I was just curious if you knew what the renewal price was going to be, how that all is going to work, etc. I just want to be on top of it is all.
The license will still work after it expires, so you won’t be left in the cold, you just wouldn’t be able to update the software to a version released after your expiry date until renewing.
Renewal will be $30 and will be handled on our website like a normal purchase, except that you’ll be required to enter your license key as well. The bot that handles license processing will apply the renewal by adding 365 days to your license duration.
This means that if you wait six months to renew, you get the same renewal as someone who renewed straight away - it’s just access to another year of updates. This makes it fair for everyone, and should prevent attempts at gaming the system.
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Awesome, sounds good. Is that a DSP renewal rate, and is the g-code renewal going to be less?
Also, what if I wait 366 days to renew? Would that be the same as burning $30?
Rate will be the same for both license types. The initial purchase price difference is because the DSP communication is significantly harder, but the functionality of the software is the same. And no, if you waited over a year, and then renewed, you’d be able to install and use any version built in the year after your license expired.
Your key has an expiry date, and any version of LightBurn I build after that date won’t work for you. Renewing the license adds 365 days to that expiry date.
Imagine you bought on Jan 1, 2018. Your license would expire on Jan 1, 2019, so any released in 2019 wouldn’t work for you. If you then bought one renewal in 2022 (several years later) it would bump your expiry date up to Jan 1, 2020, meaning you’d now be able to install and use all the releases from that year, just none that were released later than that. The renewal fee is essentially paying for the features released over time.
Make sense?
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Yep, sounds good and reasonable. It sounds rather unique too, hopefully it works well. Thanks for the heads up. 
So, in your example doesn’t that mean it is basically a subscription model if there is no way to get access to a new feature unless the customer pays for all of the un-purchased past updates first? The customer just is paying in two chunks (2018 and 2022) instead of smaller evenly spaced yearly renewals. Yes, I do realize that the software will still work in the last “update state” purchased but the requirement to catch up all previous years seems like it makes it a subscription-based software going forward. Just seeking clarity on the situation. Thanks.
Subscription is when there is a monthly fee that allows you to use the software. As soon as you stop paying that fee, the software stops working. That will not happen with LightBurn, you will continue to use it, just in the state it was when you stopped paying for upgrades.
Subscription is when there is a monthly fee that allows you to use the software.
With ongoing updates included.
That will not happen with LightBurn, you will continue to use it, just in the state it was when you stopped paying for upgrades
Yes, I made that distinction in my post.
Thanks.
This model overall achieves what is hard for a lot of software companies, recurring income without recurring payments.
I abhor the subscription model like CC Adobe suite.
The one time purchase model has serious drawbacks, you need a steady influx of new customers as you will never get any revenue from existing ones again.
For a piece of software that is niche like Lightburn a one time model is less than ideal.
I would be very happy to buy another license again after my year is up when there is a killer feature added.
The problem I have with your distinction is that I’m not charging you to use the software, I’m charging you for feature development. If you wait a year until a batch of new features are added and then pay the update fee, you get a new year of updates plus the previous year for half the price of someone who paid their renewal when their license expired, and that’s not fair to them.
You can call it what you like - If you decide to stop renewing you still get to use the software you have, so it’s not a subscription. It does address the reality of software development - it costs money. I don’t want to get into the habit of micro-charging by feature either, so I thought this model was a reasonable compromise.
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This is basically the same model that Vectric uses. It works very well and seems fair to the users and the developers.
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With the small distinction that LightBurn costs one to several decimal places less than Vectric products do.
Very true. LightBurn is certainly a good value. I think that’s why I spent 4 months deciding to buy Vectric pro and about 10 minutes deciding to buy LightBurn
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Oz, thank you for your great product and for treating people straight and fair. It is so nice to do business with a person or company that doesn’t try to rape all of their customers. Thanks Again for this great product.
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