What’s the difference between the subscription and 1 year license?

We get asked all the time, what is the actual difference between the subscription license and the 1 year license? The subscription license is a recurring payment that occurs every year. The subscription can be cancelled at anytime from the My Account page of our website. However note, once the subscription is cancelled this prevents you from attaining any further updates and support for the plugin.

The one year license lasts for one year and can be renewed manually each year by just repurchasing the desired plugin again the same way as if you were buying it for the first time. Once the manual license expires and it is not renewed you will no longer be able to attain further updates or support for the plugin.

There’s no difference at all in the actual plugin product itself and this includes the support provided.

We strongly recommend the subscription product. Why? Well for 2 reasons:

1. It’s cheaper so you can save money. So even if it is your desire to just use our plugin for one year, it’s still cheaper to go on the subscription and cancel it at a later time.
2. If you do wish to continue getting updates and support, which we recommend, the renewal process on the subscription is completely effortless. You don’t need to repurchase the plugin again AND you also don’t need to go into the plugin settings and update your order ID and purchase email.

So because it’s cheaper and it’s more convenient we recommend the subscription option. But of course your personal preference or company policy may dictate that the 1 year license is the right option for you.

It should be noted that for both the 1 year and subscription license options we offer a 1 site license and an unlimited site license.

Here are some other FAQ’s we get in terms of licensing:

If I have a staging/development site, do I need an unlimited site license?

No, you can just get a single site license. But if you would like to receive updates and support on both your staging and live site, please email our support with both your domains so we can add this to your license on our end.

Why don’t you offer a lifetime license?

Well, there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, we don’t really agree with the concept, because we don’t know how long you are going to be alive, and you don’t know how long we are going to be in business for. So to put a price on such unknowns is just foolish for both parties in our opinion. We don’t want to be a room full of 90 year olds slaving away for no money providing support because you purchased a lifetime license 30 years ago, and you don’t want to buy a lifetime license only to find out we have gone out of business 1 year later. Yes there have been many cases of customers being left out in the cold because of lifetime licenses and lifetime warranties. At Northern Beaches Websites, we like to keep our word and take care of both our customers and staff. So we find the annual license fair and reasonable for everyone involved. We have no intention of launching a lifetime license for this reason.

If I buy a single site licence can I change the website that the license is registered to?

Yes, you can do this from the My Account page in the orders tab and then click on your order and then change the domain name in the “My Licence” section at the top. Please note, the domain should be entered without http or https at the start, so it should just be entered like: mydomain.com

Do you provide discounts for charities/not for profits?

No sorry, not at this time.