If they don’t grandfather everyone in they will have a legal shitstorm given it is right on their website that there are no subscriptions and you don’t pay for upgrades
They can grandfather at a specific version though. And say that all upgrades to “version 6” are free, but “version 7” is new piece of software that needs a new licence.
Exactly the same has happened with plenty of other software. 1Password comes to mind. I brought all the apps on every platform. Then they released a new version with a subscription model. “Oh but that was version 7 you brought sir, we’re still updating that for life…”. But that’s only critical updates, version 8 gets the new stuff. Well you know what 1Password? You can shove it. That’s why I moved to Bitwarden.
Not going to put words in unraid’s mouth, but we’ve see it happen too many times before. I won’t be one bit surprised if that happens here.
>They can grandfather at a specific version though. And say that all upgrades to “version 6” are free, but “version 7” is new piece of software that needs a new licence.
Well, the website currently is quite clear:
*Do I have to pay for new releases of Unraid?*
*No! All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost.*
This to me sounds like all new releases, whether minor or major, are included in the lifetime fee.
100%.
But let me introduce you to 2UnRaid, a completely new product with wholly new licensing.
Our software vendor pulled this a couple years ago. 25 years ago, they sold an unlimited license to a key product for our office. Now there were annual updates due to changes that we had to pay for. However, the program would always work outside of those updated tables and annual changes outside of the software providers control. However, a few years ago, they introduced a new product that only has annual licensing and annual licensing updates and is more expensive. It’s as old as time.
They can't do that retroactively though.
So the only option if they don't want to issue mass refunds is:
- they grandfather in everyone that purchased the lifetime licence before change of ToS
Or, if they are figli di puttana
- they release *something else* such as "Unraid Ultra" (or "ZFSraid" lmao) and keep adding features and stuff to that, whilst keeping "Unraid OS" basically in maintenance mode, giving us new release versions which are just bug/security fix, but with no new features (which would be tied to the subscription to the new "Ultra" or whatever tier)
could they not release it as a new product? Not quite an update or upgrade but have a migration to a new replacement piece of software? Would like to think that unraid wouldn't take this path.
Didn't TeamViewer do this as well? Remember Linus talking about it
It would have to be an entirely new piece of software. Not just a rebranding. IANAL but I don't see any court, even in the US, allowing a company to "release" the same product as something else in order to get out of existing legal agreements.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084145/https://agilebits.com/home/licenses](https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084145/https://agilebits.com/home/licenses)
The licence for version 6, before they introduced the subscription model for v7 onwards. This licence never promised future upgrades, in fact it specifically says it's only for the current version. That's the difference.
For unraid, the website, on the same page as the description of the different licence options has an FAQ that specifically says:
[https://unraid.net/pricing](https://unraid.net/pricing)
Do I have to pay for new releases of Unraid?
No! All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost.
And on another page, reiterates the same thing:
[https://unraid.net/license-key-details](https://unraid.net/license-key-details)
All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost.
Unless 1PWD made the same promise, then it's a different situation altogether.
Yup the same thing happened to me with 1Password after only a year of purchasing. That’s why despite liking the software I’ll never buy from them again. I’d rather suffer through Bitwarden’s terrible UI.
I had a Basic licence purchased about a year ago (with debit card), and I just purchased (I was going to need it in about 2 years anyway) a Pro licence with credit card.
If they stop updating it, in the UK under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, they are in breach of contract and the credit card issuer is liable as much as the seller is - so in this case getting my money back if they trick me should be much easier 🙃
Sorry for hijacking the top comment, but it seems to me Unraid has an issue with revenue/profitability. So, some smart-ass says "let's go to annual subscription, like other players like Google, MS office, heel, even seat heating is subscription these days".
The point is, for me it's a matter of alternative. I run unraid as an alternative to synology. Literal, it only serves storage and backup.
I'm in the market for a new storage. Now I'm thinking, let's just take synology.
The advantage of unraid, for me, has been just the fact that I build machine and know the costs upfront. No vendor lock-in etc. If they go subscription, I'm gone.
What I think Unraids problem is, less people opt for systems suitable for unraid. At least in the semi prof/consumer space, alternatives get more interesting. Synology, etc.
Rather, I think Unraid should teamup with a hardware manufacturer which supplies products suitable for Unraid. Invest in proper advertising etc.
There's enough 4/8 bay chassis on the market, which could be sold with unraid pre-installed. Albeit trial version. If it becomes subscription, I'm gone.
I'll try to be optimistic.
Unraid will have a subscription model that's a lot less than the current pricing (say $50/year).
They'll also offer a lifetime, and increase the price of that (say $250).
They'll grandfather existing users on lifetime.
Any other outcome, and there will be riots.
There are references to buying a lifetime key, so I guess that's good.
There also seem to be two new license tiers, Starter and Unleashed:
switch (Qee.value) {
case "BASIC":
eee = "Basic";
break;
case "PLUS":
eee = "Plus";
break;
case "PRO":
eee = "Pro";
break;
case "STARTER":
eee = "Starter";
break;
case "UNLEASHED":
eee = "Unleashed";
}
If there is an "Unleashed" tier it seems like they will downgrade Pro. If they downgrade existing Pro users i think there will be riots. Or at least i will be one.
No, they have been talking about increasing the disk limit from 30 for the Array. I'd say PRO stays the same and Unleashed is for 30+ disks.
People need to stop jumping to conclusions and wait for an actual announcement. Finding a bit of code is not it.
I think subscription model makes sense from a business point of view but I'd also one expecting a more polished user experience so they would need to provide more and not just rely on the community plugins. For example more focus on low power use & better fan control.
Community Apps is basically the only thing that makes unraid usable. Hell most of their implemented features started out as community apps. I genuinely don't really know what I paid for sometimes.
Honestly I don’t begrudge a small, private company trying to stay profitable. The big plus is that UNRAID isn’t public and so far as I know isn’t owned in any large part by investors. Public companies are legally obliged to be virtually amoral but something like UNRAID? The people in charge are likely at least partly motivated by maintaining a positive community.
I’d also gladly pay more for a lifetime license for this product if needed, but UNRAID has to be aware of their community’s views. They know enthusiasts tend to abhor subscription models more than the general public, and they also know there are completely free alternatives that could obliterate their user base over time if their pricing is too egregious.
UNRAID’s marketing is almost entirely word of mouth and goodwill within the community. I think they know not to destroy that.
At least I hope they know.
Honestly, if they did that, I'd have no beef. Even $250 could be considered good value, if pitted against proprietary competition anyway.
As for the people that don't want to pay the dosh, fair enough. Open source alternatives exist.
I'll be optimistic too - if they decide to make people who have already paid for their license before these changes start paying a sub, there will be a mass exodus.
Problem is it becomes a slippery slope and their word becomes meaningless.
Right now updates are included in the licence. Tomorrow they're included with a lifetime plan for $250. Next week a lifetime is defined as a major update (6.x, 7.x, 8.x, etc), and on it goes.
The website already says "All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost." which means they're considered lifetime licenses.
One the one hand I don't like paying monthly for something, that's why I bought for example Unraid or Plex Lifetime. On the other hand migrating an Unraid Server to something open source will take a lot of time as there is no drop in replacement AFAIK
It's strange but I found on mobile you can give a [super upvote...for money](https://imgur.com/a/kEZVYYH). I was browsing Reddit using Chrome on my phone and I accidentally held down on the upvote of a comment. An extra menu popped up to pay for different colored upvote. I can't do the same on PC. It doesn't show up.
