I have been using Corel Draw since version 3 (not X3, but version 3) and one of the reasons I use Corel Draw is that it's not Adobe. It's easier, less snobby and far less expensive. However with this new trend towards subscription pricing I may be forced to drop Corel Draw. Subscription pricing is bad for the consumer on so many levels. When I pay for software, I expect to be able to own it and use it whenever I want for as long as I want. But now Corel wants to charge me extra for that convenience? No F*ing way!Since I qualify for the upgrade pricing, I can get X6 for $180, AND keep and use it indefinitely. If I use it for 3 years, that's $60 a year. But if I go for the subscription pricing I would have to pay nearly $200 and have access to it for only one year. Where is the value in that? Also, on occasion I have skipped versions because of bugs that were introduced and not addressed in a timely manor in the new version or Corel introduced features that were of no benefit to me. I can care less about "Website design software" or "Complex script support". When moving form version 9 to version 11, I had to convince Corel to give me 10 instead since 11 broke some of the features I used in 9. Yeah, I paid Corel for an older version. And version 6 offers me nothing of value over version 5. I tried the demo and found it was even close to being worth the $180 upgrade price. Trace is still pathetic (slow, and inaccurate), very few bugs were fixed in Draw and Photo-paint is virtually identical to the old version. And how about adding/fixing little things like:
Corel claims "Early access to new features and updates". Yeah so that the subscription holders could be the beta testers and find the bugs for them. No thank you. Despite all this I still love my CorelDraw but if they continue to move closer to the Adobe model I will be moving further away from Corel Draw.
Mike and Gary,My point is that if Corel forced the subscription-only purchase option then they would be alienating a long time and loyal customer (and I suspect others as well). Of course I do not feel that Corel is "holding a gun to my head" but if I didn't have the purchase-only option then there is a much smaller incentive for me to continue using Corel products. It's simply not fair to change the rules of the game mid season. However, if Corel keeps the option to purchase outright then I couldn't care less about the subscription based offering.
I only posted this here as Corel has no way to contact them directly with such comments via their website or via email and I know that Corel employees visit here on occasion. Finally, thanks to those of you who pointed out that currently there is still the option to purchase the software outright. David
Hi Bob,
What new features do you get with a subscription that you do not get with the purchased software? The bulk of what I see on Corel's website is just more stock content and simple tools like QR codes (which I can build for free on many websites). I do see some new tools for Photo-Paint but I have long ago abandoned it for less expensive and more powerful tools such as Zoner Photo Studio (similar to Lightroom or AftershotPro) which already has the "Planar Mask" type tool, special effects and HDR processing (which Photo Paint does not include). Thanks, David
This is the Corel policy. Not worth to invest money in CorelBug x6 with or without premium membership, it's full of bugs.
aerorelix said:What new features do you get with a subscription that you do not get with the purchased software?
In Draw:
Insert QR codeValidate barcodealignment guide set up +ppdynamic guide set up +ppguideline set upcamera bitmap effectsfont playgroundinsert charactercolor stylespremium clip artpremium stock imagestons of fontsDynamic alignment guieds dockerguidelines dockercolor styles dockerbokeh blur (pp)camera/colorize/septa toning/time machine (pp)
Paying towards next version
Might have missed a few. Well worth it to me. Not a user subscription just "extra" stuff.
aerorelix said:My point is that if Corel forced the subscription-only purchase option
Then they would be alienating everyone.
They won't do it. They've said they won't do it. I believe them. I like that they have it as an option, even though we choose not to use it that way.