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Let's talk about... money.

With all the respect to the price point (cause compare to solidworks or autodesk is cool), and it is a great pice of software. But, the enter point for someone who would like to design something and maybe sell it later and also don't want to throw quite a lot of bucks and share his ideas with everyone. I don't understand why there are no low level pricing options for some guys who just start, or really small one guy companies. It could be like dunno, 19.99/mo but you can have 1-3 prv project and have to under 30K/Y or something. Take a look on what company called Allegorythimic done with pricing point for their software for smaller companies/indies, basically bellow 100K/Y. I really, really like Onshape, but further I go with the idea I have and some chances to sell the product someday I think now I am forced to switch to fusion360 cause it finally get metal sheet and is FREE for commercial for 1st Y/100K. So really guys you need better pricing point for new guys. Metal sheets and 3d printing comes cheaper and cheaper and home prototyping become more popular.

Comments

  • nyholkunyholku Member Posts: 60 PRO
    Can't help commenting that: I make a nice living out of product development and writing software and it would not cross my mind to buy a daily cup of coffee, let alone a Starbucks coffee. I own own two automatic espresso machines  and a restaurant level coffee maker, but they have resell value and the price won't be hiked every now and then because I own them. I also don't wast my time on cable or Netflix or entertainment. 

    But both comparisons are very poor, they are what I would call consumable where as an MCAD design is an investment which is effectively held as hostage in the cloud subject to what ever Onshape decides or whatever happens to them.

  • RyanAveryRyanAvery Member Posts: 93 EDU
    kustaa_2 said:

    But both comparisons are very poor, they are what I would call consumable where as an MCAD design is an investment which is effectively held as hostage in the cloud subject to what ever Onshape decides or whatever happens to them.

    I doubt anything like that has ever happened or would ever happen. Also, you can download the files you make and store them on your machine if you are worried about them disappearing. 
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,475 PRO
    @kustaa_2
    Most of software has a way to block you out (license server) if they feel like it. It doesn't help that you know you have paid for software if they just decide your license is not valid anymore. So it's always up to 'whatever they decide or whatever happens to them'.
    Just think about it for a moment and you notice that almost everything connected to internet is actually controlled by a cloud service.

    To be honest, Onshape is the only cad I have ever used that has had zero licensing problems during almost 3 years. All others have blocked me out at some point because of some reason in somewhere that I couldn't help (usually after update) - then I send in a ticket and wait for few days; local data is not so useful if you don't have access to the software.
     
    //rami
  • edgerunneredgerunner Member Posts: 9 PRO
    3dcad said:
    I would say it's also good for business to pay a decent amount of your tools, it keeps you on subject and don't let you burry your projects for months because you pay for it.
    Onshapes annual cost should be pretty easy to gather in countries where a cup of coffee cost >$3, should be doable even for startups.
    But for the countries where month's salary is like $10, it can be difficult to justify - but then again, developers need to eat too..

    It is actually funny how people buy all kind of useless stuff all the time ($800 cell phones) but when you ask more than $1 for software, they will spend hours for searching pirate or free alternative.. =)
    Agreed… (emphasis mine)

    I am on the verge of completely ditching SW (which I already invested in) in favor of OS, but besides the lack of couple of key features (configurations and proper surfacing), the major thing that concerns me is my currency's (TRY) nosedive plunge versus almost everything else (USD, EUR etc.). I make a decent income out here but when expressed in US dollars, it halved in the last two years. I'm concerned that if this trend continues, OS may become too expensive to sustain for me.

    That fabled Starbucks coffee went down from $4 equivalent to $2.25 here, even after a price hike. They wouldn't sell any if they kept the $4 price point.

    Dear OS, you should consider country-based pricing. Take Steam for a good example: They became the only game vendor that actually makes money in Turkey after switching to local pricing.
  • thong_van_nguyenthong_van_nguyen Member Posts: 17 ✭✭
    3dcad said:
    I would say it's also good for business to pay a decent amount of your tools, it keeps you on subject and don't let you burry your projects for months because you pay for it.
    Onshapes annual cost should be pretty easy to gather in countries where a cup of coffee cost >$3, should be doable even for startups.
    But for the countries where month's salary is like $10, it can be difficult to justify - but then again, developers need to eat too..

