[Leonardo Guizzetti]

The change is perpetual licenses now also automatically include one year of maintenance to ensure you maintain access to the latest features, updates, and support. If we release a new version of Stata, the maintenance holder will receive that latest version quickly and at no additional charge.

This confuses me. So will a perpetual license holder who purchases Stata 17.0 be able to upgrade to say 17.1 and 17.2 at any time, or only if they are released within that 1 year maintenance period? Will this no incur a cost?

Or doe this apply to major version only, so perpetual version 17 can upgrade to version 18 for free within 1 year of license purchase?

[Sarah Marrs]

Good question. The perpetual license is still the same license that will not expire. The change is perpetual licenses now also automatically include one year of maintenance to ensure you maintain access to the latest features, updates, and support. If we release a new version of Stata, the maintenance holder will receive that latest version quickly and at no additional charge.

[Bjarte Aagnes]

Perpetual licenses now include the first year of maintenance. This applies to both new perpetual licenses as well as of upgrades, and applies to any perpetual license type: single user, volume purchase of single users, and network. If you are interested in a perpetual license, please contact us for pricing options at info[at]statanordic.com.

What is the meaning of

now include the first year of maintenance

and how differ this from previous perpetual licence?

[Karen Strope (StataCorp)]

I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for the feedback.

We are in the process of making updates to the website to make it clear that perpetual licenses are available. We want to be sure Stata users know that this continues to be an option.

I want to reassure you all that we are committed to continuing to offer perpetual licenses. We have even introduced new perpetual upgrade options in recent years by introducing upgrades for both GradPlan and Student licenses.

Also, for users that have a perpetual license, we will continue to offer upgrades of perpetual licenses on our website.

Thank you again for your feedback!

Best,
Karen Strope
Executive Director of Marketing

[Richard Williams]

You have to go through more hoops to even find out what the perpetual price options are.

If you are a student suffering through statistics for a year, a 1-year license makes sense. But for everybody else, a 1-year license makes no sense. The last time I checked, 2 one year licenses cost about as much as a perpetual license. By hiding the pricing details, people may spend more than they need to, or may not buy at all if they think they can't possibly spend this much every year.

If Stata wants to go to a subscription model, it could, but then the annual cost should be lower. Stata would make less in the short run but more overall if people faithfully renewed instead of holding onto Stata 16 forever.

[Marcos Almeida]

I gather the clear assumption is that the topic of this thread remarked ((and regretted) the change of trends, i.e., the recent lack of priority given to those who wish to acquire perpetual licenses, not necessarily the complete absence of this option, but this news is worrying enough.

[FernandoRios]

I agree
but my comment goes to the fact that the perpetual liven option is not easily accessible anymore.
and, as evidence of this post and the twitter thread, there is a negative reaction in the market.

[Eric de Souza]

It is clearly stated in post #3 above that Stata is committed to offering the perpetual license. It is also clearly stated here that the perpetual license is available still:
https://www.stata.com/order/business-license-options/


The same is stated under Educational License options

[Marcos Almeida]

This is appalling news. I have acquired perpetual licenses since Stata 12. This year, though, on account of an economical crisis that made the local currency lose (much) value, I decided to skip version 16, yet I’m counting down to the arrival of Stata 17. Hopefully this new trend is not for real and it was just a bad dream.

[Tarjei W. Havneraas]

So here is the thread. I also think this is a mistake. Since R is free I'm not sure it's wise to potentially increase costs or remove the convenience of buying a perpetual license.

[FernandoRios]

Sarah Marrs I agree with the General sentiment from Twitter too. While it may be possible to get the perpetual license by contacting Stata directly, it is an added burden that would make more people hesitant on doing it. Furthermore, As the twitter thread Tarjei W. Havneraas mentions, the current set up of "hidding" the perpetual /multiple year prices will give a strong negative signal to new user, who may feel to be pushed out Stata into other software.

Remember, one of the biggest plus of Stata was that once you buy a license (perpetual) it was yours forever. That compared to other software like SAS that doesnt allow you to do such things.

Hope the "marketing" group at @Stata realizes this is a mistake and gets back to the previous format.

[Tarjei W. Havneraas]

Sarah Marrs will Stata phase out perpetual licenses?

I saw a thread on this on twitter, where it was argued that this will push people over to R. I enjoy Stata and have a personal perpetual license for Stata 16 and wonder if I will not be able to upgrade to later versions on a perpetual license. If only yearly/multi-year subscriptions will be available this seems pricy in the long run.

[Sarah Marrs]

Richard, I agree with you that the best version of Stata is the current version of Stata. While we offer a couple of ways to keep up to date, our annual licenses are easily renewed, just like a subscription service, and you automatically get any new version or features that are released. This applies to both single-user licenses as well as to larger licenses for institutions.

[Richard Williams]

I can't see the perpetual license costs now but in the past I've gotten the impression that two one-year licenses cost about the same as a perpetual license. So, you might as well buy perpetual if you are a long-term user. Especially if you might just skip Stata 17 unless it has something you really really want.

Rather than 1-year licenses, I might be more interested in a subscription model where I knew I would always have the latest and greatest version of Stata available.

[Leonardo Guizzetti]

Hi Bruce -- great question.

The perpetual license is certainly still available and you can contact our sales team about purchasing one -- just follow the website link or I am happy to have someone reach out to you directly.

Over time, we have noticed that more users prefer to purchase our annual licenses. As the demand for annual licenses grew, we knew we needed to update our webshop. However, we are committed to offering perpetual licenses. With the more expensive perpetual licenses, we want to be sure users are getting the right product for them.

Sarah Marrs
Director of International Marketing, StataCorp
[email protected]

This is good to hear as I still prefer the perpetual license option.