X-Cart forums

[mcinque]

Today I learned with surprise that:

- X-Cart is now "subscription based"
- no more one-time fee licenses
- only Enterprise license available
- most addons freely available in the license

(I'm still waiting for pricing details).

If this is correct, this sounds like a big (and scary) news for me.

Like almost all of other users here, I create online stores for my clients, using X-Cart as e-commerce platform. I tried almost every e-commerce platform available and I always found X-Cart as the best in terms of price/features.

I have tried many types of e-commerce platforms and X-Cart has always been my favorite.

But this dramatic change could be the end for my services with X-Cart, I may have to change the platform I use for my work and this scares me a lot (because I know the alternatives).

The licensing costs were affordable and the performance was great. One-off costs and direct assistance services from Qualiteam for a fee, as needed. I couldn't ask for anything better. Something that is rarely found around.

Now I need to understand how to go forward and whether I will have to change dramatically my work and re-evaluate existing and popular platforms as an X-Cart replacement for new projects, or continue with Qualiteam.

I don't know at this point

- what costs shall be considered in using X-Cart as a platform to build stores?
- what will be the future of the mods and their developers?
- what will be the future of X-Cart4 one-time fee licenses, will be kept patched?

Tell me what you think.

[pauldodman]

I've had long discussions with X-Cart sales people on this.
It's an unbelievable, and suicidal move - and not good at all for developers.
If people want a subscription model, they will just go with one of the many other systems that offer that.
X-Cart had a major USP with it's one time payment - not everyone wants to pay as they go - but now X-cart is just the same as everything else.

[PhilJ]

Puzzling innit.

[cflsystems]

I was hit with this about 2 weeks ago. I did not want to be the guy letting the genie out of the bottle so I was waiting for and giving a chance to XC (actually SL) to come out here and announce this as this is the normal way of communicating such drastic change. Let the community know either by posting on the forum, somewhere on x-cart.com or sending out an announcement email/notice. And this - at least a month in advance.
However since this was probably decided a month ago and they have not come out to announce it yet I don't think they will.
This move will definitely cut ties with XC4 users wanting to move to XC5. I have few stores in questions and they will most likely move away from XC because of this. Not good at all.
But then SL is probably not counting on existing XC4 user at all. Which means they are not that many anyway so it's justifiable to ditch them.


Unfortunately I don't think XC will come out and publicly announce this. It is done deal. They may still change some terms but the very fact that this is known as

Yes, it is right, now we provide our customers with new solutions for X-Cart 5 - Enterprise. You will benefit from:
- Robust X-Cart core that can be customized to any extent;
- 60+ modules for scaling your business;
- 24/7 Standard Technical Support;
- Full access to the software code - you'll be able to perform any changes;
- Lifelong access to new versions of X-Cart. We keep releasing newer versions of X-Cart almost in every quarter. You'll have full access to these upgrades and will be able to take advantage of them;
- Scalability - you'll be able to add extra modules (both custom and default) if it's needed;
-Unlimited CloudSearch and X-Payments services;
- The possibility to host your store wherever you wish.

This solution is available for $199/mo or $1,910/year on the condition of 12-mo commitment. Extra X-Cart software and services, including any level of custom development service, can be obtained at any stage of this project for an additional cost.

while at the same time the x-cart.com requires anyone to contact them for new license makes me believe the conditions may vary from customer to customer. And also - cutting the man in between - the 3rd party dev.


As Paul I had some conversations with them but again I think it has been decided.
I agree with Paul - the strength of XC was being self-hosted, flat fee platform. In this subscription world we are in right now this move by SL makes XC look like any other shopping cart solution out there and most of them will out perform XC under the same conditions.

Since there is no info on the pricing model at all at this point it is a wild guess if the cart will work if one does not pay the monthly fee of $199. My guess is - it will not. Which completely changes everything XC stands for.

On the other hand XC has always been seen as "cheap" solution and SL needs to get some ROI on their investment.

