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-...

[torben_wadlinger]

Well, looking at the last financial report of the Nemetschek Group the revenue skyrocketed with the switch to subscription (+ 50%-points from 2019 to 2023, that’s +10%-points every year!). There is no reason for GS going back - unless we force them to. But for every user who will stick with last version of AC in 2026 (e.g. me) there will be new users, younger users, who never knew other than subscription. 

here is a video from down under about the new prices in Australia 

https://youtu.be/WWnKN36n-9c?feature=shared

[laembert]

Doubt young user will go for Archicad. Most of archicad user are longtime folks as us. Younger will go elsewhere or to the Revit, same price and possibilities of cooperation and work carrier incomparable with Archicad.

[mthd]

We dinasour users are starting to reach retirement if not already retired. It is hard to tell what will happen in the future with the younger user base.

The extra revenue will have to be spent well on the development of Archicad for them to choose that as the first choice BIM product.

There are many other cheaper options out there that are still perpetual. Maybe some of them will also go to a subscription only model too. The more companies offering subscription only should bring the subscription prices down to an acceptable level. 

You don’t want to become a slave to a CAD/BIM company before you start making a profit. I personally think the Revit subscription cost is greatly overpriced and not sustainable in the long run. 

After all we all got by with older versions of AC so I think many of us my not be taking up a subscription offer unless Archicad makes a significant improvement that is worth the outlay.

[laembert]

GS should know their growth potencial by adding new users is very limited, with the dominance of Revit and slow development of archicad. So they decided to enslave us with subscription? And if the number of users will shrink in the future, the subcription fee will grow, easy business. After reading this forum I am little bit affraid of archicad future and unsure how to plan my business. GS believe they are autodesk now and can charge autodesk money? You have to have a monopoly in order to cash out, not the other way around.

[mthd]

I came from Chief Architect many years ago and now they are charging ridiculous prices for their software on subscription only. At least they are allowing the perpetual users to keep their version of legacy SSA active indefinitely for now with continued upgrades. But if you stop paying the legacy SSA that is the last version license you will own outright. Legacy SSA is $695.00 per year at present and subscription price is $1995.00 per year. Approximately 35% of the subscription price so they are really treating their old loyal customers very fairly.

Archicad is definitely serious architectural software and Revit needs many add ons to compete with Archicad. I certainly wouldn’t buy Revit, I would choose Vectorworks Architect over that option. That’s just my personal preference.

[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]

---

@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.

[Eduardo Bell]

.. the new CEO is Daniel Csillag...be good to hear from him here.

Mr. Csillag, please have the deference to show up at this forum and personally explain the rational behind leaving so many of us behind. By the way, I see no reason why AI Visualizer is not accessible to me on AC28 after I was charged USD 1,042 for the last upgrade. I've been with ArchiCAD for over 30 years when I bought my first full "perpetual" license, to me "perpetual" meant that as long as I kept paying full-price for each upgrade I would get a full-upgrade. That was the deal Graphisoft had with me for three decades. Perpetual license deals should be grandfathered-in rather than left behind.

[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.