For the First Time I Regret Building a Library in Logos

Samuel

I should have seen it coming, but the decision to go all in on subscription makes me regret years of investment in Logos. I completely understand that there may be some features, especially those that use AI computing, that might require a subscription. And I also happily pay for some applications by subscription when it makes sense. And I understand business models. But Logos is a bit of a different application. It's always been marketed as a library where you can buy all your books digitally instead of physically and for those of us who make our living with our Bibles and biblical resources a digital library should function like a physical one.

It also seems like Logos never considers the fact that many believers work in countries where constant traffic back and forth to Logos servers is actually a security risk. And in addition, many of us work time to time where there isn't great internet. Obviously these changes in Logos has been coming for a while, but it seems Logos is only interested in the market that uses always on high speed internet and can afford subscriptions. There have been signs of this for a while in the desktop app and especially in the iOS app but I suppose it's really clear now. The iOS app is often frustrating when you don't have an internet connection and I suppose all the platforms will eventually become this way. Perhaps Logos simply isn't interested in any market outside the affluent Christian market in developed countries. If so, I understand, after all Logos is a business.

I understand Logos says everything we have up until now will keep working and I believe Logos intends to keep that promise. But like any application that is stuck in time over time, you end up with a very limited, out of date program that still runs but is effectively stuck in the past. We've all had apps like that and they become a pain to use.

And yes I understand that some amazing stuff can be done with AI, etc and I can understand how some of those features could require a subscription because of the resources needed. I used to work in technology so I'm sure there are many new cool features that some will use. I'm not against that - Logos should do that for the market that wants and needs it. It just shouldn't force that on the entire customer base if they want to be the best Bible software for everyone. But maybe Logos only cares about some parts of the Bible software market.

I'm not anti-subscription, but for an app that was built to replace our bookshelves which can offer lots of great features that easily run on a local machine it's sad to see Logos more and more to go a model that requires online and is subscription based. It's sad to see their future futures are really only designed for one kind of customer.

Honestly for the first time I feel really stupid for how much I've invested in Logos. It's enough that my guess is Logos will get some more money out of me to try to make sure I can keep what I have and not get stuck with an out of date program too quickly. I don't understand the plan to require us to buy 24 months of subscription to keep a "legacy" license (even then no one likes to be stuck with legacy software). And maybe I will have to pay to keep things working for a bit. But it will be money that is paid begrudgingly while I (hopefully) find better a better solution. Although with the current state of competing products I'm not sure there is an excellent alternative. Especially when I have so much invested. After recommending Logos to lots of students and others for over a decade, I no longer can.

I'm sure my "legacy" Logos will work for a while and I can get plenty done with the current features I have because I've done every full feature upgrade for years. But there will be regret in spending thousands of dollars on something as it now effectively moves on and becomes a legacy app.

It seems there there really could have been a win/win with online, subscription features for things that demanded it and local, purchased features for that kind of user that either can't or doesn't want to use internet for Bible study. But obviously that decision has been made.

Justin Gatlin

Samuel, I understand your disappointment, but I think you may have misunderstood the legacy license concept. 

Logos has always provided the actual software for free. Someone who last bought Logos 15 years ago can still run Logos version 36 today. They will have the same speed and security improvements as someone with a Logos Max subscription and a 30k resource library. You do not need to pay to keep access to all of the features you have, which already replace a bookshelf and a research assistant. I feel comfortable with Logos's commitment on this because they have kept it for decades already, and have never mistreated existing customers who chose not to upgrade. They kept offering the new engine with the old features, at no additional cost. Indeed, Logos continues to provide older users with lots of things that cost them money, like syncing and repeated downloads. 

What is changing is that new features will only be available via subscription. If you want to get the Bible Study Builder, smart search, summarization, etc., in the past you needed a base package and now you will need a subscription. There will be no permanent access to features for new customers, but existing customers are given a fallback license for offline features (that is where the Legacy comes in, not that the software is somehow inferior). For some customers, those new features will not be worth it, but frankly, the Logos 10 full feature set already offers almost everything you could ever want that can be feasibly offered with the power of a laptop.