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.

[29commercial]

TJ,

It will be impossible to every take a new Adobe product seriously. Even with "the latest and greatest", new products for our type of business takes a monetary investment in training and other expenses. How could anybody invest in any Adobe product and make the same mistake again?

Joe

[Peter-AM]

Adobe have a reputation of buying and closing down, Macromedia was another example. To be honest I am surprised it took this long, they were sold a Lemon and had to redevelop it and move datacentres etc. It has been a nightmare for Adobe that had to many FANBOYS for a couple of years after 2009 acquisition ( I don't see them anywhere here in this thread yet, but they were just an agency employees )

[IAMTEEJAY]

Peter, agreed this is the nature of technology. However, Business Catalyst wasn't a Lemon. As a web developer employing ASP, PHP with in a custom HTML environment, and the use of ready-to-go CMS platforms like Joomla and WordPress, Business Catalyst had a nice package of tools that fit nicely on the work belts of many of my customers, including my own. 

The trifecta of having a blogging engine, email marketing facility and the CRM all under one hood worked like a charm. Everyone else makes you go to another third-party service to employ the likes of MailChimp or Constant Contact for your email marketing and forgot about the CRM services, it is better just to get a stand alone service altogether. In the meantime, this trifecta of services within the BC platform was pivotal in generating traffic and new business for many of my clients.

This won't put me out of business, but I am SHOCKED that Adobe is will to piss off a vast number of their customers without providing a solution. When Flash dropped off the market, it provided an opportunity for me to redevelop all of my sites, but at least I stayed with Abode by discovering BC and learning more CSS.  In this case, there is no option but to complete leave Adobe in search of another solution. This part is the WTF moment.

[Peter-AM]

If it wasn't a lemon there would not have been the disaster that took place in '09 - it was so bad many original partners thought it was going to close before the decision to rebuild and then re host took place.

[Peter-AM]

They wont put me out of business either because it has not been a surprise, especially when seeing the sandpile using zoom webinar.

Gotta feel for BCGurus and alike

[SeoSambaistheSolution]

Hi guys, and @ IAMTEEJAY

in fact , FYI SeoSamba provides more than a trifecta, with an Open Source CMS, Shopping Cart, Google New compliant Blog engine, and a CRM with sales automation/drip emails in a single install with SeoToaster CRM ultimate edition. There's a free CMS/CART/BLOG/CRM trial button there. You can build sites using our open source rapid development wireframe Flexkit or use pre-built templates.

You can then connect any number of sites (self or cloud hosted) to your SambaSaaS marketing hub where you can get Call tracking services (inbound calls create leads in your CRM), social marketing curation and calendar, automated SEO, centralized blogging, Press Release distribution and more. You can also connect WordPress websites to your marketing hub.

All under your own brand and domains.  You can form your own opinion by opening a free SeoSamba account here

All hope 🙂 is not lost.

[Dinaspark]

This is a huge financial hit to us.  Adobe should be refunding our original buy in price in addition to all our monthly hosting fees.

[29commercial]

Magda,

Seriously... this has been announced on Facebook...?

Joe

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Joe,

We have updated both our main website as well as out Facebook page to include the announcement. In addition, we have emailed partners (for now).

Cristinel

[israelisassi]

And Twitter as well.

[cristinel@adobe]

HI Israel,

Adobe BC does not uses Twitter for product communication. Out bc_obnw account is used for status reports.

Cristinel

[israelisassi]

Good point, however, you might want to take a peek @adobebc_forum on Twitter since a lot of this is making there.

[MagdaN]

Hi Israel,

As you probably have seen from the description of that channel, that is not an official Adobe channel and we do not control it. We will reach out to have it removed as it uses Adobe trademarked logos and creates confusion.

[Panda-15]

I don't understand why no one here realizes what Adobe just did. They drew a line for the entire creative industry. It's not about the software it's about workflows. They are stating that designers should design and developers should develop. They also opened the door for Adobe XD to expand into a more competitive market against Sketch who has been trying to corner (or already has cornered) the market for digital design. Any auto-coding software has been a nightmare for server efficiency and has created such an issue across the board that Adobe has no choice but to pull out. WordPress is no better when it comes to efficiency.

