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.

[Adam__Logo_Pogo_]

Hi Declan. What platform/s did you move to or would recommend, if you don't mind?

[bri-idea]

Webflow.io is the answer to all your problems.  Amazing company

[bri-idea]

I would like to know what BC plans to do with the commissions that I never received for all the memberships and months of billing I brought them.  I hope this results in a class action lawsuit which I will happily be on board with. 

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Brian,

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.

[Dinaspark]

Yes, please do

[Carla@home]

Adobe,

In your announcement some things are not very clear to me.

“… and services to our customers. …. It’s in our nature to innovate and try new things, ……Adobe is announcing the end of development for Business Catalyst”

As a company that innovates and tries new things I can’t say it’s very innovative to end development/life for Business Catalyst.

I also don’t think that Adobe is committed to delivering exceptional services to their customers. If they were, they could have presented a road map years ago and let their customers know in advance  of the end-of-live of Business Catalyst like other major software developer companies do.

It would have been nice though to present your customers with dynamic websites alternatives for the SaaS before pulling the plug.

“…Adobe is making our own investment in the DIY space…”

Nice to know that Adobe will be investing in the DIY space. What about your customers who invested in the Business Catalyst “space”. They are “lost in space”.

“..Data will be deleted. We ….”

Could you be more specific about how the data and which data will be deleted?

In the EU specific laws and rules apply.

Kind regards,

Carla

[Liam Dilley]

Carla,

On that date in 2020 - Everything is going to be gone. All of it, nothing left.

[andrew10998967]

Dear adobe, LEAVE ADOBE MUSE ALONE OR SELL IT TO MUSE-THEMES.....YOUR MESSING UP MY BUSINESS.. I HAVE OVER 1000 CLIENTS...PLUS I HATE DREAM WEAVER...ADOBE MUSE IS THE BEST WEBSITE DESIGN TOOL PLAT FORM ON THE MARKET..THIS IS THE WORST DESION YOU GUYS HAVE EVER MADE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE DESIGNERS NOT CODERS..WICH WEB DESIGN IN DREAM WEAVER TAKES HOURS TO DO....SIMPLE THINGS TAKES HOURS IN DW ...WICH TAKES ONLY MINUTES IN MUSE.....LEAVE MUSE ALONE.

[DriverGroup]

Does anyone have a post BC solution that will handle the work of BC's User Agent Detection and subsequent automatic assignment to class of Mobile / Tablet / Desktop?

ie 'VisitorDeviceClass' in liquid and templates with  Mobile / Tablet / Desktop.

My sites are riddled with and in some cases dependent upon this functionality.

Even with fully responsive sites, The visitorDeviceClass is/was still of huge benefit.

Hope someone can help.

[C9-MB]

From memory, BC is built on ASP.Net and so they are presumably just wrapping the .NET browsercaps api.

Most CMS with a back-end environment will provide something similar - Umbraco might be worth a look.

[MCCant]

I am looking into webflow.com along with a bunch of others who subscribed to MuseGrid. They have started a 'migration' process and the basic intro is here: https://www.musetowf.com/

I haven't fully decided but this might be the future for me.

Let us know if you find other options.

Marshall

[f_snowdon]

Hello everyone - Sorry to read about all the pain this decision is causing. I had over 150 websites on BC and I stopped selling BC two years ago because I felt the platform wasn't keeping up with the times. I remember it was a difficult decision at the time, moving away from a platform I knew well to Wordpress, having to learn all about how to build websites on a different platform, making many mistakes along the way. The truth I soon discovered is that WP had come a long way in the 4 years I had left it! The argument for BC, apart from the massive benefits of Web Apps, was a lot less than it had been.

I have worked out most stuff - and I am not a developer or designer. I wanted a code free way of building and maintaining a website and worked on all devices etc etc.

I will say, apart from the odd trip up, I haven't looked back. Most of my BC sites were non-e-commerce sites, so that made it easier. We can update content without any coding, as can our clients. If anyone who is in the same boat as this and is looking for a pathway that involves WordPress, here's my suggestions:

1. Use Wordpress with Beaver Builder (an awesome page building software)
2. Upgrade it with Beaver-addons plugin to make page building even more awesome
3. Use Gravity Forms (buy a developers license) - it hooks up with email marketing software and many other things like CRMs for example)
4. Design on the fly - design while building the sites
5. Use GetFlywheel for hosting (connect with me if you'd like an introduction as their list pricing is much more than what I pay with 110 sites or so). What I like about flywheel - it is set up just to host Wordpress sites; it's nice and fast; has daily backups; Has CDN; has free simple SSL Certificates, has great support; can clone sites in two button presses; updates core WP software automatically; making a site live takes 5 minutes and involves no migration tasks - just add two domain name records, turn on SSL and you're good to go. I very rarely use a developer because it is just that easy.
6. Use ManageWP to perform automatic plugin updates
7. Goes without saying - only use solid plugins

All of the above took me 1 year to work out on my own, making many mistakes along the way. Migrating 100 sites from my first hosting service cost me big time

I could go on... I now have 45 sites left on BC. They are mostly low end - very few with Web Apps of any complexity (might have to speed up my migration work!).

