A “New” Pricing Scheme For Open Source?
Posted by: regdcp in Gurus, Open Source, tags: contributors, CRELoaded, Designers, License Fees, marketing, Open Source, Pricing Structure, website, websitesA couple of weeks ago it came to my attention that CRELoaded (Chain Reaction) had drastically altered their marketing stance for the open source program CRELoaded.
With the release of version 6.3, pricing has changed from the normal OS progression of free/pay for more features/pay for even more features, to an annual license, even for the previously free version.
The annual plans are for about $100/Year, for the standard version, (Free 30 day trial), and $295/Year for the Pro., which, if memory serves, used to be $75/one time payment.
There IS an extra $150 module added to it.
Response on their boards has not been favorable, and some downright rude.
Management has Gerald Scott as community liaison and one of his methods of dealing with dissention is to delete threads and posts.
This is also not going over well.
It seems that more than just the price has been changed however.
The new stance is designed to bring developers and designers under the “wing” of CRELance, their developer job board.
In theory this is a good idea.
In practice, not so much.
Jobs so far seem slanted towards custom modifications and add ons. Not my market.
I target small business owners that want a fast, complete, store front with an admin that allows them to add to content and configure.
When I started developing with PHP/MySQL programs it was with osCommerce, and one of the things I did not like was the “No Commercial Links” in their forums.
When I discovered the CRELoaded ‘fork’, I was pleased to find that commercial links were welcomed on their forums.
This coupled with the CRE system that had over 50 modules installed enticed me to switch to developing in CRELoaded, and I have done 59 sites in it so far.
Now the rules have changed.
No longer are commercial links allowed but the signature files with them have been disallowed retroactively.
None of the previous 250+ posts I made have my signature file showing.
This seems like a breach of contract.
I made those posts over 3 years, spent my time helping others, in return for having my business link on my posts.
The only link I am allowed to have now is to my CRELance page, http://www.getcre.com/crelance/vendors.php?id=689 which is not much and costs $5 a month.
Another concern is a privacy issue.
With the 6.3 upgrade comes a site tracking script installed in the source code by CRE.
According to them this is to see how many copies “are in the wild”, but is actually to monitor use with a view to disabling the admin for reasons of non payment of annual fees.
The code used is a Google tracker and seems to be against Google’s TOS which says code must be on website under account’s control, and they aren’t.
The code will track every page the user goes to in the admin.
With the new annual licensing structure they must have some means of stopping sites from running (properly) should they not pay their renewal fee.
Their choice is to disable the admin while leaving the site running.
As the program is released under an open source license, and the first freedom of said license is to allow access to the source code, this is technically a loophole.
They would not be stopping access to the source code, but cutting off access to the admin. One could go into the source code and remove the registration requirements, defeating their system.
Chain Reaction seems to think that it must control the market and freeze out developers that will not come under their umbrella.
Due to their actions there is an exodus of the top contributors, some of which who are working on their own forks.
I have an idea on how this could be turned around, but would like to hear from readers before presenting it.
What do you think of the new pricing and marketing model that Chain Reaction has presented?
Entries (RSS)
September 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
[...] Original regdcp [...]
September 8th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Personally i think they whole thing stinks of greed. Why else freeze out developers who have helped make the project what it is today? I’ve been a member there now for about 3 years and have had a lot of help from a lot in the forums. Couple this with the fact that they are now banning members who have a voice and use it, these same members have given invaluable support to users on the forums, but this accounts for nothing. So much for freedom of speech.
I for one will not be upgrading to 6.3 and no longer posting on the forums. There are forums out there that support users of creloaded rather than hinder them and force them to use crelance.
The CRE Forums in my eyes, are dead where quality support is concerned. Have a look at http://www.oscommerceuniversity.com/lounge/index.php Quality Support, Quality Members and no ‘gagging order’
Regards
Pete
September 8th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Thanks Pete.
I have to agree it is greed, and perhaps the failure to compete effectively in the open market?
With CRE prices for simple 10 minute things like installs set at $150 and hosting @ $30 a month they are definitely on the high end of the market.
I suspect that most of us developers can offer hosting and services for a fraction of that.
Thanks for pointing out the osCommerce University forums (http://www.oscommerceuniversity.com/lounge/index.php), I am now a member and I have a number of CRE using clients that I can point your way for support and information on upgrading/changing forks options. .
See you on the forums,
Reg
September 8th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
WOW! Holy cow! That means all those years of building links to increase your Google rankings are now just GONE???? That’s not even close to ethical!
September 9th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Nice assessment Reg and I don’t see the current regime being swayed until decrease in money flow seems to be unchangeable which I think will happen and their answer will most likely be to clamp down on the developers not loosen up to free them.
Arrogance, pride and greed make likely but unproductive bedfellows in the sometimes short but always long run….
I think we see a very heavy mix of all three with an element of stupidity in it all as well.
There are avenues for success that could be taken by CRE and still allow for a price driven model for versions that contain premium features and for some support as well. They are taking the Hitler approach to business which is play with us or we kill your business for daring to be independent of us.
Oh well time will reveal all so we will see…
September 9th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Very sad the way there new Corperate friends are ruining the CRE comminty. Weither it’s legal or not, it’s morallly not right.
I plan to still offer 6.2 & 6.3 on my site, cre-ace.com . But I fear that this CRE community is going to dwindle away and that scares me, all my work comes from CRE cart development, hosting & mods. I and a few are trying to take some steps to prevent this, and are setting up a new community were CRE left off… With real opensource… Web-Kart (http:///Web-Kart.com) ….Please visit there and leave your email address for new and community info – the forums will be up soon
Thanks
Steve
Web-Kart.com
Cre-Ace.com
781-390-3111
steve@webgo2.com
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
David Graham, Chief Operating Officer of the old corporation, forum member nimitz1061. Denver Prophit Jr. Division Manager of Hosting of the old corporation, Tom O’Niell PHP developer of the old corporation, forum name zip1 comprise the team behind oscommerceuniversity.com hosting-4-creloaded.com strikehawk.com and soon be released hosting-4-oscommerce.com and hosting-4-magento.com
We want to be the pioneers in open source ecommerce and have learned our lessons in dealing with bad decisions of the old corporation. We believe that volunteers and commercial interest do drive excellence. No one will ever have to seek our permission to include a business in a forum signature. We plan to do video tutorials, webinars, e-learning SCORM compliant courseware.
I am posting a forum topic on oscommerceuniversity.com with a link back to this blog.
Thanks again for the recommendation to our forums!
Denver Prophit Jr. co-owner of Strikehawk eCommerce Co.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I never thought the Evil Greedy Overlord could out do himself but… he out did himself. I was dumbfounded when the initial plan to start selling it was announced a few years back – gave Sal a piece of my mind then [and got banned]. The new pricing structure is even worse and it totally smacks of greed. I blogged about that back in October and when one of the CRE guys told a forum member to get “F@#$!D, that set me off a bit and I blogged about that too. Greed topped with ignorance and unprofessionalism… that is a recipe for failure.
January 16th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Hello all, we’re starting to become flamed over at oscommerceuniversity.com over the concern of protecting confidential information. Not just a customers credit card, but their entire contact IDENTITY information. An open source user feels it’s over-kill to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley, FTC rulings and case law. http://www.oscommerceuniversity.com/lounge/index.php?topic=342.0
January 16th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
It is too bad.
CRELoaded offered such promise.
Their new pricing structure is far beyond what my potential clients are looking for.