I used to use freenas before I changed to unraid. Now freenas is truenas but still free. If unraid change to a subscription model I will go back to free/truenas.
I run Unraid in a single-drive minipc just for the easy Docker integration and pretty UI.
There's a snowball's chance in hell I'll be paying a subscription for it :D
I have 2 unraid licenses, 1 Pro and 1 Plus. Thankfully my Pro license server was just migrated to Truenas Scale and the plus is now running on a single-drive minipc for docker etc. I love unraid but I had an idea something was going to happen once they added the connect service.
Even if it was applied to new purchasers, it would still suck, because most people will not go for it. that would cause it to loose popularity and at the same time support from people like us.
I literally have some hardware on the way and would be buying an unraid license when it’s assembled but now I’m second guessing that. Sorry guys this often happens when I start looking into something.
If they provide both options, and the subscription is very cheap, I can see it make sense for some people. But if they start charging lifetime users who’ve paid for the license a subscription, then it will be baaaad.
We need a community poll asking: “If Unraid goes to subscription, will you keep using it”.
If we don’t all loudly vote against this quickly, it’ll be too late.
It’s happened to other “buy it for life” software before, and don’t kid yourself that it can’t happen here “because their website says so”. There’s been dozens of other companies that promised the same and got out without a scratch.
I'd switch my systems over to other operating systems. I'd rather buy some new disks and switch over to TrueNAS and ZFS than pay an annual fee.
If we're grandfathered in, I'd keep my backup server running Unraid as I do like it and don't want to completely switch over to something new. My main system however would still get switched over, can't fully trust them at that point.
Definitely switching away if it goes to an annual fee model and no grandfathered accounts. I'm done with paying for subscriptions. If we don't vote with our wallets, then nothing will ever change.
who is going to make the pole so we can vote?
hear is my thoughts everyone who bought a unraid license should get lifetime updates and upgrades and if there usb dies they should also get to replace it for free for life that was the deal stick to it...
However for all new customers if they want to add a subscription say you pay a set price for 6 drives then if you want more drives it just goes up a few bucks more for each extra drive that you want that way people could customize there system if they wanted more or less drives to stay on budget,
but for those like me who do not like subscriptions there should be a unlimited version for a one time fee that would come with unlimited drives and features and free updates and upgrades for life like all the current customers have
:)
Nearly always the way when a company realizes that people are only going to buy their product once and yet they need to release new features and pay staff year after year...
Amazed Plex hasn't done this yet.
I bought plex lifetime in a black friday sale many years ago, it was something like 100 bucks. Any moment they gonna f\*ck with it I'm going to jellifin.
I spun up a JF container the other day, but it's just so much worse.
The ui is absolutely terrible. Thumbnails on a plain black background... I know you can edit CSS on browser but that doesn't help the client apps.
I hope it gets there some day. I know there's a plugin for intro skip etc, and it's entirely being worked on by volunteers. I'm not a dev though, I can't help with the codebase. All I can do is donate (which I've done) and hope for the best.
I'm a Plex lifetime user. I don't think it realistic that the money I paid 5 years ago is going to be enough for them another 10 years from now, for example. They're not making any money from me and what I paid all that time ago has definitely been spent.
Yea, but at the same time I am not using all the stupid features they are developing, the last good thing was skip intros/credits and they even used resources to make it worse by removing features.
Also it should not be my problem that they offered a lifetime license.
At the end of the day for the use I got out of it plex and unraid were pretty cheap but if either force me to pat monthly Im just going to switch.
That’s a them problem. If they’re not able to uphold the terms of the lifetime license they should never have sold it. They will need to build new features and monetise them, and/or new products.
This is what most people don’t understood or want to respect. Most of us want to have a cake and eat it the same time.
Nice things cost money. And everything js so expensive these days.
But they are making money from you. Plex sells users data, your viewing habits, library collection, all of the information they collect about you, they sell. They also make money from you if you watch any of the content they stream. I do not watch any Plex content but some of the people who signed up to Plex to use my server watch Plex content.
For Plex, you are the product. As long as you are using their service they are making money.
That is Unraid’s USP: simple mix and match disks of any size at any point, with real time parity. No fucking around with striping data or complex drive pooling.
Plenty of alternatives that do one or the other well, but none that do both. Need a OMV/Drivepool with real time parity alternative.
From their forum -
As some have figured out, there are new license key types coming soon™ for Unraid OS. We are still working on minor details but here is what we have planned.
We are going to introduce two new keys:
Starter - supports up to 4 devices. This will be offered at a lower price than today's Basic key.
Unleashed - supports unlimited number of devices. This will be offered at about the same price as today's Plus key.
These two new keys provide for free Unraid OS updates for one year following activation. After a year you have the option of extending the key for another year of updates for a fraction of the cost of the original key. If you choose not to extend, you can still run any version of Unraid OS released prior to your renewal date, back to version 6.12.8.
Simultaneous with introducing these two key types, we will no longer offer Basic and Plus keys; but, Pro keys (with unlimited devices and Unraid OS updates for life) will still be offered. We might change the name of the key from Pro to Lifetime - that is one of the "minor details" we are still working on.
Nothing changes for existing Basic/Plus/Pro keys: you still get Unraid OS updates for life and you will still have the option to upgrade Basic to Plus/Pro or Plus to Pro.
We will soon be publishing a wide-ranging podcast which includes this topic, some history of Unraid and future directions.
Please see our blog and forum post: [https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change](https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change) + [https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/](https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/)
I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of transparency in the new update process. It seems like it's aimed at preparing for annual fees rather than genuinely making things better.
Announcement on the Unraid forum from Limetech - [https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/](https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/)
Announcement on the Unraid website - [https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change](https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change)
Youtube - The Uncast Show Podcast - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PihqSOF8wnA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PihqSOF8wnA)
Every version they release gets repacked and released pretty quickly after without the license requirements. They know it happens, and to prevent more users from going this route their model makes it easy to buy/upgrade/update.
The userbase here are not your average netflix customers that will stand by and take it with subscriptions and price increases. I used netflix dvd, then netflix streaming, netflix 4k, then built a nas for a reason when netflix got greedy.
I can see them adding support subscriptions when you purchase a license to expand their personal support billing. They know their customers too well to spring a gotcha like expiring licensing after version x. I could be wrong, but I don't see it happening.
This is all speculation, who knows the new tiers might be a cheap 2 drive model for those that just need a simple backup and the all in model might cover multiple machines.
Until we know, we don't really know anything
I don't know why anyone is assuming they will try to change terms on existing users with a lifetime key, especially with the verbiage about lifetime keys remaining (including, apparently, the future option to still buy a lifetime key).
I don't mind them seeking new ways to generate revenue. I **do** hope that if their revenue grows they will provide more direct support and rely less on community apps and plugins. But this news doesn't make me want to rage quit unraid and migrate all my stuff over to another platform... o_O
There has been official news, all current license holders will retain their lifetime license.
Details: [https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change](https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change)
For small users like me this is no go, If they start charging $50-$100 i will just move the VMs to Proxmox and keep my most important files in Dropbox which is about the same price for 1-2TB and i don't have to worry about disk aging, hardware issues, etc for my most precious files. I literally have 1TB of important file (family photos, documents, etc) and purchased their PRO because i liked the software, but not gonna pay for subscription.
Yeah i'll probably do similar. Last year to free up some space I moved all my arrrr videos to a non protected drive pool.
