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Comment by lsaferite | Hacker News Reader

I'd say it's pretty different than before. You used to buy a license and it came with 1 year of updates and you had a perpetual license to the current version when your updates ran out. Now you pay for a year+ of updates and then you get a perpetual license for a year+ old version.

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Having to downgrade at the end of the subscription sounds like a huge PITA. I really want to like subscriptions, but the overhead from declaring taxes on so many $10 invoices is annoying as well. :( I'll just wait for IDEA 15 and then stick with my current (paid) license.

You can purchase annual subscriptions also.

If you pay ahead of time, you're getting a one year license with one year's worth of updates and a perpetual license. This is exactly the way it works now.

You misunderstood what they said then.

(With the new plan) If I purchase a 1 year subscription, then I get a perpetual license for the version AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE. Any upgrades I get during the year go away if I don't subscribe for more time.

Here is a link to help you understand: https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/204784622

It seems like a fairly reasonable compromise that addresses the concerns of both parties -- JetBrains needs a recurring revenue stream to support updates (fixes to version at time of purchase/subscription) and upgrades (new versions), while the customer needs the right to continue to use the software they purchased.

Yes, the customer doesn't get to keep the latest version if they stop their subscription, but JetBrains needs some reasonable hook to cover support costs, and quite frankly, their software is relatively cheap in the commercial market and generally works as expected.

It also addresses the concerns of those who claim "they'd be willing to pay more". If you decide to stop your update subscription, you have the option of getting a perpetual license for the latest version at that point by simply buying a year's worth of updates.

If there's a better option that keeps JetBrains in business and customers happy, I'm sure many would like to hear it.

The better option would be to simply disable further updates at the end of the year instead of forcing a downgrade.

People who wanted future improvements would still be incentivized to pay for them, Jetbrains would be incentivized to continue improving the software so that people would want to keep purchasing, and nobody's current working setup would be held hostage at the end of the year!

As I said, this seems like a reasonable compromise; JetBrains needs some sort of hook to support the development of newer versions.

Otherwise, JetBrains incurs the cost of producing a new version, but then has no revenue stream to support it.

In addition, if you keep upgrading every year, they give you a lower price than you would have gotten before. However, if you don't stay current, then yes, you'll pay more than you used to.

JetBrains hasn't really raised their prices in five years and meanwhile the cost of living has gone up. Things can't be completely in favour of either party; there has to be a meeting in the middle.

For what it's worth, I have no affiliation and I had let my license to IntelliJ lapse so was one of the aggrieved parties when they first announced the new pricing. This announcement however satisfied me enough that I decided to renew.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no guarantee that the version you'd be downgraded to would be able to read project files from the current version, right? So if JetBrains decides to up the subscription price by a huge amount, you'd potentially still have to pay for a year at the new, extortionate price in order to be able to continue to build your existing code - and worse, they could remove the option to actually buy the version you're using altogether before you get the chance to do so.

I believe most of the concerns you raise here are addressed in the blog post.

From your link:

"You will receive perpetual fallback licenses for every version you’ve paid 12 consecutive months for."

Look at the third example. This seems to be about on par with what is offered now. Depending upon how much their release cycle changes and how many features make it into each major version.

Edit: spelling!

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