Thread

I have a quick question regarding purchasing EE licenses. As a designer/developer who is now always recommending EE, should I have one account where I purchase all of my clients licenses or should I go about setting up a different account for each client. I haven’t had a client yet who hasn’t asked me to handle this part of the setup. I would much rather have one account rather than have a whole collection, which will get quite large over time.

I though about the multiple site manager but obviously that is only for one client with multiple sites as the price decreases based on number of purchases.

Thanks for the assistance.

In part, it’s a matter of preference.  Many folks purchase the initial license and take care of installation and then transfer the license over to their client.  (Some with turnkey solutions simply hold all of the licenses.  Others will have the client purchase their own license.)

If you want to handle purchases and then transfer once everything has been setup and you’ve been reimbursed, it’s easy to do.  Here’s how:

1. Have the client register at ExpressionEngine.com here: http://ellislab.com/forums/member/register/
2. Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) the license number you want transferred and the client’s user name.

That’s it. Sales will transfer the license. When we transfer a license you receive a “Developer credit” which counts as a purchase toward the Volume Discount program.

Works very smoothly if that sounds like a good approach to you.

Edited cause it’s nice to get the company name right.

Sounds great. Only question I have, is there any reason why I wouldn’t hold onto the license for them? I am actually the only one who will be using the forums or adding upgrades for them. Obviously in the case of a client who wants to manage, I would send them the license.

Derik

That’s where personal preference comes in.  If I were the client?  I’d want the license.  As the developer, I’d say it’s just up to you.  Might be easier to make sure they stay on top of upgrades if you hold the license- and just roll the fee into your bill.  But it really is a matter of preference- yours and the clients.

(And some folks may chime in here on it- which would always be welcome.  I swear I think I’ve seen the topic bandied about in the forums.  But it’s so general a thing, a search didn’t turn up anything specific.  Think it has been discussed, though.)

I go for the latter. My clients don’t really want to get involved with upgrading licenses and in fact, since I take care of the hosting for them as well, I just roll-it into the annual fee.

I would suggest starting a spreadsheet with the license numbers with sites that are being used, because it can become tricky keeping track of who’s site can be upgraded or not, who has a forum etc.

I had one commercial client who was bought up by another company and dropped EE as their CMS -(shame because I made a nice site for them!). Anyway, I was able to re-use that license, because I owned it. Of course I have paid to keep the license up to date. I hope I did an OK thing, and didn’t break any rules!

Great suggestion. Thanks for the response.

Heh…I’ll offer the other perspective.

IMHO the client owns the license and therefore should own it and have full control of it.

I’ve had clients who trusted their web developers to own/control everything - even the domain name.  The relationship then went sour, and they had to fight to own their own site again.

I always have clients do the initial license purchase and hosting setup, then forward the account details to me.

Back in my web developer days I purchased the license on behalf of the client and transferred license ownership, along with all the appropriate site materials (artwork, etc..) to them when I received my final payment.

I don’t know Mike. I’ve nneeevvveerrr had a client relationship go sour. Of course this is sarcastic Tuesday.

...well…you know…I was talking about all those *other* developers…

I do it the same way as Boyink…client buys (I walk them through the process if need be) and they email me the details.
One of the reasons I do it that way is, heaven forbid, I get killed by the garbage truck, they can easily carry on, they don’t have to try to tack down their license info through my estate lawyer. Keeps it clean.