Has Anyone “Converted” Their Altium Perpetual License? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: dstraight
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 06:16:44 pm
content: I just got an email from my Altium License manager offering to convert my perpetual license to their “Term-Based License model.”I’d like to hear from others who have converted their perpetual license.If I convert and then decide to switch to another software package (say, OrCAD) would my old perpetual license still work? I would think so - unless Altium has a sneaky way of detecting that you’ve converted and then ditched paying for the subscription license.In a nutshell - if converting to a term based license effectively deletes my Altium perpetual license then I won’t convert.

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 06:21:31 pm
content: In the past they said you keep your perpetual, but I'm not sure if that was a time limited offer, or if it's the normal deal. Best to ask what the slippery fish says this month.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/altium-is-killing-off-perpetual-ad/msg5745401/#msg5745401

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 08:08:09 pm
content: Yes, you will keep your perpetual license, but it will be valid only for the verson which was current at the moment your last permanent sub expired. The question is - will this version be able to open projects created in future (sub-only) versions (so that you can actually do something with projects created while on a term license, once that term expires)? Do you want to take a guess?

author: jc101
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 07, 2025, 08:31:25 pm
content: The term based licence will be, after any honeymoon, double the price of what maintenance of a perpetual licence. Then it will increase annually after that.I was told they would suspend the perpetual whilst have an active term based licence. If you decide to drop the term based, they would turn the licence back on.Given what has happened so far, I have zero trust that Altium will not renege on this.Only if you have a permanent standalone licence, not an on-demand one, do you stand a chance. I was moved from standalone to on-demand, they wanted £4k to move it back again. I declined their offer.

author: glenenglish
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 10, 2025, 10:41:31 am
content: I was told my perpetual would always work, just frozen in time.When I told them I wasnt renewing, I was told they might go another year on current perpetual maintenance system....SO, perhaps ask them if they'll provide an iron clad, legally binding document that says they will honour perpetual maintenance for five years, not oneSee how that goes. Get a lawyers opinion. If its good, perhaps continue to renew.My Cadence Orcad X Presto POX200 eval : So far: Cadence is nice. (POX200 product number) . fresh air.Perpetual license is reasonably priced and maintenance per year is lower than Altium.I'll be giving Cadence a PO in Q3. I was umming and ahhing for a while, but now made my mind up.... and told my colleages which way I am going.Based on my discussions at the ELectronex show last week, Altium has very clearly really pissed off alot of users. I told everyone where I was going.

author: dstraight
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 11, 2025, 07:08:08 pm
content: I haven't been happy with Altium for a few years now. I wouldn't think that "converting" my Altium standalone license would somehow disable my existing perpetual license(not counting future versions of Altium). I did an offline install of Altium 25 last week and that worked.

author: hwasti
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2025, 11:52:37 am
content: Quote from: glenenglish on May 10, 2025, 10:41:31 amAnd what will this document do for you?If they renege, what will you do? What can you do?Hire a lawyer and sue them? It will cost several 10's of thousands of dollars and several years to get a favorable judgement. Is that worth it? Will you consider that a "win" ?Realistically speaking, such agreements are only worth the recycling value of the paper they are written on. You have the right, but not the practical ability, to enforce them.The companies know that and bet on your not knowing that. And it is winning bet for them.Your only recourse is to shame the company into honoring an agreement. For that, the agreement does not have to be legally binding, only socially binding. And the company has to have a good reputation that they value and are afraid of losing.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2025, 01:48:16 pm
content: Considering that last few years they've been working on mostly "pro" sub features, and instead of fixing old builtin features were tacking on another paid plugins (like for SI/PI), I think it's a safe bet to just stay on the current version without much in a way of FOMO.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2025, 08:52:48 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on June 02, 2025, 01:48:16 pm*fomo, agree. There are lots of bug fixes to basic features, but if they don't directly affect you it doesn't matter:https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/public-release-notes#version-2562

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2025, 07:12:45 pm
content: Quote from: thm_w on June 02, 2025, 08:52:48 pmEvery big software product contains bugs and oddities. Professional users just learn to live with them and work around if possible. Potential fixes are not worth having your future work inaccessible once you stop shelling your money to feed ever increasing vendor's appetite. At least to me.

author: dstraight
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 18, 2025, 07:40:15 pm
content: "With the migration we are offering your perpetual license to be archived for you free of charge while your new term based license is active."My perpetual license will be "archived" - "free of charge?"

author: ajawamnet
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2025, 02:47:15 pm
content: No I'd never go term. I don't need another partner.For some organizations such as:- fly-by-night guys that just want to get their valuation up then sell off their tech and GTFO- large contractors that support things like the military and just need access to the tools for the length of the contract- one shot product companiesterm licenses make sense. Their transient behavior suits a rental model.But for us - people that have a vested interest in what they do and require access to THEIR Intellectual Property in perpetuity, a term license is a death knell to the continued operation.It's like a forced partnership - that if you really look at - no one benefits from it in the long term. Sure, the renter makes money in recurrent revenue, but like any SaaS thing, it has a good chance of falling out of favor in lieu of "New, Shinier" kid on the block. And since it's a partnership, it may nullify any disclaimer of liability they state in their EULA. They're my partner now. I have to maintain a relationship with them in order to access my IP. Might be why Acad and Adobe went "rental" and specifically state they do not offer licenses anymore.I'm not tying access to my IP to a rental agreement either.KiCAD has something interesting going on - a Redhat sort of model with KiPro.Check it out -https://www.kipro-pcb.com/Redhat did well for parent IBM last year. The software is free (Richard Stallman - the guy that started FSF/GNU - hates the term "Open Source"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman#Terminologies) and you pay for support.And if you want new features, the development time can be purchased.So for both sides, it's a win-winBut no... I don't ever want to have to continually pay a company to access my intellectual property. That to me seems to be a violation of US antitrust laws.note here:https://www.transatlantic-lawyer.com/negotiating-software-contracts-eu/Where:"... to ensure the buyer or licensee’s quiet enjoyment of the software and, consequently, to abstain from taking any initiative or creating any situation in which the other party would be denied such enjoyment (“garantie du fait personnel”). "

author: rfindley
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 06:42:15 pm
content: QuoteThis was also true for me back in December, so I didn't renew with any of their offers.However, I was contacted again in mid-June, and they changed their tune. I was able to convert my on-demand perpetual back to standalone perpetual, plus get one year of maintenance, all for the old maintenance price ($2495 USD). So, after June 2026, I will have a standalone perpetual license locked at whatever the latest version is at that time.