On the back of making a genuine, interested enquiry with XC, as to making progression from XC 5.4.1.* series to XC 5.5.*.* series (where a XC 5.4.1.* series Business Licence or greater, is already held) and on the assumption that this progression would be made before the end of Q1 2023, so as to allow the XC 5.5.* series release(s) to be up to date / up to speed (e.g. PHP 8.1 / 8.2 being fully supported by the release in Q1 2023 etc) The
current basis of understanding, of the licensing and/or progression options available, is this:
1) Any current Business License (or greater) is still valid (for life - as previously stated when purchased) BUT, only for the XC 5.4.1.* series (and releases prior to that
if still being used). It is NOT valid for the new XC 5.5 series of releases.
There are no further
planned XC 5.4.1.* releases after the current 5.4.1.37 release, albeit, there
might be security and/or minor updates if/when needed. So in effect, your XC 5.4 series licence (for life) is what it is / what it says on the tin. There's no deception. Just a fast approaching EOL if this is being completely transparent
Your XC 5.4.1.* licence will remain fully valid, as long as you continue to run & use, any of the XC 5.4.1.* series of releases. Caveat: See various previous forum posts / threads about this choice,
not necessarily being a safe (from a functionality / safety / security perspective) long term option and/or the need to purchase an annual support package too.
2) XC 5.5.* Technical details of this (in terms of specific requirements IF you're self-hosting) are still quite
sketchy at present. Meaning, in relation to MariaDB releases / Server OS releases / Apache and/or Nginx OS releases etc but, the XC stated intention
IS as mentioned above: To be up to date / up to speed by the end of Q1 2023, so
in theory these min / max limits will be known early in Q1 2023.
The main difference is that the XC 5.5.* series is intentionally, a SaaS product.
This means that self-hosting is a much less attractive / usable option and also that the licensing / costs are quite different than its XC 5.4.1.* series.
There will be several different levels of subscription (starting from approx $199 per month) and these subscriptions can/ will include things
like:
X-Cart Core and all future updates (i.e Zero separate upgrade fees for Core and/or add-ons)
A choice of over 150 XC developed add-ons, including commercial add-ons that previously, had to be licensed / purchased separately
24/7 Tech Support included
Cloud Search and Cloud Filters
X-Payments (PayPal) solution
X-Cart VPS Basic Hosting (Optional)
etc etc. The choice of subscription level will determine the subscription package contents.
Things relating to the XC 5.5.* series, will no doubt, become much clearer in Q1 2023, but this ^ is the broad brush intention for it, at the time of making this post.
So, perhaps somewhat predictably;
You pay your money, you make your choice - as we say...
