Must uninstall Advanced Pack if the license is not renewed

[bandtank]

I received an email today about renewing the license for the Advanced Pack. The following comments are from the email:

If you fail to renew your license by this date, you will have to uninstall the extension from your instance and delete all downloaded extension packages to comply with licensing terms.

This is news to me. I thought the license for the Advanced Pack allows perpetual use without upgrades if the license is not renewed after the subscription period. Did the license change? If this is not a mistake, I will be moving away from EspoCRM, which is very unfortunate considering I have invested thousands of hours into the ecosystem. I'm happy to pay for the Advanced Pack, but the point of moving to EspoCRM was to avoid forced licensing.

[item]

Hi bandtank,
i have not received the mail.
And all we know, all espocrm extention have many many work for ehancement/maintenance .. i can not imagine the duration

Yuri can maybe find a "another solution" like "Long Terms Licence", for 5years maybe.. for X amount

If i understand, in french "c'est une decision radicale".. maybe find a "soft licencing solution".

PS : i dont critize nobody.. it's just my idea... win-win (i work only for non-profit )

Best Regards

[item]

This post is critize post

i am old school, so front-end, npm, phpstan, github, i don't know, i can't utilse. so only my "help" can be on forum with my experiment or on typo in github.
Actually espoCrm have 1.9k of star in github ?

Can someone say me if this "star value of 1.9k" is really the good value ?

I know recently (github espocrm), "phpmailer" library have "stop", so now Yuri must maintain this library because nobody contribute.
So, if you look some post "we offer service with espoCrm" with "1 post" .. do you think is "pleasant" with no contribute ?

I can say, some person here on forum, like emillod, rabii, kargh,... who participate on forum for help, on github, on free extension or ... must be "soft licencing" (soft = cool )

So this decision of Yuri.. i accept, i can understand.. but "dommage" for some people.

Best regards

PS : it's just my opinion about..
PS2 : Yuri have make a incredible crm/extension..

[emillod]

This is part of the license agreement:
11.2 Upon termination of the Agreement for any reason, or upon expiration of the license, you are required to uninstall the Software and destroy all copies of the Software, including Upgrades and all related components in your possession. Additionally, upon Letrium's request, you must certify the destruction of these copies.

I understand your frustration. Many of my customers who purchased EspoCRM extensions were also disappointed because the model has now shifted to a subscription. Previously, they could use the extension as long as it was compatible with their current version of EspoCRM. Perhaps in the future, an alternative one-time payment license will be introduced.

But that is the right of the authors of these extensions. We must also acknowledge the amount of effort required to maintain all of these products.

+ if you renew before expiration, you'll get a discount

[item]

Hi @emillod,
haaa not received still email.. but this is good news.


Please Yuri, make too a "Long Terms Licencing" like 3years or 5years ... it's just a Accounting (like leasing a car) in belgium and me don't have .. advanced Pack extension don't work because i have forget to renew or ask to the Boss

[emillod]

Hello item ,

I spoke with my Associate today, and we need to keep in mind that many companies chose to use EspoCRM because of its previous licensing model. These companies invest money and time into EspoCRM extensions, development, employee training, etc. In many cases, they make these investments to avoid being forced into something, as the author mentioned. I think this is a valid argument.

I’m not saying that EspoCRM team doesn’t deserve compensation for their work, because obviously they are. Just want to highlight that Customers might be concerned. Today they have to start paying a subscription for extensions, and in a year or two, they may have to pay for using EspoCRM. We’ve seen similar situations happen with other open-source software in the past. I remember OTRS ticketing system. They dropped community version and now only paid version is available.

So, this may not be about people having negative thoughts or being unwilling to pay for something—they may have legitimate concerns.

[item]

Hello @emillod,

with google thanslate.. yes of course.. i have not negative .. EspoCrm is state of art for me, and i am certainly not the only one who think this...
It's a new licencing.. for me not a issue... just Yuri can propose like for you, a +x discount because you have many contribute opensource.

I see on github .. modified file.. i don't know if Yuri have holliday.

In resume : you contribute to espoCRM, in free extension on help on forum, on github.... Yuri can discount for you it's just a idea..

Best Regard Emillod

[bandtank]

emillod Thank you for the response.

We must also acknowledge the amount of effort required to maintain all of these products.

You are right - it is a lot of effort, and they deserve acknowledgement and fair compensation. I am surprised by the licensing terms, but I do not take issue with Yuri and his associates trying to make sustainable software. In other words, I recognize that this situation is complicated.

Today they have to start paying a subscription for extensions, and in a year or two, they may have to pay for using EspoCRM.

This is my exact concern.

[esforim]

I did remember seeing an announcement about this on the forum but I skim through reading it as it was not too relevant for me. After reading this thread though...

I can only share my condolence if this is true and correct. The 'you won't get update' model is something I can stand behind. I cannot say the same for "renew now or forever hold your peace"

[yuri]

From the technical point of view I'm in favor of the new license model as now we have much less burden of supporting older version of extensions for newer versions of EspoCRM. It took quite a lot of resources back in the day.

From the price point of view. I understand that it may frustrate companies who used to prefer to stay to old versions. But it should give us some additional revenue. We should be able to hire more specialist because as it is now it's not sustainable. We've been constantly overworking. Doing 3X work is not good.

From the other side, we sometimes hear: why your prices are so low. Companies even tend to stay away from products with lower prices associating it with sub-par quality.

Please do not associate EspoCRM only with me. It's what I often see on the forum. We have multiple people and I'm not a CEO nor a sole owner.

[bandtank]

From the technical point of view I'm in favor of the new license model as now we have much less burden of supporting older version of extensions for newer versions of EspoCRM. It took quite a lot of resources back in the day.

From the price point of view. I understand that it may frustrate companies who used to prefer to stay to old versions. But it should give us some additional revenue. We should be able to hire more specialist because as it is now it's not sustainable. We've been constantly overworking. Doing 3X work is not good.

That is fair enough. There is a difference, though, between no longer having support and no longer being able to use the extension. I understand the first option; I do not understand the second option.

From the other side, we sometimes hear: why your prices are so low. Companies even tend to stay away from products with lower prices associating it with sub-par quality.

I understand this as a business owner and engineer. However, cutting off the extension unless it has been renewed seems like a heavy-handed solution to the problem. The community is actively involved in development, and I am wondering if custom development, which is important to maintain in my opinion, will slow down. The advanced pack is essentially necessary for EspoCRM to work for many companies.

Please do not associate EspoCRM only with me. It's what I often see on the forum. We have multiple people and I'm not a CEO nor a sole owner.

You are the most visible of the leadership team, which is why the association between you and EspoCRM is often made. You probably know that already, but FYI in case you don't. Sometimes the face of a company is chosen by the customers instead of the company's leadership team.

[yuri]

> between no longer having support and no longer being able to use the extension

Though, in practice, many users anticipated (sometimes demanded) that old versions of extensions will work with newer versions of EspoCRM. A lot anticipated even free support after expiration.

After some observation and analysis it became apparent that for the most of our customers the subscription model is fine. Many even assumed that it's already such (as it was not clear from the website for some period). One of the factors is that subscriptions is ubiquitous nowadays. I'm sure that for a business owner, having this input, it would be obvious that it's reasonable to switch.

> You are the most visible of the leadership team, which is why the association between you and EspoCRM is often made. You probably know that already, but FYI in case you don't. Sometimes the face of a company is chosen by the customers instead of the company's leadership team.

Yes. It's on the forum, as I'm the most active here. Though a significant portion of our users does not use the forum.