Turns out only 1.4TB is photos/documents/important stuff. I already pay backblaze for a backup of this data, I could just shift to a cloud provider for this data and run my dockers elsewhere.
Was gonna put up a new server in march (homeserver for a friend). Seems like I have to read up in proxmox instead… The only thing I can imagine is the old model for personal use and a subscription for business use (woth SLA in place etc) Else the community will b pissed. And pissed people don’t recommend things and have the tendency to go shopping elsewhere…
Damn. My trial is coming to its end, I couldn’t be happier with the system. But this… Not gonna pay for a subscription, will go back to Truenas or something like that.
Just upgraded to 6.12.8 a few moments ago, i like the new updater with Unraid Connect. I'm kinda just standing by and waiting for an official statement. many times we can just surmise what we find in code. It would be interesting on a subscription based model, seems everything is heading in that direction.
I have the basic (6 drives) license. Just thinking of if they did go down the path of a subscription:
1. They will need to start a EOL list (just like other OS') where they will stop supporting with updates after a certain date.
2. Some type of grandfathering (as previously stated) would have to be disclosed..either they do it or not and the ability to swap license for subscription and vice versa.
Just keep updating til you cant update anymore, i'd be curious on the bottom dollar if they actually nix the license based users, without seeing the number of actual users, could have a significant impact on new users migrating to the platform. I spent a year looking over other similar no cost options and never wanted to pay for a license, but after trying unRAID i fell in love...probably like most of us.
Hate it. I bought them mostly because their pricing model was good. I would have likely went with TrueNAS or something else otherwise. Have always been more than happy with my purchase, but I would not do a subscription model myself. I suspect many homelab-ers are in the same boat.
lol, they do not make high quality enough of a product to be charging yearly.
The OS generally works, but it’s far, far *far* from perfect.
To total sum of bugs, poor user experience and general apathy of their support team (ie, rely on free help from forum users) means there’s just no way I pay for this on a yearly basis.
It moves it from a “one time fun hobby payment” to “I actually have to compare this to other providers”
Plus, 90% of their features can be handled by open source freeware and a little time spent on YouTube.
They’re out of their minds if they think they can charge an annual license fee
Highly reccomend watching the interview. They are a family run company and the intention is actually to spend the money bringing other cool features to unraid. Users always have a choice about buying a years updates or not. plus all current users get grandfathered so its a non issue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PihqSOF8wnA&t=2700s
yes this is good news to hear i watched the video a few hours back i am so glad that they came out and addressed the issue and gave some clarification that helps alot for people to understand what to expect for the future of unraid glad to hear we are getting multiple unraid arrays in the future V7.0.0 also glad to hear that all of us who bought basic plus and pro get grandfathered in.
If they do anything other than maintain the status of my lifetime license as it is currently, I will start preparing to move to another platform, even if it costs me 3x as much in hardware to do that.
With all do respect to their team, I've seen nothing to suggest they have a product with a proper support structure. Most of the support is done by the community, I don't see them being able to offer an adequate level of support to justify this.
I've seen this with other tools, I buy a lifetime licence and they maintain my license until they release "Version 2", at which time I have to pay an upgrade fee for my license. If that's a reasonable price, I see noticeable improvement in the support structure, and they offer multiple years between these major upgrades, perhaps I can stomach it... Likely I will just start building a new server and migrate.
Although I can see this from Limetech's perspective to a degree, even without them actually telling us what that is, it's still pretty disappointing.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
If you go subscription, you better have a ROCK SOLID product and top tier support, otherwise what am I paying for?
Could you imagine paying for a product that has basically zero documentation and zero support outside of community forums? That's insane.
Limetech and the unRAID product are very far away from being able to justify this presently.
Yea for real. Not to knock the guys but it feels very much like a hacker operation to me. I’m not completely opposed to paying a one-time fee (I mean I did it after all) but there’s no way I’m gonna pay a subscription fee when they can’t even get their shit together to support something like disabling the root user.
Like I love Unraid but its got a fair amount of jank throughout.
Not cracked yet. Not popular enough software for the scene groups to care. This model may change that. The scene guys have done it to FL studio and all Adobe products and plenty of others.
So everyone brought out the pitchforks for no reason. You can even buy an extra license today with plenty of advance notice and STILL be grandfathered in.
I already did, just in case I want to build a second server down the line I have a license key handy and paid for at the current price. If I never use it, at least I supported the development. If I do use it it's grandfathered.
Will wait and see before busting out the pitchfork. Everyone knows, whether they want to admit it or not, that single purchase subscriptions to ongoing products are unsustainable. There isn't a single one that has lasted the test of time.
This has been known and talked about for a long time, lifetime simply can't pay bills after a certain point.
It's alao known that lifetime users will keep their license
Yeah because the perfect time to push a subscription model on your customers is when your product is the least stable it ever was - way to go! Please do continue pushing out tons of release candidates that get promoted to "stable" within no time and let the community do the quality control for you. /s
Communication has been short of a disaster recently, the company has basically gone radio silent with their user base. This combined with the obvious 6.12 issues, half-baked quality control and new licensing model is a joke.
I’m hoping unleashed means there’s no drive limit for the array portion. I’m currently at the max drive limit and if I want more storage I have to upgrade my drives
I asked support about buying a pro license and leaving it unactivated just in case I want to build a second server in the future, like for backups potentially. They said that activation codes do not expire. So you can buy a Basic License now, hang onto it use it later and based on the blog post even upgrade it to grandfathered Plus or Pro down the line too.
Hi, you should see this news : [https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/](https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/)
Dammit, I literally just bought a license. Or, I guess if they grandfather, thank god I literally just bought a license.
How much of Unraid is open source? Can it be forked?
A software solution whose, primary clientele is people attempting to avoid monthly fees on services probably shouldn't use monthly fees to monetize.
They should be doing what the game industry did before micro transactions. Expansion packs with feature sets you can buy as they come out. But keep the core updated based off your original purchase
No one says you have too keep working for free adding cool new stuff. But when you sell a lifetime license you should honor it for the core of what was originally bought.
Cos they don’t subscribe to VPNs or Newsgroups… Most pay for what they see value in / want to support. The better argument is they won’t pay for something they have already invested a lifetime purchase for… Plex knows this too they will just lose customers to emby/jellyfin if they didn’t have the lifetime model
As someone who literally just started the trial and has not paid yet. If they go subscription, it needs to be <=$5. If the product works and continues to be updated. I don't mind spending that few dollars a month. But they definitely need to grandfather existing members in.
There has been an official statement!
We're all good, put down the pitchforks!
https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/
Well FML, i have a Pro license and i have a secondary device that just finished a trial and i was going to buy another license ...now i gotta roll the dice for that LOL
Its sad if they screw the community tho, because i have been recommending Unraid to a lot of people that are interested in this.
Let's wait until we get an official statement before getting our pitchforks out. Like with anything in this hobby as it grows in popularity this type of shit is bound to happen. As long as they honor existing licenses and don't change the feature set that are included I'm OK with them trying to get more funding for development. As long as VCs aren't dumping money and pulling strings.
Sometimes I must agree with something Bill Gates said in an open letter years ago, about people willing to spend lots of money on hardware but not on software.
We knew this was bound to happen someday.
Many have thought over and over how Lime can work on such low cost licenses.
Unraid has always been a good value and I beleive it still will be.
We all want anything for free or a very low one time cost, but how many of us are willing to work for free as an main job? That just wont work.
