Announcing New Unraid OS License Keys

[guybrush2012]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

It's got nothing to do with the new licensing

I think so. If my subscription expires after a year, a new unraid version comes out and the apps no longer work.

[itimpi]

1 minute ago, guybrush2012 said:

I think so. If my subscription expires after a year, a new unraid version comes out and the apps no longer work.

Why do you think your apps will stop working?   The most that is likely to happen is that you will no longer be able to get updates to the app if new versions of the app require a newer Unraid version.

[guybrush2012]

6 minutes ago, itimpi said:

Why do you think your apps will stop working?   The most that is likely to happen is that you will no longer be able to get updates to the app if new versions of the app require a newer Unraid version.

I don't understand this restriction. The apps have nothing to do with the subscription. These are Docker containers. :-(

[EDACerton]

Just now, guybrush2012 said:

I don't understand this restriction. The apps have nothing to do with the subscription. These are Docker containers. 😞

That’s because in most cases it’s not a restriction (as you mention, particularly for Docker containers).

 

 For plugin developers, the Unraid version is more important. 

[Kilrah]

9 hours ago, guybrush2012 said:

I think so. If my subscription expires after a year, a new unraid version comes out and the apps no longer work.

As mentioned it'd be only plugins, not apps/containers. Plugins are extensions to the OS, so the OS version matters. But it'll be the same, if you stay on an old version of unraid you'll have the old version of the plugin that works with it and that's it, it just won't get updates anymore just like unraid itself. 

Edited March 24 by Kilrah

[Jehoshua]

Hello

Basically, it's good that Unraid is thinking about financing. 

But it is extremely disappointing that Unraid still does not differentiate between commercial and private licenses.

And now, it get even worse: Unraid only allows rich users or commercial users to buy a lifetime license.

 

I know many families for whom 30$ is a lot of money - even in 'rich' Germany!

That's why I have a private NAS with 12 disks that I make available to friends and neighbors free of charge.
Professionally, I am responsible for IT in a company with around 180 employees, so I can judge the business and private benefits very well 🙂
 

Therefore, such a pricing model would be much fairer:

1. Starter, up to 6 attached storage Devices
   • Private use:
     Idea: Private user always have the Unraid logo
     Buy: 39$
     Annual fee: 19$
     Lifetime: 99$ 
      
   • Commercial use:
     Idea: Commercial users can change the Unraid logo
     Buy: 69$
     Annual fee: 49$
     Lifetime: 219$ 
      
2. Unleashed - unlimited number of devices
   • Private use:
     Idea: Private user always have the Unraid logo
     Buy: 79$
     Annual fee: 19$
     Lifetime: 149$ 
      
   • Commercial use:
     Idea: Commercial users can change the Unraid logo
     Buy: 159$
     Annual fee: 49$
     Lifetime: 299$ 

 

An important note:

• In 50 years I have met a lot of companies and 99% are fair when it comes to licensing.
• Therefore, I would trust the self-declaration of the users: if someone orders a private license, then you can assume this is no abuse of the license.
• However, it would be important to be able to convert the license from private use to commercial use. There are many people who start out in a garage with a small private project that develops into a business over time - and then it should be easy to change the license 🙂

 

Thanks a lot, kind regards,
Thomas Schittli

[primeval_god]

3 hours ago, Jehoshua said:

But it is extremely disappointing that Unraid still does not differentiate between commercial and private licenses.

And now, it get even worse: Unraid only allows rich users or commercial users to buy a lifetime license.

unRAID has always been a purely home solution and i would never recommend it for business purposes. 

[Jetro]

3 hours ago, primeval_god said:

unRAID has always been a purely home solution and i would never recommend it for business purposes. 

I wouldn't even for home solutions. There are problems to sort, I bought 2 Pro and 1 Basic licenses but I'm putting them down for now, passing to TrueNAS and Synology/Qnap in new purchases.

