You make a fair point about not buying anything else. I have all their stuff. But most of it I don’t use. I bought it because I thought it would be useful and more robust in the future. If I could go back in timre, I’d be saving myself some money for sure. I won’t ask for money back, but the prodcucts I do use will probably last me for awhile at least.
Go to your dashboard. All the invoices are there.
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Eric, I understand your position and the need to be able to fund on-going R&D for topaz’s products.
My own feedback as a very old customer, is: You have 6 months to win over the skeptics and show your customers just how serious the company is to :
#1 have great, unique products that are free of significant bugs, from the start of any new/upgrade versions released.
#2 create a well thought out product that a user can stay in from start to finish instead of needing to go back and forth, including printing, basic corrections, batch processing to create multiple file resolutions/sizes.
#3 have great customer support, including videos to show best practices and possibilities with the software.
Last, I do think $99./year is a bit high, at this point, at least until it is proven this money is delivering great value for the customer and your products are more mature.
Thanks for your products that enable such boundless creativity!
Duane
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I also fully support diverdon55 100% - AND the many others here against this change. Therefore I’ve taken up the offer made by Eric and put in a ticket. Cheers Eric… will await the reply from Support.
I am surprised that there do not seem to be any posts concerning Topaz’s new policy for charging for updates. I know that some of the new AI Updates have not been free, but then there was always the claim that an AI Update was not an update to the regular plugin but a new product and, if I remember correctly, the AI DeNoise update was free.
Now Topaz is going to charge for all Updates after a year of free updates but I have not seen any postings about it. Is that because everyone already knew of the policy? Or no one cares? Or some other reason? Or did I just miss all of the postings?
There are plenty of posts here.
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Mike the thread you are posting in states exactly that.
Nothing. In the end it’s up to each software company to try to find a way to compete with Adobe.
As I wrote on my blog some time ago, Adobe’s subscription model and their huge user base puts them in an unassailable position - they get paid each and every day even if they are doing nothing. What new products have they released in the last year? What huge improvements have they made to Lightroom or Photoshop?
Their competitors are reluctant to go down the exact same route (even if it is the financially smart way to do it) and so have to charge for upgrades or release new product after new product.
Topaz have tried the latter by rebranding some of their tools under the AI label and releasing them as standalone products. As has been seen in these comments, many users have experienced issues with the AI range, maybe due to the hardware incompatibilities and, of course, bugs. In addition, Topaz charge quite a high price for tools that do only one thing.
IMHO, on compatible hardware, the AI tools work well - all my images go through Sharpen AI and many through DeNoise AI and I never have issues. All prints needing to be upsized go through Gigapixel AI, again without issue. And, yes, last year I sold a ton of prints all of which had had some processing in Topaz.
Before this announcement I had been wondering what Topaz would do next. My background is software development both in the photo software industry and the financial sector.
As an insider I can tell you it’s a horrible business. So much pressure on everyone to produce ‘better software faster’ - an oxymoron if ever there was one.
The competition is relentless. The scope for innovation is limited and maybe Topaz just don’t have a string of new products in the pipeline? Who knows? But if they don’t then new sales will dry up and it’s adios Topaz.
One of the first rules of business is that existing customers are your No 1 target source of income. Why do you think you get so many sales emails from companies you’ve made a purchase from?
Topaz effectively scuppered themselves with their free upgrades policy. And they’ve had the guts to admit it and the courage to change course before it’s too late.
Could they have done it better or sooner? Probably. In hindsight all decisions could be implemented better. But now it is what it is. And we, their customers, have a choice:
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Stick with what we’ve got and ignore upgrades after August 2020
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Accept that this is better than nothing and swallow it
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Go to court and try to force Topaz to honour old promises, which might be a terminal outcome for them and their software if they lost.
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Abandon Topaz, get your refunds and use something else.
Option 3 is a lose-lose option.
Option 1 would work for a while but sooner or later PC upgrades and the like would force you to upgrade or stop using the software.
Option 4) doesn’t work for me. The AI range is too good to walk away from.
Option 2 is the only viable option if Topaz’s products are useful or essential to you.
I’m in the happy position of having ditched Adobe a while ago and using Luminar + Topaz + Affinity Photo. Upgrading these every 24 months or so is about the same cost as a creative cloud subscription…
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So I just missed the posts.
I just received the email and that made me look at the forum. When I looked I did not see any posts and was surprised. I guess I should have searched first.
Sorry I missed the earlier posts.
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What are the best alternatives to Topaz plugins? I’d like to start looking now.
When it come to Topaz AI products, you won’t fined any other equal products. You could keep using your existing Topaz products without upgrading past the 6 month or more upgrade period for no additional cost. There are many people who use Photoshop CS6 with is quite old now.
Not so. A subscription model means you cannot use the software if you cancel with subscription.
This is a change to paid upgrades for 4 products. If you don’t upgrade your products will continue to work.
