If this new policy does nothing else for me - any feelings of good will I had toward Topaz are regrettably gone. It’s such a bold face disconnect from the unlimited free upgrade policy that sold the products to me in the first place that even if Topaz were to reverse course at some point in the future the trust is gone.
The entire product development line has been overlapping and confusing and often buggy. I’ve stayed with it because of free upgrades. The value just isn’t there anymore.
There are many ways to think about what this new policy is really about but the most logical is that they honestly need the money to continue developing. But the sad fact is that, up to this point, their development has not proven its worth. Looking at the release notes for the newest Denoise “major upgrade”, it is full of bugs and short on content. Yes, aside from the bugs, the products do what they are supposed to do, and they do a better job than the competition. But as many people have pointed out, the older versions of their products often work better than the new versions, which is even less of a reason to pay for an upgrade. The policy might have been something that could have been swallowed at half the cost. But when an upgrade costs $10 less than the full product, you’re just plain out of touch.
Let’s make a list of pros and cons of the new policy for existing customers:
Pros:
/crickets chirping
Cons:
The silence from management shows a total disconnect between them and their customer base. Why should I pay for an upgrade or why should I purchase any new product they might come out with after being treated like this? I’ll just continue to use the versions of what I have until they don’t work. By then, someone else will have something that does the job that the Topaz software used to do, Topaz’ intellectual property will have been gobbled up by another company, or it will simply fade away due to poor management.
It’s actually quite sad to to see.
I agree, I find myself not really using them anymore. To me they are very hit or miss how they work, I’m not very impressed anymore.The only Topaz product I use now is Topaz Studio but who knows when that too will be included in the pay to update scheme.
Nepotism is rarely a good way to pick a CEO, nor to keep one.
Incoming rant alert…
OK - I’ve been an avid Topaz user since their early days of plugins for Photoshop. On the list of products I have on my account on the Topaz site, I need to scroll a long way to see them all.
BUT - among the products I’ve bought is DeNoise AI, and having spent a small (?large) fortune on Topaz products - all of them - over the years, I now get the message that there is yet another update available BUT my license doesn’t cover it. WHAT??? It’s not even a major version update - it’s a dot point update. But having spent hundreds, possibly well over the thousand Aussie dollars, on Topaz products, to be told my license doesn’t even cover a dot point update, well, that IS an insult! And a rip-off.
Also, WTF are Topaz doing with Adjust AI? It’s languishing unloved and un-updated, with the old installer, and won’t work on the latest Mac OS versions - it just hangs. They’ve acknowledged this with me via email - but that was ages ago, and they said they would be updating Adjust AI and including the new installer that all the other AI apps use. But still - nothing.
So, due to persistent money-grabbing, and failure to update such a basic function as Adjust, I’ll be leaving Topaz now. I still have them all, but many no longer work.
Any recommendations for similar apps and plugins that are better supported and that don’t involve money-grabbing ripoffs?
End of rant…!
Ah, but you must have missed the memo. Topaz has not only decided to re-define “free updates for life”, they have also chosen to redefine “major update”. For them - unlike every other company I know - “major” is the 2nd digit, not the first. So 2.2.11 to 2.2.12 was not a major update, but 2.2.12 to 2.3.0 IS a major update. The fact that there are no major enhancements and many bugs doesn’t matter to them. They determined that it is major because they wanted to and that lets them charge for it, but I’m not playing their game.
I may be wrong but it looks like they have decided to let Adjust AI and JEPGtoRAW die on the vine. Neither of them have been updated in over a year. Given that those two products both have free lifetime updates, I’m not surprised. I don’t expect to see any development of any products except the ones that require paid updates after a year.
It is sad because the products like denoise and sharpen do a good job, but I refuse to deal with a company that treats their loyal customers unethically. I personally believe that either ON1 or DxO (with the Prime noise reduction) do a good job on at least 99% of the images. Others swear by Capture One but it is expensive, and Luminar is supposed to be good too. And there’s obviously the elephant in the room, Lightroom/Photoshop. I used to like Lightroom but I’m not willing to go with a subscription model. So for my needs, I like ON1 - both the capabilities/functionality and the workflow.