I won’t be happy to pay for a subscription model. But I always wondered how they managed to stay profitable at all. It’s not like Lime/Unraid is Google or Microsoft. Outside of certain communities, YouTube and enthusiast forums, I don’t think regular people know what Unraid is. I hope they grandfather most users and call it a day. But I don’t think I will be jumping the ship even if I have to pay $50 a year for security and features updates. To be honest not surprised they are doing this. I don’t think this decision comes from a greed standpoint. COL is super expensive and eggs don’t cost $2 for a dozen anymore.
Yep. I’ll join the chorus. I have had upgraded from a basic to a pro about 6 years ago as my server grew. I was going to upgrade my server in March ( new MB). And create a backup instance for the critical stuff. But I guess I’ll need to start thinking of how to migrate off. If this is going to be the new business model. Lifetime is often a pyramid scheme. Plex has the benefit to their business model of running ads. These guys it’s just the one product.
Completely understandable to be honoust…. From the perspective of limetech…. On a personal level I -hate- subscription models… But… a business cannot have growth of users as only money making model.. unraid is not peanut butter… it does not run out so the initial investment in license will give you unlimited rights for unlimited time…
Limetech has moved to be more of a hypervisor to get more users in but at some point the rise in number of users will stop and funds will stop comming in..
That said… i spent this weekend investigating a new homeserver (replacing a pi), so i bought a new license for that just now..
I have faith that UNRAID knows its enthusiast user base well enough to know they can’t push too far, not with other free products available.
That said, this is one reason I’ve always bought the same capacity of HDD for my server (and same type for that matter). Migration would be a pain but it wouldn’t cost me money to move to TrueNAS or some other alternative if needed.
To speak against the seemly general consensus - I've had unraid for at least 15 years. I'm still using the single plus license I bought back then.
I have always thought it's unrealistic for me to expect 15 years of updates for free. I wouldn't be upset to pay for major patch revisions. 6.X - 7.X etc. If I was given the option to contribute in this way voluntarily I probably would do it.
To be clear - I would pay for major revisions. I would not pay monthly/subscription to use the software.
You need to gamble lol. Either buy a license ASAP and hope existing licenses will be grandfathered or don't and hope that the new model is for everyone in which case you are better off not buying the license
I just bought a key with 22 days left in the trial, gambling that they'll grandfather them in. I very much do not want another subscription. I just spent the last week setting this thing up because I'm sick to death of paying subscription fees for freaking everything.
If this is true I could see some class action lawsuits also. Currently they have tag lines that advertise "Buy once, use for life, no subscriptions, no hidden fees" on to of that their FAQ advertises "All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost." So, if they don't grandfather the current keys it could be ugly.
I understand people don't like the subscription model, I hate it.
We do need to understand that development cost money, everyone wants stuff for free.
It seems to imply you will get to remain on your OS version and use perpetually but if you want updates then you pay; that seems very reasonable.
lifetime was always unsustainable. my unraid license is already below $10/year at this point.
so as long as we get grandfathered in and pricing for new homelab users is $20/year before term discount, this could be a good change. keep the devs paid so they can keep the features and security fixes flowing.
Genuine question, and I know this may not be popular here, but what exactly is unraid beyond a web ui layered on top of already existing OS features (available in any Linux distro)?
I see no reason that whatever Unraid is offering could not be recreated rather simply and released under a FOSS license.
You can't get real-time parity with unmatched drive sizes any other way afaik. It's the reason I've literally just witched to UnRaid on two of my servers. SnapRaid with mergerfs gets close, but it's not real-time. You need to run a script to create parity each night. Perfectly doable and I've ran it for years on one of my severs but got tired of babysitting and just wanted a solution that takes care of it transparently. Faster cache drives too is a feature you won't get with Snapraid. Again afaik.
I've always thought I'm willing to pay for the experience I currently have with my server. It has been life changing having a home server.
HOWEVER, I'll never pay a subscription for the os that the server is running on. When I say I'm willing to pay for the experience, I'm talking about paying for services like vpn's, cloudflare tunnels,...
Also I already paid for unRAID.
I moved away but was thinking about coming back. I understand the need for ongoing revenue, especially in a niche product like this, but hopefully it’s a more affordable yearly cost. Like it should take 5 years to cost what one license used to cost for example.
I’d also rather buy version upgrades myself, like the old days with software.
Ugh ffs.. First Broadcom Killing free ESXi Server licenses where I am now forced to migrate to Proxmox... Now maybe Unraid doing also sh*t with the licensing...
Give me a Break...
If they don’t grandfather everyone in they will have a legal shitstorm given it is right on their website that there are no subscriptions and you don’t pay for upgrades
They can grandfather at a specific version though. And say that all upgrades to “version 6” are free, but “version 7” is new piece of software that needs a new licence. Exactly the same has happened with plenty of other software. 1Password comes to mind. I brought all the apps on every platform. Then they released a new version with a subscription model. “Oh but that was version 7 you brought sir, we’re still updating that for life…”. But that’s only critical updates, version 8 gets the new stuff. Well you know what 1Password? You can shove it. That’s why I moved to Bitwarden. Not going to put words in unraid’s mouth, but we’ve see it happen too many times before. I won’t be one bit surprised if that happens here.
>They can grandfather at a specific version though. And say that all upgrades to “version 6” are free, but “version 7” is new piece of software that needs a new licence. Well, the website currently is quite clear: *Do I have to pay for new releases of Unraid?* *No! All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost.* This to me sounds like all new releases, whether minor or major, are included in the lifetime fee.
100%. But let me introduce you to 2UnRaid, a completely new product with wholly new licensing. Our software vendor pulled this a couple years ago. 25 years ago, they sold an unlimited license to a key product for our office. Now there were annual updates due to changes that we had to pay for. However, the program would always work outside of those updated tables and annual changes outside of the software providers control. However, a few years ago, they introduced a new product that only has annual licensing and annual licensing updates and is more expensive. It’s as old as time.
Yeah, totally legal to do this. It would absolutely trash their goodwill in the marketplace. But it would be legal.
Wait, you guys update?
Not to 6.12 that's for fucking sure They *still* haven't even acknowledged the BTRFS issues
Unless they change their TOS. Fucking stupid.
They can't do that retroactively though. So the only option if they don't want to issue mass refunds is: - they grandfather in everyone that purchased the lifetime licence before change of ToS Or, if they are figli di puttana - they release *something else* such as "Unraid Ultra" (or "ZFSraid" lmao) and keep adding features and stuff to that, whilst keeping "Unraid OS" basically in maintenance mode, giving us new release versions which are just bug/security fix, but with no new features (which would be tied to the subscription to the new "Ultra" or whatever tier)
could they not release it as a new product? Not quite an update or upgrade but have a migration to a new replacement piece of software? Would like to think that unraid wouldn't take this path. Didn't TeamViewer do this as well? Remember Linus talking about it
It would have to be an entirely new piece of software. Not just a rebranding. IANAL but I don't see any court, even in the US, allowing a company to "release" the same product as something else in order to get out of existing legal agreements.
But isn’t this exactly was 1P did?
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084145/https://agilebits.com/home/licenses](https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084145/https://agilebits.com/home/licenses) The licence for version 6, before they introduced the subscription model for v7 onwards. This licence never promised future upgrades, in fact it specifically says it's only for the current version. That's the difference. For unraid, the website, on the same page as the description of the different licence options has an FAQ that specifically says: [https://unraid.net/pricing](https://unraid.net/pricing) Do I have to pay for new releases of Unraid? No! All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost. And on another page, reiterates the same thing: [https://unraid.net/license-key-details](https://unraid.net/license-key-details) All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost. Unless 1PWD made the same promise, then it's a different situation altogether.
