What happens if you let service select expire?

[Ride]

I have VW 2023, and plan to use this for a couple years. Is it worth continuing on with service select, or should I let that expire? Now that VW is a subscription model, won't I automatically be on the subscription plan if I upgrade from 2023?

 

 

[E|FA]

My understanding is that you can:

1. Renew Service Select and continue getting updates.  You will not be on the regular subscription plan.
2. Not renew Service Select and continue using VW 2023 for as long as you want and your hardware is compatible. No subscription & no updates.  You will never be able to restart Service Select and would have to add a subscription if you ever want to update.
3. Not renew Service Select and add the subscription plan to continue getting updates.

Can someone at VW confirm?

 

I believe Service Select is less expensive than the annual subscription, so I'm keeping mine.

Edited August 5, 2023 by E|FA

[Ride]

Ok thank you for the reply. I guess what I was ultimately confused on was that you could keep getting updates, even though you're not on a subscription plan. I guess the most prudent move is to continue on with service select. The rate at which versions of VW become unsupported means not staying up to date ends up just costing you more later, without the benefits of the new features along the way....

[rDesign]

There is an FAQ over at the following page which might answer your questions:

https://www.vectorworks.net/en-US/company/purchasing-policy#faq

 

[Wayne D]

It is nice that they are honoring legacy owners by continuing Service Select availability but it seems surprising that the annual fee has doubled?

[Ride]

I would really like to know what's in store for 2024. I hate buying the services select for 2 licences, not knowing if I will need or want the 2024 improvements.

[Pat Stanford]

If you don't renew you Service Select, you will not be able to reinstate it in the future and the only way you will be able to get the current version will be via a subscription.

[Matt Overton]

7 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

If you don't renew you Service Select, you will not be able to reinstate it in the future and the only way you will be able to get the current version will be via a subscription.

It seems there is a grace period to allow for stuff that happens in life, especially for small businesses but the CloudProcessing and resources will stop working on the day of expiry. 

[rayacox]

An annual Software Service agreement is a little special, because you have invested your time and time again in this platform.

“ Vectorworks Service Select is an annual Software Service agreement to support those who purchased a perpetual license and Service Select membership from Vectorworks prior to December 30, 2022.”

 I was told that I would save some annual expense, because purchasing an annual Software Service agreement would cost less than a subscription. Aha now you have to pay all the time like it or not!

[rayacox]

From Wayne D

"It is nice that they are honoring legacy owners by continuing Service Select availability but it seems surprising that the annual fee has doubled?"

 

You got my attention. What is the price now.

[rDesign]

1 hour ago, rayacox said:

What is the price now.

Assuming that you have a current Service Select License(s), if you log into your Customer Portal it will show your specific Service Select Renewal price. This will be more informative as it will be your renewal price, which may not be the same as another user’s price in a different location. 
 

On your Dashboard page, under the section titled ‘Service Select’, click on ‘View Service Select Details’ and on the next page click on ‘Contract Pricing’.

Edited August 22, 2023 by rDesign

[line-weight]

3 hours ago, rayacox said:

An annual Software Service agreement is a little special, because you have invested your time and time again in this platform.

“ Vectorworks Service Select is an annual Software Service agreement to support those who purchased a perpetual license and Service Select membership from Vectorworks prior to December 30, 2022.”

 I was told that I would save some annual expense, because purchasing an annual Software Service agreement would cost less than a subscription. Aha now you have to pay all the time like it or not!

 

For those who were on a "perpetual licence" prior to the change in pricing policy, they get a rather better deal than those who weren't, in two ways:

1) If you stop paying, you can continue to use whatever version you were on as long as you want/can (rather than being shut out of the software altogether)

2) The annual cost is a bit lower

 

On point 2, that at least is the case with headline prices, but like many CAD packages the "real" price is always a bit obscured by a constant circuit of discounts, offers and so on. So, who knows, over time, whether us "perpetuals" will actually be paying any less per year than the subscribers.

 

On point 1, the catch is that as soon as you skip a year you lose this privilege, so once your last-owned perpetual version becomes unusable you either have to climb aboard the subscription wagon or learn a different software. And if you don't skip any years, the privilege doesn't really have any real world benefit.