License & Future

[cmpe]

Hi all, my first post here and I'll admit here that this is probably a very stupid question (wait for it) to start off. I also hope that I'm not (re)starting a frequently brought up controversy.

Let's just say I still have a owned license for a forum software then this company decided to drastically change its licensing which essentially left owned license users in the dust. To me, it felt like a decision driven for the sake of the company's income statement (I'm okay with) without any regard to existing users (not okay with). All the reasons I read sounded like excuses to me and anyone who could add up to 3-digit numbers could figure out why it sounded like excuses.

I know there was a pretty big controversy when this was officially announced and there were just too many threads/posts about it for me to follow so I stopped bothering with it and decided to start sunsetting my usage of said product. (Actually, I would like to know if there is anything I can do with the old version if anything. I'm sure it's vulnerable to exploits so probably worth less than nothing now.)

So all of that left a really bad taste in my mouth that I would like to try to avoid.

So (here's the stupid question)... with the understanding that no one can predict the future, can someone "in the know" give me some talking points that XenForo is less likely to follow the same path?

Thanks!

 

[arche]

This is only my opinion as I am not a staff member, but as Xenforo has a one-time licensing fee and a yearly renewal fee for support the only thing I could see increasing would be the licensing fee or renewal fee. As I don't see anywhere that Xenforo sells a owned license (unless I am missing it), I doubt there is much to worry about.

With any company, you sometimes have to expect increasing in pricing because of overhead or just plan cost of time. Xenforo could have shut the doors a long time ago when another company tried suing them. But if they survived that, then I would say it is safe to say that your investment is safe with Xenforo. Not sure if I answered your question, but hope this helps.

 

[Jeremy]

As of right now, it seems as if the licensing structure will remain as it is for the foreseeable future. Only the staff can give an official response, but its only likely to be announced in the announcements forum.

 

[cmpe]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm perfectly okay with price increases, every company does it whether they like/need it or not. That's what business is about. What I don't like is if a company makes decisions with no regard to its current customers.

On a related note, is there a particular phrase/name for the licensing type where they essentially require you to pay for what amounts to a new license every couple of years? I'm curious if a lot of software companies have such a licensing structure in case I'm fussing about a common practice.

 

[arche]

I don't want to speak for Xenforo on this, so I would wait for a staff member to respond to this. Sorry.

 

[cmpe]

I don't want to speak for Xenforo on this, so I would wait for a staff member to respond to this. Sorry.

Oh please, no need for apologies. I'm looking for feedback from anyone that has any insight/thoughts about this particular topic.

 

[arche]

lol, I am still a new user to Xenforo itself. Been a long time vb user that ran when there Fools Gold version came out. So I just don't want to over step my thoughts or opinions.

 

[Jeremy]

You are thinking of a per-version owned licensing set up, and I believe I've really only seen one company do that. XenForo's set up for licensing is an owned with a yearly renewal, which I personally prefer. Without knowing the future, how the current set up works is you buy the license now for $140 and you receive any updates within the next year. After that, you can choose to renew or not, if you don't renew you are stuck at the last released version at the time of your license expiration. For $40 a year (add +$10 / year for each official add-on you own), you purchase support and any updates released within that year. This is basically the old "owned" license that vBulletin had. Even after your license expires, you keep access to the forums.

 

[MagnusB]

As they are here to make money, best guess would be that if the market change, they will have to adapt their revenue stream accordingly. Best guess is that they will probably change their licensing model at some point, but to what or when is impossible to say.

 

[Paul B]

So (here's the stupid question)... with the understanding that no one can predict the future, can someone "in the know" give me some talking points that XenForo is less likely to follow the same path?

As you have stated, no-one can predict the future, not even staff members, so anything discussed here is speculation and potentially confusing to new and existing customers.

There are currently no plans to change the licensing structure.
That does not mean it will never change in the future.

 

[cmpe]

Welp.

I decided to just jump in and get a license. I'm still a tiny bit nervous about Xenforo's future and viability.

Couple of things that helped me decide:
1) Just signing up for this forum and posting for the first time, I liked it. Seemed different than vB yet still familiar.
2) I know (or think?) that Kier was vB's top developer for vB3 and I still like vB3 (not so much vB4, haven't even bothered to look at vB5)
3) Various "big" boards using Xenforo

Thanks guys.

 

[CTXMedia]

I decided to just jump in and get a license. I'm still a tiny bit nervous about Xenforo's future and viability.

Nothing is certain except death and taxes ... ... but joking aside, I personally think XenForo is the best forum software on the market - and it just keeps getting better!

It doesn't do blogs, or CMS, or galleries, or all that other suite "stuff" - but what it does, it does very well. It also has a pedigree (in the form of Mike and Kier) that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else.

And lastly, there's a vibrant and supportive community here on XenForo.com with knowledgable and helpful people who can (and do) make the whole package so much more than just a bit of software.

I think you'll like it ... and if you don't, can I be first in line to buy your license ...

 

[cmpe]

I think you'll like it ... and if you don't, can I be first in line to buy your license ...

lol

 

[TPerry]

Welp.
I decided to just jump in and get a license. I'm still a tiny bit nervous about Xenforo's future and viability.

Don't be... I'm about to purchase my third license in the very near future. Already have the domain registered and just got to do some work on a local install for a theme for it and once I get that done I'll be grabbing numero tres.

 

[cmpe]

Hey guys. So it's been slightly less than two weeks since I decided to go with Xenforo and I have to say it's been a dream to customize the look of Xenforo. I was afraid I was going to need to hack away at it with the risk of creating headaches for upgrades but it looks to be very extensible from what I can see.

So far I've received very positive feedback from our users.

And Google has been very helpful in helping me find the right help thread or resource for things I want to change:

user style color site:xenforo.com

Looking forward to 1.2 going gold!