After almost 5 years, the licensing system used on Dev4Press will be overhauled and replaced with the new system that offers more flexibility and a better choice when it comes to licenses purchase.
Renewal based licensing system with Personal, Business and Developer licenses was activated on December 1, 2013. And, since then, based on the feedback from users, internal tracking and projections, I decided to make the change and offer more choices when it comes to licensing. Also, the licensing has gone through a few more important changes, mostly based on the feedback from users in an attempt to make things more straightforward.
Old licensing system
But, before we get to new licenses, here is more information about the old system. All current licenses from the previous system (Personal, Business and Developer) will remain in effect, and they will not be impacted by the new system. Terms of these licenses remain in effect for as long as the licenses are active, and we will not force the change of the old licenses for the new ones. This means that from this day, all the prices for the old licenses are locked, and will not change anymore and 30% discount for renewals remains in effect.
You will not be able to buy new Personal, Business or Developer licenses, but you will be able to renew them for as long as you want. The only change is the replacement of the Priority Support Tickets with the Priority Support Forums. And, in a few weeks, it will be possible to replace old license for the new one through the account dashboard.
New licensing system
The new system now has 4 licenses: Single (1 website), Freelance (3 websites), Studio (25 websites) and Agency (75 websites). All 4 licenses include access to the downloads, knowledge base and support forums. In addition to that, Agency license includes access to Priority Support Forums and, if you need more then 75 websites, Agency license has a special volume discount prices. One of the most important changes is that now, 1 website refers to a single domain. So, if you use WordPress Multisite on a single domain (with blogs on subdomains or in directories), you will need a single license. If your Multisite uses multiple domains, you will need a license for each domain. This makes license use easier to understand because the previous system was a bit confusing when it comes to multisite networks.
Another important change is that we now have 3 payment models for each license: One Year License (with manual renewal, and 15% discount from the price in the moment of renewal, renewal offer valid for a limited time, as before), Annual Subscription License (auto-renewal, each payment after the first one with 15% discount, but while the subscription is active, you are protected from any price increases) and Lifetime License (straightforward, one time payment only, back by the popular request from the users finding it easier to pay once, even if it is higher price).
The prices for the Single license match the prices for the old system Personal licenses. But, Freelance license cost less than a Business license (and with 3 websites, instead of 5). Studio license is a between solution between Freelance and 3 websites and more expensive Agency with 75 websites).
Why no unlimited license (again)?
Well, unlimited licenses might sound like a good sales pitch, but they are not sustainable when it comes to development and support. There are few WordPress developers offering unlimited licenses, hoping that sales volume will offset the support that will be needed for these licenses, but in reality, such system is a very bad deal for a developer when the earning per website and user drops to very low levels, making support very expensive in the process, cutting into the future development and in the end hurting the users as well.
For a plugin with the Single license at $59.00, Agency license is $399.00 and that comes to $5.32 per website, and you have to admit, it is a great deal, and very low price for any serious Agency to pay on the per website basis. With volume discount, and 10 Agency licenses (750 websites), the price comes down to $2.92 per website.
New Products
Another addition to the system is two new products: bbPress Plugins Club and Rating Plugin Club. bbPress Plugins Club includes 4 made for bbPress plugins (GD bbPress Toolbox Pro, GD Power Search Pro, GD Topic Prefix Pro and GD Topic Polls Pro), with any new bbPress plugins to be added in the future. Rating Plugin Club includes GD Rating System Pro and all the addons (free and pro) for it, with more rating addons to be added in the future.
These Clubs are very useful for any users that need a specific set of plugins, bbPress and Rating being the most obvious choices, and are not prepared to pay the higher price of the Dev4Press Plugins Club (containing all plugins and addons).
If you have any questions regarding the new licenses and products, check out the Licenses overview page, leave the comment below or contact us directly.