I too switched from LR to On1 2020 because I felt ripped offer by the subscription model. But its denoise and sharpen functions are pretty rubbish. I shoot a lot in low light conditions at very high ISO and also use a not especially brilliant telephoto lens for wildlife, which only the stabilize feature in Sharpen AI can begin to address. Also On1 2020 has one major bug and several lesser ones that they have known about for months and done nothing to resolve. We don’t even know it it will be sorted by On1 2021, which comes out this month. It is of course a paid upgrade. Luminar also has paid upgrades every year, whilst ignoring bugs. I purchased Luminar 4 but will not be upgrading to Luminar AI.
An online teacher/reviewer I respect, Anthony Morganti, recently did a YouTube video comparing DeNoise with its closest rival. You might want to look for it.
I am in no way defending Topaz’s new policy, and it does indeed look as if, for the time being at least, it is concentrating on just a few niche products.
I have had a Mac since 1988 and spent far more on hardware than software. I have purchased countless apps that I no longer need or that have become obsolete (two from Topaz itself some 7 years ago). Other people buy a new car every few years: I don’t drive!
If you read the release notes they clearly state:
v2.3.0 (September 23rd, 2020)
Major features:
And if you read the first post it clearly states 1 year and not what you determine a major update to be. Many applications use their own versioning.
Don -
I read the release notes as soon as I saw 2.3.0 was released. In any other universe, the “major features” which were added would not be considered major. Just because they are described that way in the release notes does not, in fact, make them major. Those type changes are what are generally considered “point releases”. They have determined at their whim to consider this a major - and therefore not free after 1 year - update. I have also been reading the release notes for 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 where they have partially backed out one of those “major features”, and where they had to fix well over a dozen bugs. So I will say it again - there are no major enhancements and many bugs.
As you should know, upgrades are not limited to 1 year - you continue to get free updates even after a year as long as they are not major updates. I will be happy to re-post the response I received from support which clearly states that if you are unaware of that fact.
As an aside, most developers/companies follow the industry standard that the first digits (the integer portion) is the major version. Minor releases are the 2nd set of digits, and maintenance releases are the last portion. A version change of 2.2.12 to 2.3.x is, for most (if not all the rest) of the industry, a minor/point release. My statement was simply that Topaz has decided to go against the standard that everyone is used to. That fact has clearly confused many Topaz users - just look at the number of people who expected 2.2 to 2.3 to be free.
Ray -
I’m not saying that ON1 is perfect or the best at denoise/sharpen, but it works well for me. But I also don’t do the kind of shooting that you do, which probably explains why it is ok for me. When the denoise doesn’t work well enough in ON1, I go to DxO. If that doesn’t work, I go to Topaz, and I’ll continue to do the same thing as long as the version of Topaz I have continues to work. Topaz definitely does a better job, but for most of my photos it’s a question of whether I need that or not. The reason I don’t go with Topaz right away is because it tends to remove many of the EXIF tags, it creates absolutely huge DNG files, and the embedded thumbnail is not sized correctly.
As for the bugs, I have had several bugs open with Topaz for multiple years and they have yet to be addressed. The same is true with Luminar - I reported a bug in Luminar 2 which has not been fixed in 3 or 4 either.
Another denoise package to look at is from Franzis (project-software) and they have a free demo. I don’t really know anything about them other than that I’ve got an old version of their sharpen product and it does ok. I tried one of their newer versions and couldn’t see any significant difference in the results so I haven’t upgraded it. They very often have huge discounts of their older versions.
Amen Serdar-99346, well said, I have had Topaz since their start and watched the selections of various programs disappear and the save as and other portions of software become more complicated, adding to that to the poor presentation of the end of life time updates with the so what are you going to do about it attitude.
I enjoy the variation I get with Topaz and the software systems but again as Serdar mentions, so not going over the board (or pushing out your customers) with aggressive pricing would be a wise step.
2-Added new functionality; yes, I’m certainly willing to pay. But if you are just fixing bugs via minor releases; these should be free.
3-The most critical one; once you start receiving that annual revenue stream; you better don’t get complacent and drift away from your innovation roots. It’s just too easy to claim otherwise.
Please read the first post in this thread, it states:
Here’s how it will work:
Don -
Please read my post on 7/30 with the quote directly from support. Also, please read the information at the included link, as that confirms support’s statement.
