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.
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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/

[thesleepofreason]

Well what would that make of the premium paid for the conversion - usury? It will either be a cost increase to subscription parity (perhaps higher to get rid of the obligations) or it will be a tiered system with perpetual being left behind as some sort of lower class experience. Anything else doesn't make sense.

[Eugene]

I have used Archicad for a number of years and I think it's an excellent program overall. I have taken an 18-month break from the industry (for general life reasons), and where I now live I'm almost certainly going to be working for a firm using Revit when I go back. My ambition a few years down the line is to open up my own shop, and Archicad was 100% my software of choice if/when that happens. The perpetual license model was a big big point of difference for that choice - there's huge value in being able to pay a reasonable amount up front (and write it off), and then have total flexibility through those first few hard years. Not having a monthly subscription overhead in year 2 or 4 really could be the difference between grinding it out and folding.

Archicad is no longer an automatic decision. Maybe I'll stick with it as a subscription, maybe Revit will be worth its own downsides, maybe Blender or Rhino with a CAD plugin will be the way to go at that point, maybe Vectorworks or another more lightweight BIM program strikes the right balance.

I understand that there are strategic business decisions that get made at a corporate level with a view towards a high growth TAM etc etc, but "aligning with market standards" is a double edged sword if you have a fraction of the gorilla's market share, and you start abandoning your points of difference. There is a pipeline of people like me who worked at Archicad offices and eventually head out on their own - I hope we're a large enough cohort for it to be worth tailoring a solution to our needs. A reasonably priced perpetual license was an excellent solution, I hope there's something else on the cards.

[mthd]

I would guess that the time delay has something to do with communications between Graphisoft & Nemetschek ? These problems are usually symptomatic of the relationship of the head company and the subordinate one Graphisoft. Maybe if Graphisoft was an independent company they would not be bullied into having a subscription model for all their clients ? Whatever the case clarification will come in time.

It appears that the subscription model is more profitable for Nemetschek because of the portfolio it holds in the CAD/BIM market. 

I cant afford to pay a three year subscription fee in advance and many others may be in the same boat.

Let’s say I own the latest model of a particular sports car and I pay my upgrade price every year. I own my sports car and the company suddenly tells me that you can no longer own the latest model of the car, you can only rent it. I part company with this manufacturer and go elsewhere for business.

ArchiCAD for Architects & Architectural Designers ! Wouldn’t it be great if the Architects & the Architectural Designers owned Graphisoft instead of Nemetscheck ? Why not legally claim all our past upgrade fees as payment for joint ownership of Graphisoft by the Architects & Architectural Designers who use ArchiCAD, if that was legally possible of course ?

[jl_lt]

Or more than an independient company, now we are imagining something graphisoft won't ever be again, imagine a paralell universe where there is an user owned architectural software company, where every license gives You voting rights. Yeah, bigger companies could have some advantage, but even that can be "workarounded".

[mthd]

Maybe in the future we will be able to write our own CAD software with the assistance of AI so we will not need a company to provide CAD for us ? 😊 

[jl_lt]

 I was thinking more about buying graphisoft (or nemk?) shares until we take over so we don't have to put up with this BS (funny thing is, we would all still have to pay some form of SSA to keep it going), but having the AI do the dirty work would be even better. 

[Barry Kelly]

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@mthd wrote:

I cant afford to pay a three year subscription fee in advance and many others may be in the same boat.

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You don't have to.

You can keep your current SSA/Forward and remain exactly as you are now.

Or you can switch to subscription and the 3 year offer is to have the subscription fee remain the same as the SSA/Forward fees (subscription is more expensive).

If you can't afford the 3 year fee up front, you can pay yearly, with an additional 10% fee on top - still cheaper than subscription on its own.

So you have to way up if the benefits of moving to subscription are worth it, if you already own a perpetual license.

Barry.

[mthd]

Yes I understand that. But I am hoping that the so called “perpetual” license holder will not be forced into turning in their licenses and only have a subscription path to follow. That would spell the end for many users in a similar predicament as me. I would have to asses my available options at the time if that actually happens in the future. I should hope not. 

[DGSketcher]

As the last man on earth sat surrounded by gold, he contemplated the impact of his greed on the world. He finally realised his riches were worthless. He had lost his way, there was no one left to appreciate his deluded reputation or help him through his dark days of loneliness. There were no customers left, they had long ago succumbed to either poverty or global warming. He had to finally accept he had traded his happiness for the false value of a balance sheet and had lost everything.

[Martin Jules]

My needs are only limited to ArchiCAD + SSA/forward. I don't have any other special needs for collaboration since all my colleagues at work use Revit, and ArchiCAD does not allow effective collaboration even with Nemetschek group software. Therefore, I don't have to pay for services, which I don't need. That would simply be madness:

Furthermore, it's not about aligning with market standards, but rather about choosing to do what others are doing in the wrong direction: 

You can imagine that, in Canada, there are still many places which do not benefit from adequate internet services because they require major infrastructure investments in the field of telecommunications. I travel a lot to these suburban areas. Sometimes, I spend from 2 to 4 weeks working full-time there, as part of my job. What would I do if I only had to work with a software that would also require an internet connection? In some of these areas, it would be possible to get a special internet service via an iPad for example. Would it be possible to work using ArchiCAD on an iPad?

