Hi,

I would like to hear some of your general thoughts about software upgrade pricing models.

Here's a couple of personal situations i'm in at the moment. I'm a legit customer for discoDSP Discovery Pro and Vengeance Avenger.

discoDSP Discovery Pro has had basically 0 new features implemented over the years, mainly just framework and stability updates. The recent release of discoDSP Discovery Pro v8 release that has improved sound quality from 8bit up to 12bit and has also improved the distortion and filter models, they are asking for $108 to upgrade which is approximately 70% the cost of the original full purchase price.

Vengeance Avenger added a handful of features to Vengeance 2 but they are asking for $143 to upgrade which is approximately 80% of the original full purchase price.

I would like to hear your thoughts on what you think is fair ? What is not fair ? How should upgrade pricing models be structured ?

For me personally, I do not appreciate it when upgrade prices are nearing the cost of the original full price. I feel like the developers are aiming towards new buyers only and are not giving much incentive for previous customers to upgrade. What do you guys think ? I think that upgrade pricing that exceeds 50% is too much.

 

Last edited: Jan 13, 2024

i prefer unlimited free updates... which i actually have on one program I own because I was one of the first purchasers from the developer.
I don't like instability, I don't update software unless it benefits me, not the developer.

its simple to do a cost/benefit analysis. how long will it take to recoup the cost of the upgrade?
does the upgrade have any outstanding benefits like keeping you competive in your trade or speeding up your work flow?

if the upgrade doesn't give you any direct benefits, its not really an upgrade.
if you will never be able to recoup your cost of acquisition, then it is again not an upgrade.

now if you need it for social esteem in your circle or bragging rights or something. then only you can put a price on that.

 

I think a "major version upgrade" is ok for them to charge for. If they have kept doing updates the entire time and are really putting out new product. If they neglect doing any updates and then want to sell a bunch of bug fixes as a "new version" then it's not good.

Example, Logic 10.5 was a free update and it had so much new features and work done to it. It was free. Steinberg Cubase update version 10.5 added very little, but SB wanted $100 for it. Logic is still on major version Pro X (v10), and Cubase will be on v14 by the time Logic has a new version.

UVI Falcon 3 was a free update. It's not a massive overhaul of the program, but maybe something like a $50 upgrade price would be fair. From what I could find, as a non-customer of Vengeance; Falcon had more updated than Avenger and they want another $150.00 for it.

We have been using Omnisphere v2 or Serum for so many years that I expect a much bigger update to the software, but also a price reflecting the amount of new work they did to it. The Altiverb 7 update pricing to 8 is this sort of thing. We have had V7 for going on 13 years. So the price for an update version would be ok to only have something of a "customer loyalty discount", rather than expecting some $50 update to what might be re-written software for ARM macs.

Waves updates are a joke and break new things as often as they add more junk.

I think most developers do ok with the pricing of updates. Those who do not, you can tell what they think about their customers. That they are captive suckers who have to just keep shelling out money to them. Usually, you will already know that.

 

if the developer wants to introduce major new features in a large update, they're free to charge for those. Charging for bug fixes, stability improvements and minor convenience features is a big no-no. Charging for minor features every couple months... feels like a subscription service.

 

I call this, they are screwing you.
I think free updates for compatibility issues would be ideal, I'm not aware of how much work it takes... I know that, for example, to use VST3 you have to pay... but I suppose that expense will be included when purchasing a license If not, I don't know how some plugins maintain their value over time for life.