Updates to BC plans and pricing - May 2017 release

[MagdaN]

Hi everyone,

As most of you are aware we have been working lately on a new pricing and plan scheme to match the new BC site as well as the scheduled feature releases. Over the past few weeks I have reached out to as many of you as possible in individual calls, to test out ideas and get your feedback on how we were planning to shape the product.

We are now ready to go public, probably at the beginning of next week, with a new plan and pricing scheme, and wanted to share it here with you first. We are moving towards a 4 plan structure, with a reinforced upper plan that will contain 3 new major features, as well as a new pricing scheme to match these new elements. The main features in the plans will be the following:

The pricing is adjusted to better reflect the features included, and the Australian pricing is receiving a currency exchange correction as well.

Our new pricing scheme for yearly US will be as follows (monthly equivalent shown for easier comparison. It includes the 10% discount):

The Australian pricing is based on these above figures, and includes a 1.3x adjustment based on the currency exchange rate as of this week.  The new pricing scheme will be the following:

We are going public next week to allow for the 60 days of notice, and the plans, pricing and new features are expected to go into effect at the end of May 2017. I am looking forward to your feedback, either here or you can reach out to me via my e-mail (mneagu@adobe.com) and we can schedule a call for more advanced discussions.

I would like to thank all of you who have provided feedback over the past few weeks and have helped us shape this new image of Business Catalyst. Without your remarks I am sure we would have had a lot more issues in shaping these new plans and pricing scheme.

Magda   

[FriscoTX]

Thanks for the notice, Magda.  Quick question - When there were price changes in the past, the existing accounts were left on whatever price they were on, until they were upgraded or downgraded.  Will our current accounts be affected, or will they be "grandfathered"?

Thanks - Bill

[pChirita]

Hi Bill,

Yes, just like in the past, the current sites will remain on whatever price they are on, until they are upgraded or downgraded.

Cheers,

Paul.

[mikesallander]

@Magda - this pricing looks great and excited to see new features being added into a higher plan. The only downside I can see from my end is the module data available only in the highest plan. Currently we use this across a lot of our websites, big and small. This will change the way we will need to sell websites and deliver sites, however, it should not be too difficult to work around. I get why you guys made this decision (module data creates a heavier load on the server) and thankfully past websites will not be impacted.

Thank you guys to your effort in trying to make these new pricing plans make sense for partners.

I do have one question: What is the pricing for adding custom SSL onto a lower plan?

https://docs.worldsecuresystems.com/developers/apps/server-to-server-service#Step3.Obtainanewaccesso...

[MagdaN]

Hi Mike,

Sorry for the delay in replying to this. The pricing for the overage is not yet final, but we are somewhere between $60 and $80 per year with this. For sure we will not come out higher than that.

Magda

[Devon Reehl]

Hi Magda!

Just wanted to say thank you for sharing this with us in advance.  In general, I don't see any red flags.  The module_data only on the higher plan like Mike said is the only thing that I WISH could be on the Gold plan, but if that's not possible I understand. 

Again, thanks for sharing this with us. 

[Devon Reehl]

Magda,

Can you clarify one other thing around pricing for me. 

In the past, there was a BC white label partner plan, which I realize is now discontinued. 

So is it the case now that a small business owner can create a BC website, and pay wholesale pricing, essentially having their own "portal" for their site?  Or do that need their site to still be hosted on a partner's portal? 

[MagdaN]

Hi Devon,

The whitelabel plan has been out for quite some time now, due to the fact that the documentation is no longer up to date, and if a customer really starts digging into the Terms of Use and other items they will eventually come across Adobe. When a partner asks for the whitelabeling feature we explain these limitations, and if they still want to go ahead, we manually enable such a plan for them.

For the second item, the ability of a customer to self host, this has been available basically ever since Adobe took over BC. Anyone can create a site, and host just that single site with BC, without acting as a partner. However, we have not seen a lot of users with that particular pattern because BC is not very easy to set up for a regular customer with no dev knowledge. They usually do the trial, figure out they need someone with a bit more tech experience, and then go to a partner to set up the proper site.

Magda

[Devon Reehl]

Thank you.