[mcinque]

This solution is available for $199/mo or $1,910/year on the condition of 12-mo commitment. Extra X-Cart software and services, including any level of custom development service, can be obtained at any stage of this project for an additional cost.

This definitely put the XC5 out of my reach. I cannot build anymore stores for my customers with XC5 if there are these costs. This forces me to reconsider other platforms that I have snubbed so far.

Very sad. I never expected to leave X-Cart, expecially in this way (pratically kicked out).

The most urgent and important thing to undestand at the moment is:

What will happen to the XC4 and XC5 stores and licenses we currently have?
As you will surely understand, it's critical to keep the existing stores at the existing licensing conditions.

[mcinque]

Also, is quite weird we are discussing what will happen to existing licenses or other terms of service, HERE: I mean,qualiteam should have made a specific page or announcement, clarifying the conditions.

Maybe existing customers aren't a priority? If so, this scares me even more.

It is bizarre that WE should ask for information.

[thebluedoorboutique]

Unless things have changed (again), since my last discussion with X-Cart, the pricing and information listed here are a bit confusing. Obviously, the point that they're going with here is the intent to create ongoing cash flow for themselves that the user-first, open-source business model doesn't provide.

When I talked to them a month or so ago, there were a few options:
- X-Cart Cloud (hosted?) and X-Cart Enterpise
- $1910/yr for Enterprise and $3,340/year for Multi Vendor Enterprise
- You can stay with your current XC4 licenese, and/or upgrade to XC55 license (free/discounted) and the yearly "access fee" to upgrades is $195/yr (within 30 days of expiration), and $350/yr (outside of 30 days)
- It's "worth noting" that the Enterprise plan comes with CloudSearch (~$539/yr+), 24/7 support, and obviously upgrades. The support alone is equal to the subscription fee.

All in all, the take away, again assuming this hasn't changed since our conversation a month or so ago, is that you can keep your licenese and/or upgrade your current licenese, gain access to upgrades thru yearly "access fee".

I'm not sure how this works with new liceneses, but like before couldn't you contact X-Cart directly and purchase XC4 licenses? You could do that, then in turn upgrade them to XC5 "lifelong" licenses?

[cflsystems]

There is no more XC4. They stopped selling XC4 licenses long time ago or at least were phasing them out.
The free/discounted XC4 to XC5 license is gone (it was $49). It's been at least 2 weeks now.
The yearly "access fee" upgrade of $195/year and "late" upgrade fee of $350/year is gone. It's been at least 2 weeks now.

The only thing you can purchase right now is Enterprise for $199/month or $1910/year. And with this I assume the cart will stop working if subscription is not paid.

Existing XC5 licenses prior to this are lifetime licenses and they will continue under the terms at the time they were purchased. In other words - $195 or $350 per year. That's what I know but since there is nothing from QT/SL on this it may not be the case. Lifetime XC5 licenses continue to work without paid subscription but cannot get upgrades after subscription expires.

The new Enterprise comes with some products/services that may not be suitable for all. So the possibility is most new XC5 users will pay more than they should because of these unusable to them products/services. Not all want to use XPayments. In fact I think they have bundled X-Payments and ClourSearch into this because they don't get enough signups for these services and it cost a lot to develop/support them.

We don't know what the "60+ modules for scaling your business;" are. I would say even if these 60+ modules are all paid modules typical cart will use maybe 5-10 of them. So for the rest they are paying for something they don't need/use.

All this adds up.

[PhilJ]

https://help.x-cart.com/index.php?title=Roadmap


ye of little faith

[cflsystems]

Originally Posted by PhilJ

https://help.x-cart.com/index.php?title=Roadmap

This I assume is for existing XC4 stores not for new ones. I just can't imagine them continuing releasing new versions of both XC4 and XC5.
Maybe they should ask one of the 3rd party devs and license the code to them for future releases, support, maintenance...
Maybe you should inquire with them Phil and get your theme as part of the cart core instead of being a custom module. And take XC4 off their hands.