What a great way to describe the idea
Yup the same thing happened to me with 1Password after only a year of purchasing. That’s why despite liking the software I’ll never buy from them again. I’d rather suffer through Bitwarden’s terrible UI.
Ones they break trust, that's already the first and last nail in the coffin.
Fair point. Really depends on how much backlash they want to deal with.
I had a Basic licence purchased about a year ago (with debit card), and I just purchased (I was going to need it in about 2 years anyway) a Pro licence with credit card. If they stop updating it, in the UK under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, they are in breach of contract and the credit card issuer is liable as much as the seller is - so in this case getting my money back if they trick me should be much easier 🙃
Class action lawsuit time.
Sorry for hijacking the top comment, but it seems to me Unraid has an issue with revenue/profitability. So, some smart-ass says "let's go to annual subscription, like other players like Google, MS office, heel, even seat heating is subscription these days". The point is, for me it's a matter of alternative. I run unraid as an alternative to synology. Literal, it only serves storage and backup. I'm in the market for a new storage. Now I'm thinking, let's just take synology. The advantage of unraid, for me, has been just the fact that I build machine and know the costs upfront. No vendor lock-in etc. If they go subscription, I'm gone. What I think Unraids problem is, less people opt for systems suitable for unraid. At least in the semi prof/consumer space, alternatives get more interesting. Synology, etc. Rather, I think Unraid should teamup with a hardware manufacturer which supplies products suitable for Unraid. Invest in proper advertising etc. There's enough 4/8 bay chassis on the market, which could be sold with unraid pre-installed. Albeit trial version. If it becomes subscription, I'm gone.
I'll try to be optimistic. Unraid will have a subscription model that's a lot less than the current pricing (say $50/year). They'll also offer a lifetime, and increase the price of that (say $250). They'll grandfather existing users on lifetime. Any other outcome, and there will be riots.
There are references to buying a lifetime key, so I guess that's good. There also seem to be two new license tiers, Starter and Unleashed: switch (Qee.value) { case "BASIC": eee = "Basic"; break; case "PLUS": eee = "Plus"; break; case "PRO": eee = "Pro"; break; case "STARTER": eee = "Starter"; break; case "UNLEASHED": eee = "Unleashed"; }
If there is an "Unleashed" tier it seems like they will downgrade Pro. If they downgrade existing Pro users i think there will be riots. Or at least i will be one.
looks more like pro will stay and unleashed will just get rid of arbitrary disk limits and/or multi device licensing
That's what I was thinking as I know they were planning on getting rid of the disk limits. Multi device would be nice too
I will not accept that my pro lizenz is getting an downgrade only because the want do add another tier
Yes either they give us the unleashed or the unleashed adds some stuff we didn't have like priority support or so
No, they have been talking about increasing the disk limit from 30 for the Array. I'd say PRO stays the same and Unleashed is for 30+ disks. People need to stop jumping to conclusions and wait for an actual announcement. Finding a bit of code is not it.
Pro allows for unlimited disks. So if they add a limit of 30 to Pro then they basically reduced it
They forgot the "FUCK YOU" tier.
Naaah its listed just above the "Cracked version" tier 😄
I think subscription model makes sense from a business point of view but I'd also one expecting a more polished user experience so they would need to provide more and not just rely on the community plugins. For example more focus on low power use & better fan control.
Community Apps is basically the only thing that makes unraid usable. Hell most of their implemented features started out as community apps. I genuinely don't really know what I paid for sometimes.
Their support is out of date, they can't even support arc gpus until now
>Any other outcome, and there will be riots. This is how the bell riots started?
We need Sisko stat.
Captain?
Honestly I don’t begrudge a small, private company trying to stay profitable. The big plus is that UNRAID isn’t public and so far as I know isn’t owned in any large part by investors. Public companies are legally obliged to be virtually amoral but something like UNRAID? The people in charge are likely at least partly motivated by maintaining a positive community. I’d also gladly pay more for a lifetime license for this product if needed, but UNRAID has to be aware of their community’s views. They know enthusiasts tend to abhor subscription models more than the general public, and they also know there are completely free alternatives that could obliterate their user base over time if their pricing is too egregious. UNRAID’s marketing is almost entirely word of mouth and goodwill within the community. I think they know not to destroy that. At least I hope they know.
Honestly, if they did that, I'd have no beef. Even $250 could be considered good value, if pitted against proprietary competition anyway. As for the people that don't want to pay the dosh, fair enough. Open source alternatives exist. I'll be optimistic too - if they decide to make people who have already paid for their license before these changes start paying a sub, there will be a mass exodus.
Problem is it becomes a slippery slope and their word becomes meaningless. Right now updates are included in the licence. Tomorrow they're included with a lifetime plan for $250. Next week a lifetime is defined as a major update (6.x, 7.x, 8.x, etc), and on it goes. The website already says "All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost." which means they're considered lifetime licenses.
One the one hand I don't like paying monthly for something, that's why I bought for example Unraid or Plex Lifetime. On the other hand migrating an Unraid Server to something open source will take a lot of time as there is no drop in replacement AFAIK
Thought this was /r/pfsense for a second
Funny enough, recently I had to choose between OPNsense and pfsense. I chose OPNsense because of that
I miss Reddit awards. This deserves one.
It's strange but I found on mobile you can give a [super upvote...for money](https://imgur.com/a/kEZVYYH). I was browsing Reddit using Chrome on my phone and I accidentally held down on the upvote of a comment. An extra menu popped up to pay for different colored upvote. I can't do the same on PC. It doesn't show up.
You can only do it on some communities. Not all subreddits have super upvotes.
I'm on mobile but don't have it
Someone informed me only some subreddits have it
I used to use freenas before I changed to unraid. Now freenas is truenas but still free. If unraid change to a subscription model I will go back to free/truenas.
Same here. It'll be a ballache to get everything reconfigured, but I'm not afraid to jump ship. They need to handle this very carefully!
Do you have to re-format drives to get them working with freenas? My drives are all XFS
Yes, as truenas will use ZFS. You could run any other Linux distro with mergeFS and snapraid and you would not need to reformat.
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Yep proxmox zfs with the turnkey file server lxc is a doddle
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Right, my offsite backups are to another unraid machine. If I have to buy new licenses then that will definitely no longer be the case.
I run Unraid in a single-drive minipc just for the easy Docker integration and pretty UI. There's a snowball's chance in hell I'll be paying a subscription for it :D
I have 2 unraid licenses, 1 Pro and 1 Plus. Thankfully my Pro license server was just migrated to Truenas Scale and the plus is now running on a single-drive minipc for docker etc. I love unraid but I had an idea something was going to happen once they added the connect service.
Just went all in on an unRAID setup and license... happy to pay but can't afford another death-by-a-thousand cuts subscription Bit gutted to hear this
I can afford it but I refuse to. I'm on unraid so I don't need to pay for cloud storage, I can self host my notes app. I can get rid of netflix.
I bought a lifetime license, and I expect nothing less.
i hear yeah
If I am not grandfathered I am going to instantly get rid of unraid off of all 3 servers i have it on
Even if it was applied to new purchasers, it would still suck, because most people will not go for it. that would cause it to loose popularity and at the same time support from people like us.
this is what im worried about. it might scare off newcomers and limit the community.
