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.

[MagdaN]

David, I am sorry to say, but Muse is also announcing today that they are EOL. Product Announcement

[davepykeSV]

Noooooo!!!! Argh. So is the future of web design in new programs? Dreamweaver? Spark? XD?

[siteminderUX]

Like davepykeSV commented I AM NOT SURPRISED !

I also been using Adobe product since mid 80th and seen it's hi's and low's like a roller-coaster over the years. One area where Adobe as failed over and over is web development and tools. Dreamweaver?, Image Ready, Flash? and now BC RIP.

I never understood BC I must admit. It's clucky, unintuitive, built for developers, a nightmare for customers, can't support multilingual websites, doesn't have a staging environment and the list goes on... not to mention sh**t outdated templates.

I pulled the plug form BC years ago. Now I only have a few small websites and have no issue getting rid of them. it's actually a relief.

Thanks Adobe, time to move on.

[spreadman]

Is there an explanation as to why Bc will be killed rather than sold?

[MagdaN]

Hi Francis, I am afraid we cannot go into the details of this business decision.

[A3_Aaron]

Magda, will there be an email sent to our customers (admin emails) regarding the EOL of BC? or is it just being broadcast to us partners only and probably going viral via Social Media? Just need to arm ourselves so we get to our customers before they here about it first.

[MagdaN]

Hi Aaron,

At this time we are only notifying partners, but we will progressively move towards announcing this to everyone. The timeline should be of about 30 days before an announcement goes out to customers, with the following selections as we progress:

1. Partners only - March 26th
2. Customers with a direct paying relationship with Adobe - TBD probably around 30 days from now
3. All customers - main users on the site - TBD
4. All partner users - TBD
5. All site users via email as well as in admin notifications.

We have a contractual relationship with customers who pay the bill directly, so they will be the first to be notified after the partners.

Magda

[29commercial]

Hi Maga,

With due respect, and recognizing you are not the one making these decisions, "TBD" does not help us at all. TBD could be later today based on the amount of advanced notice we have received so far. We have not had the courtesy of time to decide the direction our businesses must now go in. We need to develop a plan that we can relay to our customers so they don't react to us in the same way Adobe customers are reacting to you. We need to communicate a plan to them that will instill confidence that there service will not be disrupted.  I suspect this was not a decision that was made in the spur of the moment by Adobe. Having heard the devastating effect this is having on us so called partners, I would expect Adobe to at least give us more than "TDB". I know you are the messenger, and appreciate the uncomfortable position you have been put in. I hope our requests and responses are being relayed up the ladder, too.

We clearly cannot rely on Adobe to make this announcement to the public in a way that will not cause panic. All we ask is that we get an accurate timing of when these announcements will be released. A company the size of Adobe cannot be flying by the seat of it's pants.

Joe

[MagdaN]

Hi Joe,

As explained, the immediate announcement goes out to partners only. The announcement to customers will be about 30 days off, and the rest of them are not decided at this point, but should be even later still.

Some of these dates are still in flux as we are trying to evaluate the progress and impact of our messaging.

Magda

[IAMTEEJAY]

The impact is sending shockwaves through development circles. One client already threatened to sue as we are midway through a big project. No one wants to spend money on something that will not last at least 3-4 years.  Will there be an alternative to BC? A new Adobe CMS service? I can not see there not being one?  The internet is what is it is all about and I can't imagine Adobe not being involve. I was hoping they would improve upon BC, but I realize the foundation was getting old and that it is hard to build onto of it.

[Jeremy Kinnen]

Not really fair to say "At this time we are only notifying partners" when you put it on a public Facebook post.

[Perkail]

What about "Premium Partner" Fees? I paid Adobe a large sum of money just to be listed favorably and get a higher commission, but mostly for the free partner site. I expected this to be propped up by Adobe and now find out that only two years after buying in you are shutting down?

I need a refund if so, otherwise me a lot of other Premium Partners are going to need to speak and come up with a Group solution.

-J

[Todd H&M]

Your communications 3 through 5 are unacceptable. I get you have a legal requirement for  1 and 2.  As a partner I need to be able to manage these communications with my client  so I can minimize the blowback I’m going to get. I would most likely tell clients at different times so I can migrate each client project over In a methodical way. If it happens all at once every single client is going to be screaming at me at the same time.  Please give partners the ability to contact clients themselves so they can better manage this mess you created.