    It is actually funny how people buy all kind of useless stuff all the time ($800 cell phones) but when you ask more than $1 for software, they will spend hours for searching pirate or free alternative.. =)
    3dcad
  • thong_van_nguyenthong_van_nguyen Member Posts: 17 ✭✭
    Hi All, 

    I am study the Onshape with many points ( technical and investment ) for my company , I very need many expert advice from guys. Specially about pricing policy, warranty,etc. Could you help to talk something on that ??

    Best regard, 
    Thong
  • RyanAveryRyanAvery Member Posts: 93 EDU
    Hi All, 

    I am study the Onshape with many points ( technical and investment ) for my company , I very need many expert advice from guys. Specially about pricing policy, warranty,etc. Could you help to talk something on that ??

    Best regard, 
    Thong
    go to here: https://www.onshape.com/contact
  • CAD_SSPCAD_SSP Member Posts: 45 ✭✭
    edited February 2018
    One thing people forget when they use the Starbucks analogy...
    When I order my skinny caramel macchiato the cashier doesn't reply that will be $1500 please and there will be one waiting for you here every day for the next 12 months, if you don't collect it, don't worry we will dispose of it for you foc (maybe they are missing a trick here).

    Also as mentioned very few of us purchase a Starbucks daily in fact (I may be the most boring person in existence but...) there is nothing I purchase personally on an annual commitment that costs this much (other than my house, my car and fuel for both of these), a smartphone contract is less than half that and I use it far more than I would OnShape, broadband is about 1/3 and also used for far more than just OnShape (yes there is life outside of OnShape).
    So I totally understand where the personal users are coming from.

    I really do wish OnShape would revert back to a month by month subscription even for a commercial application it would make sense, I would have no problem convincing management to sign up for that and they would more than likely leave it running indefinitely, a $1500 commitment makes you think twice about your return on investment but a $125 commitment doesn't have the same thought provoking size.
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,475 PRO
    It would be nice if someone from Onshape commented why they pulled monthly subscription out. They tend to have reasons for the moves they make..
    //rami
  • philip_thériaultphilip_thériault Member Posts: 1
    I came here also for an hobbying / entry level subscription because 1500$/yr is pretty harsh. I'm considering too moving to fusion 360 even if their mouse controls make me wanna throw my computer by the window every time I have to use it ( stl conversion )

    Coming from Catia V5 in school, I truely love OnShape, but I simply don't have a car worth per year for a subscription of a software ( yes my cars cost less than 1500$ and I fix them myself ). At 15-20$/months I would have considered it quite seriously.

    For Onshape side it could drive a little more money in the account without changing much to the expenses or the server loads. I'm stuck at either nothing at all or 1500$/yr but I would consider seriously a 200-300$/yr ( Adobe LR+PS is 15$/mth for exemple ).

    There is plenty of solution to integrate an hobby account without pushing away big company to pay full subscription. One exemple could be to limit the amount of sessions opened. I can work simultanuously on onshape on 3 differents computers at the same time right now. Let's say on the hobby version you're limited to one session ( intended for the single guy hobby so that would make sens ).

    You could also get an exemple from DaVinci Resolve, the free version is full fledge for what a single not-that-much-profitable user would use out of it. For exemple, they limit rendering to one machine. It's perfect for a single user but for big bucks production company would be completly unreasonable. They also don't allow 3D rendering, and so on, you know stuff a single entry youtuber wouldn't use. You could do a survey of the uses of hoddyist versus pro and limit functionality of pro user to pro license and offer an entry level subscription for those who just want their document private and make a couple of bucks out of them on a sideline.
  • jasem_mutlaqjasem_mutlaq Member Posts: 2
    For a small business, we could not justify OnShape's $1500 especially since we only have a couple of designs for a product case that we wanted to keep private. We ended up with Fusion 360 which is 1/3 of the price. It's too bad OnShape is not considering a small business tier.
  • manuel_fernandezmanuel_fernandez Member Posts: 3 ✭✭
    edited October 2

    New OnShape user here, coming from Fusion 360. I'm just a hobby user. I know other CAD software is considerably more expensive and, with that in mind, $1,500/user/year may not seem like a lot, but IMO the current pricing is a missed opportunity because many users who are on the fence about upgrading to the Standard Plan are undoubtedly going to be put off by the price.

    I would like to suggest a Basic Plan identical to the Standard Plan minus "Direct, in product support", and a subscription of $100 per user per year. At that price, a lot of us freeloaders who wish to keep our designs private would consider upgrading. Conversely, the same user group will simply stay on the Free Plan or look elsewhere. The following graphic precisely describes your current pricing options—help us get on that ladder!

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