Software licence renewals - a captive market?

[Dave A]

I've got my proforma invoice for the Quick Payroll Annual licence renewal - an increase from R999 last year to R1499 this year. That's an increase of over 50% year on year!

For those who have to pay annual licence fees for software, I'd be curious to hear what sort of increases you're experiencing.

[SSS100]

It seems Quick Payroll is cheaper, try pastel evolution...can't even mention the amount

[Dave A]

With Quick Payroll the price depends on the size of the payroll, much like other packages. But this is a "same size" increase - the 21-120 employees level.

[Justloadit]

Definitely a captive market. The amount charged is just high enough for you to discard the thought about taking another company's product, and having to capture all the relative information so that you can be ready for the next pay roll out.

I dislike the license approach as a customer, but it definitely has major merits as a supplier, where you can use the income to continue improving and developing the product. The question here is, "Do you get free updates for your license fee?", if not then I feel that you are being ripped off by the supplier. You either get the one or the other, if you pay license fees, then you should get free updates, however if you purchase the product on a once off cost, then you pay for any upgrades that may appear over time.

[IanF]

Dave
I pay R700 p/m for my quoting/invoicing software. Now they have a new version out and want R10K to convert the database for the newer version. So I would rather spend that 10K on new software which handles the digital printing side better. The cost structures are totally different for the press vs the digital printer. I have just bought a new digital printer as that is the way business is going.

[Mitos]

There are lots of Open Source programs...how's there Accounting progs? anyone ever try out one?

[Dave A]

I've looked at some free ones over the years - not sure whether any of them were open source or not though.

My problem with pretty much every accounting software package I've looked at is not one of them is anywhere close to the intuitive nature of Quickbooks. To me that makes Quickbooks worth the money.

Let me be quick to add that Quick Payroll doesn't meet the same "intuitive" standard...

[AndyD]

Don't get me started, software licenses really get my back up. My advice would be to wait a month or two and if it's software with an American held copyright you might be able to get a cheap and legal version via Antigua.