[MagdaN]

Hi Todd,

The list is a progressive one, and will be actioned depending on the rate of  site migration.

We have a lot of partners who are no longer active, and their customers deserve to be informed as well. We have customers where the main contact is no longer available, so they will only find out through admin or by emailing all the contacts.

We are aware this will create a high number of calls to the partner and will definitely not release all these communications at once, but you should also be aware that, depending on how fast the sites migrate or the patterns in migration, we will continue to communicate to the owners of the data hosted on our servers.

[Eworks-WSI]

In contradiction to what has been mentioned on this thread, it seems that a decisions on when BC customers will be informed has already been taken.

We received the below notification from our WSI head-offices today:

---------------------

When we spoke to Adobe last week, they also indicated that they will be sending an official email announcing the EOL of Business Catalyst to all BC customers later in April.

....

WSI Home Office

--------------------

April starts in 5 days. Please be more transparent.

[MagdaN]

Hi Hartmut,

As you have seen above, I mentioned that the first round of communication to customers (those who have a direct payment relationship with Adobe) will probably go out in about 30 days, meaning the end of April.

Business Catalyst has a lot of layers of customers, as I have tried to split them up into categories above. There is no exact date fixed for the initial round of end customer communication, but we expect it to come towards the end of April.

I am being totally transparent here, and am sharing as much information as we have available right now. The exact date has not been nailed down. For the rest of the communication steps we do not even have a month nailed down, let alone an exact date. I listed them so that partners are aware of the gradual levels of communication to come, not as an exact communication plan that will be followed to the letter.

[DigitalFuel]

Thanks! Adobe. You never cease to surprise.

What is happening to muse sites as they run on BC framework too it would seem? Is muse getting ended as well?

[Abambo]

Muse is also EOL. But that is not that dramatic as the switch off of BC. BC is a service. Adobe unplugs and you are out of busines. Muse simply will not get new features anymore. You can phase it out gracefully.

[admins99623483]

MagdaN

You should look into creating an "opt-out" form for active Partners that want to notify their own clients.  That way you can filter out those partners that are unresponsive, in which case you can then notify their clients..

That way it will cover all bases, but at least let the Partners break the news to our clients.

Otherwise it will create mass panic all at once

Derek

[Todd H&M]

An opt-out is a great idea. If Adobe has any integrity this would be adopted.

[Sibie1968]

Magda, and you're saying all of this with a straight face????  You deserve to work at Adobe then. You stink just as much as they do!  Oh, and while all of you at Adobe are telling us about replacements, maybe you can start pointing our way to another company so we can all bid goodbye to Adobe.  As soon as I find some replacements, as you suggest, I will be only too happy to close down my Adobe CC account.

[Abambo]

Sibie1968  wrote

Magda, and you're saying all of this with a straight face????

Please don’t kill the messenger and don’t get personal. This is a sad day for all BC customers, but may be it will create an opportunity for someone bold, working on a competitors product.

[Sibie1968]

Abambo, Adobe made sure of it: IT IS personal.

[29commercial]

Abambo,

I agree with Sibie. Magda has been doing her best all dat, taking the heat for a decision that she did not make. She has resonded to many angry message, but none directly attacking her.  I hope you will consider an apoglogy to her. Adobe had become a faceless and impersonal company, and I'm afraid that all of our complaints, hardships and suggestions will not be heard or considered. Corporations like Adobe don't admit to a mistake, and we should not hold out hope for them to be any different. However, there are real people who are doing their job as best they can. As a community, I hope we can remain human.

Joe

[MCCant]

Here's some samples of what I did. No more Adobe after 20 years of use. Oh, and my monthly fees went to zero. In 4 months I will have broken even with Adobe's subscription fees and the cost of replacement. No more subscriptions...

Photoshop use Affinity Photo

Acrobat DC use Foxit Phantom or Nitro

Premiere use DaVinci Resolve (or many, many other capable, less expensive options)

Lightroom use DXO (or many other pro level software options)

Illustrator use Affinity Designer

There are LOTS of options to replace Adobe.

Still working on a BC replacement because there are so many options but it is a problem of abundance, not scarcity.

Best,

Marshall