2. Premium support - While i understand the logic about this i also find it quite frustrating. I pay for this CMS, and i pay an increased fee since EE1, yet i now receive a slower (not poorer) level of support. I am now being told that i need to pay extra to get back that level of service??? Come on really?
Think of it this way. There are people who have purchased a single EE license in 2004 that come here and still receive support. They might be running a personal blog with it or a non-critical project. That person, with a single license, purchased 7 years ago, is taking away support from you & your growing business and is not contributing to the cost of providing on going support. Its not sustainable.
For us, we’ve lost money on those licenses & for you its resulted in slower support. Unlimited free support has gone from being tenable, to break even, to a loss in a growing number of cases. In order to go back to the support levels people need to be successful, that must be reversed. Its not optional.
We always want to have a free level of support available for an extended period of time (probably a year after purchase) that is good. Paying for an upgrade will likely extend the free support. The idea behind Business Class Support is that for licenses that need faster turn around and expanded support services, there is an option that is reasonably priced, and will scale as your business grows.
Look at almost any software, commercial or open source, that is aimed at a professional of some sort and you’ll see it has paid support. There is a reason for that. We’ve avoided that as long as possible and I think while that avoidance was well intentioned it was ultimately the wrong decision.
The usage data we have suggests that the average budget for EE Commercial licenses that would benefit most from biz class support is $10k-$30k. Even if EE + Biz Class Support + Add-ons cost $1k in total, its still dramatically less expensive then WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, or just about any other system out there. WordPress VIP is a minimum of $5k per year (extremely basic service, to get the good stuff, its $15k+ per year), Drupal is somewhat less, and Joomla is all over the map depending on what 3rd party you get help from.
Assuming you go with the main 3rd party helpdesk they promote its $275 for 4 hours of support all the way to $500 per month with limited support options.
In other words, I’m confident that we can provide business class support that is still easier on the wallet then anybody else (Commercial or Open Source) and scales with the way you make money (active licenses/clients, sort of Basecamp like approach).
What we’re seeing is that people who need private, business level support want to pay us for it and when we don’t provide it they switch to a cms that does offer those options even though they prefer EE. Their clients require that support as part of the purchasing decision.
This is not a matter of eliminating free, its a matter of recognizing that a significant portion of the EE Community needs this from us and if we don’t deliver it this year, we risk losing them to other solutions despite whatever features we add to EE.
And certainly we agree 100% on your last point. Finding the best way to provide support has proven a difficult challenge, but I think what we’re working on will benefit just about everyone in the EE Community.
Edited to add an important qualifier regarding avg budget on EE Commercial licenses.