Updates/Support Licensing

[sjoram]

Just wanted to offer some feedback as a long time user of AMS on the current support/licensing model. Not necessary to suggest any changes, but food for thought, perhaps?

I know you have switched a couple of times between perpetual updates/support and fixed period (e.g. 1 year) over the years.

Certainly in recent time, the update cadence has left me reluctant to 'renew' my access to updates/support to potentially only get one or more updates in a year (if that), particularly as compared to some of the historic release cycles.

I understand from your perspective that it's probably a catch-22 in that you need to see some return on investment in your time developing the software, but equally as a user I want to see some benefit from my investment in a 'renewal'.

With that in mind, if update cadence is likely to remain as-is, is there potential for a lower priced option (rather than effectively purchasing from scratch again) to renew access to future updates? I've no idea (and wouldn't necessarily expect you to share) what the figures look like in terms of number of purchases/active users, but I doubt that I would be alone in being willing to contribute a lower amount on an ongoing basis for access to future releases, on the basis that they are likely to continue for the foreseeable?

As it stands, I'm waiting for the implementation of DKIM before I consider renewing - having put AMS behind a load balancer primary to offload the encryption whilst we awaited the update to OpenSSL 3, that's largely mitigated some of the issues with the aged OpenSSL version my current version is running - so no real incentive for me to upgrade at present in the absence of DKIM and/or other additional/improved features.

[Code Crafters]

First of all, we'd just like to say that we know you as a user and appreciate the long term usage of AMS that you've had over the years. We still have many customers like you that have been using our software for many years.

We've always had it that our software will run forever but with a license renewal needed to get newer updates. Some other mail servers require a yearly license just to keep using the software. We will never change to require a continued license.

As you say, we started with a per version license system. This meant that you'd get all updates in say version 3.xx. However, the problem with this model was if someone purchased version 3 but then we released version 4 shortly after, they'd bought at the end of that version's cycle. In this case, we almost always allowed upgrading them to have the next major version as well if they hadn't bought the license too long ago.

With the current license model, we charge a yearly fee for updates. This means that whenever you purchase, you get updates for any versions released within that year, even if it includes a major version. It means that for users that can't afford to renew every year, or if we don't release any updates that are worth renewing for, you can just renew your license as needed. This helps keep costs down for customers and is fairer for both sides. If we don't release anything worth purchasing, we won't get as many license renewals so it encourages us to keep developing new things. But if we don't, then you don't have to pay every year either. This is the model we'll be sticking with for these reasons.

Now for the good news! As you say, we released TLS 1.3 last year which was very much needed. In the next month or so, we will finally be releasing DKIM as a new major version of AMS. We know that DKIM has been around for a long time now and is way overdue and even required by some big email servers from this year. We've spent a decent amount of time developing this over the past few months and we'll be putting a version of this to test on our server tomorrow for some real world testing. We've implemented DKIM, but need to consider implementing DMARC and update the website documentation over the next few weeks before we can do a general release of this. SPF allows domains to specify the IPs that can send for them while DKIM verifies the email's authenticity and that it is not modified in transit. DKIM, SPF and DMARC all work together to provide powerful SPAM protection. I'm sure that if you don't already have the TLS 1.3 update that this will be enough for you and many other customers to renew their license.

Code Crafters has been going for over 20 years now and we intend to keep developing for decades to come.

Thanks again for your continued support.

[Code Crafters]

Out of interest, if we added back in a 3 year license option (with a discount compared to the 1 year license) would you be interested in that?

This would be a good option for customers who want their license to never expire but should be rewarded for renewing more consistently.

[sjoram]

It's certainly something I'd be willing to consider, but again probably depends on the release cadence and what bugfixes and/or enhancements/new features are likely to be offered in that time.

[Code Crafters]

That's why the 1 year license works well. If we don't release anything that you want after the first year, you're not obligated to renew until something else worth updating for is released.