Adobe announces the End of Life for Business Catalyst

[MagdaN]

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?

1. 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.

[Liam Dilley]

Thanks Paul!

If things could be done or asked its been asked and things are or have been tried with Adobe Paul. It is a big corporation so they work differently to the rest of us sadly but folk are not half trying, not just us at Pretty.

While BC is not our only solution as an agency we have A LOT of clients still on it so migration even with 2 years is more then a headache.

[paull85306854]

I received the email notification and about fell out of my chair. I don't develop on BC so it's not quite as huge a blow as some are taking. I suspect something will develop in the coming months to ease the transition. BC was around before Adobe bought it so the technology and brainpower is out there for a replacement outside of Adobe. I never cared for Muse so no big deal there. I remember the big uprising when Adobe went to CC and took away the "disk" based programs. We all lived and continued on and I suspect we will do so again. Part of owning a business and being a professional is adapting to the outside forces we have no control over. Best of luck to everyone!

[bent85676070]

So do people who paid to become partners on the platform get a refund, now that you're canceling the service? I hope you plan on providing email apologise to all our clients as well. I shouldn't have to rebuild their website for nothing because you decided its not a good business model for you anymore. Adobe's been going downhill for years, don't think I'll ever pay for anything of theirs again.

[Pretty_Brett]

This is a really good question. I guess you'd be entitled to a full refund on your Partner subscription yeah???

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Brett and Ben,

I believe this has been answered by Magda already but just want to reiterate - we are not refunding Partner fees. We have stopped selling this product more than 2 years ago, and time that allowed customers that have purchased this have had ample time to use the benefits provided by the Premium Partnership (additional commissions, rebranded accounts and so on).

Cristinel

[bweis24@gmail.com]

Why did my BC account crash and is now asking me to pay on top of my CC subscription?! I understand if you are deprecating the feature, but now I have to pay more AND figure out a new hosting solution? Would really appreciate a way to talk to customer service about this issue as it has resulted in my site being taken down even though my CC payments are up-to-date.

[Liam Dilley]

It is now 36 months end of life, so up to 3 years now. As I have been saying, be angry for sure but be professional  and if people say they are working to help the community etc do not just bite their heads off.

[BillyBowyer]

Liam, you're a freakin' LEGEND, an not because of the 36 months, but for everything before the EOL. I look up to you mate! I only know a fraction of the contribution you've made to the BC community and even that is outstanding - I'll never know everything you've done, but thanks for it all.

[Fubals]

At the risk of sounding unprofessional, its still gives us nothing. Death is Death. I will continue to stay angry at ADOBE for their lack of foresight with BC. Business Catalyst is still an outstanding product with plenty of shelf life even in its current form. ADOBE have abandoned their loyal long term customers because they are chasing the GoDaddy Dollars $$$ instead.

[Peter-AM]

Great to read 36 months but why the Fu** is Liam announcing this and not those lazy arsed Adobe BC TEAM?

Since when is Liam a freak'n official Adobe Spokes person? He is under an Nda and yet spits out dribbles as if he is king if the SHIT PILE, oh he is, sorry I forgot..

[cristinel@adobe]

Peter,

As stated in the forum guide (ASK- Forum Success Guide: Efficiently using the forums ), this is a community driven forum and we would like to keep it friendly and open. Being aggressive with other fellow community members does not help, can be considered a misuse under Adobe terms (Legal Terms of Use | Adobe ) and might result in moderation / deletion of your posts.

Thank you,

Cristinel

[Peter-AM]

If you want to delete me feel free, however before doing so please consider;

1. Adobe staff and only adobe staff should be providing official updates and notifications. Not fanboy.

2. Because you and Magda until pushed don't  bother to respond in a timely manner creates anguish and frustration when it should not occur and would not occur if you took responsibility and stopped fanboy from interferring to forum posters, not just me. And fanboy has done that ever since he took over as self appointed sanctimonious spokesperson for Adobe.

3. Don't talk to me about respect, you guys had no respect in the way you dealt with partners regarding EOL, some have been very badly disadvantaged by your failure to plan and assess a satisfactory eol announcement. Think about how it was mishandled and badly communicated and leaked before criticizing me.

4. If you still think i am harsh and disrespectful then please go ahead and remove my posts and acess to the forum because if that is your opinon i would rather be disassociated from narrowmindedness.

