I just realised Unraid moved to a subscription licencing model (sort of)

[Hades]

I've been using Unraid for a couple of years and love it. I've recommended it several times on here. But I've just realised that about a year ago they moved to a semi-subscription model. Unless you buy the top tier licence then for new licences you now only get one year of OS updates. It looks like you do still get a lifetime licence to continue running it, but no updates after a year which is obviously quite a security risk. This doesn't affect older licences bought before the change.

I still think it's a great product. But unless you have a strong use case for the top tier licence then I'm striking it off my list of recommendations.

I'm only posting it here in case others weren't aware of the change.

EDIT: Doh! I also just realised this is mentioned in the Unraid Lessons Learnt thread. Whoops.

 

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I would have recommended it still is it was a bit of an increase but it was a steep increase to 250 for lifetime when before it was a quarter of this.

 

[Avalon]

I have mixed feelings, $249 for pro now is a bigger number than I feel comfortable with at face value, but selling any product as 'lifetime' when you have ongoing development costs tends to end badly sooner rather than later unless it's a back room hobby dev with near zero overheads, or it's priced appropriately. Then I glance over at the rack and remember $249 looks like a rounding error in total spend over the last 14 months, let alone 14 years, and suddenly it doesn't feel that unreasonable. Also, i've seen other NAS OEM's EOL perfectly good hardware multiple times in that time, just because it had a fixed support lifecycle, while selling you near identical hardware under a new model number, so having the option to pay $36/yr for updates would be better than the e-waste route imo.

Either way, much like having a home server in the first place, it's up to the individual to make an informed choice as to what's right for them, and it may not be the right answer for someone else.

 

[Hades]

I would have recommended it still is it was a bit of an increase but it was a steep increase to 250 for lifetime when before it was a quarter of this.

I have mixed feelings, $249 for pro now is a bigger number than I feel comfortable with at face value, but selling any product as 'lifetime' when you have ongoing development costs tends to end badly sooner rather than later unless it's a back room hobby dev with near zero overheads, or it's priced appropriately. Then I glance over at the rack and remember $249 looks like a rounding error in total spend over the last 14 months, let alone 14 years, and suddenly it doesn't feel that unreasonable. Also, i've seen other NAS OEM's EOL perfectly good hardware multiple times in that time, just because it had a fixed support lifecycle, while selling you near identical hardware under a new model number, so having the option to pay $36/yr for updates would be better than the e-waste route imo.

Either way, much like having a home server in the first place, it's up to the individual to make an informed choice as to what's right for them, and it may not be the right answer for someone else.

Both good points. I still think it's an excellent product aside from the licencing model.