Since it first launched, all UpdraftPlus purchases have come with an “updates for life” policy – once you purchase, you will always have updates available, including all the new features of future versions (which are being added all the time).
This has been in contrast to the WordPress premium plugin market in general, where one year of updates is standard – with a significantly reduced-price renewal fee in future years.
There’s been one big exception to this policy – the coders at WooThemes have persisted with lifetime updates… until recently.
You can read their reasoning for dropping their life-time updates policy here: https://www.woothemes.com/2013/08/a-sustainable-woothemes/
This blog post by Chris Lema makes an important point – https://chrislema.com/pricing-lies-we-tell-ourselves/ – the strategy of ‘updates for life’ is basically a way of delivering the income from future customers to past ones as a subsidy. The name for that mode of operation is “Ponzi scheme”, and it doesn’t lead to sustainable businesses.
One thing that we disagree with both Chris Lema and WooThemes about, though, is the matter of “grand-fathering” in existing customers. A promise is a promise. Everyone who has been offered, and who has agreed to buy, a life-time deal, should be given one – or given a refund; even if it hurts us. Common sense teaches it, and above that, the Bible teaches it (Psalm 15:4). Do WooThemes really want people to think that the deals they offer are will only be honoured sometimes? (Update: WooThemes have since done the right thing by offering to honour existing agreements).
So, where is this taking us, as far as UpdraftPlus is concerned?
- Very shortly, UpdraftPlus.Com’s offerings will all come with 1 year of included updates, and support.
- To renew your update access in future years will not be free, but our current plan is that they will be discounted – probably (we’ve not settled yet, but we will announce it at the same time as the change is made so that people can compare) around 40% to 50% of purchase price.
- Existing customers will be grand-fathered in; if you bought updates for life, then you’ll get updates for life. A promise is a promise. We want you to know that you can rely, in all senses, on UpdraftPlus.
- Note finally that UpdraftPlus has always offered 1-year of support alongside its life-time updates. There will be no change to this – support will continue to be 1-year.
- With the income this will bring us, we will be well-positioned to keep piling in the quality and features into UpdraftPlus. We don’t intend to stop until talk of any other backup plugins has been rendered obsolete. :-)
David Anderson (Founder, UpdraftPlus.Com)