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Peter,

Some of your language in this reply might pass as aggressive to other members.

Adobe has provided official notification according to our own schedule which had to be synchronised for BC and Muse. The fact that some information has appeared in the public space before the official announcement is a separate matter and its for us to handle it on dedicated channels and not these forums.

Therefore, lets keep this discussion about the EOL announcement and related matters,

Cristinel

[Peter-AM]

@Cristinel

I personally find it covertly passive aggressive that fanboy continually tells others what to do and say, plus becomes a self appointed spokesperson on your behalf. You are biased and in fact lazy when it comes to taking responsibility for planning and associated management and not addressing my earlier points that fanboy jumped in on and thereby unnecessarily created a turbulent atmosphere.

Please remove ALL OF MY POSTS, and replies, I am over attempting to get through to people with only one eye who obviously have no clue about balanced proactive management and let Jackasses take over for them.

Political correctness is in a sad state when it overshadows genuine unaddressed issues.

[DriverGroup]

Hi Liam,

Will Adobe make an official announcement for this extension to 36 Months?

[Jim_Stella]

Adam has also announced it in the BCPAB slack group #general, where there are more details.  Looks like at this stage only the BC Partner Advisory Board have been told. URL: https://bcpab.slack.com/archives/C9SMJCEHX/p1523306989000630

[Peter-AM]

@Magda & @Cristinel

1. Magda & Cristinel the silent is strange, why is there not an official update regarding the 36 month EOL of Adobe BC.
   
   
2. Also has there been a change to the schedule of notifying account holders directly
   
   
3. Has the date of Trial go live by changed
4. Has the cut off for Trial site creation changed

It would be great if you would address this forum, rather than the self appointed sanctimonious spokesman doing your jobs.

[EdwardoMac]

This just popped into my inbox. Hope it helps if you haven't seen the official announcement (they say use this ... for more information on transitioning... not sure there's another platform that can cope with exported data from BC without lots of tinkering). We went with Shopify after concluding that BC was pretty clunky and it's been fine so far. I see an opportunity for BC agencies to approach them and ask for a tool to help with transitioning - I'm going to email them shortly. Nothing to add to the comments from this thread - extremely disappointed by Adobe. We are lucky that we only invested in this on a very small scale - wish we could help others out but we're a small outfit - many sleepless nights for lots of decent people.

[Peter-AM]

I am just amazed that these Adobe managers can't get off their butts and mention official announcement in the place where they made the most smoken disturbances.

No wonder the place began to burn down with such a slack attitude.

Not even an official email to us.

[Liam Dilley]

They have, on these forums, on the site etc. You can not just hit a button and have in multiple locations just appear

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Peter,

1. The official announce has been made: Important Update about the Business Catalyst End of Life​
2. While we might delay a bit the announce to business owners, the extension will not exceed 30 days and will be before the end of trial
3. End of Sale dates applies to all BC sales (new or existing trials); the only products still available to purchase post EOS dates are overages (as they are required to keep existing paid sites running)
4. End of trials date remains unchanged

Cristinel

[Fubals]

Thanks Cristinel for confirming this. I have to say I have always found you to be very helpful on the forum.

[Barry Maskell]

WHAT THE ??? - I just found out about this via the web - Adobe CC - Its just bloatware - I used to use Premier and After Effects but have ditched with for Apple FCPX and Motion.  Muse was a fantastic product - but I'm really thinking about ditching the entire CC subscription thing - I use Adobe Acrobat but even this is questionable.

I think Adobe is becoming irrelevant and I'm thinking very closely at finding alternate products and ditching my paid subscription now the Muse and Business Catalyst are dead

[spreadman]

Thanks for the EOL extension to 3 years.

[JG_DesignStudio]

This an a very irresponsible act on the part of ADOBE. I'm sorry, but  I've been a proponent of your company since you launched Photoshop 1.0! This hurts your loyal customers more than Adobe did when it decided to RENT its software full time to part time users! Adobe has the best software for web design on the market with Muse, and the best hosting site with BC. You spent a fortune convincing us all to jump on board and now you're pulling the rug out from under us? REALLY??!!!! I've lost my TRUST in your company, it's services, and it's products now. Unbelievable.