Renewal date approaching: what exactly are our options and costs?

[yjs]

In two weeks many of us will be faced, for the first time, with the loss of XWD functionality if we don't renew. It would be helpful to know what options/costs are involved for the various options so we can plan now e.g. What will the renewal price be (including discounts) and until when will it be valid? If we can't renew right away, will we able to (re) use a trial? How will the free hosting/domain work for those people who took out this subscription after their use of XWD Premium 365? Then there's the question raised in another thread of how to preserve design gallery elements and functions.

Personally I've been disappointed with the level of updates during the year and would really struggle to pay the renewal fee. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my installations won't need replacing in the next few months, but want to be prepared just in case...

[gwpriester]

I have requested a response from Xara.

[Egg Bramhill]

Yes, I believe that raises very valid issues and also look forward to Xara's response.

[yjs]

Thanks, Gary, for contacting Xara. I hope they will answer here.

When I log on to XWD design, I now get a message inviting me to upgrade at £29.99 instead of £44.99 if I pay by the renewal date. The upgrade page gives the impression that there's a FAQ, ('Your Update Service Questions Answered') but I don't yet see it.

[John Young]

So is this just for the option of getting updates - the program will still work ?

If so I cannot see the point as I have had one update since I got it and a small update today which I am unsure what it was for

[yjs]

So is this just for the option of getting updates - the program will still work ?

If so I cannot see the point as I have had one update since I got it and a small update today which I am unsure what it was for

Yes you can still use the programme, but you don't get the following 5 features (taken from their update page, though I'm still not sure how some of these would work):

You receive a perpetual license to the very latest version at the time of renewal, which includes all the great new features that you've had access to in the last 12 months

Another year of access to the Online Content Catalog with its huge collection of themes, template graphics, widgets, photo filters, stock photos & illustrations and much more - all fully searchable within the Content Catalog

Another year of M Hosting, with 2 GB of web space and a custom domain address

Another year of guaranteed access to Xara Online Designer, with its liberating ability to edit and re-publish your websites remotely from any device including Macs, iPads, Chromebooks and Android tablets, and collaborate on sites with colleagues and clients

Another year of access to new features and content as we develop them, rather than waiting up to a year for our next annual release. Which means you can keep up with the latest trends in web design!

[nobbyy]

This may be a stupid question, but if I was not to renew, would the Xara slideshow continue to work in existing sites?

[yjs]

This may be a stupid question, but if I was not to renew, would the Xara slideshow continue to work in existing sites?

I have many similar 'stupid' questions :-)
My understanding is that:

a)An existing slider should function on a website forever, as the code has already been created by Xara. And if the slider uses only functionality that was not updated during the year, then you can always download your original programme and edit it.

b) However, if it uses some functionality that was not in your original programme, you can edit it only until you need to reinstall your programme. Afterwards, your newly installed year-old version of the programme will not be able to change it. Not sure what would happen if you then try to republish the web in its entirity. You may get away with it if you click to republish only changes (because the code from the slider has already been generated so the old programme recognises it as something that should not be touched when publishing)???

The above are just guesses - I do hope Xara will chime in with official answers

In the past, when I have tried to publish a web using an older version of Xara I have often got layout problems and more i.e. it is not always easy to know whether a particular element and the things that interacted with it were really unchanged over the past year. So whether or not I upgrade now, I will almost certainly do so if i need to reinstall the programme.

[Donald33]

At this time I am sampling Xara WD and another program with a completely different work flow, not WYSIWYG but has a lot more built-in features. I say renew even if you're not going to use the latest features or happy with the current product.

Why? Think about how many programs have come and gone, several. Then the ones that are static, doing nothing for a major release with responsive design, a couple for sure. Or they're working on it, taking forever, which will be too little and too late at release. Also a couple left that are a one person show, so to speak. Good luck with that and better have a back up when the driving force "retires" for what ever reason.

I upgraded to 365 recently because I what to see the Xara WD home page and this forum in the future, even if it's my backup program. And if they should come out with a incremental/graduated renewal price scale, which would be fair, that would probably be a wash, cost wise anyway. One must remember in today's world it's the bean counters, board of directors, CEO/COO and stock holders who run the company and not the customers. If not much profit, the staff goes down, no profit the plug get's pulled.

CAD design programs cost 4K for a basic package. Then 1250.00 a year to receive any updates. If you don't pay that for a year then it's 2500.00 when you start back up. Add-ons apps cost between 2k and 30k. Considering what WD can do it is a very reasonable cost for sure, at least from my point of view. Sure I'd like to see some other features and/or changes, so tell me something new about all programs.

Regards - Donald

[handrawn]

WD may very well be reasonably priced, I don't know, but Designer Pro is not, as Mike said earlier in another thread - particularly for those who need the 'PRO' drawing features but never use the web features

One must remember in today's world it's the bean counters, board of directors, CEO/COO and stock holders who run the company and not the customers. If not much profit, the staff goes down, no profit the plug get's pulled

I've never been convinced by this argument, to me it smacks of modern popular-ist dogma; sure there are companies like that... but then, there always were.... [and I have a good memory that goes back quite a while ]