My personal advice to everyone is to make sure you find a decent developer to partner with and migrate your sites ASAP. There is a major expense, yes but depending on a DIY solution is not the answer these days. This industry is more about teamwork than it ever has been.

[hijjawia]

Hi Magda,

based on your End of life announcement of Adobe BC no more enhancement and updated and there is no intention of selling the company this is will resulting in a lot of loses and hurting all Adobe BC partners, why you do not give the option to have Adobe BC platform open source and publish the source code for all partners in this way you will give the option for all partners to enhance the platform and add more features even for core modules and minimize the loses for all partners and their customers.

P.S. it will better to propose to the Adobe management this option to have Adobe BC platform open source because in any cases you will shut down the platform.

Thank you for your understanding 

[Peter-AM]

@Magda A major point that was not addressed with EOL 26 March 2020 announcement

What happens to sites that are yearly subscriptions after 26 March 2019?

As a white label partner, this just one more event by adobe to screw the Partners, I prefer my customers are not contacted about this by Adobe, I can handle in a more professional and timely manner. This needs to be addressed before Adobe drops a BOM on users. accounts.

Your reference to contractual relationship with customers is a feak'n joke.

[cristinel@adobe]

Hi Peter,

All the sites will have to be converted to monthly subscriptions prior to 26th March 2019. This can be done by the partner (or end customer depending on who's paying) or automatically by BC. The similar conversion has happened when we dropped the bi-yearly.

Regards,

Cristinel

[Peter-AM]

Thank your Cristinel for rapid clarification, makes sense.

[cristinel@adobe]

Peter,

Beware that even for the  automatic conversion customers will have to re-enter their credit card information (as new tokens are required by the Payment Gateway).

Cristinel

[bri-idea]

Well it just goes to show you how unreliable adobe is.  I had a gut feeling a few months ago and made the switch to weblfow.  Going to look for all adobe software replacements now.  I will never trust any adobe services again!  I have a few Business Catalyst sites that are less than 6 months old that will need to be migrated/redone.  Disgusting.  How about instead of coming up with 40 new garbage programs/apps that never work as they are supposed to, concentrate on a few that actually do what they are supposed to.  Unreal.  Thanks for nothing.  I wont recommend an adobe product ever again. 

[colourrich.co.uk]

If Adobe are no longer interested in supporting Business Catalyst, could this not become a stand-alone company again like it was before Adobe acquired GoodBarry and turned it into BC?

There is quite clearly a lot of reliance on the platform so surely there is a better resolution than just writing it off.

[Peter-AM]

GoodBarry was a // business owned by the originators that competed with Business Catalyst partners. The openly promised they would never sell it out during the round Australia Partner acquisition road shows.

[PBforum]

Incredible. Simply incredible. How does Adobe just dump something that so many users have invested so much time and money into? How many bridges do you want to burn with your loyal customers? Really disappointing!

[HTDL]

Absolutely up in arms - I remember when they bought Macromedia and phased out Freehand, it was annoying as Illustrator wasn't up to speed at the time, but not a business breaker like this!

The ridiculous decision appears to have been made with little consideration to a lot of very serious BC users who have staked their businesses on partnering and reselling BC like ourselves...complex sites with 100s of pages and Web App items, e-commerce stores that have been tweaked and refined with SEO attributes, complex business tools using advanced search and java.

Don't bother with BC support, simply email your frustration to Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe direct.

Hopefully, when his email inbox goes into meltdown, we'll have some response and hopefully a decision to retract to this short-sighted and decision.

[hiphoopla]

Has anyone found a 3rd party solution that is a feasible product replacement to BC?  Website, Blog, eCommerce, but most importantly - custom web apps.  This is soul crusher for agencies that have focused all development using BC.  Ouch.