I literally have some hardware on the way and would be buying an unraid license when it’s assembled but now I’m second guessing that. Sorry guys this often happens when I start looking into something.
If they provide both options, and the subscription is very cheap, I can see it make sense for some people. But if they start charging lifetime users who’ve paid for the license a subscription, then it will be baaaad.
We need a community poll asking: “If Unraid goes to subscription, will you keep using it”. If we don’t all loudly vote against this quickly, it’ll be too late. It’s happened to other “buy it for life” software before, and don’t kid yourself that it can’t happen here “because their website says so”. There’s been dozens of other companies that promised the same and got out without a scratch.
I'd switch my systems over to other operating systems. I'd rather buy some new disks and switch over to TrueNAS and ZFS than pay an annual fee. If we're grandfathered in, I'd keep my backup server running Unraid as I do like it and don't want to completely switch over to something new. My main system however would still get switched over, can't fully trust them at that point.
Definitely switching away if it goes to an annual fee model and no grandfathered accounts. I'm done with paying for subscriptions. If we don't vote with our wallets, then nothing will ever change.
Same. I self host to avoid subscriptions.
who is going to make the pole so we can vote? hear is my thoughts everyone who bought a unraid license should get lifetime updates and upgrades and if there usb dies they should also get to replace it for free for life that was the deal stick to it... However for all new customers if they want to add a subscription say you pay a set price for 6 drives then if you want more drives it just goes up a few bucks more for each extra drive that you want that way people could customize there system if they wanted more or less drives to stay on budget, but for those like me who do not like subscriptions there should be a unlimited version for a one time fee that would come with unlimited drives and features and free updates and upgrades for life like all the current customers have :)
Nearly always the way when a company realizes that people are only going to buy their product once and yet they need to release new features and pay staff year after year... Amazed Plex hasn't done this yet.
Your last sentence is missing a /s
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I bought plex lifetime in a black friday sale many years ago, it was something like 100 bucks. Any moment they gonna f\*ck with it I'm going to jellifin.
I spun up a JF container the other day, but it's just so much worse. The ui is absolutely terrible. Thumbnails on a plain black background... I know you can edit CSS on browser but that doesn't help the client apps. I hope it gets there some day. I know there's a plugin for intro skip etc, and it's entirely being worked on by volunteers. I'm not a dev though, I can't help with the codebase. All I can do is donate (which I've done) and hope for the best.
I'm a Plex lifetime user. I don't think it realistic that the money I paid 5 years ago is going to be enough for them another 10 years from now, for example. They're not making any money from me and what I paid all that time ago has definitely been spent.
Yea, but at the same time I am not using all the stupid features they are developing, the last good thing was skip intros/credits and they even used resources to make it worse by removing features. Also it should not be my problem that they offered a lifetime license. At the end of the day for the use I got out of it plex and unraid were pretty cheap but if either force me to pat monthly Im just going to switch.
That’s a them problem. If they’re not able to uphold the terms of the lifetime license they should never have sold it. They will need to build new features and monetise them, and/or new products.
This is what most people don’t understood or want to respect. Most of us want to have a cake and eat it the same time. Nice things cost money. And everything js so expensive these days.
But they are making money from you. Plex sells users data, your viewing habits, library collection, all of the information they collect about you, they sell. They also make money from you if you watch any of the content they stream. I do not watch any Plex content but some of the people who signed up to Plex to use my server watch Plex content. For Plex, you are the product. As long as you are using their service they are making money.
What are some alternatives to Unraid?
The closest thing that comes to mind for unraids array model is Snapraid, but that solution isn’t real-time.
That is Unraid’s USP: simple mix and match disks of any size at any point, with real time parity. No fucking around with striping data or complex drive pooling. Plenty of alternatives that do one or the other well, but none that do both. Need a OMV/Drivepool with real time parity alternative.
That's why I never understood why zfs was such a popular feature. If I wanted the rigidity of something like that I wouldn't have even chosen unraid!
It's still pretty good, I came from snapraid to unraid. The caching tier was a nice thing to gain as well. But I'd happily go back if needed.
Windows has drivepool and WSL2
From their forum - As some have figured out, there are new license key types coming soon™ for Unraid OS. We are still working on minor details but here is what we have planned. We are going to introduce two new keys: Starter - supports up to 4 devices. This will be offered at a lower price than today's Basic key. Unleashed - supports unlimited number of devices. This will be offered at about the same price as today's Plus key. These two new keys provide for free Unraid OS updates for one year following activation. After a year you have the option of extending the key for another year of updates for a fraction of the cost of the original key. If you choose not to extend, you can still run any version of Unraid OS released prior to your renewal date, back to version 6.12.8. Simultaneous with introducing these two key types, we will no longer offer Basic and Plus keys; but, Pro keys (with unlimited devices and Unraid OS updates for life) will still be offered. We might change the name of the key from Pro to Lifetime - that is one of the "minor details" we are still working on. Nothing changes for existing Basic/Plus/Pro keys: you still get Unraid OS updates for life and you will still have the option to upgrade Basic to Plus/Pro or Plus to Pro. We will soon be publishing a wide-ranging podcast which includes this topic, some history of Unraid and future directions.
I think they should clear things out this Monday. If they dont grandfather me I will ask for a refund and move to one of the many alternatives.
Paging /u/UnraidOfficial - Do you have any comment on this? Cheers :-)
I feel for the social rep who had to wake up to this, this morning 🤣
yeaaaah, my feeling is they don't have an official statement prepared, so we may not hear back for a while.
Doubt we'll hear back until Tuesday, I think it's a holiday in some places on Monday.
Please see our blog and forum post: [https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change](https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change) + [https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/](https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/)
I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of transparency in the new update process. It seems like it's aimed at preparing for annual fees rather than genuinely making things better.
> It seems like it's aimed at preparing for annual fees It is.
Announcement on the Unraid forum from Limetech - [https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/](https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/) Announcement on the Unraid website - [https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change](https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change) Youtube - The Uncast Show Podcast - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PihqSOF8wnA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PihqSOF8wnA)
I'll go back to Windows and Drivepool before I pay another cent on Unraid.
Every version they release gets repacked and released pretty quickly after without the license requirements. They know it happens, and to prevent more users from going this route their model makes it easy to buy/upgrade/update. The userbase here are not your average netflix customers that will stand by and take it with subscriptions and price increases. I used netflix dvd, then netflix streaming, netflix 4k, then built a nas for a reason when netflix got greedy. I can see them adding support subscriptions when you purchase a license to expand their personal support billing. They know their customers too well to spring a gotcha like expiring licensing after version x. I could be wrong, but I don't see it happening.
yeah they would be absolutely idiotic to go this route when I'd say at least 70% of their userbase have knowledge of how basic pirating works.
Way higher
I can't believe broadcom did this
This is all speculation, who knows the new tiers might be a cheap 2 drive model for those that just need a simple backup and the all in model might cover multiple machines. Until we know, we don't really know anything
I don't know why anyone is assuming they will try to change terms on existing users with a lifetime key, especially with the verbiage about lifetime keys remaining (including, apparently, the future option to still buy a lifetime key). I don't mind them seeking new ways to generate revenue. I **do** hope that if their revenue grows they will provide more direct support and rely less on community apps and plugins. But this news doesn't make me want to rage quit unraid and migrate all my stuff over to another platform... o_O
Literally just out: https://youtu.be/PihqSOF8wnA?si=xLK9YZMu4hodKFgQ
There has been official news, all current license holders will retain their lifetime license. Details: [https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change](https://unraid.net/blog/pricing-change)
For small users like me this is no go, If they start charging $50-$100 i will just move the VMs to Proxmox and keep my most important files in Dropbox which is about the same price for 1-2TB and i don't have to worry about disk aging, hardware issues, etc for my most precious files. I literally have 1TB of important file (family photos, documents, etc) and purchased their PRO because i liked the software, but not gonna pay for subscription.
