monthly payment for a software product?

[tropicalview]

Hi,

why is the ADC required to be paid a monthly fee instead of a fixed fee?

it's a piece of software that you buy right? it's not a service...

[sky-knight]

So all the continuing development to improve the product on a constant basis should be free too? No, it is quite a service, a darn powerful one. And, it's worlds cheaper than all the commercial competitors.

[KevinM]

I've got to say that I stumbled upon someone mentioning this product in response to a thread regarding blocking PEBCAK users from accessing particular sites by editing the hosts file, someone suggested trying a product like Untangle and provided the link.

I feel like I want to shout it from the rooftops, this is quite honestly one of the greatest pieces of open source software I've ever come across and as sky-knight says, the price for the professional version is a steal comparatively to other products, and this is an all-in-one as opposed to buying a Sonicwall product for ssl-vpn, surfwatch for www filtering, etc, etc... The price is DEFINITELY right.

However, THAT said, I'm a bit bummed out about the structure for pricing. I note quite a few of the active folks here also have a 60+ node network, which means that for us to procure this product's professional version, we have to pay for a 150 user license and not, say, a 75 or 100 user product.

Based on what I'm seeing for the Professional Pricing (not ala carte), it's roughly $1 per user per month.

My network is roughly 200 nodes, spread over 7 cities on an MPLS private network, single point of ingress/egress to the Internet.

I'm currently testing the product in one of our largest offices, about 65 nodes. I'd LOVE to purchase the product to test here (for longer than 2 weeks), and ultimately if it does what I need, I'd bump it to a larger server and implement it for the whole corporation. However, with the pricing as it stands it makes it REAL REAL difficult to justify to the "Purse Strings" that we'll have to pay the 150 user price because we're about 15 users over the "50 user" price.

The only thing I could ask for from Untangle is a better breakdown on the user count. Maybe come up with a "up to 100 user" price too. To jump from 50 to 150 just sucks, but I understand the logic and had a nice discussion with one of the sales guys today.

I'm just not sure I'll be able to "sell it" considering the price. They will also wonder "wtf?". Again, compared to the other solutions out there, if this works as advertised it's still a great deal, but it would be a LOT easier for me to test the full version for a while if we had a user price between the 50 and 150 range.

Other than that, I LOVE this package and all who made it possible!

K

[mdh]

KevinM,

If you're really sold on it but see the uphill battle ahead, it would probably be a good idea to compare the features of Untangle versus the competition, and also the prices. For some of them, you'd have to buy multiple boxes, with a support agreement on each. OUR TOTAL PACKAGE is likely less expensive than their support agreements.

Unless your world begins at 8am and ends at 5pm, you'll pucker big time the first time you hear the price for after-hours support from them...not so here. The big boys want the big customers who want to pay the big bucks. That leaves the other 95% of us, and we'll be more than happy to have Untangle running at even 10% of them.

By the way, get your test plans together. Open Source is free regardless, but you have 14 days to test the features of Professional Package. Our sales guys are also willing to talk with you at the end of 14 days without demanding money for the conversation, if you know what I mean.

[KevinM]

KevinM,

If you're really sold on it but see the uphill battle ahead, it would probably be a good idea to compare the features of Untangle versus the competition, and also the prices. For some of them, you'd have to buy multiple boxes, with a support agreement on each. OUR TOTAL PACKAGE is likely less expensive than their support agreements.

Unless your world begins at 8am and ends at 5pm, you'll pucker big time the first time you hear the price for after-hours support from them...not so here. The big boys want the big customers who want to pay the big bucks. That leaves the other 95% of us, and we'll be more than happy to have Untangle running at even 10% of them.

By the way, get your test plans together. Open Source is free regardless, but you have 14 days to test the features of Professional Package. Our sales guys are also willing to talk with you at the end of 14 days without demanding money for the conversation, if you know what I mean.

Hey now! Agreed, as I indicated in my post, the cost for even an ssl-vpn box (that is an absolute PoS from Sonicwall...garbage!!!) dwarfs a year of 150 node licensing for the professional version of Untangle. I've relegated myself to the fact that I'm going to have to put it together as a "comparative cost" presentation.

8 - 5?? "Damnit Jim, I'm a network engineer, not a banker!!" Yeah, you already know the job is 24/7/365, and the pucker factor is VERY high on after hours support (or a Gold package, or whatever sort of crap support these guys want to sell you for a king's ransom).

I am pretty sold on this package, and am hoping to not only sell them on this, but that it should be a fairly easy sell. I'm just pissing and moaning that I'll only get 2 weeks to test the pro features and frankly with my workload it will be challenging to say the least to do a full evaluation in that short amount of time, work out the bugs, convince myself it's the right path, then convince the purse strings. Again, it comes back to I'd gladly pay for a 100 user "pro version" for a few months so I've got time to really put it through it's paces, but the jump from 50 users to 150 users just sucks, though I'll get over it.

Bottom line is that if I want this to fly, and I want it for the whole corporation, the sell will be easy because the pricing works out for all our users, but when I'm trying to REALLY give it the workout for a 65 node system and have to pay for over double that, it's whineable I guess as evidenced by my whining about it.

Really though, like I said, I think the price is far more than reasonable, it's a fantastic deal, it seems very solid, the sales guy I spoke with was nice, and so far you that are committed out here to providing support seem to know what time of day it is and more than willing to assist.

Net/net is that I'll likely go with the pro version for the corp, but the downside is that I'll not have enough time to test it all out and work out the bugs beforehand, and if you're a responsible network engineer, you already know that's not the best approach. Hopefully I'll get most of the bugs worked out first and get it dialed in well.

Anyhow, thanks for the reply, I fully agree that it's a great deal, the support seems to be awesome, and the product itself seems really solid.

Thanks,
K

[mdh]

KevinM,

Just sent you a private message. Look in the upper corner of the screen for how to get to it.

[mongobongo]

The fee is worth it (for me) considering what we are paying annually in support and features for our current ssl-vpn box that is as Kevin describes, an absolute Piece of garbage. It is not made by the same company, and I won't mention their name. But what is most important to me, regardless of its' brand, is that a) it is more expensive, b) it does not perform near as well as Untangle and c) Untangle has better features in their commercial add-ons.

But I am a little over 100 users, with sustained/continual growth, so the pricing is right for me now.

I can understand the other positions though.

[gotkimchi]

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