Adobe announces the End of Life for Business Catalyst

Report · Mar 25, 2018

Adobe is committed to delivering exceptional software and services to our customers. It’s in our nature to innovate and try new things, and it was in this spirit that we acquired Business Catalyst in 2009. As we re-focus on products that broadly provide our customers with the most value, Adobe is announcing the end of development for Business Catalyst as of March 26th, 2018. New sites will no longer be available for purchase starting with June 18th, 2018.

Adobe will stop hosting existing sites on Business Catalyst on March 26th 2020. Adobe encourages customers to download their data and migrate to other systems well before March 26th 2020. Detailed how-to information and assistance is available. Customers' data will be retained by Adobe until March 26th 2020, after which date the data will be deleted. Data retention is for the sole purpose of allowing customers to export their data and transfer to another platform.

We thank our Business Catalyst users and want to help them make a smooth transition to a third-party service. Please see the following for more information on transitioning: https://secure.worldsecuresystems.com/product-announcement

Please see below a detailed FAQ.

Why is Adobe discontinuing Business Catalyst?

Adobe is committed to delivering exceptional software and services to our customers. It’s in our nature to innovate and try new things, and it was in this spirit that we acquired Business Catalyst in 2009. As we re-focus on products that broadly provide our customers with the most value, we are now announcing the end of life for Business Catalyst. We thank our Business Catalyst users and want to help them make a smooth transition to a third party service.

When will the End of Life take effect?

On March 26th, 2020.

Will this end-of-service affect paid sites as well?

Yes, all sites, including trial and paid sites, partner sites, etc. will be affected by the end of life.

Will data be available for download beyond the service end date?

No. Data will be deleted. We encourage users to download their data before the service end date.

I need help downloading my data. Whom can I contact for help?

BC users may find export instructions in the Business Catalyst Help and Support pages. If you still have questions, please contact our Customer Support team.

How long do I have to export my data?

All Business Catalyst servers will be taken down on March 26th, 2020, after which all customer data will be deleted. Please export your data before March 26th, 2020.

How long will you keep my data? What will you do with it?

We will retain your data until March 26th, 2020 or until you delete your site, whichever is sooner, so that you can transition to another product.

Do you recommend another product for me to use?

While there are other hosting solutions available in the market, Adobe does not recommend a specific product. For basic websites and Creative Cloud users, we provide documentation to help with transition to GoDaddy, should the customer choose this replacement. Moreover, since we’ve seen the emergence of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) website creators that leverage customizable templates to quickly create responsive websites, Adobe is making our own investment in the DIY space and welcomes all interested customers to join our upcoming pre-release program for a new format that will be introduced later this year as part of Adobe Spark.

Will new features be developed?

No, new features will no longer be developed on Business Catalyst. We are maintaining a small team to correct critical issues, but no new work is being done. The Business Catalyst team will maintain the PCI and GDPR compliance throughout the lifetime of the product and develop any new features needed in this respect.

Will Adobe still fix the bugs in Business Catalyst?

We will continue to repair critical issues (related to security, payments or customer data for example) when they appear, however, the work will be limited to bugs that have a high security or high stability risk. We will not be fixing minor items with small impact or that have a workaround which can be used.

Will my site be closed down?

At this time, all sites will continue to be live and the public will see no difference in your site. However, starting with March 26th, 2020 all sites will no longer be live and they will not be accessible either to the general public, or to the site administrators. Please find an alternative platform for your site and data before this date.

Can I continue creating trial sites?

You can continue creating trial sites until June 18^th, 2018. They need to be upgraded to a paid plan before June 18^th, 2018. The data from these sites, as well as from any other site in your portfolio, needs to be removed from the platform before March 26th, 2020.

Can I upgrade my trial site to paid?

You can continue upgrading trial sites to paid until June 18^th, 2018, but the data from these sites, as well as from any other site in your portfolio needs to be removed from the platform before March 26th, 2020.

Can I downgrade my site or make any other plan changes?

Yes, you can continue making any changes to your site plan and extras until March 26th, 2020.

Can I still purchase extras?

You can continue purchasing extras until March 26th, 2020. Please note that all extras expire on March 26th, 2020 and can no longer be used after that date.

