Shift to a subscription model - your questions are welcome

[Akos Pfemeter]

Dear Community,

You may have already read the press release or the Insights post about our strategic shift to a subscription model. 

Here is a quick summary of the news:

BUDAPEST, April 2, 2024—Graphisoft, the leading Building Information Modeling (BIM) software solution developer for architecture and multidisciplinary design, today announced that, as part of its strategic shift to a sustainable subscription software delivery model, perpetual licenses will be gradually phased out by the end of 2025. This change does not affect the delivery of Software Service Agreement (SSA)/Forward subscription services to existing customers. 

Archicad perpetual and SSA/Forward licenses will be available for new customers through December 31, 2024, and to existing customers through December 31, 2025. Starting in 2026, Archicad will be available only through subscription. Active SSA/Forward contracts will continue to be serviced beyond 2025. Alternatively, SSA/Forward customers can convert to Archicad Collaborate subscriptions at the same price as SSA/Forward. This offer is designed to help existing SSA/Forward subscribers take full advantage of the Archicad Collaborate subscription, which combines award-winning Archicad for architectural design with BIMx and BIMcloud SaaS for fast, efficient, secure, real-time access to shared projects.

Please ask your questions and share your thoughts here -- Graphisoft's expert team will try and provide answer to all sorts of questions you may have!
Thank you.
----------------------

Edit by Moderator:  here is the link to the evolving information/FAQ page about this announcement:

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

[Jp1138]

Well, in the last FAQ they just plainly told they make the shift for the money:

The sustainability is for Graphisoft, will it be sustainable for its clients?

[thesleepofreason]

Really hard not to misread "shift"...

But on a serious note GS seem oblivious to any issue here besides the licensing model. Do they really mean and think that they are "the frontrunner in technology" or do they mean that this will take them there? In what sense can they be seen as frontrunners today and what sign are there of them catching up?

[Martin Jules]

Please let us know how we can file a class action as ArchiCAD users. 

[Bricklyne Clarence]

I feel your pain.

You expressed it more succintly than I ever could.

(....and I tried.

 Believe me.

See below)

[vlahtinen]

Unfortunately after reading the FAQ I'm more confused about the future of the BIMcloud than before. Does private cloud solution you are working on mean that there will not be an on-premise solution like today but instead a new product for cloud platforms (eg. Google, Amazon)? Are the different licensing models and versions of Archicad going to be compatible with different BIMcloud offerings?

[Bricklyne Clarence]

I guess I should offer some sort of congratulations to us all to having had a response actually posted in the form of that FAQ page (we'll leave aside the annoying little issue of the fact that it doesn't exactly answer some of the very specific, unique and pertinent questions that have been asked and issues that have been raised here, for the moment).

But reading through that FAQ,.......hoooo boy....

I imagine one has to have some super-natural level of mental compartmentalization to work at Graphisoft, because........ brother,......

I'll just focus on the first response by way of showing what I mean:

Why does Graphisoft drive this Subscription shift?

Our customers want us to be innovative, have state of the art tech and being the front runner.
We have the ambition to be all that. That all means that in a competitive landscape we need a
sustainable business model. While perpetual license & SSA was a sustainable business model
until the 2010th years it is for sure now a subscription model as it guarantees that we
continuously can invest into our solutions. The differentiation does not come from a pricing
model but being the frontrunner in technology. At the same time, we respect the preferences of
our customers and that means that we make a very slow shift to Subscription.

---

 I meeeeean,........where even to begin with this answer?

Yes, we do want you guys to,.... "be more innovative", and.... "have state of the art tech" and..... "be the frontrunner"

(and putting aside for a moment the notion that all that is really just euphimism for "....we need more revenue"), but if we're being honest here, where is the proof from any of the past 5 versions that you've been any of that or are likely to spend, of the incomng subscription fees, to be any of that?

And "needing to be competitive with a sustainable business model"  as you decry  the perpetual license model as an antiquated archetype and business model of the 2010's that doesn't work anymore, ignores the reality that the reason it doesn't work (......for YOU), is because more users were opting more for the perpetual licenses which gave us more control over our license fees expenditure when measured against what we were getting back in return in terms of improvements to the software. In other words our ROI compared with your investment of those fees on product improvement

And the balance was tilting against you for the very basic reason that we've been seeing diminishing returns over the last half decade or more for those fees.

