New lower Pricing on Annual Subscriptions

[enovation]

Hi everyone, one of our clients is ordering a 3CX Phone System Standard 32 Simultaneous call. I understand its free for the first year but when I download the free version I only get 8 simultaneous calls. How do I order this? Also I am being affected by the riots in south africa where my distributer is located and I have urgency to solve this issue. Its our first time to purchase a free license with 32 SC. Please advise.

 

[VasilisV_3CX]

Hi @enovation,

If you log in to your partner portal, click Keys >> Find the Key that is linked to your account by your customer and click "Free Upgrade". This will give you the option to increase the number of SC.

 

[alberto.azzini]

I find funny that none mentioned a significant price increase on STD licences and perpetual licences. We have several customers on perpetual that bought those licences, are on linux, so up to date, and now they’ll have to spend much more yearly if not switch from perpetual to annual. This is not good for those customers that gave trust on 3CX by purchasing those licences in past, not to add they partially lost the investment. Also 8SC STD annual, that before 2019 where sold at 130€, then set free (theorically forever according on 3CX website), now 170€. We were NOT informed if not after the price change, not to say we had to pay the price increased licences as our customers had signed contracts. No good on our side as the price decrease interested only Pro annual.

 

[Natassia Allery]

I find funny that none mentioned a significant price increase on STD licences and perpetual licences. We have several customers on perpetual that bought those licences, are on linux, so up to date, and now they’ll have to spend much more yearly if not switch from perpetual to annual. This is not good for those customers that gave trust on 3CX by purchasing those licences in past, not to add they partially lost the investment. Also 8SC STD annual, that before 2019 where sold at 130€, then set free (theorically forever according on 3CX website), now 170€. We were NOT informed if not after the price change, not to say we had to pay the price increased licences as our customers had signed contracts. No good on our side as the price decrease interested only Pro annual.

Hello Alberto,

3CX has been transparent regarding our preference of annual licensing, which benefits YOU as a partner! Annual subscriptions guarantee recurring revenue for your business, it's the easiest price model and helps you maintain your partner status. Customers also purchase a new subscription with no CAPEX.

Perpetual licenses can be traded in for free for one year and thereafter customers will be paying an annual subscription, which is equal to the maintenance fee anyway! So this is the best thing for the customer. There is no loss in investment - it is a long-term win-win situation for end-users and partners.

Our pricing changed on 15th June, all partners were informed via email, and webinars were held by the sales team. We even offered to honor old quotes for 30 days post price change.

Prices are subject to change as with all vendors, and in the case of perpetual licensing the price increased and annual licensing decreased.

In regards to the free license; the free licenses are indeed free forever, however are subject to change SC and edition. So a customer buying an 8SC in 2019, who then enjoyed it for free in 2020, and is now renewing has still saved over the course of three years.

 

[alberto.azzini]

Hello Alberto,

3CX has been transparent regarding our preference of annual licensing, which benefits YOU as a partner! Annual subscriptions guarantee recurring revenue for your business, it's the easiest price model and helps you maintain your partner status. Customers also purchase a new subscription with no CAPEX.

Perpetual licenses can be traded in for free for one year and thereafter customers will be paying an annual subscription, which is equal to the maintenance fee anyway! So this is the best thing for the customer. There is no loss in investment - it is a long-term win-win situation for end-users and partners.

Our pricing changed on 15th June, all partners were informed via email, and webinars were held by the sales team. We even offered to honor old quotes for 30 days post price change.

Prices are subject to change as with all vendors, and in the case of perpetual licensing the price increased and annual licensing decreased.

In regards to the free license; the free licenses are indeed free forever, however are subject to change SC and edition. So a customer buying an 8SC in 2019, who then enjoyed it for free in 2020, and is now renewing has still saved over the course of three years.

Hello Natassia, sorry but i totally do not agree with you.
Pricelist changed on 15 June but channel has not been warned about that, so it means that partners that had customers that have signed offers had to do the old price. Our distributors did not apply the old price, even if inside the 30 days grace period, and we found that when we received their invoice, so too late to change that.
In the "new quotes" email you did not mention the perpetual thing as the price list was clearly for annual licences. So we assumed perpetual licenses where still in effect, with the same quotes as before. Renewal for 3 years (-5%) and 5 years (-10%) are no more available for perpetual licenses too.
A customer who bought a 32SC STD in 2019, paying for it 2159€ on first row and 594€ yearly till 2021 spent 3347€, instead of 785x2 (as the 1st year is free on STD), that means a loss of 1777€ only for that. Ok they can convert their licence from perpetual to annual, getting a credit of 1 year (worth now 755€), but they throw in trash 1.022€.
As a partner we think that if 3CX shares more clearly what's in future, we can move accordingly.
Obviously pricelist can change, as you decide not partners, but we think it changed too much in so short time without the proper communication.

