Teamviewer shift to Subscription Sucks!

[fastremotehelp.com]

Where do I start? I started with Teamviewer 7 five years ago, and have upgraded to each new release through version 11, which is what I'm currently on. I loved Teamviewer, it was the foundation of my MSP business, and use it daily to support 120 active contract clients, and 3 times that number for as-needed pay-as-you-go clients. Even if the new release "features" became less and less significant. Upgrade to get a new button on the console---really Teamviewer? But I did upgrade, year after year, at a cost of roughly $500 for each upgrade. I volunteered to upgrade to stay on the current release.

But Teamviewer, in their endless hunt for new revenue, has drunk their well dry. It's not enough to sell lifetime licenses. It's not enough to sell those lifetime license-holders yearly upgrades. Nope, it's time for the subscription model, where everybody pays, every quarter or every year. Forever.

So I called and spoke with a Teamviewer Rep last week. She was well aware of all my previous purchases. And she confirmed that lifetime licenses were done. Over. Kaput. I could upgrade to the latest version, and pay every year. And my Version 11 lifetime license didn't expire. But if I want new versions, it's a never-ending subscription.

Teamviewer, which I used to consider my partner-vendor in my business, has now become just another greedy service vendor. I explained to the rep how I felt. And, she didn't care.

So now, I'll stay on Teamviewer 11. It works just fine. And Teamviewer will never get another dime from me. And if anyone asks about Teamviewer, I'll just tell them, if you didn't already purchase a lifetime license, look elsewhere for a Remote Support Tool.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Where do I start? I started with Teamviewer 7 five years ago, and have upgraded to each new release through version 11, which is what I'm currently on.

Teamviewer, which I used to consider my partner-vendor in my business, has now become just another greedy service vendor. I explained to the rep how I felt. And, she didn't care.

So now, I'll stay on Teamviewer 11. It works just fine. And Teamviewer will never get another dime from me.

Ahh crud I just realized 7 years have gone by since I bought Teamviewer 5 premium but I never upgraded. It didn't take me long to see the pattern of when they start beta, release products with poor enhancements and treat customers poorly. I used tv5 with little launcher programs/scripts I made to terminate any existing teamviewer processes before mine launched so that computers with newer tv installations would still allow my old tv5 to run. I did that for years until I finally switched to a lifetime screenconnect license.

 

[DataMedics]

I think Teamviewer is going to go the same route that LogMeIn went. Eventually, they'll dump free accounts in favor of only paid accounts. The price will then only continue to raise each new version until they're down to just their core base of really profitable enterprise customers and weed out everyone else.

It's why I moved to the buy-once, small fee to upgrade versions, self-hosted, software model of Simple-Help. It's not quite as seamless as Teamviewer is for certain things, but has served me well.

They have no reason to want to dump me as a customer since they aren't providing support or maintaining servers to keep the service up. They just sell the software, and the rest is up to me.

 

[fastremotehelp.com]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! The primary reason for me upgrading TV each year was not the features, it was to eliminate connection issues with my clients who had accidentally upgraded their TV host modules to the latest version.

ComputerRepairTech, I'd be interested if you have any of those scripts to terminate TV before running the connection, I could use one and I am not good at scripting, thanks.

I guess I wrote this rant against TV because I felt BETRAYED by a company I really trusted to keep doing the right thing by it's customers.

 

[fencepost]

I think Teamviewer is going to go the same route that LogMeIn went.

Yeah, I just noticed today that Logmein has also doubled up the price for the paid version of LastPass and removed some features from the free version - I missed it because my renewal was a little earlier in the summer. I figure they're probably going to bump the price up once more until they're at the same subscription price level as 1Password of $36/year or $60/year for "family" accounts.

Combined with some of the other minor annoyances I've seen with it not working nearly as smoothly, seems like it may be time to start evaluating alternatives now so there's no rush next summer.

It's why I moved to the buy-once, small fee to upgrade versions, self-hosted, software model of Simple-Help.

Are you using Simple-Help's enhanced features for limited monitoring, etc? If so, how are they?

 

[coffee]

I bought a license when TV9 was the current one. Then about 2 weeks later 10 came out. I called and tried to get grandfathered in to the new version and I got a pretty stiff 'NO'. So, I am sitting at TV9 and a lot of my clients had installed 12. Kinda makes it frustrating alright. I am looking around a bit for something else. I cannot believe how expensive it has become.

