Not a fan of the price, at all. I bought these products and have maintained them with the “all in” price. While I do understand why you need more money, consideration to those of us who already own the product should be minimal and charge the people just signing up NOW for the full upgrade you want. That way, everyone knows what they are walking into. I pay the same for Photoshop… And I’ve had many issues with Topaz products, and then have to wait for a reply (you need more than two “fix it” people). Finally, they did get fixed, and the guys did their best to help me, but they just kept sending me directions on what to do, instead of calling. In the end, they had to call and they fixed it in 10 min or less, and I had spent weeks going back and forth on the email train. I’m not paying more money to continue that practice.
If this continues, I can only see keeping very few of these programs that I now own, maybe.
You need to “grandfather” in your current customers…and start fresh with new people coming in with the new rules. You should seriously consider that.
I’ve been using Topaz for over 7 years now. I have wondered for some time how you could keep improving product without charging, but was enjoying it. So I’m not surprised at this. I will take advantage of the upgrade when I see one that I really like.
If your changes don’t offer bug fixes for free you might as well go to a monthly subscription! You’ve not had a product yet that worked right out of the box. One of my reasons for paying the hefty price the first time was I was sure that bug fixes were free. I’m a hobbyist. I’m also over 65. I might as well use my cell phone and the tons of free software out there. Or, I can convert all my files to DNG and use the free software out there. Really, the only thing I’m paying for now is convenience. I could live with maybe a smaller fee, that included all your software, but not this. I’ll make sure I’m up to date, then use it till it breaks, then im done.
Ron. L.
You had to have expected the backlash you’re rightly receiving, most of which I agree with. So let me just hit a few of the major points.
One, unless there is language in the previous EULA that allows making these changes, they break the contract under which we purchased Topaz products. From the end users point of view, we’re just being strong-armed with no immediately apparent benefits.
Two, now that you upgrades will be profit stream, there’ll be pressure to pump them out faster. You say that won’t happen, but business economics says it will. To retain your customer base, you’ll need to do something about this. Be sure what you call a major update is one – as lots of folks have pointed out, fixing a coding error or removing a bug are NOT major upgrades. It’s doing what your QC people should already have done. So don’t expect your customers to do your QC for you, and to pay for the “privilege.”
Three, a major upgrade adds new functionality, something that couldn’t be done in earlier releases. Most people will pay for getting something new. What they won’t pay for are incremental improvements to what they can already do.
I own DeNoise AI, Adjust AI, and Sharpen AI. Right now only DeNoise AI is part of my standard workflow. I get enough value from it that I’ll consider paying for a major upgrade at about $50 a pop. But Adjust AI and Sharpen AI have yet to prove their value to me, at least enough that I’d be willing to pay another $50 to upgrade them without significant return.
Good luck with this move. Busting the business model has been known to bust the business.
Eric, you should run for an elected office because you have the “to serve you better” verbiage down pat. Do I understand the move to charging for upgrades? Yes, Do I like it at the price points you note? No. As has been said multiple times already, many of us have been using and promoting Topaz products for years in part because of the stated and implied free updates for life. Note I said updates (e.g., bug fixes, functionality adjustments to work with the current version of an OS, etc.). Significant upgrades to program features or functionality are a different thing.
Photography is a little like politics. Our far right are those looking for journalistic accuracy and technical quality and not “looks”. The far left are those that seek creative freedom even if in the end, they may be the only ones who understand the image. In my opinion, Topaz has bent over backwards for the “creative” and ignored the factually accurate. Look at the presets offered in Adjust AI. Would anyone in sports, accurate nature, or journalism use them? I got Adjust Ai because I had purchased Adjust (5). After working with Adjust AI and finding I needed to create my own presets, I have abandoned it and gone back to Adjust 5. The same is true in Studio 2 (and I know we are talking about a different program). Look at the presets. They are fundamentally unusable for a large segment of your potential customer base. At least in Studio 1 you attempted to preserve things like the Clarity settings. Now, if I use Studio, I go back to Studio 1 and more often than not I go back to Clarity because it gets me where I want to be without having to reinvent the wheel.
If you want to start charging for upgrades, move the product back to where it offers people more inclined to shoot for realism an equal footing.
