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If professional software costing $100 is too much to spend on your business or side hustle, then you probably need to find a different business or side hustle. 

You get the entire suite forever for half the cost of a single month of Adobe, quit complaining and pay for your tools. 

Cheapskates. 

Art director by day, illustrator by night: Check Out My Shutterstock Gallery

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EVERYBODY gets a FORTY PERCENT discount at the moment. I'll say that again - FORTY PRECENT. That's MASSIVE for something that hardly costs anything to begin with. That's forty percent off something that is ALREADY much cheaper than almost ANY other viable alternative. Yet some people are "unhappy" and think they should be entitled to get EVEN MORE off becasue they already own the previous version? I think some people must have never had to pay for software before if they think they're getting a raw deal.

At these prices NONE of us "deserve" an upgrade discount. Even the FULL PRICE is STILL cheaper than almost anything else comparable.

 

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1 hour ago, chakko007 said:

Same with your customers, unfortunately.

If the cost of our offer prices would stop you eating then please do not buy our software. Please eat. 

Our iPad Apps have actually dropped in price since they were launched, but given the strength of the US $ (that sets our base price ) and the exchange rate in other territories has meant that some prices have apparently risen significantly since we launched. Not sure we are responsible for that though

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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Adobe was no longer an option for me. I decided to get whole Affinity Suite V1 a year ago now.
I must agree that there should be an upgrade option for V1 users anyway.
I am disappointed that I shall pay the same prize as new customers.
This should be and is comon procedure to keep customers loyal and happy.

Gaudins!

 

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1 hour ago, Artsketch said:

I guess much less existing customers have already bought the new version than expected. 

This is only the second day it's been on sale! – Give me a chance, some of us have to wait for payday! 😉

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1 minute ago, Artsketch said:

Should we expect that there would not be a better offer on Black Friday?

Nope, do not assume that, there will not

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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3 minutes ago, Alex70 said:

it's a way to have a subrcrition fee without a subrscibtion fee

We do not think so because the new version is optional. You can choose to not buy or buy or wait for version 3. 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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I have been a professional software user for well over 30 years. In that time I’ve bought 3 houses, 8 cars, numerous changes of clothing, 20+ computers, 13 mobile phones and a considerable amount of software. None of the above came with a discount because I’d bought one before. I don’t NEED V2 but have bought it to continue support for the non subscription model that too many other, not named, software providers have taken on. Sometimes you have to stand back for a minute and realise what is good value for money. The 4th house wasn’t - so I didn’t buy it. 

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People keep arguing about whether or whether or not it is fair that there is no “upgrade” price distinct from the discount that everyone gets, but I think that argument is moot because of the reason Serif has stated: namely, that the app stores do not support upgrade pricing. That’s just a hard wall that we cannot change. I do think Apple and the others ought to change it, but we can’t make them, and Serif has no control over that.

So given the fact that the app stores do not allow upgrade pricing, Serif has only three choices that I see, regardless of whether they themselves wished to make it possible:

1. Get off the app stores.

2. Charge different prices on their own store compared to the app store (is that allowed?).

3. Charge the same everywhere: no upgrade price for everyone.

They chose the third, and coupled it with a hefty discount for everyone. Maybe some of you would have made a different choice among those options, but at least we can understand where they were coming from, not wanting to charge people differently in different places.

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1 hour ago, Alex70 said:

it's a way to have a subrcrition fee without a subrscibtion fee

No it's not. It's how software used to be (and some still is) before subscriptions became the norm: you bought it to use 'in perpetuity', but you had to pay to upgrade when they brought out a new version - and still often for a higher price than Serif is offering for their apps, even at full price.

Updates between versions were sometimes free, sometimes not. But you were never under any obligation to update or upgrade - you could just keep on using the version you first bought indefinitely. Sometimes, that's all you could do if you bought a boxed version in a store and had no internet access.

Some of us carried on using software that was two or three version behind the most recent. Hell, I was still (just about) getting way with using my copy of Photshop 7 on a Windows 8.1 computer up until around two years ago! And that came out in 2002!

Edited by Jimo
Photoshop came out in 2002, not 2022 :p
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sigh....

