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.

[Abambo]

j_gordon54  wrote

This hurts your loyal customers more than Adobe did when it decided to RENT its software full time to part time users!

Sorry, but my information show, that you can subscribe to Adobe Software for single apps and all apps on a monthly basis. If you are a part time user, you can ask for the license specifically for the month or 2 you need the application. That's the most cost effective solution I know to get recent software on your computer and getting your work done.

And as I do not know the Adobe internals that lead to the decision to stop Muse and BC and as I understand the pain Adobe's decision made to the individual users, especially for the switch off of BC, I'm quite confident that Adobe has looked at the numbers and has found that continuing this business would cost more then it would to get out of this business. [Edited for clarity]

I'm not always sure that all the decisions taken are the best, but also my company decides from time to time to discontinue products that don't show the estimated benefit.

[JG_DesignStudio]

Maybe Adobe needs to open a discussion with its users to come up with a way to partner to make it profitable for the company and its users before you shut down BC and stop supporting Muse. Sounds like mismanagement and misdirected marketing? Should be able to make a profit since godaddy seems to do fine and it’s crap! Talk to us and listen to the users. We can help! You asked us to partner, now let us help with a solution rather than shut us out if the discussion and wait until it’s critical and decide without users to just shut it down.

Sent from Julie Gordon's iPhone

[Abambo]

j_gordon54  wrote

Should be able to make a profit since godaddy seems to do fine and it’s crap!

Hi Julie,

A lot of those small and big internet web site access providers do their money with people building small sites and then forget about them. They do need neither support nor do they have volumes nor do they need a complex infrastructure.

BC, from what I’ve learned, is a very complex environment. Maintaining that is not that easy.

I’m sure that:

1. Adobe staff involved in BC development and support is not happy with that decision as they put a lot of effort in.
2. Adobe executives took their decision based on the numbers of users needed to break through. The break point was presumably not beeing reached in the near future. May be they were even loosing an increased amount of money on the product.

It’s a big chance for the users that it’s Adobe pulling the plug as a lot of small companies would simply go out of business, with no grace period for you users.

[Liam Dilley]

This announcement has nothing to do with Profit as BC does make money.

[Peter-AM]

Once again fanboy answers for Adobe.

[Peter-AM]

If nothing to do with Profit, then what is it?

[IAMTEEJAY]

Peter,

Liam has been nothing but helpful here. Yes, my foundation rocked a little with this EOL news, but it is not the end of life of everything. As tech business owners we must to learn and adjust to a very liquid industry every day. I am grateful for all the tools Adobe has provide me over the years to flourish and look forward to learning new tools that will take my business into the future. I would appreciate a little more respect our fellow colleagues, regardless of their affiliation or alliance to any one entity. To berate anyone here on this forum is just shooting yourself in the foot and getting you nowhere. Be calm, be kind, be professional and adjust.

Thank you all that you have done Liam!

Teejay

[Peter-AM]

Really , if it is not to do with profit, thit is obviously something else, and that is not helpful.

Liam is continually answering for Adobe, and I will not let up until he is leashed and Adobe managers take over or appoint him as official spokesperson, until then STFU.

[Liam Dilley]

Peter,

Your abuse reports have gone through and the other forum moderators have taken no action, their comments in the moderation section have even said, as Thomas have - I have done nothing wrong.

Can you please stop the abuse, it is not called for. I have had to report yourself now as your comments are out of hand and you are now making such remarks to others as well.

I am NOT answering for Adobe. If you were involved with ANYTHING involved with the community (which you are not) you would be across, not just this element but everything else going on. You are not, you are just making wild guesses and accusations about Adobe and people and just getting abusive.

People have more then once provided links to community discussions and things to help people be involved, please engage with the community and allow them to help you IF you need it with the Adobe announcement.

[Peter-AM]

So please explain Liam,

1. If it is not Profit what is it?
2. Why do you answer questions directed at an Adobe team member - you jump in and in and in. Why do you see it as your responsibility, when it is clearly initially directed at Adobe team member to answer.
   
   Your interruption and interventions are what gets up my nose, and I am not backward in saying that. You bring on the raft yourself. If you leave it to those responsible, you will cease being the target - stay out of the way and you wont have an issue from me.
   
   Is that simple enough for you to understand
3. I went to join the community as suggested and a requirement was much more than being a partner with the multiple criteria questions demanded to join. again another example of exclusivity.I have 4 down-line full partners under me.
4. Compared to you I have transitioned much fewer client sites out of BC, and reading about your involvement with PAB and how you have for some initiated site relocations creates considerable doubt about using insider knowledge to get ready to set up migration offings to other partners. Interesting thought. but I don't care about that.

