PhraseExpress: very awkward license

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Posted by JasonE
Aug 30, 2010 at 02:43 PM

PhraseExpress is available free for non-commercial use.

Since I have found myself using it commercial tasks, I argued around with myself for a few minutes, then went ahead and purchased a license.

Some features actually went away after I entered the registration key!

The lowest-tier paid version is less functional than the free version.

This annoyed me. Then I saw that you can remove the license through a pull-down menu option, and (I assume) go back to full-feature use.

So pay for it, then remove the license to use the full version?

Are you supposed to use it license free when working on personal projects, then install the license for work, then remove it again for the next personal task?

How truly awkward.

JasonE

Posted by PhraseExpress
Aug 30, 2010 at 09:28 PM

Jason,

thank you for using PhraseExpress and our apologies for the confusion regarding the licensing.

As you pointed out correctly, PhraseExpress is fully free-of-charge for personal use and non-personal users would need to purchase a license in order to support the continued development.

We offer three product variations for commercial users which are explained on our shop page.

Indeed, our entry level “Easy Edition” at low license price with less features than the Standard Edition which is free-of-charge for personal use.

We would be sorry, if you find it awkward that we offer the Standard Edition for free for personal users than just the entry level Edition. However, we prefer to provide most of the PhraseExpress features as listed at http://www.phraseexpress.com/features.htm for all personal users.

As a commercial user, you have the choice to either keep using the same feature set at normal price or less features at a lower price as explained on the webpage where you actually purchased the software: http://shop.phraseexpress.com

We will try to make it more clear that the free edition is based on the Standard Edition. Again, our apologies for the confusion.

Michael
PhraseExpress Team
http://www.phraseexpress.com

Posted by tightbeam
Aug 30, 2010 at 10:21 PM

I have to agree with Jason that these licensing terms are awkward and seem to penalize (some) honest commercial users.

Your Shop page states: “Enjoy the benefits of the full version and choose your preferred PhraseExpress product”. Maybe rewrite that sentence since the ‘benefits of the full version’ are often less than the benefits of the free version.

Posted by PhraseExpress
Aug 31, 2010 at 06:54 AM

We thought that stating on the shop page that the Easy Edition has no macro function support would make it clear that it has no macro function support.

Here is a screenshot of the shop page:
http://screencast.com/t/ZjE1Y2IzYzQ

I realize now that it doesn’t seem to be clear enough and we will make it more clear that the Easy Edition is positioned below the free edition.

The product variations were certainly not intended to confuse users. It is rather based on customer feedback: While most go with the Standard or Professional Edition, some users asked us for a stripped down version as they only need a basic version at lower price.

You have the *choice* and you can easily compare the product variations including pricing on our webpage.

By the way, we gladly grant users an upgrade option between the variations.

Michael
PhraseExpress Team

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