Common questions and Answers

When purchasing a single seat of SoftRAID 8 Premium, how many years of support is included? When I got SoftRAID 7 Pro the receipt stated that it never expires, but I can't seem to update to 7.6 because it did indeed expire.

Including the license key as it seems like it may be needed to troubleshoot.

@stefferber 

This should be added to your account today, or worst case Monday.

I'm not thrilled with seeing yet another piece of software gradually become a subscription, first with the loss of updates once a license expired (v7.x and earlier), and now with the outright loss of important features in v8. I do realize that keeping software updated for Apple's changes each year does require ongoing maintenance, but the loss of the lower-cost XT version puts those of us on 7.x XT in an odd position.

While we were offered a ½-price upgrade for a brief period after SoftRAID 8's release, I wasn't planning on updating my license during the offered time period - I had already anticipated that I'd be paying $80 at some point in 2024, probably after macOS 15 releases later this year for compatibility fixes, and saving $5 vs anticipated cost wasn't enough to change my mind. However, I just got a "save 25% on your upgrade" emails, and was reminded that 50% upgrade price was a limited offer, as now my upgrade cost is up to >$110. I don't know why anybody thinks that people that didn't bit on "50% off" two months ago will be tempted by "25% off" now.

I understand that there are more features in 8 Premium than 7.x XT, but for the most part, I don't need the extra features - that's why I was on XT to begin with. If you're looking for $79.99/yr from all users going forward, I don't understand why people with expired licenses aren't just being offered a flat $79.99 price instead of this "we'll give you a shrinking discount off of $149.99 over time" for the first year. We're not new customers, and the product we were anticipating paying for is no longer being offered. Offer $79.99 starting with the first year for existing customers, and offer small discounts on that to goose upgrade sales occasionally. As an XT license holder, the existing upgrade offers have left a bad taste in my mouth, honestly.

@rnb2 

If you do not need the features, we have "standard", which is free.
We have to have licenses "expire" after about 90 days, or users will simply let their licenses expire and only upgrade when they need support.

Part of the value of renewing is the tech support.

You do get "unlimited" enclosures per CPU and every enclosure (qualified) get another 3 years support. All upgrades are free now, so we can focus on adding features. we now have a great road map going forward, lots of stuff coming in the next year+

@softraid-support I do get all that, really - I understand the desire for consistent income to support the ongoing engineering investment.

What I don't really understand is why the first year is at a base price of $149.99, with existing license holders getting a (steadily-decreasing?) discount. If $80/user is where you want to be in coming years, why is the first year currently 1.5x that for existing users? You're making the choice harder than it needs to be to gain less than $40/user. Why not make the decision easier for existing users and just say it's $79.99/year if you have a reasonably recent license (you can define that however you want)?

@rnb2 

Renewals are at $79 always, and additional seats are at $39.

The first year usually has additional costs for supporting users. So it is $149 to take that into account.

And, to discourage users from only buying a renewal when they need support, for example, a license "expires" after 90 days.

With OWC qualified enclosures, you get 3 years of free Premium, also.

@milopalmer 

This is why we ultimately went with subscriptions, to make this simpler.

your license never expired, but your ability to upgrade expired when support expired. Unlimited upgrades only applied when you have an active support plan.

With SoftRAID 8 all upgrades are included, standard or premium, but standard has very limited features. Second seats are $39 on top of your license/year and all OWC SoftRAID qualified enclosures give a 3 year Premium subscription.

Posted by: @softraid-support

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The first year usually has additional costs for supporting users. So it is $149 to take that into account.

This is why I'm asking about existing users. I understand your point regarding the first year, but if someone already has a 7.x license, they're not a new user, there shouldn't be additional costs. Why not just charge existing users $79.99 for the first year instead of playing games with the upgrade "discounts" that seemingly get less attractive over time? That's really my only complaint about the new arrangement.

I understand what you mean and agree with the sentiment shared earlier about software inherently needing a maintenance fee to keep it current. My confusion is more to do with the use of specific terminology in potentially misleading ways. For example, SoftRAID 7 Pro receipts that have a column titled Expires: Never. I would expect all v7.X updates to be availability indefinitely.

I’ve also been confused about the marketing of OWC Enclosures, whether SoftRAID is included. I recently bought two Thunderbay 8s in Used:Like New condition under warranty from OWC (see here). On the product page it states:

Bundled with OWC SoftRAID; the fastest and most flexible RAID 0/1/4/5/10 tool

and

OWC enclosures include 3 Years of SoftRAID Premium.

Similar phasing is used here as well. I read those unconditional statements as facts, rather than a hint to buy something else. Turns out it wasn’t included or bundled and customer service let me know I should have known because it wasn’t listed in the Included section, even though there is no other indication on the product page of choosing with/without SoftRAID.

Again, love the software, love the hardware. In fact, trying the beta of 8.1 now and it is indeed faster than 7, amazing work! The messaging could be clearer and really some of the product pages need to be revised, because they could mislead.

@rnb2 

It is $79 but after 90 days without a support plan, it stops offering the discount. We have been sending out 50% and then 30% coupon code offers. Did you not get one?

@milopalmer 

Thanks, a lot of changes have been taking place,  but we think we have cleared up most of the confusion. One major change is enclosures without drives were 1 year SoftRAID, are now 3 year.

Not all enclosures make sense to come with SoftRAID, as they are "single drive" for example.

We do offer no SoftRAID versions of 0GB enclosures as many users already have an enclosure.

Please point out any continued confusing pages, we can improve them.

Take a look at the page I linked to above and provided quotes from the product page. Perhaps this one slipped through the cracks because it’s a Used item page that doesn’t have SoftRAID as an add-on option. As currently presented, it clearly states that it comes with SoftRAID premium for 3 years which isn’t what I received. 

@milopalmer 

What is your license number? It should be inside the front door

@softraid-support Ah, I think I know what happened. I did get the 50% off coupon, but at the time, I was less than 90 days out from my support expiration, so my normal price was only $5 more than the discount price, and I didn't see why it made sense to buy at that point. I sent an email to ask why the "discount" was so minor compared to my normal price, and the reply made no mention of the 90 day expiration of the $79.99 price.

I did get the 25% discount email, as well, but having a decreasing discount over time feels a bit like I'm being strong-armed, since there was no mention that I ever saw (or was provided by support) about the 90-day expiration. If I missed something, please let me know - I've just re-read the 50% off email I received on 4/4, and while there is clearly an expiration date for the 50%-off coupon, there is no mention that my "normal" price would only remain $79.99 for a limited time. Given the limited information I had, as a customer, it felt like I was offered a very small discount when 8 was announced ($75 vs $80), and now the best price I can get is $110+, without any notice of when the $79.99 price was going to expire.

Along with the issue that @milopalmer is dealing with (where that item sure looks like it includes SoftRAID unless you go over things very carefully), there are also some clearance Thunderbay 4 Minis that don't mention SoftRAID being included, but the pricing doesn't really make sense if it isn't. Specifically, this item (new, open box) doesn't list SoftRAID as included, but the price is only $5 less than the normal price for that enclosure without SoftRAID. Similarly, this item (used, tested) doesn't list SoftRAID as included, but only has ~$30 discount on new without SoftRAID. Finally, there is this Thunderbolt 2 Thunderbay 4 Mini (used, open box) where the price is only about $20 less than new without SoftRAID (though that discount honestly looks too large compared to the new price with SoftRAID).