graphisoft: I do not intend to pay high subscriptions, higher than currently, every quarter.

I won't be fooled by a discount on a subscription at a reduced price for three years - and then be left with projects that I won't open because I can't, for example, afford the subscription in a given year or month.

To sum up, change of conditions, my announce is = zero payments.

Look at Microsoft Office... today I read that they have released the 2024 package for those who do not want the subscription model and this awaits you too!

[ryejuan]

that's why most of the companies that are smart enough will switch to those free open source software like google docs, Blender BIM getting there... so if they want to their loyal clients and users to stay with them better come up with a better business model for this.

[torben_wadlinger]

@Richard Doll I'm sorry to correct your post, but on this topic there is no communication but only announcements by Graphisoft. Communication means there is a dialogue at least between to parties. Huw Roberts decided to cancel real communication and to do this fake communication via this forum.

Now, Huw is history and you took over his seat. But obviously nothing has changed. Therefore Archicad needs change badly. Some years ago Archicad was developed for the needs of architects. Reading the annual report shows the shareholders are more important than we the clients. If you have a serious and unbiased look at your main product you must agree that for all the money we pay the outcome is very little. To be honest: year after year the new version is an embarresment. We have no single v27-project and the only reason switching to v26 was the new search-field, which really makes working easier. We will switch to v28 because of the pointcloud improvement, which is no real improvement but a third party tool. Such a shame! After ten years GS has to buy a third party add-on which is awfully integrated and follows no Archicad UI and UX guides. Not to talk about the very rudimentary keynote-tool. Your roadmap gets longer and longer, the "wishes" piles up. Most of these are not really wishes but heavily needed bug fixes and improvements to end the daily workarounds.

The two times price raise this year was very - unpleasant. Now it’s on GS to deliver! Fast! Time runs out in 2026.

[Martin Jules]

This miscommunication is one of the blunder's causes. Graphisoft decided to invest in what we neither asked for nor needed. Now, they want us to pay for the price. Self-respecting practitioners will not charge their clients for unnecessary features in software...

[Karl Ottenstein]

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@torben_wadlinger wrote:

Now, Huw is history and you took over his seat.

---

Just to clarify, while Huw Roberts is indeed history, Richard Doll has not taken over as CEO... the new CEO is Daniel Csillag, who appeared in the October 2 product launch stream for Archicad 28.

[torben_wadlinger]

You're right! I apologise for my incorrect assignment. Due to the many staff changes, I have now lost the overview ...

[thesleepofreason]

Yes, Richard is CRO as in chief revenue officer and of course most appreciative of our support as they make their money grab transition - no kidding.

[mthd]

The figures for actual revenue from Archicad need to be considered in the light of the fact that they are offering both models at present. So called Perpetual and Subscription only. Once it is subscription only with no ownership then a full comparison can made as to whether that was a good decision or not. Not until after 2026 will it become truely apparent. Will most hang onto an older version or will they have both irons in the fire ? Time will tell. Right now it makes sense to have some Perpetual licenses up your sleeve. Hopefully they do not skimp on content in the next couple of versions of Archicad ?

[Botonis]

Seems that Graphisoft did a very good job with phrasing its first announcement on April.

"Active SSA/Forward contracts will continue to be serviced beyond 2025."

This "beyond" obviously was "beyond abstract"!!!!!!

[mthd]

“SSA/Forward contracts can be renewed through the end of 2025, with Graphisoft continuing to service active contracts through the end of 2026.”

In what sense is the phrase “through the end of” supposed to mean ??? Put your own interpretation on it ? 

For example scenario 1 : A person renews their SSA/FWD contract in the middle of 2025 for 12 months. That takes them to the middle of 2026 and they get Archicad 29 and have to stop there.

Scenario 2 : A person renews SSA/FWD on the 31st Dec 2025 for 12 months. That takes them to end of 2026 and they get Archicad 30 and have to stop there.

How is that fair if your renewal period is favourable to get Archicad 30 and others are only going to get Archicad 29 ?

The fair thing to do would be to give everyone on SSA/FWD, Archicad 30 and pay to the end of 2026. Why should some have to finish with AC29 and not get AC30 ???

Dear Graphisoft, I hope you will do the fair thing with everyone who is on SSA/FWD especially us who have been paying for it for decades.

[Kalib Stewart]

Had this exact conversation with Central Innovation. Much of NZ renews during our end of financial year which is mid year and it would lock everyone who doesn’t renew in NOV/DEC out of AC30.

CI couldn’t answer this for me either and they are waiting on Graphisoft to respond.

I don’t know if this situation could have been handled more poorly if they tried. Abstracted and inconsistent communication, arbitrary timelines, absurd pricing increases, reneging on promises, and all accompanied by the most lacklustre AC upgrade of the past decade.

[mthd]

I will be having a similar conversation in the future with CI too. I think we need to give them time to respond. I remember a long time ago we had to fit into a mid year paying cycle and the next version would always fall inside that period. But now the next version falls into October. Like I have said above, I hope that GS & CI will do the right thing by us at the end of SSA/FWD.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

At this point the only thing to say regarding this whole sordid ugly mess is to paraphrase the words of that famous poet, Boscoe Albert Baracus (aka,... BA Baracus*).....