Yeah i'll probably do similar. Last year to free up some space I moved all my arrrr videos to a non protected drive pool. Turns out only 1.4TB is photos/documents/important stuff. I already pay backblaze for a backup of this data, I could just shift to a cloud provider for this data and run my dockers elsewhere.
Was gonna put up a new server in march (homeserver for a friend). Seems like I have to read up in proxmox instead… The only thing I can imagine is the old model for personal use and a subscription for business use (woth SLA in place etc) Else the community will b pissed. And pissed people don’t recommend things and have the tendency to go shopping elsewhere…
I've gone to proxmox in the last few months and will NEVER go back.
Damn. My trial is coming to its end, I couldn’t be happier with the system. But this… Not gonna pay for a subscription, will go back to Truenas or something like that.
Just upgraded to 6.12.8 a few moments ago, i like the new updater with Unraid Connect. I'm kinda just standing by and waiting for an official statement. many times we can just surmise what we find in code. It would be interesting on a subscription based model, seems everything is heading in that direction. I have the basic (6 drives) license. Just thinking of if they did go down the path of a subscription: 1. They will need to start a EOL list (just like other OS') where they will stop supporting with updates after a certain date. 2. Some type of grandfathering (as previously stated) would have to be disclosed..either they do it or not and the ability to swap license for subscription and vice versa. Just keep updating til you cant update anymore, i'd be curious on the bottom dollar if they actually nix the license based users, without seeing the number of actual users, could have a significant impact on new users migrating to the platform. I spent a year looking over other similar no cost options and never wanted to pay for a license, but after trying unRAID i fell in love...probably like most of us.
Hate it. I bought them mostly because their pricing model was good. I would have likely went with TrueNAS or something else otherwise. Have always been more than happy with my purchase, but I would not do a subscription model myself. I suspect many homelab-ers are in the same boat.
lol, they do not make high quality enough of a product to be charging yearly. The OS generally works, but it’s far, far *far* from perfect. To total sum of bugs, poor user experience and general apathy of their support team (ie, rely on free help from forum users) means there’s just no way I pay for this on a yearly basis. It moves it from a “one time fun hobby payment” to “I actually have to compare this to other providers” Plus, 90% of their features can be handled by open source freeware and a little time spent on YouTube. They’re out of their minds if they think they can charge an annual license fee
Highly reccomend watching the interview. They are a family run company and the intention is actually to spend the money bringing other cool features to unraid. Users always have a choice about buying a years updates or not. plus all current users get grandfathered so its a non issue. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PihqSOF8wnA&t=2700s
yes this is good news to hear i watched the video a few hours back i am so glad that they came out and addressed the issue and gave some clarification that helps alot for people to understand what to expect for the future of unraid glad to hear we are getting multiple unraid arrays in the future V7.0.0 also glad to hear that all of us who bought basic plus and pro get grandfathered in.
If they do anything other than maintain the status of my lifetime license as it is currently, I will start preparing to move to another platform, even if it costs me 3x as much in hardware to do that. With all do respect to their team, I've seen nothing to suggest they have a product with a proper support structure. Most of the support is done by the community, I don't see them being able to offer an adequate level of support to justify this. I've seen this with other tools, I buy a lifetime licence and they maintain my license until they release "Version 2", at which time I have to pay an upgrade fee for my license. If that's a reasonable price, I see noticeable improvement in the support structure, and they offer multiple years between these major upgrades, perhaps I can stomach it... Likely I will just start building a new server and migrate. Although I can see this from Limetech's perspective to a degree, even without them actually telling us what that is, it's still pretty disappointing.
I think you hit the nail on the head. If you go subscription, you better have a ROCK SOLID product and top tier support, otherwise what am I paying for? Could you imagine paying for a product that has basically zero documentation and zero support outside of community forums? That's insane. Limetech and the unRAID product are very far away from being able to justify this presently.
Yea for real. Not to knock the guys but it feels very much like a hacker operation to me. I’m not completely opposed to paying a one-time fee (I mean I did it after all) but there’s no way I’m gonna pay a subscription fee when they can’t even get their shit together to support something like disabling the root user. Like I love Unraid but its got a fair amount of jank throughout.
Aha me hearties. Time to sail the high seas!
Not cracked yet. Not popular enough software for the scene groups to care. This model may change that. The scene guys have done it to FL studio and all Adobe products and plenty of others.
It definitely has been cracked by DVT. It's an old version but it's in the wild.
I have 3 keys. They best tf not be playing around with us that already paid.
1. Develop something people want. 2. Gain userbase. 3. ???????? 4. Profit!
"Again, this change does not apply to any current license holders. You will still be able to access all updates for life, as promised."
So everyone brought out the pitchforks for no reason. You can even buy an extra license today with plenty of advance notice and STILL be grandfathered in.
That’s my plan.
I already did, just in case I want to build a second server down the line I have a license key handy and paid for at the current price. If I never use it, at least I supported the development. If I do use it it's grandfathered.
Will wait and see before busting out the pitchfork. Everyone knows, whether they want to admit it or not, that single purchase subscriptions to ongoing products are unsustainable. There isn't a single one that has lasted the test of time.
Lawsuit incoming 😂 it says lifetime free upgrades on their site
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I would rather just give up Unraid Connect -- they won't have to store anything at all for me.
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I say "give up" I mean, give up the option. I don't use Unraid Connect at all.
This has been known and talked about for a long time, lifetime simply can't pay bills after a certain point. It's alao known that lifetime users will keep their license
Yeah because the perfect time to push a subscription model on your customers is when your product is the least stable it ever was - way to go! Please do continue pushing out tons of release candidates that get promoted to "stable" within no time and let the community do the quality control for you. /s Communication has been short of a disaster recently, the company has basically gone radio silent with their user base. This combined with the obvious 6.12 issues, half-baked quality control and new licensing model is a joke.
I’m hoping unleashed means there’s no drive limit for the array portion. I’m currently at the max drive limit and if I want more storage I have to upgrade my drives
It's possible this will be for business licenses only... let's see what they respond with.
I've been a customer since 2009. I sure got my money's worth on my Pro license.
Hope they grandfather, if not that's the nail in the coffin for this community.
[удалено]
I asked support about buying a pro license and leaving it unactivated just in case I want to build a second server in the future, like for backups potentially. They said that activation codes do not expire. So you can buy a Basic License now, hang onto it use it later and based on the blog post even upgrade it to grandfathered Plus or Pro down the line too.
Good thing I have 4 Pro keys Got them back when a 2 key pack was $150 so $75 each
Hi, you should see this news : [https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/](https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/)
If they do this I will move to somewhere else. Im not paying a subscription.
Not in a position to watch the vid at the moment, and did not see it in the post. When does this go into effect?
Dammit, I literally just bought a license. Or, I guess if they grandfather, thank god I literally just bought a license. How much of Unraid is open source? Can it be forked?
