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How's your Solidworks maintenance costs these days?

thesidetalker

Stainless
Joined
Jan 11, 2015
Location
Bay Area, CA
Getting quotes for maintenance renewals now. Bare bones standard version, network licensing, is nearly $1,700/yr per seat... that's after "discount" for a 3-year renewal.

About 2.5x the cost of last time, 3 years ago. What the hell? This is just for maintenance...

The increased cost is making it really easy to give up on "maintenance" and stick with 2022 or '23 here on out.

What are you guys seeing lately?
 
standard used to be $1295.00, $500 penalty for lapse added on so $1795.

but that was long long time ago.

are you sure the VAR isn't tacking on shit
 
Mine is at $2k/yr. Includes sw cam pro.

Do you really need the network license? I wanted it but it isn’t a cheap option. I just disconnect and reconnect the license to move between pc’s. It’s just me though. I can see if you’re a bigger outfit the network license may be necessary.
 
Mine is at $2k/yr. Includes sw cam pro.

Do you really need the network license? I wanted it but it isn’t a cheap option. I just disconnect and reconnect the license to move between pc’s. It’s just me though. I can see if you’re a bigger outfit the network license may be necessary.

$1628.75 - SOLIDWORKS Standard Standalone - Elite Success Plan -
Renewal - 1 Year

I believe if I was do more than 1 year renewal its a 9% discount.

My VAR added SolidProfessor to all their options at an additional cost of $300/year, in which I have absolutely no use for, so its a waste of money. This should be an add on option. My VAR told me their customer study stated it was a wanted add in to be included.....I was never asked.

Untitled.jpg
 
FYI, GoEngineer indicates:

One standalone license is $4,195. The annual subscription service price, which covers technical support, upgrades, and more for one year, is $1,295.

See here: Error | GoEngineer
 
Ah I do have a correction to make. Three years ago it was about $1,100/seat for maintenance. Had less seats back then.
Still quite the jump to almost $1,700 today.

Yes it seems they're really pushing to sell some addons and training. Thing is, we don't need any training or support. I don't think I've ever made a call or email into support in the last 10 years. Unfortunately they don't have a cheaper plan to do without either. Sucks.
 
Not sure if this will be double posted since I posted/edited then it disappeared, but:

ww.goengineer.com/guide-to-buying-solidworks

"One standalone license is $4,195. The annual subscription service price, which covers technical support, upgrades, and more for one year, is $1,295."
 
Getting quotes for maintenance renewals now. Bare bones standard version, network licensing, is nearly $1,700/yr per seat... that's after "discount" for a 3-year renewal.

About 2.5x the cost of last time, 3 years ago. What the hell? This is just for maintenance...

The increased cost is making it really easy to give up on "maintenance" and stick with 2022 or '23 here on out.

What are you guys seeing lately?

I got an email from my var about the price increase as of the first of April.


Hello Shawn,

I wanted to reach out to notify you of an upcoming price increase from Dassault Systèmes. The price of SOLIDWORKS desktop and network licenses will increase between 5% and 19%, effective on April 1, 2022.

Many of our clients will be asking how they can avoid the effects of this increase. We have several promotions for the month of March to help you lock in the current rate. Your options include:
• A free SOLIDWORKS instant upgrade
• Term licensing incentives
• 24% discount on 3-year subscription plans
Whatever your design plans include, simply hit reply or call us at xxx.xxx.xxxx. We will make sure to get you the best pricing available, along with the support and services that you can expect from partnering with Hawk Ridge Systems.
 
Our maintenance costs were absolutely out of control, so I quit maintenance this year.

Dassault has also opted to remove online licensing despite the increased maintenance costs. One of my guys just got a quote for moving our three seats onto a network license, and it was over 17k just to put the 3 seats we "own" on the network...

They are trying hard to get rid of the few small customers they have left. Hopefully this will be our last year with Solidworks as our primary option for CAD. It's unfortunate, because the cost of retraining is massive relative to our CAD use. At a certain point though, customers have to vote with their wallet by jumping to a software provider that isn't gouging them quite as hard.
 
$1628.75 - SOLIDWORKS Standard Standalone - Elite Success Plan -
Renewal - 1 Year

I believe if I was do more than 1 year renewal its a 9% discount.

My VAR added SolidProfessor to all their options at an additional cost of $300/year, in which I have absolutely no use for, so its a waste of money. This should be an add on option. My VAR told me their customer study stated it was a wanted add in to be included.....I was never asked.

View attachment 347878

Well shop around for another VAR. I’m on my third.
 
Mine is at $2k/yr. Includes sw cam pro.

Do you really need the network license? I wanted it but it isn’t a cheap option. I just disconnect and reconnect the license to move between pc’s. It’s just me though. I can see if you’re a bigger outfit the network license may be necessary.

I do the same. Wish it was a little easier. They told me it would be just a few clicks and done but its more like 4-5 or more clicks and like a minute delay for it all to go through. I know thats still not too bad, but seems to me like it could be much easier and faster then it is.

