Up to Discussions in Openfire Enterprise Support
5 Replies Last post: Jul 21, 2007 2:54 PM by Jens Straten  
Jens Straten  
Jens Straten
2 posts since
Jul 6, 2007
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Jul 6, 2007 1:44 PM

License Model?

First of all I like to say that I really enjoy Openfire a lot. I am currently using the Community Edition on our family web server (web, email, etc.) and my wife and I just love it. Since the same server also runs Asterisk (Trixbox), we would love to upgrade to the Enterprise Edition, but unfortunately I had to notice that your minimum license is 25 users.

 

I mean I am running quite a variety of licensed software (Windows 2003 Server, Simple DNS, MDaemon Mail Server, SSL Explorer, etc.) and open source software (Trixbox on VMWare Server, PHP, Joomla, mySQL, Gallery, Jinzora, Wordpress, eyeOS, etc.) on our web server.

 

Like I said I am obviously very interested to upgrade to the Enterprise Edition because I would like to add VOIP functionality to complement my existing home environment. However, we are currently two users and so I can''t justify 25 users. Why don''t you offer smaller license packages (e.g. 5, 10 and 25 instead of just starting at 25)? If you want you could even exclude support from smaller licenses or remove FastPath (I don''t really see any private use on that one). I mean even companies like Microsoft acknowledge that smaller licenses (e.g. Windows 2003 Server 5 User Edition) are important business. Small licenses are typically used by developers and tech enthusiasts like me. Hint: These are the same people who frequently like to do some free advertising (e.g. web page, at work, etc.) for you as well. 2. Hint: All products listed above also offer smaller licenses.

 

I surely appreciate you providing Openfire as an open source product in general, but it is not clear to me why you don''t want smaller user groups as your customers. I mean I am sure many developers who wrote some plugins would be willing to upgrade to a smaller license as well. In my opinion it also doesn''t show a good business sense to eliminate smaller groups... I mean money should be important for your business no matter who is providing it to you and one hundred 5 user licenses are still 500 user total!

 

Anyhow, I just want to understand your reasoning and I am hoping that my post will maybe make you reconsider your licensing model. I am also hoping that other small users will come forward to show you that there are quite a bunch of possible licensees out there.

 

Thanks,

Jens

Matt Tucker Jiver
Matt Tucker
3,151 posts since
Jun 28, 2001
Currently Being Moderated
Jul 6, 2007 5:27 PM in response to: Jens Straten
Re: License Model?

Jens,

 

Thanks for your kind words about Openfire. Unfortunately, even processing orders less than 25 users would probably mean that we''d lose money given that we''re not setup to handle orders that small. Given that you only have two users, I''m not sure that Openfire Enterprise is the best fit in any case. I''d encourage you to keep using the Open Source version. I think you''ll be able to find some free or in-expensive VoIP features to compliment your instance.

 

Regards,

Matt

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LG KeyContributor
LG
4,984 posts since
Dec 13, 2005
Currently Being Moderated
Jul 6, 2007 5:55 PM in response to: Matt Tucker
Re: License Model?

Hi Matt,

 

I still hope that you offer one day a free 5 user version similar to Clearspace. Not sure if you are loosing paying customers like Jens as even small income is an income or if this can be considered as advertising. I use CSX personally as it''s so easy to setup and run.

 

LG

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DeeJay Silver
DeeJay
365 posts since
Dec 9, 2006
Currently Being Moderated
Jul 8, 2007 2:08 AM in response to: LG
Re: License Model?

I''ve said it before, and probably will again but in my opinion Ignite still haven''t got the licensing for the Enterprise version right.

 

We currently have about 400 active users and that is likely to increase to probably 700-800 users by the end of the year.

 

So you''d think we''d be the sort of company that the licensing model would be designed to make the product attractive to.

 

I''ve got the opposite problem to the initial poster - I want to pay for the Enterprise version to support the product/company (and get support in case of us running in to any bugs/issues, because the forum isn''t that responsive) but just cannot justify it.

 

Because we won''t use fastpath or probably VoIP and have an alternative for logging, it would effectively cost me 800* $15 = $12000 per year for a support contract which is pretty expensive IMHO.

 

Because there''s no option for a 1 server license, no standard + support license, or even concurrent usage licensing, it just makes the sell to the man who signs the cheques really difficult.

 

Anyone else agree, or is just me being tight or even the standard version being too good/well featured?

 

D

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MxSan Bronze
MxSan
50 posts since
May 5, 2007
Currently Being Moderated
Jul 10, 2007 2:18 PM in response to: Jens Straten
Re: License Model?

Some time ago, I suggested some kind of personal version to buy as a commercial product.

I really would like to use the voip-capabilities, message archiving and SparkWeb. I don''t need the rest of the enterprise version.

And buying a 25 user license for me alone is just too much.

 

I am happy to read I am not the only one with a similar requrest.

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Jens Straten  
Jens Straten
2 posts since
Jul 6, 2007
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Jul 21, 2007 2:59 PM in response to: MxSan
Re: License Model?

Matt,

 

I appreciate your reply, but it didn''t make much sense to me. I mean money is money and so you should be able to make more money if you are selling more products. Obviously, it is up to you to define an optimized business model (e.g. no support for 5 user edition), but you should be able to make more money selling smaller licenses. Especially, if you consider that you are currently using many customers by not offering a smaller license. In addition to making more money you would also get the benefit of having a larger (paying) user base and last, but not least, you might also attract more 3rd party developers.

 

Well, I will keep using the Community Edition, but I am hoping that Jive Software will re-consider their licensing model in the future. Thanks again for creating this excellent product.

 

I am also sure that there are many more users in the same category like me. Basically, I am working as an independent contractor and I simply don''t want to make it too easy for my clients to snoop into my outside IM conversations (business and private). Having a web based client and SIP capability would basically give me everything I need for my day to day communications.

 

MxSan, I am sure that there are many more users like us.

 

Thanks,

Jens

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