back to article JetBrains refuses to U-turn on subscriptions (but sweetens the deal)

Developer tools company JetBrains displeased many of its customers when it announced a move to subscription-only licensing from later this year. "We sincerely apologize for this," says co-CEO Maxim Shafirov, while also insisting that the company is "moving forward with subscription." The scheme, which allows for individual …

  1. James Wheeler

    It's never been easy...

    ... to make a living as an independent developer tools vendor, and in today's world it's harder than ever. I've found JetBrains' products to be very good, and if the subscription model is what they need to stay afloat, we should support them.

    1. Bob Vistakin
      Pint

      Re: It's never been easy...

      Google, please buy them. You're halfway there already with Android Studio.

      1. Tom Chiverton 1

        Re: It's never been easy...

        Google are moving away from Java to native code. Because lawyers.

        1. Desidero

          Re: It's never been easy...

          Google is moving from Java to native code because its attempt to use someone else's work for free wasn't quite the slam dunk they wanted.

          [rolling over billionaires isn't as simple as tossing a few bitcoins to the typical garage hacker]

          But when Google open sources those search algorithms and stops complicating life for Android forkers, I'll make up all kissy-kissy.

    2. goldcd

      And more importantly

      the fallback option makes it quite palatable.

      I've nothing against subscriptions (I have plenty), but I do have that nagging doubt that if I stopped paying I lose everything and feel a bit hostage-like.

      Conversely though, means I don't have to decide whether to bite the upgrade bullet, or hang on to what I have.

      This seems a pretty good balance. Can look at it as buying a license for whatever's current for 12xMonthly sub cost as a one-off. With a then additional option to license monthly.

  2. TwoWolves
    Facepalm

    RE: It's never been easy...

    Agreed.

    Not convinced about the rollback thing though as sometimes you have to leave a copy on a restricted server (no internet) after the license has expired and a rollback could mean tools that are required to run tests/builds etc no longer work.

    Bit shitty really and I'm making money for them by insisting my clients buy their software - they've just killed one of my core arguments for their product.

  3. mafoo
    Mushroom

    bloated java

    Meh, bloated java apps.

    My boss swears by them, and then swears at them when his JVM version goes out of sync with the version it's expecting and he has to spend half a day fixing it periodically.

    1. SecretSonOfHG

      Re: bloated java

      Yes, like the non bloated, non Java competition, right?

  4. Adam 1

    Surely it would be simpler to allow users to keep the version from the final day of their subscription?

    1. Somtimes_Right

      If they offered the version from your final day then you subscribe, download, cancel. Then you do that once or twice a year and don't need to pay monthly subscription.

      1. Adam 1

        A problem easily avoided by including a 12 month subscription in the purchase price. That way you don't disappoint those customers who buy days before a new release and you find it easier to convert leads to sales before an imminent release (which would otherwise kill cashflow as people hold out for the next release) because you remove that risk.

        Reverting them to 12 months previous just makes you seem greedy. I also don't get it. We use teamcity, resharper and dotcover extensively. I can't imagine a situation where we decided to stop paying maintenance on them. Many other subscriptions would be dropped off before we could afford to lose support for those tools.

        1. keithpeter Silver badge
          Coat

          present the other way round for improved PR?

          Eastgate Systems' Tinderbox is a niche application for Mac OS. It is one of the very few applications that I miss having moved to Penguinland more or less permanently.

          You buy it for money and your copy carries on working forever. You get free updates for a year. If you want updates after that you buy it again, but often with a discount.

          A subscription presented as a purchase essentially. Mind you, this is desktop software. And its sunny. Coat icon therefore.

    2. steamnut

      I agree

      If you have taken all of the updates, which could include serious bux-fixes, new features etc, then permitting you to use the software as it was at the start of the subscription period is of no use.

      They want you to get to the end of the subscription period and decide that downgrading will cause (expensive) headaches. Then you will have no choice but to subscribe for another year. Seeemples!

      It looks like a good idea at first but not in practice - and they know it!

  5. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    I like this solution.. and Java

    I like this solution.

    It solves worries over the developer going out of business or something, and being stuck with a product that'll expire with no recourse. It also avoids the potential problem (from a customer's standpoint) of having software that isn't updated but you have to keep paying subscription to use it.

    More importantly, it solves one anxiety over subscription software pretty easily. So, you buy version 6 of some software, and you try version 7 and don't care for some change, or there's a compatibility problem, or there's some GUI changes (and you want to get something done, not learn the new GUI), whatever. With some subscription software where it just continually autoupdates, you're boned, you can't run some particular version of the software. With this, you get a fixed version a year you can run if you want.

    Re: Java. Sorry, Java fans, but Java's pretty bloated. (As is .NET) That said I do like these style of languages anyway, as well as Python.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Obviously...

    The VC's are calling in their pound of flesh.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lease vs Own

    The way the license and payment is structured, this qualifies as a lease (not a subscription or a perpetual license) at my organization. Which means if I want to buy the software, I have to submit to the lease analysis process which is painful and takes at least 6 months to complete. Which in turn means I can’t buy software from JetBrains.

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