"Ah pity the foo' who still believes anything (else) that comes out of Graphisoft's mouth after all this"

Enlightened Gentlemen (...and Ladies) of a certain age and taste will get the reference.

(*that would be Mr. T, for those of you too old or too young to get or not get the reference, respectiively)

[jl_lt]

And then they went and erased ALL of the possibly interesting future features that were first seen on the roadmad, either on research or Idea pool. 

[strangeday]

This is the aspect that bothers me the most, in fact I would expect that as a counterpart to having been "kindly" forced to switch to the subscription model, increasing the annual cost by about 120%, I would at least expect to see more incisive and more frequent updates during the year-cycle, with all  respect for the item present on the road map that seems mostly usability enhancement.

[mthd]

Hey @Bricklyne Clarence, I think many of us know who BA Baracus is. I remember a post in the old forum call “Archicad is Dying” or something like that because of the popularity of Revit at the time. Was that your post ? Archicad survived and grew while SSA/FW was the norm. Soon subscription only will be the norm and what happens to Archicad in the future is unknown. Might the diddling with roadmap lately spell disaster for the future of Archicad ? What do you think and are we fooling ourselves by sticking to Archicad in the future ?

[rakurs]

At this point in time, I'm kind of thinking that I am fooling myself by sticking to architecture in the future. By committing a substantial percentage of my dwindling (in times of horrid inflation) revenue to a piece of software in a profession which is losing its credibility, status and any kind of value, I'm shooting myself in the foot on a daily basis.

EDIT: And now I'm a good boy and I received all these notifications how I'm a participant and whatnot.

[mthd]

The Archicad 28 release webinar was certainly focused on using multi disciplinary software solutions. They were all advertising their own particular brands of software. I can’t afford to outsource to so many other expensive software solutions. I would go broke working to pay the software bills in my practice. I will just have to live with an older version of Archicad in the future and see what happens in the future ?

Hopefully a clever company will create a complete CAD/BIM solution in one package and take a serious market share away from all the major competitors ? AI could in the future plagiarise the coding of all these software conglomerates and come up with a better and cheaper solution ? After all that’s what the history of advancing technology is all about.

Lots of the Archicad gurus here can write GDL code, if you could all put your heads together you may be able to come up with a better solution for Architecture than we have now ?

[torben_wadlinger]

I have contacted my sales partner and they have confirmed that

-as of 1 January 2027 my SSA/Forward will no longer be valid (GS will terminate the contracts)

-the existing licences can no longer be updated but will continue to work with the current Archicad version (until GS shuts down the licence servers)

-continuing to work with new Archicad versions or additional Archicad licences in the then current version is only possible by subscription

I've just had a look at what Graphisoft is offering for fun: there is currently only the Collaborate version for Germany, i.e. you are forced to buy Archicad and the BIMCloud Saas, even if you neither want nor need the SaaS solution (because you have your own BIMCloud).

In the USA, GS offers a solo licence, but it can't do BIMCloud.

For me, it is therefore clear that I will stay on the current version from 1 January 2027 and not take out a subscription. If GS comes up with the idea of downgrading my licences to Solo, I will definitely seek legal advice.

This is where a very long business relationship, even a friendly one, ends. I have also personally invested a lot in Graphisoft in the past: I have given presentations for Graphisoft for FREE, written articles and actively promoted the product because I was convinced of both the product and the company.

But under these conditions: without me!

[Barry Kelly]

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@torben_wadlinger wrote:

I've just had a look at what Graphisoft is offering for fun: there is currently only the Collaborate version for Germany, i.e. you are forced to buy Archicad and the BIMCloud Saas, even if you neither want nor need the SaaS solution (because you have your own BIMCloud).

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You should find that from next year (2025), there will be a subscription offer for 'Archicad Studio' - this does not include the BIMcloud SaaS.

Maybe ask your sales partner about that.

That will be offered but only as a 1 year contract at the same price as your current SSA/Forward support.

But as I understand, that price will increase yearly to 2028 when you will be paying the full subscription price for Studio.

The Studio subscription (I think) should end up being a little cheaper than the full BIMcloud collaboration, but I suspect by not very much.

But we won't know about that until next year, and by then it will be too late to take out the 3 year deal for BIMcloud collaboration at the same price as SSA.

That too will only be a 1 year contract increasing to full price in 2028.

I really don't know why it is all so hard.

This is what I think it should be like ..... (just my thoughts - not what is actually happening)

New users that can't purchase a perpetual license any more, must sign up for collaboration (i.e. rent the software).

Those of us that do have perpetual licenses, still keep paying our current SSA/Forward support fees (yes they will increase every year I am sure).

The last perpetual license can still be version 30 (2026).

Perpetual license holders can still keep paying SSA/FWD fees beyond 2026 (as they have already paid for the software) and they can upgrade to future version.

But should they stop paying support, then they fall back to the last perpetual license at version 30.

That would be so much simpler in my eyes.

Barry.

[Martin Jules]

Here's what I understand about the process change over time (timeline). SSA > Forward > Subscription (ArchiCAD Studio or Collaborate). Perpetual WibuKey > Perpetual Codemeter (hardware key) > Perpetual Codemeter Act (software key) > Perpetual Cloud Licensing (It's coming): 

As technology evolves, none of those processes are really perpetual. All of them or all processes are generally dynamic. It's now up to Graphisoft to convince us on this.