Can I continue sending newsletters?

The e-mail marketing features will continue to work for the duration of your site. You can continue sending emails until March 26th, 2020 at which point all newsletter credits remaining in your account will expire.

Can I still redeem my commissions?

You can continue to redeem the commissions available in your account until March 26^th 2020. Following this date this feature will not be available anymore.

What happens to the commissions below $500?

At this time, we are researching technical options to allow redemption of lower commissions. Please stay tuned for further announcements from the Business Catalyst team.

Can I extend the validity of my extras beyond March 26th, 2020?

No, the validity date for your extras can no longer be extended. All extras not used until March 26^th 2020 will be forfeited.

Will I be able to use Adobe Muse or Dreamweaver to update my site?

Yes, until March 26th, 2020, if your desktop app still functions properly.

Will I still have technical support for Adobe Business Catalyst?

Yes, until March 26th, 2020. However, after June 18^th, 2018, our support team will give a higher priority to cases about the off the platform migration questions, in addition to critical security, compliance, and availability issues.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Yes, who offer the intuitive Web Apps? No one, except WordPress other wise known as plug-ins that you buy in the open Bazaar which are not always sound. One of my sites is solely dependent on that facility.

UGH

Report · Mar 27, 2018

It looks like Webflow has something like web apps (collections). Im diving in to the tutorials because this might be a viable alternative - although there are 2 scenarios:

The sites we need to rebuild
The new sites we take on going forward.

Seems like that second scenario might be a long way off for me since I have LOTS of complex sites that will need to be rebuilt. I am laying it out for my clients that since there is no single system exactly like BC, we will have to work together on seeing what platform looks best and then working within that new platform to make something as close as possible to what they had. Webflow looking good though.

Report · Mar 27, 2018

I'm a bit surprised to see Webflow recommended since their CMS doesn't support forms for inputting customer data into the CRM yet.

I was also surprised when i got their E-Mail about E-Commerce going to be supported.

And i still haven't heard anything since i signed up to their beta (10 mins after they announced it).

Report · Mar 27, 2018

Neil,

I have 30+ client sites on Webflow, sites that not that long ago would have been BC sites - thank goodness we started putting more basic sites on Webflow when we did or we'd have more client sites to convert now. No liquid, no secure zones, no integrated e-mail campaign system, no integrated e-commerce (although they have announced one is coming), no custom user classes to restrict access, no client e-mail system, much more limited support for media downloads.

It is a code generator with a semi drag-n-drop interface, but it isn't anything like Muse. At least for me, Webflow handles most basic websites just fine. The client interface for static page updates is excellent - much better than BC in my opinion, as is the client interface for managing CMS items. It has a built in CDN and the sites seem to render very quickly, SSL is a snap but adding a lot of js and custom coding can be a pain.

I have no idea what we're going to do with more complex sites that rely upon secure zones, user classes and some of the things ABC did so well.....

Good luck with Webflow

Report · Mar 27, 2018

I hear you, BaBrewer. There are many solutions, some relatively easy and perhaps better than BC, for the simple sites. However, we have many sites that took advantage of all that BC offered, and now there appears to be no alternative. I suspect Adobe was fully aware of this when they chose not to sell the platform. They are not talking about why, which suggest to me that lawyers have advised them not to talk ahead of the anticipated legal actions that will surely follow. I also suspect there is money allocated for legal settlements. A corporation like this would not take this action without being prepared to pay for the ramification of putting thousands of small companies out of business. There will be some financial relief for those who pursue it. It will probably not enough to make an real difference to us, but we should make sure the money that they allocate for settlement does not go unspent.

We are continuing to research and try to decide our best plan of action going forward, one that we can explain to our customers and execute without disruption to their businesses. While Adobe never consider what this will do to us, we cannot act with the same reckless indererece. I hope everyone on this thread will continue to share ideas and solutions. Perhaps someone will even see the financial opportunity in rebuilding a platform like BC.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Maybe it's time for a class action. If anyone happens to start one please reach out to me. I'll be contacting a client of ours who is an attorney too, so they can evaluate the case.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

I know a lawyer that wants to take this on

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Anyone interesed in a class action... you can email me at liz@lsabol.com.