Hello. I’ve only just recently purchased your software (Dec 2019) under the ‘free upgrades’ policy. I’m an occasional user and WILL NOT support the thinly disguised subscription like model. Will you refund my purchase price (and I will gladly uninstall your products) based on your change in business model? Please let me know, thanks.
As costs are outlined so far, you have a misconception. If you own six of the newer AI products the cost for upgrading would be $99 to cover all of the products you own. If you do not upgrade them, they will remain in the state they are at the time the upgrade comes out and the last upgrade before then will be able to be downloaded if needed (as the legacy plugins have been) but not with any of the new or improved features offered in the next…
What surprising news! I own a licence to a Gigapixel AI but from the early time of its use, the application does not work at all - freezing at 1 p.c. value of its processing. This matter is discussed with the Topaz support team for a long time without any positive result. My licenced Adjust AI after installation shows most of the presets windows with continuously rotating stars only with no use of these settings. Does the news mean that I (or better - Topaz) have now only six months to get the application up and running? From this point of view, this may be good news. Thanks. Dimitri
No it didn’t and no he didn’t. The free upgrade policy was separate to the EULA. Just try and run an older Topaz installer and read the EULA. There’s no mention of free upgrades in it.
As long as Topaz keeps on regular updates and improvementss of the AI models, bug fixes and feature requests of users I’m OK with it.
Now we need urgently batch processing on Sharpen AI !
I also need to ask of merging two different accounts because I have Denoise AI on a seperate one than Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI.
One point needs to be clarified, and soon. What if I own three programs but want to upgrade only one? Does that cost $50 or must I pay $100?
If $100 to get one product upgraded, what’s the likelihood of other major upgrades coming out while that payment is still “live”? I’ve got to take that on blind faith.
I’d rather pay per program upgrade than buy a poorly disguised subscription. Otherwise I’ll probably dump all my Topaz programs except DeNoise AI, the one that has some regular value to me.
That’s life in the business world, if you make business decisions that you can’t support then you go bankrupt. What if Ford said “we can’t afford to honor the current warranty. We will now charge X for years 3-5”? You would rightly pitch a fit. But guess what? They fix bugs for YEARS after the warranty expires and if doesn’t work correctly from day one, they work onit till it does, or you get your money back!
None of that will happen here.
I am very new to this company and disappointed in this development. I am not a professional and spending $99 per year to upgrade something that wasn’t cheap to begin with is not good business. You will run off customers like me. I would not have purchased if I had know 3 months ago when I made my purchases that it would cost almost as much as the original purchase price just to keep it up to date, especially buying a new item, Sharpen AI. While I do like it, it isn’t worth $50/year. Mask AI may be but I haven’t used it a ton yet… I understand that research and development is expensive but the upgrade costs are too high. $10 per year would be more reasonable or maybe $100 for a 5 year license.
I don’t work for Topaz so I doubt I need to explain anything
I’m just pointing out that the license and the upgrade policy are being conflated in a lot of people’s minds.
Whether or not a court would say Topaz are acting lawfully or not I cannot say. What I do know is going to court and saying “The license says free upgrades” when it says nothing of the sort isn’t exactly a winning argument.
Dear Eric,
allow me to disagree with your statement that you have been offering “a buffet of shallow products”. Your products are most helpful to ambitious amateurs like me and I understand your point of view. Although I would of course have enjoyed “free updates forever” I will continue buying your products/additional upgrades that I want to own for as long as I find them reasonable. I guess you will continue offering 30-day-trial versions. That will allow me ample time to check if I need the improvements made before buying upgrade time.
I can understand that fotographers owning only a single product are upset having to pay the same $$ for upgrades that they paid when acquiring it initially (Who of us has actually paid full price?? There are so many discount cupons and offers!). I am in the lucky position to own 2 bundles + some single products, so it seems much more reasonable for me paying once and getting updates for all.
BTW: it is not uncommon having to buy new versions of e.g. office products at full price unless you decide to continue using your “old versions”.
Regards,
Chris
So you sell good with a promise attached for permanent upgrades, then you go “Oops! We can’t afford it!” and ditch the guarantee to your customers? How is this even legal? People may have bought your product instead of another (there are plenty of editors of better quality out there) based on the free upgrades. I’ve certainly balked at the price of new software but considered the free upgrades the main reason to purchase.) This is not fair and you basically coerce people after promising them something else. I’m going to look into this in my local legal sphere, because you have to abide by the laws of each country you operate in and sell in.