[mhoude]

ok I think we will have to make some changes 😞      We are not a big firm but imagine big firm and we are close to a recession and the end of the month are coming fast for everyone.

we have 5 licenses at 292 + 15% tax = 336$ a month for one so 1680$ a month for 5

1680.00$x12= 20160.00$  and there no computer price with that. 

[DGSketcher]

I just got my SSA-Forward renewal. I've seen a 22% increase in the last two years on my SSA even though UK inflation is nowhere near that figure. The prospect of paying double** with a 10% discount to go on subscription to do the same as I am now isn't happening any time soon. AC is a crumbling mess of badly maintained complexity and poor development decisions that have adversely affected my workflow, even with a more appropriate price point I'm not sure there would have been a future business prospect. The clock has stopped ticking...  ☠️

** Based on the shambles of information currently available.

[Martin Jules]

ArchiCAD is a great BIM software, but the main problem of ArchiCAD is Graphisoft.

[DGSketcher]

It WAS great until about five years ago.

[Martin Jules]

Unfortunately, the software has fallen into the hands of directors, officers, managers, and employees who do not even know what tools to develop under the generally accepted architectural process in order to help architects and designers in their practice.

[thesleepofreason]

"Perpetual fallback option at initial terms" - as it never happened 🤔 There is something seriously wrong with how GS and local distributors (?) give out information - that list seems like talking points from sales/marketing rather than information for costumers. It should not be this hard to put together a proper information packet for this. It's quite simple: SSA fees are expected to increase year over year here is a deal where you give up any rights and leverage you currently have for a false sense of security (and please pay upfront to keep us afloat through the transition). But for some reason GS seems hesitant to tell it like it is...

[DGSketcher]

Aside from the unanswered technical questions in this thread, which are material to a decision, they could have made this a lot simpler.

They know how many licenses we have, so... "Here's your SSA-Forward renewal cost, but you can take advantage of AC Collaborate for $$$$ [enter appropriate cost] or if you give us loads of money to cover the next 3 years you can have Collaborate for $$$$$. P.S. You can keep your perpetual licence, but we are phasing out SSA-Forward renewals in three years".

I honestly think the misinformation is here to confuse users as Graphisoft are frightened of putting the numbers in black & white because they know the likely reaction if it is made clear.

[thesleepofreason]

Comparing it to the FAQ released by Allplan for their conversion (available by google search) is like night and day. Allplan presents a simple offer that gives a 2-year price freeze on a 1+1 year contract with 3 months notice for giving up the perpetual right of usage (no fallback). At the same time they clearly state that the SSA cost is expected to increase year over year and that future improvements to some standalone products (management/collaboration) now available for perpetual licence will be limited to subscription and while they consider the offer to be a significant economic advantage to many costumers - existing contracts will remain unaffected.  They managed to present this in one PDF from which I - not even being a Allplan costumer - can get a clear picture of the situation. Perhaps there is some difference in the licencing model of which I'm ignorant but I can't really see any reason for this GS mess.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

This has echoes of that whole 'Publication of a Public Roadmap' saga, written all over it.

We all remember how it was like pulling teeth getting them to publish some semblance of a useful, informative Roadmap somewhat in keeping with what is now effectively the Industry standard in customer interaction.

And also how stark in difference between that joke of a first draft RoadMap they threw out, particularly in comparison to what was already available and public from their Nemetschek "sister" companies in Allplan and Vectorworks Roadmaps that were (And still remain) Lightyears ahead of what they were supposedly giving us.

I even remember some of us practically BEGGING them to just copy whatever template the Vectorworks folks were using and just replace "Vectorworks" references with "ArchiCAD" references instead, and in lieu of reinventing the wheel from scratch if it was too much work to do one from the ground up on their end.

Now we're right back here again and they can't even seem to handle this shift to 'Subscription-only' as smoothly as those other guys seem to have done on their ends.

It's like they live on an entirely other planet completely.

[jl_lt]

It shouldnt be that difficult, but confusing language today allows for denial of responsibility later.   

[Eduardo Rolon]

I still don't get the decision to remove SSA as an option since the main conceptual difference is that with subscription if you stop paying you lose access to the software and with SSA if you stop paying you get to keep the last version you paid for.

If the issue are the users that upgrade their SSA every 4-5 years then just add a price that adds more $$$$ for those users for the next time that they upgrade.

Right now they are penalising their most loyal users, the ones that keep their SSA current and that have paid upfront for the specific licenses and this is not the most intelligent thing to do.

My ideal scenario:

1. Keep SSA for those user that upgrade yearly.
   1. The subscription option that has the benefit of keeping the last version running.
   2. You can charge more for this yearly than switching to subscription.
2. 3 version old users that want to get back on SSA should pay 2-3X the yearly subscription.
3. Subscription users can pay $$$ extra to keep their current subscribed version as permanent, the retiring from practice option. This permanent version is not upgradable.
4. There should be pricing options for AC only and AC+BimCloud and you can add or remove BC as necessary.

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There are 2 easy to understand advantages/difference in AC, it runs in macOS and you can buy permanent options. Removing either one will make users either go to Revit (the "standard") or go to VW (cheaper and macOS compatible).