Understanding the Xbench 3.0 License System
Posted: December 18th, 2012 under ApSIC Xbench.
We did not realize that with ApSIC Xbench 3.0 we were also introducing something unconventional: we invented a license model totally different from anything else in the market.
From early feedback, we noticed it was not clear to users what happens exactly if you buy more than one year. Quite a few users thought that since they needed only one user, they could buy only one year now and then wait for a year for the next payment.
To clarify, the Xbench license model means:
- If you are a single user and you buy 5 years now for €95 (5x€19), you get a license until around January 2018 (i.e. release date of January + 5 years). It seems to us a good simulation for a permanent license.
- If you run a multi-user organization and buy 5 years, you can distribute these 5 years among any number of users.
There are some rules that you need to keep in mind:
- This is a subcription model, and when your purchased time expires, you cannot continue running the program. When your purchased time expires, you can run instead Xbench 2.9, which is freeware, and also a great tool.
- You cannot assign a user more than 10 years. So if you have a multi-user configuration and buy 30 years, you will need to assign at least 3 users with 10 years each.
- The Xbench account that you use to buy time, does not need to be the one that uses the time you bought.
- You need to have at least one user but you can add and remove users as you need. When you do so, the end of your subscription will be shifted accordingly.
Therefore, if you would have bought more than year if you knew you could, you can now simply make a second order at www.xbench.net with the same email you used for your first order and the additional time will be added to your account.
One more thing: so that you have more time to understand the license model and decide what suits you best, we decided that dates for the promotion should skip over Christmas. The new dates are:
- €19/year until January 10
- €39/year until January 17
- €59/year until January 24
- €79/year until the beta period officially finishes