Why would or should I upgrade every year to get a product that's virtually unchanged or in some years worse in terms of being buggy, unstable or bloated?

And the subscription model now works for you as a 2020's and beyond, business model because with it you really don't have to worry about bearing the costs of under-performance from your end.

The customer still pays all the same.

That's not fair to any of us.

And cobbling in a bunch of fad-ey technology like AI visualizer or doubling down on SAM, DDASCAD, MEP strategy (at the cost of Architecture tools falling behind) does NOT the industry frontrunner make you.

But I get it.

It's all about revenue at this point.

To stay afloat.

Not to keep or even BE competitive.

None of your most recent versions show any evidence of that.

Sorry to be harsh about this, but this is the plain stark truth and this is the reason many on here now are mad about this decision.

You'd be getting a lot less negative pushback and vented frustrations to this decision to shift (and possibly even some support) if it wasn't the case.

[Scraptrash]

I’m waiting for the final pricing of SSA vs subscription. Still early to say subscription is a bad thing. Programmers are expensive.

However, from my local market perspective, Graphisoft will lose some major selling points against Revit that:

- On-premise BIMcloud is necessary for some government projects in my location since my government may not want to have the data hosted in other countries.

- On-premise BIMcloud basic is a much more robust and free teamwork solution against Revit’s central file or Revit Server.

- Revenue wise, SSA is surely not subscription (otherwise, why bother to change to subscription?) Graphisoft is killing off the perpetual version, and increase pricing at the same time. SSA, to be honest, is cheap. I could tolerate the bugs and minor improvement each upgrade offered.

Most importantly, Archicad has always been a replaceable alternative to Revit. For every BIM standard my government came up with so far, they just need one alternative to pair up with Revit, to show they are software neutral. Architects are realistic, either to use the gold standard, i.e. Revit, or use the most economical and best software out there to do the job. I don’t know where Archicad would stand once they have their pricing out.

But on the other hand, which other BIM software can compete with Archicad as Revit’s replaceable alternative? Seems to me that as long as the new pricing would still be not more than 50% of Autodesk’s AEC suite, Graphisoft should still be able to keep its user.

[Martin Jules]

I don't understand anything about that! It seems there are some directors, officers, managers, and employees at Graphisoft who are working in secret for the benefit of other BIM software programs like Revit for example. 

[Botonis]

What are the options for customers after their conversion terms expire in 3 or 6 years?

The conversion discount coupon will expire, and the converted subscriptions will be
renewed at the standard subscription list price. Alternatively, customers may fall back onto the
perpetual path with their licenses. Their perpetual licenses will be upgraded to the most up-to-
date perpetual software in such cases.

If I understand correctly after 6 years of discounted subscription you have the option to revert to a perpetual license. Will this license revert also to SSA/Forward or will  not allow updating? 

[thesleepofreason]

Once again they are negligent when giving out important information. So in that answer we have "fall back onto the perpetual track with their licenses" and in the answer to what happens if a customer decides to leave the conversion program we have "revert to the perpetual track without SSA/Forward". So a distinction is made and the reader should be able to conclude that there is one i.e. that the unconditioned "perpetual track" is with SSA/Forward - but I'm pretty sure that's not what GS are trying to say.

[Martin Jules]

I would hope that, under the law, perpetual meant perpetual, but not temporary. I really hope so!

[mthd]

Apparently it really doesn’t mean that becuase many other CAD software’s that were once so called “perpetual” are now not. What the legal implications are of that, I have no idea becuase I have not consulted a lawyer. Do you feel scammed by the use of that term ? I certainly do. As I understand, perpetual means continuous without end or in our case without end to upgrading our product to the latest version and owning the product for life and being able to pass it on as in inheritance.

How much money have we invested into this product over the years ? You can’t change the rules mid stream as some have already done with other CAD products. If legal action is taken against all these companies to make them continue to offer perpetual licensing and the case is finally won, then we can continue to have this type of licensing. That’s about the only way this issue will be solved for us and for other CAD software products who have changed the rules mid steam.

GS could legally fight the parent company to allow us to have proper perpetual licensing if we choose to do so. I am not against anyone claiming their proper rights for investing in the product because we own them because we all paid up big to be invested in the development of this product. If they want subscription only then they can refund us all our money that we have invested into this product.

