X-Cart forums

[Triple A Racing]

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...

[cflsystems]

All I know is the licensing changed. Even my dev license that worked for XC5+ any version had to be changed for 5.5.x. However there's no info what the consequences of the new license are - production ones.
Does it mean subscription is on a monthly bases?
Does it mean payment must be received by the 1st of month otherwise site goes down?
If the new subscription includes core and modules - how is the 3rd party modules treated? As part of the subscription? How is cost determine - as right now is annual, is it going to be on a monthly bases?
There's so many question. We are still in the dark as to what's what and how/why is changing in terms of.... well terms. XC has never been very transparent and we always find out thing way after the fact. But honestly so far I do not see SL being a better successor. I am sure they want to move in the right direction I just don;t see it much yet. Maybe is the way all this is being communicated (not) to us...

[Dougrun]

I'm happy with 5.4 as long as its secure. I realize they need to make $ but i would rather pay for major upgrades and support than pay monthly and have it hosted on a server i have no control over. I would do this for 4.7x as well but they seem to not care.

[Triple A Racing]

Originally Posted by Triple A Racing

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) ~~~ 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 ~~~

Just to quickly update this, asked further questions (on the basis of self-hosting / can XC 5.5.*.* series be hosted on servers that match our own minimum tech server specs etc) and did receive another helpful reply from the XC Team. i.e. which in short form was: Yes, it can, but some parts if those specs e.g. PHP 8.1 might not have full support until Q3 2023 (current best estimate). FYI.

[cflsystems]

We are one week away from PHP 8.2 and XC 5.5.x will be PHP 8.1.x ready at the end of next year? That's good to know.

[cflsystems]

FYI - https://forum.x-cart.com/showthread.php?p=417199