24 minutes ago, Corgi said:
37 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Nope, do not assume that, there will not

That second comma is doing a lot of work, especially with three negatives! 🤨

NO, do not expect or assume that there will be a bigger or better discount during the Black Friday period. There will not be a larger discount during the Black Friday period. (period)

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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24 minutes ago, Alex70 said:

the version 3 will be 120euros with 40% discount at the launch

Google : what is inflation?

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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2 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Sounds like you are having a hard day (and judging by some of the forums, I think I see why). I laughed to see such a straight answer, one like we who do not have to represent a company might give.

What I really mean to say is that I appreciate what you do, even if perhaps I have misread the situation.

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A handful of whining customers (or wanna be customers) not being happy because of the cost or the features, against thousands of happy users and customers, I don't think there is too much worry at Serif.

And, from now on, I won't reply to these kind of posts anymore.

But still... it's f... ?!*@!* ;-)  

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It's interesting how our expectations differ so much depending on the product.

Historically, many software vendors have provided upgrade pricing, so it's a reasonable expectation. However, at least here in the US, many other types of products are offered at lower prices only for new customers. Like ISP services, where you can get a large sign-on bonus if you're currently with a competitor. Or anti-malware companies, which consistently offer renewal prices that are higher than their promotional prices.  And countless coupons offered "for new customers only." Talk about not rewarding loyalty.

So that's given me some perspective. Speaking of perspective, I'd been a CorelDraw user in the past, and they had always offered upgrade pricing for existing customers. However, the upgrade pricing was always prohibitively high, even back when Corel only sold a vector graphics program. And they almost never offered updates, even for severe bugs that could easily eat your document. Today I see that their promotional price for a one-year subscription costs twice as much as today's pricing for a lifetime license for Affinity's complete package.

So I'll be upgrading.

 

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The reason for upgrade pricing is to incentivize users to upgrade. It's not because customers who bought before are entitled the next version for a cheaper price. They couldn't offer upgrade price easily without upsetting appstore users, so they offered a generous 40% to everyone. Still an incentive, but some feel entitled.

The only reasonable counter I've seen that makes any sense is that the price drop is temporary and so people who upgrade too late may be caught without the discount.

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I think we've done pretty good in giving Affinity our creative software business — we certainly have never been "cheated" and v2 continues to be a bargain for pro users and hobbyists alike.

Anyone familiar with having had to pay $699 for Adobe Photoshop CS6 in 2012 (or $599 for Adobe Illustrator CS6 or $699 for InDesign CS6) will appreciate that giving Affinity our business has saved us a ton of money — whether in paying for a yearly subscription or an outright purchase, which is thankfully still possible here.

Instead of paying $1200 USD or more to buy Adobe products, I paid roughly $180 CDN for their equivalent made by Affinity. And so did the OP.

And you complain? Although I wish I was a millionaire, fact is, I'm on a tight budget in having chosen the creative life. That said, I feel that Affinity has done people like myself a great favor in providing this level of software at what is typically a shareware or donationware price.

I don't like parting with my money either. But I think that my desire to save money shouldn't leave others poor. :) 

Just sayin'...

 

My BOOK (created with Publisher, Designer & Photo):
Clearing a Path to Joy (And finding contentment along the way)

My WEBSITE (also developed using Affinity apps):
www.RolandK.ca — "Relentless adventures in self-expression"

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I can't imagine complaining about software that was originally offered at a fraction of a fraction of it's competitors price, especially with the trend of subscription models. Even friends who work in other industries are always stunned when I talk about how cheap Affinity software is and its one time purchase model.

 The industry right now is towered over by Adobe and left stagnant in a lot of places because of their influence. With that in mind it's pretty baffling when a company tries to make its way into the market with a professional product at such a low cost that people find a way to complain. While no one is perfect, when companies like Serif don't get the support they need or deserve they either get bought out or go bust.

As everyone else has stated, if it's too expensive, simply don't buy it; but don't complain about a discounted price increase when that's the logical next step to allow Serif to grow as a company, pay it's team, and become the competitor to Adobe we all know it can be.

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