What happened to the perpetual license option for new purchases?

[Bruce Weaver]

Greetings all. A colleague just alerted me to this. When I go through the motions of ordering a new single-user license via the Gradplan, I no longer see a Perpetual License option. The only options are Annual and Multiyear. And for the latter, I am directed to contact Statacorp for more info. In the Purchasing FAQs, however, I can see a page that says perpetual (educational) licenses are available. Also, if I go to the page to order a student (single-user) license, the Perpetual License option is still there.

So, I'm a bit confused. What's going on? Is Statacorp planning on phasing out perpetual licenses? I certainly hope not.

[Richard Williams]

When I go to

https://www.stata.com/order/new/edu/...mpus-gradplan/

and click on the multiyear tab all the licences listed are perpetual.

You are in Canada, right? Maybe Trump demanded that we stop giving you such good deals. Hopefully SPSS will still sell to you. ;-)

[Sarah Marrs]

Hi Bruce -- great question.

The perpetual license is certainly still available and you can contact our sales team about purchasing one -- just follow the website link or I am happy to have someone reach out to you directly.

Over time, we have noticed that more users prefer to purchase our annual licenses. As the demand for annual licenses grew, we knew we needed to update our webshop. However, we are committed to offering perpetual licenses. With the more expensive perpetual licenses, we want to be sure users are getting the right product for them.

Sarah Marrs
Director of International Marketing, StataCorp
[email protected]

[Bruce Weaver]

Yes Richard, I'm in Canada, and you could be on to something there. Our PM did turn down an invitation to DC to mark the start of the new NAFTA/USMCA. Maybe Mr. Trump is upset by that. ;-)

Thanks for the info, Sarah. I do have a perpetual license for Stata 16, so am not currently looking to purchase anything myself right now. But I am doing my bit to encourage others at my university to give Stata a try, so like to know what license options are available to them. And I've always viewed the perpetual license one of the good selling points for folks who are using other packages where annual licenses are the only option.

Cheers,
Bruce

[Richard Williams]

And now, all of a sudden, I too am getting the message "Multiple year subscriptions are available at a discounted rate. Contact us for pricing." I guess I'll worry about it whenever Stata 17 comes out.

In the past, the gradplan pricing made a new purchase cost about the same as an upgrade. As a result, Stata versions 7 through 16 are all installed on my machine, which sometimes comes in handy.

Annual licenses might make sense for grad students who are basically taking statistics under protest and never want to see a number again after they pass the required classes.

[Leonardo Guizzetti]

Hi Bruce -- great question.

The perpetual license is certainly still available and you can contact our sales team about purchasing one -- just follow the website link or I am happy to have someone reach out to you directly.

Over time, we have noticed that more users prefer to purchase our annual licenses. As the demand for annual licenses grew, we knew we needed to update our webshop. However, we are committed to offering perpetual licenses. With the more expensive perpetual licenses, we want to be sure users are getting the right product for them.

Sarah Marrs
Director of International Marketing, StataCorp
[email protected]

This is good to hear as I still prefer the perpetual license option.

[Richard Williams]

I can't see the perpetual license costs now but in the past I've gotten the impression that two one-year licenses cost about the same as a perpetual license. So, you might as well buy perpetual if you are a long-term user. Especially if you might just skip Stata 17 unless it has something you really really want.

Rather than 1-year licenses, I might be more interested in a subscription model where I knew I would always have the latest and greatest version of Stata available.

[Sarah Marrs]

Richard, I agree with you that the best version of Stata is the current version of Stata. While we offer a couple of ways to keep up to date, our annual licenses are easily renewed, just like a subscription service, and you automatically get any new version or features that are released. This applies to both single-user licenses as well as to larger licenses for institutions.

[Tarjei W. Havneraas]

Sarah Marrs will Stata phase out perpetual licenses?

I saw a thread on this on twitter, where it was argued that this will push people over to R. I enjoy Stata and have a personal perpetual license for Stata 16 and wonder if I will not be able to upgrade to later versions on a perpetual license. If only yearly/multi-year subscriptions will be available this seems pricy in the long run.

[FernandoRios]

Sarah Marrs I agree with the General sentiment from Twitter too. While it may be possible to get the perpetual license by contacting Stata directly, it is an added burden that would make more people hesitant on doing it. Furthermore, As the twitter thread Tarjei W. Havneraas mentions, the current set up of "hidding" the perpetual /multiple year prices will give a strong negative signal to new user, who may feel to be pushed out Stata into other software.

Remember, one of the biggest plus of Stata was that once you buy a license (perpetual) it was yours forever. That compared to other software like SAS that doesnt allow you to do such things.

Hope the "marketing" group at @Stata realizes this is a mistake and gets back to the previous format.

[Tarjei W. Havneraas]

So here is the thread. I also think this is a mistake. Since R is free I'm not sure it's wise to potentially increase costs or remove the convenience of buying a perpetual license.

[Marcos Almeida]

This is appalling news. I have acquired perpetual licenses since Stata 12. This year, though, on account of an economical crisis that made the local currency lose (much) value, I decided to skip version 16, yet I’m counting down to the arrival of Stata 17. Hopefully this new trend is not for real and it was just a bad dream.

[Eric de Souza]

It is clearly stated in post #3 above that Stata is committed to offering the perpetual license. It is also clearly stated here that the perpetual license is available still:
https://www.stata.com/order/business-license-options/


The same is stated under Educational License options

[FernandoRios]

I agree
but my comment goes to the fact that the perpetual liven option is not easily accessible anymore.
and, as evidence of this post and the twitter thread, there is a negative reaction in the market.

[Marcos Almeida]

I gather the clear assumption is that the topic of this thread remarked ((and regretted) the change of trends, i.e., the recent lack of priority given to those who wish to acquire perpetual licenses, not necessarily the complete absence of this option, but this news is worrying enough.