We can certainly legally win this case in time and make them compensate us all big time ! You should never cheat your customers and get away with it indefinitely.

[MinhNguyen]

Not to defend GS in this case, but your existing perpetual keys (I'm just considering hardware dongles - not sure about soft keys) would still work and will still be upgradable till the end of 2025 with SSA. Beyond that point, the keys would still be functional, but no guarantee of update unless you convert your keys to subscriptions, which means, they are still truly "perpetual', the keys would work till your OS can no longer support and run your AC version.

Totally understand your point regarding investment around perpetual keys' infrastructure, therefore I did mention in one of my posts above that it's difficult for companies to shift away from it. 

[mthd]

Hi @MinhNguyen I certainly understand that is what they are proposing to do and setting into place. My SSA/Forward is due next month but I am seriously considering not renewing it because of this announcement. The software is great for what I do but I am not accepting a subscription only policy from that period onwards or them changing the terms of the contract whenever they wish.

Chief Architect did something similar last year but they still offered us to upgrade to latest version and continue on SSA and have a perpetual license if we chose to do so. I didn’t accept the offer because I stopped using their product in favor of just using AC instead.

Everyone’s situation is different and we all have to make our own personal decisions on what product we will use in the future. I might start looking for another CAD product that is truly perpetual or just start using my drafting machine and table again becuase I totally own it. 😆 

[vlahtinen]

---

@MinhNguyen wrote:

Not to defend GS in this case, but your existing perpetual keys (I'm just considering hardware dongles - not sure about soft keys) would still work and will still be upgradable till the end of 2025 with SSA. Beyond that point, the keys would still be functional, but no update is offered unless you convert your keys to subscriptions, which means, they are still truly "perpetual', the keys would work till your OS can no longer support and run your AC version.

---

Is this really the case? Quote from FAQ: "Graphisoft’s 'SSA/Forward to Subscription' conversion program is optional for customers. That is, Graphisoft will continue supporting Archicad licenses with active SSA/Forward contracts." And from Press Release: "Active SSA/Forward contracts will continue to be serviced beyond 2025."

My understanding is that nothing changes regarding active SSA/Forward contracts. However, the question remains, will the perceptual and subscription licenses work together in case we have to buy more licenses later when new SSA/Forward contracts are not available?

This whole thing is really confusing and nothing less than a communication catastrophe from Graphisoft's side. I guess we'll just have to wait and see when Graphisoft gets its act together and provides some clear answers.

[MinhNguyen]

Yes, that's right, at least till 2025. Beyond that, who knows what may change in the service - it may still exist and stay the same, or exist but with different terms and conditions. 

I don't think perpetual licenses and subscriptions can work seamlessly together. It can be proven by:

1. You can only convert all of your keys from your current pool into subscription, not partially

2. Old license technology is Codemeter, and that is not used in the new cloud-based licenses. As far as I understand from the FAQ, Codemeter and the new tech are not compatible to one another. I haven't looked into the new cloud-based one yet, but I guess its setup is vastly different from Codemeter's

3. Details about how BIMcloud works in the subscription environment is still unclear.

4. You will need a Codemeter key to run anything older than AC26

Regarding license purchase, looks like GS will stop selling perpetual licenses by the end of 2025. If you see yourself buying new licenses in the next 1-2 years, better do it now while the stock lasts.

(also, update my previous post to reflect this, thanks for pointing it out)

[Martin Jules]

This upcoming change is a labyrinth. Even when it comes to explanations, there are "bugs". What does a perpetual license mean? 

[Botonis]

This was funny!!!! Buggy Announcement!!!!

Let's then way for the hotfix!

Or a preview update and then the update!

[MinhNguyen]

Haha, not sure if you really mean to ask the question, but I'll do an honest answer anyway: in (very) short, perpetual AC license refers to anything that runs on old Codemeter technology (AC26 and previous), while subscription refers to later cloud-based license model introduced from AC27

[Martin Jules]

Does the word or adjective "perpetual" still keep its etymological meaning in this context? Are there any laws regulating the software industry? If so, what do they state about that?

[Botonis]

I thought I had a perpetual license for 27!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Am I on subcription already without knowing it????