Is perpetual license with own FQDN possible?

[TurabG]

Hi,

As far as I see, 3CX had changed the perpetual license pricing, adding a yearly maintenance price. Although I find it not-nice to break a promise after it has been given for the existing customers, it is yet quite reasonable to charge for maintenance for the new ones.

But what I wonder is; 3CX is promoting the services for the maintenance as follows;

- SMTP Service
- SSL renewals
- Webmeeting
- FQDN
etc..

From what I can tell, these could already be served by the customer himself already. For example I can setup my own FQDN which will also have the SSL and I can setup my own SMTP. I am not sure about the webmeeting only, since I don't know the serving principles of it.

So provided that the customer can handle these and asks for immunity of the maintenance fee; is it any possible?

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi,

What perpetual license type and size are you talking about?

(ie. Professional Perpetual V16, 32SC)

 

[craigreilly]

I have been a 3cx customer for about 10 year and bought several perpetual licenses. Maintenance is nothing new. But now it is tied to a few more things than just Software Updates.
Without maintenance - you have to supply your own SMTP Server and FQDN. Those cost 3cx money to provide.

 

[cobaltit]

Maintenance isn't new, but I believe the concern is the fact that previously when maintenance expired you only lost the maintenance type features (mainly new templates and 3CX provided firmware at the time). But now when maintenance lapses the license is converted to a free license which can also reduce the SC count depending on the original license(I think based on a few threads like this). 3CX is inexpensive so lapsing maintenance has never been a concern for us but I can understand how folks feel about perpetual not being perpertual anymore.

 

[TurabG]

@cobaltit , exactly. I don't think it is unreasonable; I am just saying that it is a bit of concept shift.

@JohnS_3CX , 16SC V16 Pro License for example.

@craigreilly , that's exactly what I mean. Of course it costs 3CX money and effort and it is pretty reasonable to ask for a maintenance fee. What I am saying is, if that is the case, I can provide my own FQDN, SSL, SMTP etc. So will this make me immune to maintenance?

 

[cobaltit]

Maintenance isn't a la carte. You can provide your own FQDN/SSL/SMTP (although not sure why you would want to) but there is still webmeeting, 3cx tested/provided firmwares, smart phone apps and of course software upgrades.

 

[TurabG]

Standalone, it is not a la carte correct; but when compared to analog which for years we have been advertising against and promoting VoIP as "dead cheap deal breaker" over it; this amount of maintenance fee becomes a game changer. Because in this case, it is in fact the analog system becomes a deal breaker here. I mean for 15 users in an office and 5 users in another; let alone the VoIP solution being cheaper; it increases the expenses dramatically. The hardware for VoIP is already a lot more expensive than analog ones and when this recurring maintenance fee is added; than there is really no advantage of VoIP system left.