Plugin pricing for license server

Helper

On 05/03/2015 at 08:47, xxxxxxxx wrote:

I'm looking for some feedback on what people are charging for plugins when they are used on a license server.

For example:
Single seat license = $100
10 seat license = ?
50 seat license = ?
100 seat license = ?
etc.

What are individuals and companies willing to pay relative to the singe seat price for a multi-seat license?

Thanks,

Chris

Helper

On 05/03/2015 at 22:48, xxxxxxxx wrote:

It's a great question, that I wish I'd seen answered (or some opinions on) before I started working with multi-seat licensing.

With that in mind, the scheme that I've been using for several years now goes something like so:

First off, I charge a flat 'base' cost for the first 5 seats of a multi-user (License Server) license... the cost is basically 3x a single seat cost (even if they only had a 2, 3 or 4 seat license) but covers the first 5 seats. I then sell additional 5-seat blocks for what would be the normal single/stand-alone price...

Riptide Pro multi-user Base License - $150 (covers up to the first 5 seats)
each additional 5-seat upgrade - $ 50

...now for a few comments/observations...

Obviously I'm not charging full price for each seat. In many (most?) cases, not every client machine connected to some Serial Package is going to be using my plugin and we have no way of licensing some sub-set of a Serial Package so my reasoning was to account for that, along with a 'volume discount'.
Given the above, I feel like this pricing is extremely generous (perhaps even too generous in some cases), but it also gives me a standard and consistent pricing mechanism that I only have to make relatively rare exceptions to _[I'm considering going to a 2x pricing _($100) per 5 seat upgrade, instead of my current 1x ($50)].
MOST of the customers using the License Server (or at least the ones I've dealt with) will have a relatively few number of total seats... typically 2-5, less often up to a dozen or so and rarely up to 20-25.
While I do sometimes offer special pricing, I don't even recall a time where my pricing has been questioned by the customer - again, I think it's generous enough that I don't have to do case-by-case pricing (which would be mean additional record-keeping on my end).

...I have no idea what MAXON (for example) or any other 3rd party developer charges for multi-seat licensing, so the above is just what I've come up with. I think the most important point is to come up with something reasonable - and simple to explain - for both you and your customers and standardize on that - it'll save you a lot of headache when it comes time for upgrades.

Cheers,

Keith