If you want to discuss any of the above I am happy to help in any way. While I can't offer any advice for those of you building high end BC websites I can certainly help with simple small business sites.

Good luck to all of you.

[dlattari]

Thanks for the post. Please contact me about Flywheel introduction at dlattariATkadocreativeDOTcom

Domenic

[andrew10998967]

Dear adobe, LEAVE ADOBE MUSE ALONE OR SELL IT TO MUSE-THEMES.....YOUR MESSING UP MY BUSINESS.. I HAVE OVER 1000 CLIENTS...PLUS I HATE DREAM WEAVER...ADOBE MUSE IS THE BEST WEBSITE DESIGN TOOL PLAT FORM ON THE MARKET..THIS IS THE WORST DESION YOU GUYS HAVE EVER MADE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE DESIGNERS NOT CODERS..WICH WEB DESIGN IN DREAM WEAVER TAKES HOURS TO DO....SIMPLE THINGS TAKES HOURS IN DW ...WICH TAKES ONLY MINUTES IN MUSE.....LEAVE MUSE ALONE.

[BillyBowyer]

Apart from the EOL being diabolical in itself, 12 weeks to complete open projects and 2 years to migrate all site is no where near enough time. We have 70+ websites, and I am sure there's plenty of of partners with more 100+, 200+ or more sites. Even partners with 50 sites will have to migrate 1 website every 10 days. there's only 500 working days inside of 2 years... We still need to run our day to day business AND migrate all our BC websites to a new platform. Migrating is WAY more than just ftp down and ftp up... The resources this is going to take to achieve... my head spins. So many factors! And it's not like we can start today! we need to plan this out, we need to communicate effectively with out customers (take note Adobe & BC management), we need to find & learn new systems. This isn't just going to impact BC partners either this will impact end customers too. To say that this was the only outcome that Adobe could achieve is total BS.

Businesses will go under because of this. People's lives will be massively impacted because of this. To say that BC was an innovative experiment that Adobe have chosen to discontinue is to say Adobe see their partners as nothing more than an experiment... Adobe has been experimenting with out lives, our businesses, and our customers lives and businesses. We're a big fat experimental fail - so Adobe will just abandon us to chase other shiny experiments - only to abandon those too, and the lives involved with those.

I am so disgusted and appalled at Adobe. Everything about this EOL has been handled atrociously.

Let me know when the class action lawsuit is official.

[jnowland]

I can't imagine how rough this conversation between partners who white labelled BC for the last 10 years and their clients would be.

This is such a devastating decision for creative agencies and businesses using the platform. BC was far more than just a muse add on.

[glissemedia]

Two words...Class Action.....

[C9-MB]

TL;DR on the thread, but I still don't get the Burn-it rather than Donate-it solution.

Plenty of software solutions have survived their end of commercial life by moving into a community basis.

Was nobody (or no collaboration of partners) interested in taking it off Adobe's hands ? - especially given that Adobe apparently considers it to be worthless - or was nobody asked ?

[spreadman]

Maybe Bc has some IP they want to keep? Whatever it is, I doubt they'll be changing their minds.

[Frank_VG]

Adobe lucrative suite
make a suite
sell it
stop it
rename it
make a suite
sell it
...

[BillyBowyer]

BC doesn't even have a back up tool, to make migration easier. Even the 'Backup BC' guys who have toiled over their app to make it as powerful as possible couldn't backup a site properly "BC’s Open Platform allows access to major parts of your websites -- but not to everything"

2 years is not enough time!

[spreadman]

How do I change my subscription to be Monthly instead of Yearly?

How does it work for SSL Certificates? Is that Yearly only?

Thanks.

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Francis,

You can change the subscription from yearly to monthly from your Partner Portal > Site details user interface. This will only work for the hosting subscription.

For now, you cannot change the billing frequency for SSL and disk space overages, but we're working on a solution for that as well.

[spreadman]

Hi Cristinel,

Thanks for your reply.

Can you be more specific re the "Site details user interface" - I can't find it!

In the Partner Portal I get the option to "Manage Subscription" but there's no option to change it in there (the buttons just toggle the display below).

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Francis,

Yes, click on Manage subscription and on the upper right click on Monthly instead of yearly, and then click next to complete the process.

Thanks,

Cristinel