 

[Natassia Allery]

Hello Natassia, sorry but i totally do not agree with you.
Pricelist changed on 15 June but channel has not been warned about that, so it means that partners that had customers that have signed offers had to do the old price. Our distributors did not apply the old price, even if inside the 30 days grace period, and we found that when we received their invoice, so too late to change that.
In the "new quotes" email you did not mention the perpetual thing as the price list was clearly for annual licences. So we assumed perpetual licenses where still in effect, with the same quotes as before. Renewal for 3 years (-5%) and 5 years (-10%) are no more available for perpetual licenses too.
A customer who bought a 32SC STD in 2019, paying for it 2159€ on first row and 594€ yearly till 2021 spent 3347€, instead of 785x2 (as the 1st year is free on STD), that means a loss of 1777€ only for that. Ok they can convert their licence from perpetual to annual, getting a credit of 1 year (worth now 755€), but they throw in trash 1.022€.
As a partner we think that if 3CX shares more clearly what's in future, we can move accordingly.
Obviously pricelist can change, as you decide not partners, but we think it changed too much in so short time without the proper communication.

Hello Alberto,

Annual subscriptions decreased and the very few Perpetual licenses we still offer increased in price.

For years we have been transparent about our transition from perpetual licenses to annual subscriptions, like most software vendors. SaaS is cost and time-efficient, and perpetual licensing is outdated. We have been preaching this since 2018. As mentioned earlier it is better for YOUR business to trade the perpetual licenses in.

All partners and distributors were invited to price-change webinars which gave a thorough explanation regarding the changes. I am sorry you made assumptions that were not correct. 3CX did take all the necessary measures to ensure everyone was informed, and we did offer a 30-day grace period - which we always offer if and when pricing increases.

 

[alberto.azzini]

Hello Alberto,

Annual subscriptions decreased and the very few Perpetual licenses we still offer increased in price.

For years we have been transparent about our transition from perpetual licenses to annual subscriptions, like most software vendors. SaaS is cost and time-efficient, and perpetual licensing is outdated. We have been preaching this since 2018. As mentioned earlier it is better for YOUR business to trade the perpetual licenses in.

All partners and distributors were invited to price-change webinars which gave a thorough explanation regarding the changes. I am sorry you made assumptions that were not correct. 3CX did take all the necessary measures to ensure everyone was informed, and we did offer a 30-day grace period - which we always offer if and when pricing increases.

Hello Natassia, i'm sorry to bother you again on the topic but the price change newsletter was stating clearly the annual prices, not the perpetual maintenances.
We hope customers in the next year will think like you and renew their licences by converting them to annual. Unfortunately I don't think that will happen in 100% cases. Talking about the 8SC STD, we have already lost the 1st expiring 2 PBXs because they converted to 4SC, and they are moving to a different PBX, less pricey. Today another customer converted and they are blaming us for the "price increase". Please note that my personal opinion is that 0.46€ per day (so less than a coffee/day) is non-expensive at all, worth the price of what software offers, but that market segment is "hard".
At the end, the 30 days grace period has not been done by the distributors, at least ours, which charged the new amount even if renewed at the end of June, and we found out 4 days ago when we received the invoice.
BTW if you prefer to continue this conversation in private, we can arrange a call.

 

[Natassia Allery]

Hello Natassia, i'm sorry to bother you again on the topic but the price change newsletter was stating clearly the annual prices, not the perpetual maintenances.
We hope customers in the next year will think like you and renew their licences by converting them to annual. Unfortunately I don't think that will happen in 100% cases. Talking about the 8SC STD, we have already lost the 1st expiring 2 PBXs because they converted to 4SC, and they are moving to a different PBX, less pricey. Today another customer converted and they are blaming us for the "price increase". Please note that my personal opinion is that 0.46€ per day (so less than a coffee/day) is non-expensive at all, worth the price of what software offers, but that market segment is "hard".
At the end, the 30 days grace period has not been done by the distributors, at least ours, which charged the new amount even if renewed at the end of June, and we found out 4 days ago when we received the invoice.
BTW if you prefer to continue this conversation in private, we can arrange a call.

Hello Alberto,

I would gladly arrange a call to hear you out. I will email you shortly.

 

[paurus]

I can't find the cost of annual maintenance for perpetual licenses anywhere on the site. am I looking poorly or is the annual maintenance for perpetual licenses no longer provided?

 

[SweetAction]

I can't find the cost of annual maintenance for perpetual licenses anywhere on the site. am I looking poorly or is the annual maintenance for perpetual licenses no longer provided?

The cost is exactly the cost of an annual license.


https://www.3cx.com/ordering/pricing/perpetual/

 

[paurus]

The cost is exactly the cost of an annual license.


https://www.3cx.com/ordering/pricing/perpetual/

Thanks!