Report · Mar 28, 2018

Great, get them fired up for a class action against Adobe with the 77,000 BC site owners behind them.

To be honest, this is a big enough case for a Litigation Funder who don't normally show an interest if it's less than 5m GBP.

With 77,000 sites x say £1m GBP for loss of revenue and cost to migrate each would equate to £77 billion GBP. At 10 x their annual t/o, that should make Adobe sit up and take notice. Even 5% of this would probably put them out of business.

HTDL is a design and digital agency based in Solihull, Birmingham, Midlands.

Report · Mar 28, 2018

I am with you, HTDL. Class action lawsuit will send Adobe a message to think twice of shutting BC down. Count me in.

Report · Mar 28, 2018

Kinetixjake,

Please let me know what you learn. Count me in. I am very frustrated with this and willing to join the lawsuit.

Report · Mar 28, 2018

Hi everyone,

I have been contacted by a class action attorney that wants to take this on. Here is his contact info:

David M. Kobylinski, Esquire

KOBYLINSKI + KOBYLINSKI

515 Court Place, Suite 4

Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Phone: 412-281-6600

Fax: 412-281-6610

dave@koby.law

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Hi there Magda,

Well all I can say is this is pretty devastating to my business. Of course for you and the fantastic BC management team this must be a crushing blow for you as well. So let me say thank you to you all and I'm sorry you have had to endure this instruction from the Adobe board, from 'on high' no doubt.

Now let me address the f-ing beast that is Adobe. This is TOTALLY unacceptable. I have been a Premium Partner for 10 years. In the last decade I have built my business on this platform. Agencies I have introduced have done the same. You can be sure that I and they will be joining any class actions that will arise out of this, we just need time to get organised. There will literally be tens of thousands of people - Agencies and end Clients alike - that are affected by this action, no less all of mine. The fact that you have not attempted to show that Business Catalyst could be sold or taken over by a company willing to continue it's development is incredulous. This system was started in the best interests of our industry, to develop community and progress online marketing with innovation - something truly great and you have squandered it. There is still no other system 'out there' that can compete with its full function set. Further, you have clearly shown you care nothing for us as Agencies and end clients, and nothing for the communities that have evolved within it. There are thousands of families and livlihoods that are affected by this. IT IS DISGUSTING. All in all, this is typical of a company that lacks a core value of business integrity and is a reflection of the men and women on the board who chose to make this to happen. Like any sizable listed Corporation, everyone knows that Adobe are driven by profit motive and the fact that the company would choose to be disloyal to 10,000s of supportive partners and stakeholders not only makes you untrustworthy, but your eclipsing and annexing of the marketing industry across globe with your products, now becomes more obvious, and must be in breach of fair-trading and anti-competition laws and should be challenged at the highest level. I personally won't trust Adobe ever again. I will join the many who have become ambassadors to see you brought down to size. I will be actively looking for and supporting your competition for alternative products across the board. I say to all users who sign up to Spark: BEWARE(!), Adobe will eventually abandon you as well - DON'T SIGN UP! There is no longevity or continuity here, it is driven by Adobe's greed for more and more profit and their commitment to themselves only. Shallow, hollow, shallow. It is just a matter of time before justice is visited on Adobe to redress this. I trust that multiple countries around the world take action, since there are so many counties and 10s of thousands of their hard-working citizens affected - good people squashed by the almighty Adobe.

Sincerely

Wayne Freeman

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Hi Wayne,

It is never easy to see a product go End of Life, though it is not my first such project, and unfortunately it will probably not be the last. This is just how life, software products included, goes. There are some products which go the distance (see the 25 year anniversary of Photoshop) and some which simply do not make the cut.

We know that this has a lot of impact on partners, and are doing our best to mitigate the effects as much as possible. As I discussed further up this thread, a sale option has been analyzed some time ago, and has been deemed not possible in this particular case.

