New Subscription Frustration

Rev. Lex DeLong · 2025-01-25T12:07:30+00:00

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Dear Logos,
I have been with Logos since the early days of 1996, have expanded my library levels and ala carte columns, and updated my version numerous times throughout my time with Logos.
I am extremely disappointed with your move to a subscription based model. I will no longer upgrade to new features if I have to do it through subscription.
I can't be the only existing customer that feels as I do. I hope that my objection will not fall on deaf ears.
Please consider offering the buy-in option for new features/versions, even if it is alongside the subscription model, so that we can choose which we prefer.
I have no desire to be dragged kicking and screaming into yet "one more" subscription.
Pastor Lex DeLong

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Comments

DMB

Oh, you are not the only existing customer that feels as you do. But they have new ownership, so it's what they're calling 'the New Era'. New revenue needs.

Theophan Dort

I use Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.) to design, build, manage my parish's website, and I used to buy a package and use it for several years, skipping upgrades until I felt like it was worth it to me. So I was bitterly disappointed when Adobe went to a subscription plan and charged several hundred dollars every year to basically "rent" the products. It cost me WAY more money, and I do this work for free, so I don't make a nickel using the very expensive Adobe products. I thought about switching to other apps, but wound up deciding that Adobe's tools were really great, and I was used to them, so no new learning curve, so I decided it was worth it to me to pay the subscription every year.

It was a little bit similar when Logos switched to a subscription plan, but honestly only a little bit similar. The huge difference is that Logos doesn't cost me any more now than it did before! It might even be a little cheaper. What I used to do was to upgrade to the latest version pretty much every time they came out with one, which was every 2 years. Sometimes, I only upgraded the resources, not the package with new books, but usually I bought the new version of the package I own. So this year I paid for a 2-year subscription, and just recently I bought a denominational package at the same level I'd had before, and the combination of those two I'm pretty sure is a little less than the last time I bought the denominational package with the latest resources in it. So in a practical sense, the new plan works as well for me as the old one and is no more expensive, maybe even cheaper. And with the 2-year subscription, I get to own the new resources even if I stop subscribing, other than the ones like AI that require being online.

If you have been doing Logos the way I used to do Abobe, though, only upgrading your resources maybe every 5 year or more, instead of every 2 years, then it may cost you more to subscribe IF you always subscribe, but you still could do essentially the same thing: subscribe with a 2-year subscription whenever you think it's worth it to you (maybe every 5 years, for example), just the way you used to buy a new package whenever you thought it was worth it to you, and then you'll "own" the new resources forever (again, other than the ones like AI that require being online to use them), and you can stop subscribing until the next time you decide it'd be worth it to you. Maybe you find the "idea" of subscribing offensive, but in real-life practice, I'm not sure it's actually very different, or even necessarily more expensive.

That's how I see it, anyway. My 2 cents', possibly worth less. ;)

Michael

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1355278#Comment_1355278

I agree this is true for those that have a Logos 10 package. However, for anyone that doesn't have a Logos 10 feature set it's a different story. The legacy fallback license is only available if you have a Logos 10 feature set. This means new users will never own their Logos features so a continual subscription is required to make use of Logos. This makes it hard for me to recommend Logos to anyone new to Logos. It's a great tool, but limiting the legacy fallback license only available to Logos 10 feature set owners is greatly limiting. Maybe a solution is to make the legacy fallback license available to everyone else after 48 months or something like that. Not having it available at all at this point is a huge negative in my opinion.

Jon Davidsen

I generally appreciate Logos for being a powerful tool for studying the Bible. However, I am disappointed that after investing a significant amount of money into Logos, they switched to a subscription model. Had I known this beforehand, I likely would have chosen a different Bible software. I dislike subscription models—like everyone else in the world—that require ongoing payments.

Thomas Myers

Does Logos actually have a new owner?

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1355997#Comment_1355997

Yes, Bob (and family) sold majority interest a few years back (2020) … no change since them.

Saay

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1355278#Comment_1355278

You won't own the resources that come with the subscription. You will own the features that you get with the subscription if you subscribe for 2 years. Of course, if you do purchase resources, they are yours forever. Even so, I feel subscription is still a worthwhile investment. As you say, I would also spend the same amount every two years to upgrade to the next version of Logos.