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-...

[Erik Bjornhage]

Here: https://graphisoft.com/convert-ssa-forward-to-archicad-collaborate

It reaonably clearly states that depending on what billing cycle you choose the price will be locked in for a certain timeframe.

It is not a permanent discount but after a couple of years you will be paying the full Collaborate price.

[Barry Kelly]

You can lock in for 3 years at your current SSA/FWD support fees, with an option to extend for a further 3 years as I understand it.

The catch is, you have to stump the 3 year few up front in one go, or you can pay yearly with a 10% surcharge.

I believe the 3 year deal has to be done through your local partner.

Barry.

[Martin Jules]

@Barry Kelly wrote:

You can lock in for 3 years at your current SSA/FWD support fees, with an option to extend for a further 3 years as I understand it.

The catch is, you have to stump the 3 year fee up front in one go, or you can pay yearly with a 10% surcharge.

I believe the 3 year deal has to be done through your local partner.

Barry.

---

I wonder why it's so difficult to understand the company's statements:

"Starting in 2026, Archicad will be available for purchase only through subscription. Archicad SSA/FWD customers can convert to Archicad Collaborate subscriptions at the same price as SSA/FWD in 2024. Starting in 2025, SSA/FWD customers can convert to Archicad Studio subscriptions at the same price as SSA/FWD. This offer was designed to help SSA/FWD customers take full advantage of Graphisoft’s subscription offerings at a very preferential starting price. Early movers in 2024 are getting the added benefits of cloud collaboration included by default."

The sentence in bold is different from your explanations @Barry Kelly . 

[Martin Jules]

It appears users could also pay annually within a commitment for a three-year-term:

[Barry Kelly]

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@Martin Jules wrote:

"Starting in 2026, Archicad will be available for purchase only through subscription. Archicad SSA/FWD customers can convert to Archicad Collaborate subscriptions at the same price as SSA/FWD in 2024. Starting in 2025, SSA/FWD customers can convert to Archicad Studio subscriptions at the same price as SSA/FWD. This offer was designed to help SSA/FWD customers take full advantage of Graphisoft’s subscription offerings at a very preferential starting price. Early movers in 2024 are getting the added benefits of cloud collaboration included by default."

The sentence in bold is different from your explanations @Barry Kelly . 

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I don't think so.

Starting in 2026, there will only be subscription available.

Until the end of 2024 SSA/FWD customers can switch to collaboration at the same price a their current SSA/FWD support.

From 2025 the 3 year deal is gone, and it is only yearly subscription with the cost increasing each year until the full subscription cost is met, as i understand it.

Seems the website keeps changing a bit.

You will need to speak to your local distributor for clarification.

There is a 3 year deal paid up front.

There is also a yearly payment, but you still have to commit for 3 years. It used to say there was a 10% surcharge if you opted for this - it does not show that now.

Although FAQ 7 does say this ...

Barry.

[cocoloco]

I have archicad solo and every year I receive annual fee increases. Not to mention I have never had an option to purchase software and choose whether I want to update or not, I have archicad for 3 years and have to pay the annual fee every year which is over $2.500 an year. Are you all saying you don’t pay any annual fees? 

[Erik Bjornhage]

This discussion was regarding the pricing structure for Archicad COllaborate - and since the discussion took place four months ago the information should be regarded as outdated.

We have since converted to Archicad Collaborate since we were an SSA customer (and in regards to your question, our yearly fee would have been the SSA fee - roughly USD 1000 per year). Now however, it is a different story so the discussion would have to be updated to reflect what has happened over the last four months.

[cocoloco]

ahhh! I came late to the table 😄 Thank you for responding 🙂  I wish archicad would have some sort of discounts for long term users, such as me even if solo. I think the pricing is too much though, especially considering there really are not any updates that are affecting interior designers 

[Karl Ottenstein]

If you are paying over $2500/year for Solo, @cocoloco , then you probably should consider a subscription to Studio (or better value if you work with others, Collaborate).  I’ve not read anything about Solo being continued… but for that annual cost, Studio gives you more features for the same or less $$.

This is not the thread to discuss this in… find the Studio thread… but see this and the links there…

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Graphisoft-Insights/Archicad-Studio-Empowering-Solo-Architects-a...

[cocoloco]

I had no idea that archicad has "Studio" type at all, why did I had archicad to start with and not studio? 😄 Haha Thank you so much again! 

[Barry Kelly]

'Studio' subscription is new this year.

Barry.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Archicad Studio was announced about two weeks ago so it is a very new offering.

[PrzemN]

So, now we know why all the latest Archicad releases were so bad and not interesting. They will hold everything new until the version 31 with plans to make us change our minds about not going on with those insanely expensive subscription model ( for the program we also had to pay a lot ). The way I think about this right now is either they will change its mind  all they will lose their clients. I am not going to switch, that's for sure, so these are few licences less for g$ 🙂

[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.