We have looked at all options quite carefully, whether a sale, making the product Open Source or allowing a group of partners to take over the code base. Everything has been put into balance before coming to this very painful decision, but at this point we need to manage the process we have and see if we can help you in any other way before the product is discontinued.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

I have 111 live sites and 12 currently in production. That gives me 6.5 days to convert each site, if I work weekends. This is devastating to my business! Please reconsider the 2 year notice. I need more time!

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Did you also adequately evaluate a partnership with another service to migrate existing sites? Because the failure of having that option is what is going to put people out of business.

We get that it can't be sold, but not everything is being done to mitigate the effect of transition. As it currently is we have 10 weeks to finish every project we have, and two years to rebuild every website we have. If you can find a way for us to extend that 10 weeks to something more appropriate and to find a way for us to migrate our sites without significant cost and time loss then people won't be as angry.

You have an exit strategy for turning the servers off. But you did not give partners an exit strategy on how to keep their businesses alive. Since BC isn't open source a migration tool to a new service really only can be done by Adobe.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Hi Alexander,

We did have a thorough look at possible migration paths as well, but the reality is there is no single solution that would fit everyone, within the same price range.

Simple websites (blog, portfolio, etc) can move to WIX, GoDaddy or Squarespace (a bit more expensive than our existing price line, but still an option for no coding)
Email marketing is relatively easy to move with a website+MailChimp combo, or similar tools available

When it comes to webCommerce, and here in particular sites using webapps and liquid, not necessarily the e-commerce features, it is very difficult to make a recommendation that would fit the budget and provide feature parity. There are solutions which are more expensive or that come with several changes in the workflow of the customer, so it really needs to be a decision taken by the developer together with the customer.

Any recommendation was bound to be found not feasible for a large number of websites, and this is the reason why we stayed away from making a direct suggestion towards another platform.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

I appreciate the response.

If one tool doesn't work then create several. If tools are impossible then please at least give us more time. My development time is usually longer than the 10 weeks that were just announced and two years won't be feasible for many partners. That is shorter than the average lifecycle of a website.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Hi Alexander,

We weighted the possibility of creating a migration tool and we realised that a standardised tool might do more harm than good. From a web developer point of view, Business Catalyst is a front-end development platform allowing end less possibilities and combinations of features, some of the relying on web apps. As result, it is impossible to create a migration tool that will cover all these (mostly unknown or unexpected) scenarios on the client side.

However, we already have a lot of, and we'll continue to add or update if necessary, APIs and FTP access that gives you access to the data that you have built your sites on so that you can decide where to migrate to. Since there isn't any platform that is exactly alike BC, a standardised migration path cannot be enforced. Some website could be simply moved to a regular hosting platform, some may very well fit into Webflow or potentially Adobe Spark, some could be ported on Shopify. Others will need more complex frameworks or a combination of multiple services.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Cristinel,

I appreciate the response. Your second paragraph explains the exact reason why BC is necessary to the market. So what went wrong?

Report · Mar 26, 2018

I'm guessing that the cost of running the heavily aging .net back-end where spiralling with sites growing more and more.

Which also piled on more support-requests (support is expensive).

And a back-end rewrite to a compiled (faster) language would be too costly.

But I'm just guessing...

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Hi Alexander,

With the rise of services like Zappier, connecting multiple tools together becomes a lot easier and could provide more flexibility and power in the long run run and replace integrated services like BC.

Cristinel

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Cristinel,

Should we be looking at Zappier?

BCAlpha,

I think you're right...the backend may becoming more complicated and costly for Adobe to run. So, why not charge us all more rather than pull the plug on the life-support machine and kill us? I would rather pay the increase cost and be able to decide if it is financially beneficial to migrate to another platform than to have Adobe make that decision for me.

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Hi Joe,

Zappier is not direct replacement to BC but it's a great automation tool to move data between systems based on specific events. I would a look at it if I had a more complex website.

A similar service would be OneSaaS (onesaas.com).

Cristinel

Report · Mar 26, 2018

Cristinel,

Plugins and integrations have been around for several years. The entire selling point for BC was that you didn't have to have multiple platforms to do a single job. That is not my selling point that was Adobe's selling point and marketing for the product. So that argument doesn't make much sense either. You are changing the marketing from believe that was the BC benefit to it now being the detriment?