Blue Iris Annual Fee?

[Starri_eyed]

I just noticed a couple new buttons on the "Options" "About" page. Where the check for upgrades was is now a "Buy Support". This support is annual and includes support and upgrades? It says mine is "Basic" and up soon. Is this going to stop working soon? Is there going to be a monthly fee soon? I'm just saying, I bought version 3.xx. A month and half or two later version 4 came out, and I bought it. Now annual fees? Are the upgrades going to be more than "A couple bug fixes" "More Enhancements".

 

[fenderman]

@Starri_eyed Welcome to the forum. The release notes were very clear that blue iris will not be subscription-based the only thing you lose is email support. You will still receive updates until version 5 is released. In the past major revisions have been released every three years, you happen to purchase at the very end of the second year. The minor updates contain significant new features for example the hardware acceleration that was just released. Limited support is a standard in the industry, howeve,r many other companies only give you 90 days of free support and updates. Their support fees are also way more expensive then the $30 blue iris will be charging and they charge 100 per camera in licensing.

 

[chaycock]

So just because the "Check for Updates" button is gone, we should still be able to go directly to the updates page on the BI website and download updates, is that your understanding of how it will work now?

 

[bp2008]

The check for updates button is not gone even with expired support. It is still there and still works as it always has.

Now according to the description of the support plan, it provides all version upgrades (it is implied that if you have a support plan when Blue Iris version 5 is released, then you get the upgrade for free).

 

[fenderman]

UPDATE: I just got an email from Ken where he said that he while he encourages the extended support and will eventually require extended support even for minor updates, he will be providing the minor updates free during a grace period. Not sure how long that will last.

 

[bp2008]

UPDATE: I just got an email from Ken where he said that he while he encourages the extended support and will eventually require extended support even for minor updates, he will be providing the minor updates free during a grace period. Not sure how long that will last.

Sounds like a bad terrible idea to me. As someone who develops and supports 3rd party tools that work with Blue Iris, the last thing I want is for everyone's "latest version" to suddenly be different from the next guy.

 

[chaycock]

So basically, if he does that, he is essentially turning it into a subscription based model because otherwise you are frozen in time with the version you purchased if you can no longer get updates within the major version that you bought. I'm fine with him charging to update between major versions and for direct technical support, but charging in order to receive bug fixes/minor updates is not cool.

 

[chaycock]

One other thought...I hope this is not turning into a 'got you by the balls' situation where the software has been put out there cheap for a long time to get a lot of people using it and then the squeeze gets put on....not saying it is, but it sure seems to have the potential to move in that direction....the pointer has already moved a little...

 

[fenderman]

One other thought...I hope this is not turning into a 'got you by the balls' situation where the software has been put out there cheap for a long time to get a lot of people using it and then the squeeze gets put on....not saying it is, but it sure seems to have the potential to move in that direction....the pointer has already moved a little...

It is never that kind of situation because the initial outlay is so low. This is still WAY cheaper than any decent vms model. Dollar dollars a year is a joke compared to the others.

 

[fenderman]

So basically, if he does that, he is essentially turning it into a subscription based model because otherwise you are frozen in time with the version you purchased if you can no longer get updates within the major version that you bought. I'm fine with him charging to update between major versions and for direct technical support, but charging in order to receive bug fixes/minor updates is not cool.

You need to put this in perspective. Other vms that charge 100 PER camera give you 90 days of updates so this is VERY cheap. A new user will have full year to find a stable version so there is no bug issue. Same goes for current users during the grace period.

 

[chaycock]

Fenderman, both of your points are well taken and I agree...I believe I had a knee-jerk reaction based on past experience with some other software vendors. I do agree that at the current price point, BI is still a very good deal.

 

[MartyO]

Basically if your system is stable, then you don't need to pay for support. That's sounds fair to me.

 

[MartyO]

Sounds like a bad terrible idea to me. As someone who develops and supports 3rd party tools that work with Blue Iris, the last thing I want is for everyone's "latest version" to suddenly be different from the next guy.

Should make you stuff easier, when you have a very stable version that works with your tool, save it and share it with users of your tool. Maybe you only need to have a few versions saved per year, making debug easy.

 

[kboxvegas]

Well, I for one will not be purchasing any minor updates out of principle alone because I absolutely DESPISE subscription based models. I get the support aspect of it, by all means charge an annual fee for support. But you really should not modify the rules in the middle of a major revision either (logmein, pushbullet, roboform) as it creates bad sentiment with your user base no matter how good the value of your product may be.

