Sencha Touch Pricing (And Much More!)
We’ve been hard at work on Sencha Touch over the Summer: we’ve found and fixed a long list of bugs, and added neat new features like modal slide-ins and disclosure icons. We think we’re converging on a release candidate, which is pretty exciting for us. We’re also seeing some previews of the amazing apps that you’re building. When you put Sencha on a fast device, you get some serious eye-candy!
Now that we’re close to release, we wanted to give you details on pricing and licensing for Touch. We also wanted to let you know about other changes we’re planning to make to pricing, licensing and support for the rest of the Sencha product line.
Sencha Touch Pricing
First up, what everyone wants to know. Commercial pricing for Sencha Touch will be $99 per developer seat.
As with our desktop SDK’s, this gives you the right to create as many apps as you want. There’s no “per app”, “per domain”, per “run-time” or other additional fees. We want Touch to be used by every mobile developer, whether you’re a one-man shop making the next million dollar app for the App Store, or whether you’re building a quarterly reporting app for your company. We think a $99 price makes Sencha Touch accessible for everyone, but also allows us to continue our strong engineering investment in mobile.
And there’s more. We’re also offering no-cost licenses for personal use, for non-profit organizations, and for classroom and teaching uses. In the past, we’ve thought that the GPLv3 version of the software was a perfect fit for these uses, but now there’s a GPL alternative for these uses as well.
Sencha Complete
You can get Sencha Touch standalone for $99, but from today, you’ll also be able to buy a new package of products that we’re calling Sencha Complete. Sencha Complete packages all our JS products together with support and maintenance. For $995 per developer, you’ll now be able to get Sencha Touch, Ext JS, Ext Designer and support together.
Free Upgrades When You Buy Support with a New Purchase
And there’s yet more. Starting today, when you buy Support and a Commercial license together, we’ll also include a year of Subscription rights: this gives you the the right to obtain major version upgrades for twelve months. This means that from today on, when you purchase support along with Ext JS or Ext GWT, you’ll be eligible for a free upgrade to Ext JS 4 and Ext GWT 3 when we release them. If you buy Sencha Complete, you’ll also get new major versions of Ext Designer. Of course, this is in addition to the Maintenance that you normally get with Support which gives you access to patch releases of the SDKs.
Sencha Touch Commercial License Terms
Sencha Touch will also have a new version of our commercial license, which contains several revisions from our current Ext JS and Ext GWT commercial license. One significant change is that if you’re going to build a commercial application, you should write that code under a commercial license from the start. Under our current license, we’ve seen some companies (with very large teams) develop applications under our GPL license option, then purchase a single developer license when it’s time to distribute the application externally. Other dual source SDK’s like Qt don’t allow this option, and our new license incorporates this practise.
We plan to use the Sencha Touch license for Ext JS 4 and Ext GWT 3 when we release them, but the commercial license for Ext JS 3 and Ext GWT 2 does not change.
Revised Support Offerings and Volume Discounts
So that’s the news for Touch, now I’ll turn to other changes that we’re making to our support and volume discounts.
Our current 4 tier support system is complex to both explain and to administer, so we are simplifying our offering. We’re consolidating our four tiers of support (Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond) down to two (Standard and Premium). Standard support is available for single developer licenses, and Premium is available for 5 pack purchases and above. We think the new structure is a big improvement.
Volume Discounts
We’re also changing our Volume Discounts. Previously, if you wanted to purchase (let’s say) 72 licenses, you would purchase two 25 packs, four 5 packs and 2 single licenses. These all had different support entitlements, and x-credits and it was very complicated to understand.
Instead of this, we’re introducing a new 20 pack license, and a new volume discount offering for customers who want to buy more than 20 licenses. Now if you want 72 licenses, simply contact us, and we’ll give you a quote for 72 licenses. Much simpler. Also, as part of leveling out the per-developer support price for volume pricing, we’re increasing the number of x-credits (support credits) that we provide per developer, and increasing the per developer price to account for this.
Let me emphasize that we’re not changing the single developer support price for Ext JS or Ext GWT.
Support Plan Grandfathering
Although we think the new support plans are a big improvement, we know some of you will prefer the existing support plans. So for customers who like their existing support plans (which don’t include Subscription rights), you’ll be able to renew under the existing pricing and terms through the end of the year.
And that’s everything. We’re really pleased to be able to offer Sencha Touch for $99 per developer and at no cost for non-profits and teaching. We hope to see even more amazing mobile apps soon!