 

I tought Unraid'd have been a good solution to re-use old hardware or even to build new NASes because internet communities are pointing at it as the best thing in the world. After trying it out (maybe because I'm used to professional devices) the feeling is that there is too much work to be carried out before this project worth current prices.

[Jehoshua]

Unraid's greed has increased by a factor of 2 to almost 4x. Calculated over 5 years:

• Basic now costs 3.9x more
• Plus now costs 3.3x more
• Pro now costs 2x more

Are we right in assuming that Unraid still expects:

• the community to develop and maintain Unraid extensions free of charge
• and that the community will provide free support in their spare time?

 

Unraid lived above all from the great community.
This new pricing model is like a kick in the back of the community.

 

Kind regards, Thomas

[viviolay]

Hello, I bought a second basic license for future use. Do I need to use the activation key now or can I store it until I’m ready to build a second server?

[Hoopster]

3 minutes ago, viviolay said:

Hello, I bought a second basic license for future use. Do I need to use the activation key now or can I store it until I’m ready to build a second server?

I believe Limetech has stated you can use it whenever you wish.  No time limit on activation.

[Copyright]

Upgrade basic key to pro done. I hope with the new licensing model they'll do a lot of work to kick in the ass another solutions and prove the viability of this business model, if not, hope they are ready to lose users...

[neuburger]

I'm a totally new user (within the 30 day trial version) and wanted to buy the old lifelong license today. As written in the email, I should have time until the 27th. Now the changes are already live for me - so I guess I won't be an user ever. As I probably would never need more than 6 drives, the increased price from 69$ to 249$ is too much for me.

Edited March 27 by neuburger

[SpencerJ]

6 minutes ago, neuburger said:

I'm a totally new user (within the 30 day trial version) and wanted to buy the old lifelong license today. As written in the email, I should have time until the 27th. Now the changes are already live for me - so I guess I won't be an user ever. As I probably would never need more than 6 drives, the increased price from 69$ to 249$ is too much for me.

 

Hello- we sent out reminder emails of the change over that happened earlier this morning.

If you only need 6 drives, you also have the option of a Starter license at only $49.

Thank you for trying us out

[TheMantis]

Quote

I'm a totally new user (within the 30 day trial version) and wanted to buy the old lifelong license today. As written in the email, I should have time until the 27th. Now the changes are already live for me - so I guess I won't be an user ever

The changes seemed to occur at 5AM New Zealand DLST today (28th of March), at least the website maintenance period began then A quick check says that is well into the 27th of March (20 hours time difference so 9AM?) in California, USA where Lime Tech is based.

Edited March 27 by TheMantis

[MrCrispy]

I was hoping the change would take place AFTER 12am Mar 27 US time. Is LimeTech NZ based? thats news to me.

[trurl]

12 hours ago, MrCrispy said:

I was hoping the change would take place AFTER 12am Mar 27 US time. Is LimeTech NZ based? thats news to me.

 

16 hours ago, TheMantis said:

A quick check says that is well into the 27th of March (20 hours time difference so 9AM?) in California, USA where Lime Tech is based.

 

[Danny N]

On 3/24/2024 at 11:19 AM, Jehoshua said:

Hello

Basically, it's good that Unraid is thinking about financing. 

But it is extremely disappointing that Unraid still does not differentiate between commercial and private licenses.

And now, it get even worse: Unraid only allows rich users or commercial users to buy a lifetime license.

 

I know many families for whom 30$ is a lot of money - even in 'rich' Germany!

That's why I have a private NAS with 12 disks that I make available to friends and neighbors free of charge.
Professionally, I am responsible for IT in a company with around 180 employees, so I can judge the business and private benefits very well 🙂
 

Therefore, such a pricing model would be much fairer:

1. Starter, up to 6 attached storage Devices
   • Private use:
     Idea: Private user always have the Unraid logo
     Buy: 39$
     Annual fee: 19$
     Lifetime: 99$ 
      
   • Commercial use:
     Idea: Commercial users can change the Unraid logo
     Buy: 69$
     Annual fee: 49$
     Lifetime: 219$ 
      
