There’s been a lot of talk lately surrounding the pricing of Coldfusion, and it’s comparative cost with other application server products (ASP.NET, PHP etc etc). See Adam on Life, the crumb and even Feed-Squirrel for a small sample. This is why I was somewhat stunned to see that Adobe have decided to ramp the cost of the enterprise edition of the new CF8 up by 25% to $7,499.
I have been a user of CF since version 3, back in the old Allaire days. Since starting to use the product I can not recall any significant jumps (or drops) in price (IIRC), but I have seen editions coming in with significant upgrades to the product (anyone remember CF5 to CFMX?). This is why I would like to pose a simple question to someone from Adobe. Whatever reply I get I will post in-line unedited in this post for all to see (so, here’s your chance Adobe):
Q. Adobe. Given the current climate, the competition of Coldfusion, and the press that it has been getting recently, how can you justify a price increase of $1,500?
Now, before you answer, I want to share what I am seeing (and I hope I am wrong). Firstly, this price hike can’t be because of the new features, because we’ve been there before, and had more significant changes have been made in the past, CF Neo (6) was a much more drastic upgrade. Secondly, I don’t see how this can be due to dwindling demand (remember the rules of Supply and Demand) - as Adobe have been ramming down our throats how much more popular CF is these days. Thirdly, this can’t be due to Adobe believing that they can charge a little more due to more expensive competitors, as to be honest, there aren’t any.
So, the only conclusion I can come to is that Adobe are pricing up Enterprise to try and persuade less people to use CF 8, I.e. for some reason they would like the product to dwindle in usage (admittedly from a enterprise point of view). They, as a company, would like to focus on their original business, the black turtleneck brigdae. If this isn’t the intended move, then Adobe needs to open their eyes, because in an ever increasingly uncertain climate, people are not going to want to hear that they need to shell out even more money that before, they will just go elsewhere.
Therefore, Adobe, after thinking about this, I would like to ask the above question, in the hope that there is something I haven’t seen. I know the product, and I know whats been added, but as yet I can’t see anything except the reason I have stated above. At the moment, I’m sure Vince Bonfanti is wetting his pants laughing at the good fortune he’s just come into (BD7 AFAIK is the old price of $5,999 as well as having free dev/test licenses).
Exactly,
I hate how the CF die hards will come out and spin a lot of crap about how it’s better etc. Who cares, it is supposed to be better, thats what a new version is, if it wasn’t better it wouldn’t be an upgrade.
Read my Blog if you want some more fuel, I have no idea how on one hand they make Flex free then do this.
A goldern opportunity missed forever!
Maye they charge it because they know customers will pay for it (the true test of what something’s worth). I know my company will, and, yes Dale, because it’s better. It’s not just a little better than anything else out there, it’s infinitely better than anything else that’s out there.
Enterprise software is meant for the enterprise - we don’t go all belly up because we spend a few grand more for a one-time software purchase.
David
Great point about supply and demand! If indeed they are selling more - they should be able to lower the price (ala Wal-Mart).
While I’m no longer in an environment where I purchase software - I’d be feeling really chapped right now if I had to go to my boss and now tell him that all those fancy features I’ve been telling him about for the last few months in CF8 are going to cost an additional $1500. Given the fact we had several servers (as I imagine most development/hosting shops have) this extra cost could be really steep. Is the extra performance and new features worth that? I honestly don’t know if I could say yes…
Well Jim, personally, I think it’s worth it - but that’s for each individual to assess. $1500 here in the northeast is 15 - 25 hours worth of consulting fees. The testing we’ve done shows that the new features aren’t just a little better, they are exponentially better - specifically, quicker development time and time to market. Now, that affords us several conpetitive advantages, not to mention the savings in reduced development time. That additional $1500 is paid up front, but is an investment that lasts years.
Now, do I WANT to pay more? Absolutely not! However, lets put things in perspective. It’s a better product, and people expect to pay more for better products. That’s all I’m saying.
Better, well thats a sweeping statement, better how, tell that to the big CF clients migrating away.
Here in the UK we are only seeing a £300 increase on Enterprise.
If you start taking exchange rate into consideration, the overall pricing looks worse, but that’s prodominantly because the Pound is stomping all over the Dollar (2.02 to the pound compared to 1.34 five years ago).
You have to remember that ColdFusion is *Enterprise* level software so you expect to pay for it, but compared to software such as Websphere or Weblogic, ColdFusion as an Enterprise solution is a complete steal.
If you can’t see that, then seriously, re-evaulate where you and your business stand.
@Andy - I do realise how expensive some of the enterprise apps are, we have a few with seven figure prices. My point is purely this, why has it increased?
I’m writing big application right now. It was built on ColdFusion 8 beta. But when Adobe released final version and published prices I… started to rewrite everything to Java.
Thank you Adobe!
And I have to say I’m really happy. At least I will learn Java better