Another SSA Price Increase!

[Rex Maximilian]

I've been off the boards for a bit, so I'm not sure this has been discussed previously, but...

There is another SSA price increase! For anyone doing the math, in 2022, 2023 and now 2024, in the span of 24 months, that is a 25% price increase.

Why Graphisoft?

I am still crashing on my MacTel machine. Even on the Apple Silicon version I have to restart every now and then when strange anomalies arise, only in ArchiCAD, and one that tech support says they can't solve.

How can there be justification for raising the price AGAIN when you've just put out a perpetually buggy version of ArchiCAD? Maybe the buggiest one to date. We Mac users to wait months after release for solutions to the crashing. This is seriously bordering on a breach of contract or lack of good faith on GS's part. We paid for software that we had a reasonable expectation of stability for, but to date, there seems to not be a crash proof version... and then you raise the price.

Graphisoft ( @Marton Kiss   @Akos Pfemeter) we need a legitimate explanation and most likely a repeal of this price increase. Again, this is the third price increase totaling around 25% in the past 24 months.

My suspicion is that this is a tactic by GS to force perpetual license holders (their most loyal of customers) onto their subscription model.

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon 14.4.1

[Rex Maximilian]

Also, perhaps everyone with a renew coming up should call their GS rep for an explanation and formal request for a more reasonable fee.

[rm]

@Rex Maximilian While I relate to your frustration with price increases, unfortunately the writing is on the wall. They are forcing their longest term perpetual license holders, and dare I say, the smallest firms with tightest of margins into a pricing structure many of us just cannot sustain.

Why GS is so tone deaf to this issue is beyond me! They have virtually made it impossible to get any tech support via a live person on the phone, they have eliminated all the smaller resellers - who often offered the best support. They have become big business answering to shareholders instead of stake holders ( ie, the architects they sell to).

I am sad for all the younger, smaller firms that are looking down the barrel of crippling licensing from GS. For myself, while I maintain an architectural practice, I have started to shift to other revenue streams. GS owns this crippling of the small firm practioneers and as AI becomes more prevalent, they are going to crush mid size firms as well. I use no other software, that has increased pricing anywhere near what GS charges year after year, pure greed!

@Akos Pfemeter - keep killing your clients with fees that far exceed cost of living increases, and eventually you GS will implode.

[Rex Maximilian]

Tech support has been non-resourceful on my two inquiries. One having to do with switching display/resolutions on Mac with ArchiCAD running causes the cursor to be non-responsive in the top 1/3-ish of the screen. Only a relaunch will fix it. This ticket was closed after a response of "couldn't replicate it."

Secondly, the crashing of the Mac versions with the caps lock key depressed. The solution was to "Hold down the shift key while you type (really!)," or to disable the caps lock icon in the Terminal.

Months after its release, and they're raising the fee. Shaking my head...

[Rex Maximilian]

@Marton Kiss @Akos Pfemeter 
Anything? Can someone please explain and justify this gouging increase every year? Is the plan to price your perpetual license clients out of them and into Collaborate? if you're trying to force our hand? Is there any incentive you can give specifically to perpetual license holders (price breaks) for doing so?

This is a critical moment in the company, we need to hear from you.

[Rob Hancox]

Me too!  I'm sick and tired of these unjustifiable price increases.  Seriously, how much profit do they want to make?  I'm not going to upgrade this year, this is adding fuel to to a fire that is already out of control in my opinion.  The software is good, but I can't say it's a "stellar" piece of software.  Most of the "improvements" have come at the cost of stability and usability. I'm ready for the "**beep** bingo" card for when GS start reasoning for yet another staggering price increase.  I've also forgotten to add that this topic was approached back in 2004 and the price differential between countries is staggeringly different too.  Why for heavens sake?  

I'm done with complaining about this, I'll use my wallet to cast my vote.

[CarmelM]

I just received my Archiplus renewal for one license with this "Special offer to help me switch from SSA to a Subscription at a deeply discounted price".  Intrigued I called and was flabbergasted once I pressed for details.  Firstly I was told that if I signed up for 3 years for the subscription I'd be saving 40% or more and that the price increases would only be 3-4%.  I guess it's against Forum rules to mention specific numbers so I can't say what that is....  Bottom line it was 10% more than the already increased SSA annual pricing.  Then after 3 years of locking in a discounted price I would then have to pay FULL price for the annual subscription!!!  And it gets better....I now would have to pay extra for storage in BIMCloud if it exceeds the basic storage they give you.

My conspiracy hat tells me that Graphisoft want all of our proprietary files so that they can feed their AI model to create software to make us Architects obsolete.  Not happy at all.

[Rex Maximilian]

For the first time in my entire involvement with ArchiCAD, including reselling for 25 years, I had to have an "awkward" conversation with two of my former clients (who I sold ArchiCAD to back in the day). They called me to ask about upgrading their out-of-date licenses. After informing them I was no longer affiliated with GS, I then proceeded to explain the sad state of affairs to them. We all know the details of that. They were a bit shell-shocked as I was synonymous with ArchiCAD to so many people for so long out here.

[Jimmy]

Id be totally fine moving to a subscription model, 

IF 

existing perpetual license holders were given some financial incentive, ie 75% discount over the next 2 years. 
every perpetual license holders has bascially been given the finger by GS.

[Barry Kelly]

---

@Jimmy wrote:

Id be totally fine moving to a subscription model, 

IF 

existing perpetual license holders were given some financial incentive, ie 75% discount over the next 2 years.

---

They have given you a discount of subscription fees for the same price as your current SSA/Forward support fees for the next 3 years, with an option to extend that for a further 3 years.

Subscription includes BIMCloud and BIMx Pro, so if you need those it is probably a good deal.

If you don't, stick with your current support and don't pay the extra.

Barry.