Monthly Licenses

[Woodsman]

It doesn't make sense to switch to a monthly licensing system from the get go. However, it does make sense to offer a recurring payment setup on a monthly basis to cover the costs of the 6 month renewal. IPS is a business at the end of the day and rely on finances to cover the costs of salaries and other expenditures. Yes licences are renewed every month but not everyone will renew and this unknown factor "can" cause cash flow problems.

I know at present we can add credit to the account, but if a recurring payment option existed, I would happily setup a recurring payment on a monthly basis. Not only to cover my costs every 6 months but also to give IPS additional financial assistance on a monthly basis.

I would also happily pay $5 a month, taken the 6 month renewal to $30 (for the forum) but I have other packages totalling $70 every 6 month. Although it's not a lot of money, I don't run a business site, I run a community site relying on donations, subscriptions and ad revenue to fund server costs. I pay for the forum software out of my own pocket. $70 isn't a lot but but neither is $11.66 a month.

Come May (renewal time) I may have an unexpected bill (such as boiler needing fixed) and that $58.34 that I wouldn't need to spend could cover the call out fee for example.

It benefits both IPS and the client, to offer the option of a recurring payment but only for renewals, not for the suite as a purchase. They could probably split the $175 or so over 3 months but again, this could cause payments 2 and 3 to be declined as the purchaser has the software for $60.

1. ​This I cannot for the life of me understand why they took away early renewal.

In my case before I setup a new account with my bank I had issues with my wife seeing the money held thinking it was her MAD money. I hated submitting a ticket for IPS and other accounts to take the money NOW be fore she got her fingers into it....

2. Yes sudden surprises.... You have to love them.... 3 years ago I had a furnace and water heater go within 3 weeks of each other...

 

 

 

 

[Cyrem]

It seems like IPS would stand to lose $150 per license straight up, without taking into considerations other addons as well.

​Looks like IPS is going to have to fire their dev team and outsource for $2 a day in an attempt to make some sort of profit.

The quality of work is going to be magnificent.

This is sarcasm for those unacquainted with the concept.

[Lindy]

1. ​This I cannot for the life of me understand why they took away early renewal.

In my case before I setup a new account with my bank I had issues with my wife seeing the money held thinking it was her MAD money. I hated submitting a ticket for IPS and other accounts to take the money NOW be fore she got her fingers into it....

2. Yes sudden surprises.... You have to love them.... 3 years ago I had a furnace and water heater go within 3 weeks of each other...

​

We discontinued early renewals due to the immense complexity of our add-on and grouped renewals system (changes are forthcoming and will be announced soon.) If we allowed you to renew a month in advance and you decide in the last 2 weeks you want Gallery, you add that to the suite - what then? You've already renewed the suite so we're back to a lot of unnecessary fuzzy math - we introduced the account credit feature for this very reason. If you'd like to renew your license early, just do an account credit (top-up) and when it's time for the actual renewal, the invoice will be automatically paid from the credit without any intervention from you. 

As for monthly licenses, we do offer community in the cloud services. Beyond that, I'm afraid we're not overly interested in budget plans or as implied, layaway services. If that's the approach one wishes to take, they could easily get a prepaid visa card and make regular transfers/deposits to it in small amounts. You can store that card on file for automatic renewal and you've then simulated a monthly plan. I don't feel a software company should be involved in personal budgeting.