![]() ![]() You should also consider others such as DraftSight, ZWCAD, progeCAD, etc. You’ll have to research your own Autodesk product replacements and run your own numbers.įor the purpose of the exercise, I’m going to use BricsCAD Pro as the AutoCAD replacement. I’m aware that there are a lot of non-AutoCAD users now reading this blog, so you’re going to have to forgive me while I get AutoCAD-specific. What if you’re determined to never rent, never pay Autodesk another cent and never give up your perpetual license, but you still want to keep up to date? Then you need to look to Autodesk’s competition. Here’s a graph that shows how the average annual costs compare over time for these three options: Plus you have lots of options depending on how things pan out in the next five years. Pros: retain your perpetual license until 2022, zero cost in the medium term, long-term average costs not too badĬons: lose previous version & home use rights for five years, lose your perpetual license eventually, expensive from 2025 Option 8 – abandon maintenance, subscription in 2022 (3-year 50% discount)Īssumptions: subscription cost 10% compound rise annually from 2020, 3-year 50% discount If that happens, the numbers pan out like this: For example, trade in your perpetual license and get 50% off subscription if you sign up for 3 years.Ĭhoose the next option at this stage and you’re pretty much tossing a coin hoping that the offer will be made, but you can sit happily in zero-cost land, waiting for the opportune moment and that improves your chances of getting what you want. It’s very possible that in 2022 or thereabouts, Autodesk will try to invite recalcitrant customers like you to the rental party with special offers (such as we have seen over the last year or so). Pros: permanently retain your perpetual license, zero cost in the short/medium termĬons: lose previous version & home use rights for five years, expensive from 2022 Option 7 – abandon maintenance, subscription in 2022 Or you could leave it another couple of years, in which case it looks like this: Pros: permanently retain your perpetual license, zero cost in the short termĬons: lose previous version & home use rights for 3 years, expensive from 2020 ![]() Option 6 – abandon maintenance, subscription in 2020Īssumptions: subscription cost 10% compound rise annually from 2020 Best of all, Autodesk doesn’t get a cent from you for three years. You still retain your AutoCAD 2018 license and can revert to using it if Autodesk really screws up AutoCAD 2021. At that stage, become a new renter by signing up for subscription. Let’s say you are convinced of the need to keep current by all the brilliant improvements Autodesk made to AutoCAD in the meantime. In 2020, you assess the situation and decide if you really need to keep up to date. Keep using your AutoCAD 2018 perpetual license. Let’s say your maintenance renewal turns up this year and you ignore it. Pros: keep your perpetual license, keep it up to date, retain previous version & home use rightsĬons: increasing costs, expect more unpleasant “persuasive” surprises from Autodesk What if you don’t renew your maintenance and then maybe hop on the subscription gravy train later? What if you don’t renew your maintenance and switch to a non-Autodesk product?Īs stated in my first post, staying on maintenance is the baseline with which I’m comparing these options:Īssumptions: maintenance cost 20% compound rise annually from 2020 Something Autodesk didn’t plan on you doing, and something it won’t like. In this third post, I examine what happens if you do something out of the box. In this series of posts, I’ll examine various payment options for CAD software and compare them with the cost of staying on your Autodesk maintenance contract long-term. Note: due to new information from Autodesk, an updated summary has been posted. ![]()
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