2. Unleashed - unlimited number of devices
   • Private use:
     Idea: Private user always have the Unraid logo
     Buy: 79$
     Annual fee: 19$
     Lifetime: 149$ 
      
   • Commercial use:
     Idea: Commercial users can change the Unraid logo
     Buy: 159$
     Annual fee: 49$
     Lifetime: 299$ 

 

An important note:

• In 50 years I have met a lot of companies and 99% are fair when it comes to licensing.
• Therefore, I would trust the self-declaration of the users: if someone orders a private license, then you can assume this is no abuse of the license.
• However, it would be important to be able to convert the license from private use to commercial use. There are many people who start out in a garage with a small private project that develops into a business over time - and then it should be easy to change the license 🙂

 

Thanks a lot, kind regards,
Thomas Schittli

Ngl I would agree with the concept of lifetime starter but I do think the lifetime prices probably need to be a little higher I also feel that there needs to be more of a gradient as someone with lets say 4 disks is probably gonna be a lot more price sensitive than someone with 16 and I feel like to older licence system worked well with that now it’s kinda one monthly price (which i get is to not penalise those who buy a higher teir than they need) but it means the lower users are charged way higher than they need to really affecting their cost benefit analasis, if I know the cost of entry is £100 I’m gonna wanna make sure it’s for me, which £10 I’ll probably just try it, rn to me these starter users has a high cost of entry with a high cost of renuing and I feel a lot will just go to truenas or off the shelf nas, with the current pricing I don’t feel I would have ever started even if now ik it to be one of the best buys I’ve made. I almost wonder if they should just go with the monthly cost as updates are kinda important for a nas, and the buy cost just artificially increases the cost of entry, maybe do

starter

   2 drives

   $20 buy / a year 

   $100 lifetime

    This will almost be a long term trial and let people use unraid as a ui for a docker or vm or something (I’ve done this for Plex for intel quicksync hardware transcode as my main nas it’s amd based)

Basic

    6 drives 

    $30 buy / a year

    $150 lifetime 

plus 

    12 drives 

    $45 buy / a year (or maybe do $5 monthly but contracted for a year)

    $225 lifetime

unlimited:

    Unlimited drives

    $60 buy / a year ($7 monthly but contracted for a year)

    $300 lifetime

for commercial use add $10 a year or $1 montly and allow changing logos and removing / allowing to change references to unraid other than in technical documentation / areas 

I’d also say for people with multiple licences there’s a discount of 50% per additional licence (ofc the if you have unlimited and plus the cheaper teir gets the discount) 

 

overall I feel that pricing while more complex would allow a low cost to enter while maximising the money earned from those that see the most value from the product as these people will have the most disks, id also say unraid could add secure remote access for lets say $10-20 a month similar to how home assistant works ofc you can set it up yourself but that’s hard to make secure so many will just buy it 

[sean]

I'd like to say that I am in support of this change. So long as the original promises are maintained to their current users with Pro licenses. I want Unraid to continue as an option in the home nas/server field. Without continual funding eventually they will not be able to continue. The only thing I worry about is the possibility of doing the same thing that has happened to Plex. Ignoring the users wants and implementing features that no one asked for. So far that hasn't happened and it seems to me Limetech actually cares about what their users ask for in the forums, even if sometimes they can't make everything we ask for happen.

 

Honestly, I'd go as far as saying that there really shouldn't be a one time payment option for perpetual access to updates. I'm glad they have it for those that really want it, but it could lead to not enough cash flow. I believe this change will allow them to make more progress and better the product, but only time will tell.

 

I'd be interested to hear others thoughts if they believe differently.

 

ps. Are we going to get that second array option? ZFS is cool but the scalability of the main array is amazing.

[ChatNoir]

9 hours ago, sean said:

ps. Are we going to get that second array option? ZFS is cool but the scalability of the main array is amazing.

The goal is to have the Unraid Array to be one type of pools among others (ZFS, BTRFS, etc.).

Then, you could have 0 Array and only ZFS if you want, and/or several Arrays.