 

[Thiek]

I read Natassia’s article a while back and still can’t decide what to do, I was hoping these “comments” would add some clarity but it did the opposite. Such as hosting 3CX only free the first year, or we have to sell enough to get bronze partner level, perpetual fees will be going up (say what?), subscription with no CAPEX (what’s that?), etc. I’d love to talk to someone about this, number is on file. Otherwise I’m not sure why we would change plus it sounds like we missed that “one year free” offer per Alberto’s posts. All of our sites are running 32sc Enterprise Perpetual, 1 month before a license expires I request a quote from our 3CX partner to keep current. I keep the software current at each site, yes I might be a few months behind but for good reason as we don’t want to be on the bleeding-edge with beta releases. Plus, no one has persuaded us to change to annual, I happened to see this post, so it seems odd the customer has to read through forums and attempt to self-educate and attempt to understand all this licensing stuff.

 

[N_G]

You can login to the customer portal and switch to annual subscription and get one year free. You don't have to update immediately, versions are independent of license/subscription payment.

 

[Natassia Allery]

I read Natassia’s article a while back and still can’t decide what to do, I was hoping these “comments” would add some clarity but it did the opposite. Such as hosting 3CX only free the first year, or we have to sell enough to get bronze partner level, perpetual fees will be going up (say what?), subscription with no CAPEX (what’s that?), etc. I’d love to talk to someone about this, number is on file. Otherwise I’m not sure why we would change plus it sounds like we missed that “one year free” offer per Alberto’s posts. All of our sites are running 32sc Enterprise Perpetual, 1 month before a license expires I request a quote from our 3CX partner to keep current. I keep the software current at each site, yes I might be a few months behind but for good reason as we don’t want to be on the bleeding-edge with beta releases. Plus, no one has persuaded us to change to annual, I happened to see this post, so it seems odd the customer has to read through forums and attempt to self-educate and attempt to understand all this licensing stuff.

Hi Thiek,

Hosting is free for the first year on all subscriptions (annual licenses). This offer is not available to perpetual licenses. 3CX Hosting is available in specific regions, you may find the full list here https://www.3cx.com/support/hosting-service/

Free hosting is not relevant to any partner level, the criteria on which this is offered is that the license is within its first-year post-activation, is annual, and is not higher than a 32SC. You may find all the info re hosting here https://www.3cx.com/ordering/pricing/hosted-info/

3CX has been transparent regarding our preference of annuals, and the pricing of perpetuals has gradually been going up over the past 3 years.

Regarding the last price change; mailers including price lists were sent to all partners, plus 40+ webinars were scheduled. As a customer, in your maintenance renewal email, the first thing we advise you to do is to trade-in your perpetual for an annual license for FREE, rather than purchasing maintenance.

I hope this clarifies things for you.

 

[Thiek]

Nick Galea, thank you but still doesn't answer why the licenses sold to us should be changed, the differences between the licensing, etc. Natassia, good to know mailers including prices lists were sent to all partners plus webinars which clearly means our partner will know what is best for us, they will know the pro's and con's to changing, any difficulty implementing, possible fallout, etc. We'll keep things as they are for now until they recommend otherwise. Plus I'm not comfortable with going into the portal and making changes without them knowing.

 

[N_G]

Ok. You can stay on perpetual if you want. Subscription is cheaper over time and easier to manage... Offers hosting if you want it ..

 

[Natassia Allery]

Why would I buy/renew a license in january for a client in september of even march. He would pay months for nothing to use? Other way of thinking, who says we would have a new client this year?
If we would renew the license in january and he would have his actual renewal in september, same thing. He would have to pay now in september/october/... for a license that will start again in january...

I know I can create a free license for a year and test it using that. But that is beside the point of receiving the NFR.

Hello,

I would like to correct something you said above; should you be promoted in September 2021 to Bronze or any other partner level, you will not be demoted in January 2022 if you have reached the revenue target for the specific partner level the previous year.

You would be demoted however in January 2023, if throughout 2022 you did not hit the target of 2,500eur RRP for Bronze partner level.

We made this change last year in Q2, which simplified things and made the targets easier to achieve on an annual basis.

 

[bumblebee]

Lowering the price is a good move, though. This will be useful for European and American countries.
Euro and dollar are very high in Turkey, a physical power plant can be bought and used for 100 dollars per month. Currently, one Turkish lira is around 10 euros.
Even the discounted version is too expensive for us.

The maintenance cost in perpetual licenses is also very high.
let's use our own smtp server and our own certificate. Do we still have to pay this price? Also, we do not use web meetings. ?

I do not understand the maintenance fee of the perpatual license, it says one year maintenance fee.

For example, when I buy a 32 SC perpatual license, I pay 4.415 USD for it. What is the maintenance cost of this option for the next year?

 

[Evolute IT]

I do not understand the maintenance fee of the perpatual license, it says one year maintenance fee.

For example, when I buy a 32 SC perpatual license, I pay 4.415 USD for it. What is the maintenance cost of this option for the next year?

The price of a Annual 32SC of the same level.

The annual maintenance for perpetual is the same price as an annual license. Meaning: just get an annual and you'll be much better off and no upfront investment for nothing.

 

[bumblebee]

The annual fee 32SC enterpise costs $1,475.
If I buy perpatual, I have to pay this money every year, is it true?

If true, what's the point of getting a perpatual license? Sounds like a stupid license to me.