Pricing is inherently a conflict of interest. No one wants to pay more for anything, so people are generally going to be unhappy about a price increase. But considering that users of multiple JetBrains projects end up saving money and existing WebStorm customers can continue for $29 for year, the offer seems extremely generous to me. But if $2.42 per month for an incredibly feature-rich tool is beyond your budget, you are free to use Notepad or some open source tool. So what’s the beef?
There have been some dubious statements in this thread such as calling the new policy “cornering the market” and implying under the new scheme you have to be “connected to the internet” to use it. Should I apologize for disagreeing with misleading and untrue statements?
I think the internet won this battle though.
I’ve read both Twitter feeds on this exact subject and for every positive reaction there’s basically ten (unique) negative reactions.
When people buy a product they just don’t want it to taken away from them and be forced to pay more for it.
I’m confused. What is Jetbrains taking away from people? If you’re an existing customer it’s just $29/year. We renew our licensing yearly to get updates. Do you really skip a year or two worth of bug fixes and feature additions just to save what amounts to $2.42 per month?
People are probably upset because they aren’t reading the FAQ and basing their outrage on misunderstandings. I’ve read some of the comments on the JetBrain blog and a majority of them just seem to have no read the FAQ carefully.
Sublime costs $70 per year. Do existing customers really think WebStorm is not even worth $29 per year?
The internet is full of selfish children who don’t want to pay for music, games, movies, software, tv shows or any digital goods generally, as if music and music were a basic human right.
I think their move has been prompted by, among other things;
html/javascript development is no more just a frontend thing, thus webstorm now being worth equally important as intellij, resharper etc
the old licensing model and the software behind it being hard to fight piracy, which I’m sure is a huge concern
Looking at the current situation;
for new users, they’ve given enough time to jump on the old licensing model so that they are also eligible for the grandfathering discounts
this definitely is an improvement for those who need multiple products.
it also is an improvement for those who use products other than webstorm
current webstorm license owners, if they care about getting the updates, pay just the same $29
Now a word about those who don’t care about getting the updates;
they are eligible to keep using their current product, should they choose not to opt in for the new model, which is based around continuous updates, which is a chicken and egg thing, do you want the updates or not?
And my point of view on getting updates;
I think one should really want to get the updates. Those updates make the ide align with the current state of the language/tech and assisting with the language/tech is what makes an ide an ide. If you don’t care about it being current, than why not go with an editor (like atom etc) instead?
And yes, they don’t look like they have though this through, but it also looks like they are now prompted to do so. They have posted a rather short notice that they are listening and it appears as though the comments sections on both the original announcement and the follow up gets attention from jetbrains officials rather promptly.
I think this will all work out.
In the meantime, since my unit development cost seems to face an increase, I’m planning to up my hourly rate (sarcasm intended) an extra 2¢ to make up for it
You can’t compare an optional cost with a forced cost, no matter how. It’s not the same thing. I haven’t upgraded since 7 (phpstorm tho) and I intend not to until I REALLY see the great added value.
And no - I don’t think it has one bit to do with misreading the FAQ. I think it has shitloads to do with forcing a continuous upgrade plan instead of leaving that choice to its users.
Also - I DO think that small companies rather see one cost with the possibility to not get that cost yearly (basically my own thought mentioned above).
And at last - I don’t think people like to being forced to go from buying a PRODUCT to instead being shoved a SERVICE down their throats. Not one bit. Not at all.
Let’s be honest, no one is being “forced” to do anything. You have a choice. No one is being coerced here.
If phpStorm is so unimportant to you that you haven’t upgraded for years. Perhaps you can find another product that better fits your usage needs and budget.
Sublime Text
NetBeans
Zend Studio
Notepad++
Eclipse with PDT
Dreamweaver
Aptana
Vim
phpDesigner
In nearly any market there are premium products, mid-range options and budget offerings. You can spend $120,000 on a pair of home audio speakers, $25,000, or even just $1,500. If something is priced beyond your budget, buy something else. I can’t understand the rage.
PhpStorm is the best IDE but I can’t afford updating it yearly. And my company won’t add that running cost. So the only one losing on it is me… But yeah… If I can’t afford it - fuck me, right? Nice argument there man…
The only thing this will do is that people will crack it à la Adobe Suite - and how will that gain anyone?
And your opinion that it’s crucial to have the IDE up to date is totally bollocks as well. I’ve used v6 on the same code base as I work on now. Does that work just fine? Yepp!
Do I work in a legacy code base? Yes.
Does your argument hold - nope.
You can like it all you want - but the spoiled kids on the Internet is quite unanimous. Oh - and some other enterprise businesses ass well as it seems if you read the comments in the link posted above about their second post.
Sorry for the harsh tone - but your comment about “if you can’t afford it - use something else” kinda pissed me off.
I think your anger is misdirected. If your company isn’t willing to spend $49 on productivity tools, you should be pissed at them, not JetBrains. I’ve heard of companies that won’t buy their employees a second monitor before, which is fucking ridiculous.