IMO just make it a price increase or charge for support, subscription-based models are stressful because it's just another stupid thing that I have to keep track of.

Old model - 3 years between major revisions, all updates included = $60
New model - 3 years between major revisions, $30 per year to get all updates = $90

 

[fenderman]

Well, I for one will not be purchasing any minor updates out of principle alone because I absolutely DESPISE subscription based models. I get the support aspect of it, by all means charge an annual fee for support. But you really should not modify the rules in the middle of a major revision either (logmein, pushbullet, roboform) as it creates bad sentiment with your user base no matter how good the value of your product may be.

IMO just make it a price increase, subscription-based models are stressful because it's just another stupid thing that I have to keep track of.

Old model - 3 years between major revisions, all updates included = $60
New model - 3 years between major revisions, $30 per year to get all updates = $90

The subscription for extended support is a better model because it allows users to CHOOSE if they wish to purchase it. Why should someone who doesnt need the support or updates have to pay for it? 90 is still dirt cheap for 3 years of vms. You are also assuming that version 5 will cost 60 dollars when it may in fact be 70 or 80. Also, your old model calculation is only valid if you buy at the beginning of a release cycle. Say someone buys in year 2. So its 60, then in one year then need to pay 30 for the upgrade so you are at 90.

 

[kboxvegas]

The subscription for extended support is a better model because it allows users to CHOOSE if they wish to purchase it. Why should someone who doesnt need the support or updates have to pay for it? 90 is still dirt cheap for 3 years of vms. You are also assuming that version 5 will cost 60 dollars when it may in fact be 70 or 80. Also, your old model calculation is only valid if you buy at the beginning of a release cycle. Say someone buys in year 2. So its 60, then in one year then need to pay 30 for the upgrade so you are at 90.

I 100% agree with the support aspect. However, I do not think that minor updates should be lumped in with support. Let the people that need support pay for it but this is still a paywall for minor updates to the people that will never use the support.

 

[fenderman]

I 100% agree with the support aspect. However, I do not think that minor updates should be lumped in with support. Let the people that need support pay for it but do not put up a paywall for minor updates.

Paying for updates is standard practice in the vms industry. In fact, getting a year is much longer than other. Exacq gives you 90 days and they charge WAY more for the software and the updates. https://exacq.com/products/start/ You need to bump up to their pro version to get 1 year of updates. You need to keep this in perspective, 30 dollars is nothing.

 

[bp2008]

Should make you stuff easier, when you have a very stable version that works with your tool, save it and share it with users of your tool. Maybe you only need to have a few versions saved per year, making debug easy.

Not easier, but also not immediately harder because I've been maintaining compatibility with Blue Iris 3.66 for the past year and backwards compatibility with most of 4.x comes along with that. The difficulty comes with time, as more and more people get stuck on an ever-increasing number of old Blue Iris versions. You of all people should appreciate how many little and not so little problems this could cause. Even if I went to the effort of saving a list of "trusted versions" (which I am not going to do), only a handful would pay attention to that and it would be no guarantee of compatibility.

 

[kboxvegas]

Paying for updates is standard practice in the vms industry. In fact, getting a year is much longer than other. Exacq gives you 90 days and they charge WAY more for the software and the updates. https://exacq.com/products/start/ You need to bump up to their pro version to get 1 year of updates. You need to keep this in perspective, 30 dollars is nothing.

You will never hear me say that BI is not a killer deal for what it is nor that I would not mind paying a little more for it. However, this is still putting updates behind a paywall regardless if this is an industry standard or not. In fact, the price and not adhering to commercial industry standards are major reasons why BI is the choice of most of it's user base. If BI did not exist, it is not like all of us home and smb users would be shelling out for high priced commercial vms products anyways.

 

[bp2008]

You will never hear me say that BI is not a killer deal for what it is nor that I would not mind paying a little more for it. However, this is still putting updates behind a paywall regardless if this is an industry standard or not. In fact, the price and not adhering to commercial industry standards are major reasons why BI is the choice of most of it's user base. If BI did not exist, it is not like all of us home and smb users would be shelling out for high priced commercial vms products anyways.

I was going to say something similar, but you put it well.

Many Blue Iris users don't want anything to do with commercial VMS products. Not their unfriendly licensing schemes. Not their update policy. Not their pricing. Blue Iris could raise the price, change the licensing, and limit access to updates, and still be a vastly better deal, but it would have lost much of its appeal to home and small business users.