I cant understand the maintenance costs. I used 2014 years ago, and using 2020 now. I see hardly any difference at all. Seems crazy to spend so much money every year on such minor changes.
 
Did you tell him that he's full of shit and you don't buy that story?
Ask him to show you this "study".

We went back and forth for a couple months, they received a couple very long emails. I'm sure every year my renewal comes up they send it with a "here we go" I let them have it every year with the BS.


Well shop around for another VAR. I’m on my third.

I've thought about it a couple times, I'm 95% CAM user and SW is just the CAD to CAMWorks. I've never used any support for SW, but my CAMWorks support with my VAR is great compared to what I've heard from others and I don't pay for post updates/upgrades, or any editing. I can send a post out and have it back within in hours with whatever I need.
 
I cant understand the maintenance costs. I used 2014 years ago, and using 2020 now. I see hardly any difference at all. Seems crazy to spend so much money every year on such minor changes.

I agree. With SW, MS Word, Excell, etc, etc... These are all mature products that do what they do well. Nothing really needs to be done other than fix bugs. But with this thinking how do you keep the party going at HQ? Got to charge these fees. Software as a service is this on steroids. Total BS!

I'm 95% CAM user and SW is just the CAD to CAMWorks. I've never used any support for SW, but my CAMWorks support with my VAR is great compared to what I've heard from others and I don't pay for post updates/upgrades, or any editing. I can send a post out and have it back within in hours with whatever I need.

Very similar situation for me. When I need SW support there is so much info on the web I can generally get what I want to know quickest using a web search. I wanted the CAM support. In my case I use SW CAM so can't call CAMWorks directly. My first Var was not a CAMWorks seller and really didn't know CAM well so I switched to another. The second had some CAMWorks support but I knew more than the guy that I was trying to help me. And, it seemed like they were more interested in selling 3D printers than supporting the software. The current VAR I changed to because they claimed to be more machining oriented.
 
How many people are skipping maint for 3 - 4 years, then just buying a new seat?

Yes exactly, this makes more sense to me. For maintenance to really be worthwhile to a user you think it would be %10 or so tops of license cost.

I plan on using my perpetual licences till I retire. Look at all the stuff that was built in this world before CAD and CNC. Nothing but pencil and paper and handcracked machines. Think about that and ask yourself do you really need that latest feature just released to get the job done?
 
Do you really need the network license?

Some seats yes, some probably not. Some users are infrequent and get by just fine sharing the open seats. Others like myself have SW open all day. Although now it is cost-prohibitive to switch some back to single and staying on maintenance.

How many people are skipping maint for 3 - 4 years, then just buying a new seat?

Considering this, but not really looking forward to it.

It sucks when some customers think they always need the latest and "greatest"... or just have piles other people's of cash sitting around needing burning. Then going back and forth with step or parasolid files.. yuck. Not looking forward to those days again.
 
Yes exactly, this makes more sense to me. For maintenance to really be worthwhile to a user you think it would be %10 or so tops of license cost.

I plan on using my perpetual licences till I retire. Look at all the stuff that was built in this world before CAD and CNC. Nothing but pencil and paper and handcracked machines. Think about that and ask yourself do you really need that latest feature just released to get the job done?

As far as SW goes, I couldn't tell you anything that has changed since I started using SolidWorks in 2008, but like I said, I'm 95% CAM, I do some basic sketches and modeling relevant to my CAM set ups or programs. I could make due without ever upgrading SolidWorks. On the CAMWorks side, its maybe every 3 years there's an added feature that I might say "oh that'll be nice" but I'd say 2019-2022 has been pointless and a waste.
 
Some seats yes, some probably not. Some users are infrequent and get by just fine sharing the open seats. Others like myself have SW open all day. Although now it is cost-prohibitive to switch some back to single and staying on maintenance.



Considering this, but not really looking forward to it.

It sucks when some customers think they always need the latest and "greatest"... or just have piles other people's of cash sitting around needing burning. Then going back and forth with step or parasolid files.. yuck. Not looking forward to those days again.

I've considered skipping a couple years, but I am in the same boat, my customers all upgrade every year and I find some value in getting a SW native file and being able to see the design tree.
 
Think about that and ask yourself do you really need that latest feature just released to get the job done?

Nope. Just need the tools to fix customer files or modify surfaces to get CAM to do what I want more easily. Normally I'm using an older version, not the current.

But it is nice to work with the native file from a customer, rather than converting to different file types. But, not all customers are using SW anyway.

There are updates here and there that seem better. I haven't taken a close look at everything, but have noticed the newer versions sometimes handle catia>step conversions better. Some files I would open to find 1000s of unrepairable surfaces with gaps opened cleanly in the new version.

Or something as simple as a chamfer... Older versions don't seem to handle chamfers on edges of intersecting holes at various angles too well. New version handles this great and makes deburring those edges of cross holes easier.
 








 
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