That may be disappointing but don’t make it worse than it is…
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Eric, I understand the need to change the model and I hope you go for product improvements over releasing new products. I’m a long time Topaz user and love the AI products (I would like to see an AI impression product) which are the best in the industry. However, you can see they were released in a buggy state where they should have had more beta testing.
I would like to also suggest that you allow people to have at least two trials of a new product. I have often tried a product when released but then not purchased it because I didn’t really have a use for it. Months later I tried to use the trial again because I wanted to test it on something but couldn’t.
Finally a question. Topaz often runs discounts (in Webinars or for holidays) so will those discounts apply to upgrades as well?
Even so I can understand the need to have a continuous revenue stream, I also would like to express my unhappiness with the current announcement. For hobbyists not making money with the use of this software the future plan is quite costly, especially considering that I bought free lifetime upgrades.
I for example just bought AI upgrades in November 2019 even so I already owned all previous individual programs and should have had free lifetime upgrades for all this individual programs. The introduction of the AI programs was already a way to charge the same programs again. I was willing to pay once more, but I would have possibly dumped my Topaz software and not spent further money if I had known of this new announcement back then.
There has to be differentiation between existing customers who bought free lifetime upgrades and new customers. As a new customer you will know that you have to pay upgrades in future and base your purchase decision on this. but for existing customers this is a single sided breach of contract.
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Like others I feel cheated. I originally bought Topaz products before I retired specifically because it meant I would have a decent suite of applications being upgraded when I could no longer afford to pay for software. Now I am retired I feel stabbed in the back, I cannot afford your prices and so will not be upgrading.
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There are a lot of unhappy people. I can empathize; however, I knew years ago that this business model was doomed for the very reasons stated. I saw all the niche products coming out and knew exactly why. I probably would have let the old company “dissolve” then started a new company stating something like “We bought the code from the defunct Topaz company”. I see a legal minefield ahead.
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Agree +1
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I’m disappointed with the changes being made. First, I bought the product based on the as advertised lifetime upgrades. I do not see any significant difference in the upgrades compared to the legacy product. In fact as some has stated in this blog they have experience bugs and artifact in using the new AI products. I have praised your products and had fellow photographer purchase Topaz. Now I’m not sure it is worth it considering the price. All you done was try to do a sneaky way of changing over to a subscription base product. Which might be your next step. I have use some of the upgrades and they are no better then the previous version. It seems that some of the upgrades complements the changes / upgrades Photoshop has implemented. As I get familiar with Photoshop I’m seeing that I can do some of what Topaz does. Yes it may require a few additional layers and steps. I was about to pull the trigger and purchase the GigaPixel, but now I’m afraid too because of the new upgrade policy. What I am seeing is your products are released early with bugs and may take your Lab longer then the one year of free upgrades to fix it. Let me say I do not believe your product is worth $99 a year and I don’t want to get stuck with a product that has issues / bugs.
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Good morning Eric, I hope you slept well, seriously, I’m guessing the last few days haven’t been all that fun.
So I’ll get right to it.
After reading 500(+) comments in regard to you reneging on your promise to us for “Free upgrades for life” on Topaz purchases, I found that quite a few of you’re longtime users understood the economics behind your decision and were basically okay with it, but the vast majority of them, regardless of the economics simply felt betrayed.
Years ago, when I purchased my first Topaz product I remember thinking, free upgrades for life seem too good to be true, and as it turns out, it was.
So now moving forward to keep Topaz financially viable you’ve made the tough, but totally understandable decision to lose the free update policy and transition into a “pay to play” model. I think you made the right choice, save one not so minor detail, neglecting your longtime loyal customer base.
You know as well as any one that losing trust in your core group of loyal users would be a disaster. And if you break your promise to them, and as stands it looks like you are, trust will be lost.
I think you would be well advised to consider a small course correction while you still can. Go ahead and instigate your new “pay for update” policy with new customers, but grandfather in the rest of us. It seems completely reasonable, particularly if you’re truly sincere about the long-term growth of what you’ve started not so long ago.
Best,
Johnny
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I guess I should have seen this hoax coming…my fault. I have owned other Topaz products prior to the AI incarnation. I bought into the AI Hoax you’ve ultimately promulgated and expected the life time updates. It is what you advertised to me.
Funny how after you’ve hooked all of your veteran software buyers with the AI Hoax, you suddenly change the business model, cry to us and state we were too stupid to believe you, and put a spin on it like we owe you and it is OK. I’d like to see the change in customer numbers as a result of the AI Hoax. Could it be you suddenly have a lot more people that fell for this and now you wish to put the strangle on all of them with more cost? Did the dollar signs in your eyes get too big?
This isn’t ok. This is robbery, plain and simple.
Please re-consider your thoughtless act and the sham you have perpetrated on your faithful software buyers. You won’t even offer some version of discount going forward for being one of your early adopter software guinea pigs? Why is it ok to lie to people and then claim mea culpa and instantly think you deserve our gratitude for us giving you even more of our money!
I am open to your next BETTER suggestion!! Currently, your planned process going forward doesn’t cut it. I hope you haven’t killed the goose that laid your golden egg.
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