Have you tried to make a financial case for the tools? Create a spreadsheet for the CFO to show that if the tools save you just 10 minutes a week, that’s 8.6 hours a year. If you earn over $5.70 per hour, it’s ROI positive.
Here I created something you could use. Hope I got the protection right so people don’t trash it.
I get my team the best tools money can buy. The best iMacs, EIZO EV2730Q displays, Herman Miller Aeron chairs, WebStorm and any other tools that would make their job go more smoothly. Everyone in my company has dual monitors (customer support, accounting, shipping, everyone). The price of a $1,200 chair or $99 piece of software is a tiny fraction of an employee’s compensation. If a company is too unenlightened to make an investment like that you should start talking to recruiters! A manager’s job, among other things, is to hire people with talent, give them the resources they need to do their best everyday, and remove obstacles.
@maxhodges I think a post like that should have ended with a link to your jobs section of your site
Seriously though, I believe you have a solid point there.
But, there is a philosophical difference in a product’s value being worth its price and its price getting changed. I still don’t see that change worth the time spent on arguing about it, but it may as well be important to others based on principal.
I still think this whoe thing will end up somewhere that’s reasonable for everyone, but it’s evident that there will be compromises on all parts.
All in all, webstorm is a lifesaver. I can’t count the number of times it has saved me endless hours I’d otherwise spend in trying to figure out what went wrong with my code.
Maybe a bit off-topic, but what makes WebStorm so “exceptional”? I just switched from Brackets to Atom, so I am flexible, but I am not aware of WebStorm’s USP’s yet. Though I saw that many Meteorists are using it.
Brackets, Atom, Sublime, Textmate etc are editors while Webstorm, Netbeans, Eclipse, Visual Stuodio etc are IDE’s.
The main difference between an IDE and an editor is that an IDE is an IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironment where you get more than a mere editor with some code completion.
It provides you with tools that cover your whole development lifecycle from testing to debugging, to context and task management, to refactoring, event through deployment. It also does have massively better code assistance with not only autocompletion but context base suggestions, access to documentation, access to method signatures, usages etc.
OK, thanks. I downloaded Webstorm, just to find out that it does not support the latest version of Subversion (1.8). Maybe everybody else is using Git these days, but not having a decent support for Subversion is poor, if you call yourself an IDE… Plus, at least at first impression, the UI felt quite slow and sluggish, compared to Atom. Reminded me why I went away from Eclipse those days
I don’t even understand why you started bashing on the least important part of my post. I specifically said that I’m fine with the price - my last paragraph was aimed at you denying that they’re taking advantage of their position (which, again, is fine).
There is a difference between renting and owning. I like to own - I know that whatever I have is mine and I can have it forever if I so wish. Subscription-based software works for businesses (more flexibility), but not for personal users. I wish JetBrains allowed both buying and renting - which would be freaking amazing! Not sure how that would fit with their goal of raising revenue.
At the end of the day, this is an argument of opinions. Some people like it one way, some the other. There’s no argument that can make me like subscription-based software; I can only accept it, but not like it. The cost is not a problem for me, it’s just the essence of it all.
sorry I didn’t mean to “bash” you, but maybe I was a bit overzealous with my opinions.
Can I propose a thought experiment? Would you prefer to own vs subscribe if it cost $299 to own (no upgrades) vs $29 a year to subscribe (upgrades included)?
I’ll go with @kookoskar here. Simple question of preferences. It was the same thing when Adobe switch to this model, i just don’t like the idea of having to pay a subscriptions to be able to use the software…
Now, it doesn’t change the fact that Webstorm remains the best IDE for meteor development (IHMO). And also that there price is far from being a rip-off.
@serkandurusoy: Sorry, this was my fault. I did not know that WebStorm is using the command line client, and on my Mac, the standard client was still on svn 1.7. After installing svn 1.8 and telling WebStorm where to look for the new version, it worked.
The prices are so far off from each other that the question is essentially: would you rather have the software for free and subscribe or buy it out for a hefty amount.
A similar though-experiment would be whether you would hit your friend in the face for $10. Probably not, right? But if you made it a ridiculous amount, say $1,000,000… You’d probably do it and then explain the situation to him later.
I’d use the subscription model. Money pulls all the strings - I’m not an exception. Doesn’t mean I like the uncertainty of the subscription model. Give me 2 options that are not so ridiculously distanced from each other and the answer would be different.
Note here: WebStorm’s new price differs from the current one by $20 (changes to $0 in January 2016). I’d buy, not rent.
I was just raising the question to illustrate perhaps the fundamental issue is really total cost, not subscription licensing vs non-subscription licensing.
Perhaps they should have simply raised their prices a few months ago, and then introduced the subscription licensing plan, which would have looked discounted
and any other tools that would make their job go more smoothly. Everyone in my company has dual monitors (customer support, accounting, shipping, everyone). The price of a $1,200 chair or $99 piece of software is a tiny fraction of an employee’s compensation. If a company is too unenlightened to make an investment like that you should start talking to recruiters! A manager’s job, among other things, is to hire people with talent, give them the resources they need to do their best everyday, and remove obstacles.