In summary what is questionable about your behavior is why you constantly take spokesman role for Adobe managers, and unless you stop it (speaking on behalf of Adobe) from here on you will cop my vocalization, pretty simple really!

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Peter,

I will have to repeat myself, You should take your personal disputes elsewhere and keep this forum focus either on the announcement or the site migration process.

Adobe has provided the reasons behind the decision in the initial announcement and we will not release additional information behind this decision. You and other community members are free to analyse various hypothesis or scenarios as long as this does not result in a personal disputes or attacks that will not serve the whole community.

Thank you,

Cristinel

[Peter-AM]

Hi Cristinel,

exactly my point, why don't you stop Liam from speaking about stuff he is not in a position to announce. eg. "it is not about Profit", that is baiting the community. are you blind to see that. It creates speculation by leaving out what it is, by saying what it is not.

Johari window - Wikipedia

[Fubals]

Im sorry, but as much as Liam has been helpful in the past on helping people to do stuff in BC, this is not about helping people to do stuff anymore!! The whole situation is a MASSIVE DEBACLE!! Adobe sold us this platform and sunk their tentacles in deep with an environment that is not transferable. Now they take away the whole environment!!! They also refuse to be transparent with their partners (i won't even call us partners) we are not partners, we are nothing to Adobe except consumers. Why can't Adobe provide us with a date or send us another email before they intend to send out the email to our customers?

What happens if our clients threaten to sue us? Do Adobe have an offical stance or document on that to help us through such issues.

And a response to IAMTEEJAY  - "I am grateful for all the tools Adobe has provide me over the years to flourish and look forward to learning new tools that will take my business into the future."

How is this flourishing? ... End of Life has been devastating to my health, financial future and sanity.  Im spending all my time dealing with the fallout (which has only just begun BTW) and for zero $$. How is that flourishing?... My family is suffering because of this, its really, really, REALLY bad.

BC is an excellent product, there are no other CMS's which does all that BC does in one package. There is still a HUGE amount of scope for a platform like this. Adobe is showing a 'lack of vision' and disbelief in their customers ..... its devastating.

[tangentcreative]

Are the 5 sites hosted on Business Catalyst that came with an adobe creative cloud subscription (and still subscribed) and are listed as "paid sited" still hosted till the BC March 2021 EOL?

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Geoff,

They are included as long as you don't make any changes to your Creative Cloud subscription, don't have late payments or interrupt your subscription.

Kind regards,

Cristinel

[tangentcreative]

Thanks Cristinel

[BednaBox]

Hi Cristine,

I am sorry to let you know that my free sites on BC are not available to me. I am with Muse and CC subscription since beginning, I was calm when I read that the BC sites are still grandfathered until I think 2020. But it is not the case. Now I need to finish the site I was working on. And I cannot get to it. I am not able to upload it on BC. i AM very disappointed in Adobe for the way how they ended life of Muse. And not to be able to get to my sites on BC topped everything. Freehand, Flash, now Muse. 

[TheBCMan]

> This announcement has nothing to do with Profit as BC does make money.

That is what they told people, but BC has been running for a super long time. 800,000 sites. I've seen BC's numbers as of start of 2018, they made several millions a year in profit. Just wasn't enough money for Adobe or they didn't want to invest is making it better when they could buy magento and get all those customers.

[Liam Dilley]

Admitting to seeing something illegally? Figures never been made public and Adobe do not just give them that information to anyone. The site snumber is also inaccurate.

[TheBCMan]

I wish I were that good of a hacker, but no, I heard it from someone in Adobe who said it in a casual conversation with several people around.

Also the 800,000 number was "sites built" in the lifetime of the platform... the real number is about 150 - 200K

Adobe Business Catalyst Usage Statistics​

So even if you did the math:

100,000 paid sites... say wholesale 10 bucks a site? that is a 1 million a month, 12 a year. After expenses, staffing, still was making a profit.

[Liam Dilley]

I know the numbers of current and then the peak. Those stats are not accurate.

[JG_DesignStudio]

No one ever told me I could rent adobe software month to month. They were

happy to lock me in annually!

Julie Gordon

[Liam Dilley]

Julie, Monthly has always been there in BC when you activated a site.

[roisinm93437110]

I am an individual, for me personally this is a disaster, Adobe Muse and Business Catalyst was developed for graphic designers who needed a resource where they could offer web design to clients, as they are NOT web developers. Now with this bombshell being dropped on us what exactly do we do? This is an absolutely disgraceful decision and we are left out in the cold???? The time required to resolve this problem for everyone who has used and relied on Adobe Muse and Business Catalyst for web design will be astronomical! In one foul swoop Adobe you have destroyed your brand and any faith that we had in it!! Unacceptable!

[Fubals]

HEAR. HEAR!

I wish I was a bigshot lawyer.