"The maintenance releases and fixes (v2.0.0 > v2.0.1) are always included free for all users, even if you do not have an active Upgrade License. To download a major software upgrade (v2.0 > v2.1) an active Upgrade License is required. For you information on that, you can also check: topazlabs.com/pricing
Please let me know if I can help with anything else.
(name removed)
Product Support Specialist
M-F: 09:00am-05:30pm CST"
Have Gigapixel AI 5.17 - upgrade to 5.2 up now -
not on ‘update’ plan
past policy was 30 day trial
How do I download a trial version of 5.2?
On 28 Sep 2018, I was offered the update to Gigapixel 2.0. I already owned Gigapixel. The email stated as follows:
As always, this is a free update! In honoring our customers-first policy, updates to our products are free for products you already own. If you previously purchased A.I. Gigapixel™, you get all these new features for free - and will get free updates for the lifetime of your product! You can learn all about the new update in the changelog link below or update A.I. Gigapixel™ now by checking for updates in the help menu.
This program, against what all the Topaz cheerleaders on this forum have been saying, was sold to me with free lifetime updates. Yet the version 5.1.7 release notes state:
This update is a minor update as we prepare for our first major paid release of Gigapixel AI. This update will allow you to delay the update notification dialog by a period of up to two weeks, so you don’t constantly get bugged about updating when a new version is released.
The first major paid upgrade for Gigapixel AI will go out on October 21st, and includes three major things, as well as a lot of minor improvements / bugfixes:
How is this not a violation of contract? It was marketed and sold to me as FREE UPDATES FOR LIFE. Topaz is lying!
Oh…what a nice touch to allow me to opt out of the annoying notification dialog for up to two weeks!! So, if you choose to not update, you get constantly pestered to update!
At some point, this program starts to look like malware or crapware that keeps harassing (if I choose to not update to an update that I was told it would be free)!
Horrible!
Raise a support request at the main website please, this is a user to user forum so we don’t know. Downloads are in the Product Releases category under GigaPixel v5.2.0
Thanks
I use other programs for my main editing of photos, i use Topaz when i need an issue fixed like sharpen, or noise reduction, and i was so shocked when i actually opened up Sharpen and was told that there was an upgrade, and then when i tried to upgrade i found out…there was a fee for a subscription, i needed to use the program, so i read and paid for the year $99, i was so shocked as i did not know that Topaz had gone back on their word…“free lifetime upgrades”…and my sister who also purchased Topaz because of the “free lifetime upgrades”, we are both very dissapointed. She (my sister will not be upgrading) as she uses photoshop and lightroom with their subscription. I dont like to pay a subscription for anything…so…i have cs6 for lightroom and photoshop…only. I started with Topaz over 10 years ago…i have all their topaz labs programs, everyone of them…and then purchased Studio and now have Studio 2 version. I resent paying for upgrades when we were promised:“free upgrades”: and i have told many friends who have purchased based on the merit of what i had said. I feel like a fool now…because…my friends are not too impressed with Topaz or myself! I again…do not use topaz that often…as i do have other go to programs…so…i was not aware of the impending "pay for a year subscription. If i had seen the notice, i might have upgraded all my products before the pay for Subscription was implemented. I am not at all happy about this! Some programs do grandfather in their older customers, and that includes me…and i do appreciate their loyalty to their customers!!!
I use them the same way you do - they are not part of my normal workflow and are only used in extreme cases. So not only is the new upgrade policy a stinking pile of you know what, the upgrade price is way out of line. As long as the latest version I have continues to work, I’ll continue using that version when needed - I will not be upgrading or buying anything from Topaz ever again.
I’m not sure if you realize it or not, but you can continue to use the version you had without upgrading - it’s not technically a subscription. If you regret paying for it, I suspect that you could ask for a refund for the upgrade. If you go to “My Products”, it will allow you and your sister to download the most recent version that you are entitled to without paying. But be aware, you will be nagged incessantly to upgrade and (at this point) can only delay the nag popup for a maximum of 2 weeks.
Agree - it is acting more like shareware than a purchased product. Since I figured out a way to stop the popups on Windows, I will continue to use the versions I have and that will be the end me giving Topaz any money.