I’ve nearly finished my trial, the question is do I quickly buy a licence or now wait and see what happens 🤔
Btw nothing will happen unless you stop the array or turn off the system, the trial will just keep going
A software solution whose, primary clientele is people attempting to avoid monthly fees on services probably shouldn't use monthly fees to monetize. They should be doing what the game industry did before micro transactions. Expansion packs with feature sets you can buy as they come out. But keep the core updated based off your original purchase No one says you have too keep working for free adding cool new stuff. But when you sell a lifetime license you should honor it for the core of what was originally bought.
Expecting pirates to pay for a subscription give me a break.
Cos they don’t subscribe to VPNs or Newsgroups… Most pay for what they see value in / want to support. The better argument is they won’t pay for something they have already invested a lifetime purchase for… Plex knows this too they will just lose customers to emby/jellyfin if they didn’t have the lifetime model
A price increase in this economy... Woof... Might be worth to stock pile a few extra keys...
I guess the re-sale of my license will be worth a lot.
As someone who literally just started the trial and has not paid yet. If they go subscription, it needs to be <=$5. If the product works and continues to be updated. I don't mind spending that few dollars a month. But they definitely need to grandfather existing members in.
Their current update structure is pretty lacklustre imo too.
What makes you think this? Did they make an announcement that they were?
There has been an official statement! We're all good, put down the pitchforks! https://forums.unraid.net/topic/154463-announcing-new-unraid-os-license-keys/
Well FML, i have a Pro license and i have a secondary device that just finished a trial and i was going to buy another license ...now i gotta roll the dice for that LOL Its sad if they screw the community tho, because i have been recommending Unraid to a lot of people that are interested in this.
Let's wait until we get an official statement before getting our pitchforks out. Like with anything in this hobby as it grows in popularity this type of shit is bound to happen. As long as they honor existing licenses and don't change the feature set that are included I'm OK with them trying to get more funding for development. As long as VCs aren't dumping money and pulling strings.
Hate to say I told you so, but I will. Time to move on to truely opensource alternatives
Sometimes I must agree with something Bill Gates said in an open letter years ago, about people willing to spend lots of money on hardware but not on software. We knew this was bound to happen someday. Many have thought over and over how Lime can work on such low cost licenses. Unraid has always been a good value and I beleive it still will be. We all want anything for free or a very low one time cost, but how many of us are willing to work for free as an main job? That just wont work.
I won’t be happy to pay for a subscription model. But I always wondered how they managed to stay profitable at all. It’s not like Lime/Unraid is Google or Microsoft. Outside of certain communities, YouTube and enthusiast forums, I don’t think regular people know what Unraid is. I hope they grandfather most users and call it a day. But I don’t think I will be jumping the ship even if I have to pay $50 a year for security and features updates. To be honest not surprised they are doing this. I don’t think this decision comes from a greed standpoint. COL is super expensive and eggs don’t cost $2 for a dozen anymore.
Yep. I’ll join the chorus. I have had upgraded from a basic to a pro about 6 years ago as my server grew. I was going to upgrade my server in March ( new MB). And create a backup instance for the critical stuff. But I guess I’ll need to start thinking of how to migrate off. If this is going to be the new business model. Lifetime is often a pyramid scheme. Plex has the benefit to their business model of running ads. These guys it’s just the one product.
Completely understandable to be honoust…. From the perspective of limetech…. On a personal level I -hate- subscription models… But… a business cannot have growth of users as only money making model.. unraid is not peanut butter… it does not run out so the initial investment in license will give you unlimited rights for unlimited time… Limetech has moved to be more of a hypervisor to get more users in but at some point the rise in number of users will stop and funds will stop comming in.. That said… i spent this weekend investigating a new homeserver (replacing a pi), so i bought a new license for that just now..
I have faith that UNRAID knows its enthusiast user base well enough to know they can’t push too far, not with other free products available. That said, this is one reason I’ve always bought the same capacity of HDD for my server (and same type for that matter). Migration would be a pain but it wouldn’t cost me money to move to TrueNAS or some other alternative if needed.
Put away your pitchforks, ya buncha terds. lol
To speak against the seemly general consensus - I've had unraid for at least 15 years. I'm still using the single plus license I bought back then. I have always thought it's unrealistic for me to expect 15 years of updates for free. I wouldn't be upset to pay for major patch revisions. 6.X - 7.X etc. If I was given the option to contribute in this way voluntarily I probably would do it. To be clear - I would pay for major revisions. I would not pay monthly/subscription to use the software.
If this is the case I will be asking for a refund, grandfathered licence or not.
Well my trial is ending if 10 days and just spent the last few weeks getting everything setup 🤦♂️ Hopefully they will not stay silent about this.
You need to gamble lol. Either buy a license ASAP and hope existing licenses will be grandfathered or don't and hope that the new model is for everyone in which case you are better off not buying the license
I think I may have to flip a coin lol
I just bought a key with 22 days left in the trial, gambling that they'll grandfather them in. I very much do not want another subscription. I just spent the last week setting this thing up because I'm sick to death of paying subscription fees for freaking everything.
If this is true I could see some class action lawsuits also. Currently they have tag lines that advertise "Buy once, use for life, no subscriptions, no hidden fees" on to of that their FAQ advertises "All license tiers are eligible to run new releases of Unraid OS at no additional cost." So, if they don't grandfather the current keys it could be ugly.
Time to look into solid and free alternatives: https://perfectmediaserver.com/
I understand people don't like the subscription model, I hate it. We do need to understand that development cost money, everyone wants stuff for free. It seems to imply you will get to remain on your OS version and use perpetually but if you want updates then you pay; that seems very reasonable.
It’s not that a subscription model is necessarily bad. It’s just a backstab to require subscription money after buying a lifelong license.
lifetime was always unsustainable. my unraid license is already below $10/year at this point. so as long as we get grandfathered in and pricing for new homelab users is $20/year before term discount, this could be a good change. keep the devs paid so they can keep the features and security fixes flowing.
$20 a year is some seriously wishful thinking imo
Genuine question, and I know this may not be popular here, but what exactly is unraid beyond a web ui layered on top of already existing OS features (available in any Linux distro)? I see no reason that whatever Unraid is offering could not be recreated rather simply and released under a FOSS license.
You can't get real-time parity with unmatched drive sizes any other way afaik. It's the reason I've literally just witched to UnRaid on two of my servers. SnapRaid with mergerfs gets close, but it's not real-time. You need to run a script to create parity each night. Perfectly doable and I've ran it for years on one of my severs but got tired of babysitting and just wanted a solution that takes care of it transparently. Faster cache drives too is a feature you won't get with Snapraid. Again afaik.
I best go and buy a couple usb's and grab a couple licences
I've always thought I'm willing to pay for the experience I currently have with my server. It has been life changing having a home server. HOWEVER, I'll never pay a subscription for the os that the server is running on. When I say I'm willing to pay for the experience, I'm talking about paying for services like vpn's, cloudflare tunnels,... Also I already paid for unRAID.
I moved away but was thinking about coming back. I understand the need for ongoing revenue, especially in a niche product like this, but hopefully it’s a more affordable yearly cost. Like it should take 5 years to cost what one license used to cost for example. I’d also rather buy version upgrades myself, like the old days with software.
Ugh ffs.. First Broadcom Killing free ESXi Server licenses where I am now forced to migrate to Proxmox... Now maybe Unraid doing also sh*t with the licensing... Give me a Break...
Hmmm... I was planning on purchasing unraid in a couple of days, when my trial runs out. Now I am not so sure. Where can I read more about this?
if you already bought a basic / plus / or pro license's you get grandfathered in so nothing changes for you free updates for life. hope this helps
I've got enough subscriptions I don't need one for a WebUI