I really have no plans on upgrading either. Ill figure something out but 600+ a year is totally insane! Evidently they only want the likes of IBM for clients.

 

[GTP]

I really have no plans on upgrading either. Ill figure something out but 600+ a year is totally insane!

I have been with Teamviewer for a few years now and I also was paying per year until last year. My "subscription" is only AU$279 p/y
(but I guess that will rise as time goes by )
Covers all incremental and major updates. (So far)

 

[sapphirescales]

Yup. I bought Teamviewer 11 when I saw the UK version of it being offered as a subscription. I figured the US version wasn't far behind. Turns out version 12 came out and before I could pay for the upgrade they switched over to full subscription here in the US. They'll never be getting another cent from me. Teamviewer was always expensive, but worth it as it's a one-time purchase. Not anymore. Sort of like Adobe products. $800 for a permanent license, or $600 per year UP FRONT! They can go jump in a lake.

It will be a cold day in hell before I pay monthly for ANY software. Software is NOT a service. It's a product. Unless they're providing a server or something else that costs them money, charging monthly is nothing but a shameless cash grab. If you walked into Home Depot and saw that you could only rent a lawn mower rather than buy one and to add insult to injury, renting it was only 10% less than buying it outright, wouldn't you be p*ssed? I sure would.

It's the same crap with Office 365, which is why I almost never sell it. Unless my client is going to be using the ENTIRE Office suite, it just doesn't make sense financially. Most of my clients need Word, Excel, and Outlook. There's absolutely NO REASON to pay EVERY SINGLE MONTH for this when they can just pay one time and be good for 10+ years. I still have many clients on Office 2010, and they won't be upgrading until there are no more security updates for it. I personally use Office 2010, 2013, and 2016. I have multiple license that weren't bought at the same time, and honestly there's not much difference between them. Hence why Microsoft started the subscription bullsh*t. There's no real REASON to upgrade and spend more money unless the software is no longer supported.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! The primary reason for me upgrading TV each year was not the features, it was to eliminate connection issues with my clients who had accidentally upgraded their TV host modules to the latest version.

ComputerRepairTech, I'd be interested if you have any of those scripts to terminate TV before running the connection, I could use one and I am not good at scripting, thanks.

I guess I wrote this rant against TV because I felt BETRAYED by a company I really trusted to keep doing the right thing by it's customers.

The only ones I have are branded and have my info on them but I got a click once launcher that just has my logo and says computer repair tech on it if you want to use that? they would need to visit the website in IE or edge for it to work though.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I guess I wrote this rant against TV because I felt BETRAYED by a company I really trusted to keep doing the right thing by it's customers.

I'll never understand why people expect companies to provide their products for free. TV or Malwarebytes or any product that has constant expenses can't provide unlimited service with limited revenue. If you buy the product you have to plan on that changing some day. I am not speaking of ethics or customer service. I am talking basic survival. It's math people.

 

[nlinecomputers]

It will be a cold day in hell before I pay monthly for ANY software. Software is NOT a service. It's a product. Unless they're providing a server or something else that costs them money, charging monthly is nothing but a shameless cash grab.

TV is a service. Your connection to the client PC is routed and maintained via TV servers.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

TV is a service. Your connection to the client PC is routed and maintained via TV servers.

It does attempt a direct connection first though if I recall correctly.

 

[GTP]

I was pi**ed off when they changed to the subscription model and looked around for an alternative.
Finding one with the same functionality is not that easy. Some cost less but don't have the features that TV has, some cost a lot more and still don't have those features. The ones that do match TV are way above what I want to pay.
AU$279 per year (for me) for TV is a fair price to pay as far as I'm concerned. When the cost is divided over all the clients I use it on it works out to be less than .60 cents per client.
For the functionality, features, the custom branded module that I can integrate with Kabuto, the always up to date software, and the peace of mind knowing that if I need to use it, it will just work is a big plus.
And as Kabuto pulls the custom module from TV's servers it's always current as well.

 

[lcoughey]

As a data recovery guy, like Jared, we also use Simple-Help. Although the ability to setup and monitor client systems is there, we are more interested in the quick one-time jump in, assist with a recovery and jump out. The features I really like with Simple-Help is port forwarding and direct terminal access.

Is Simple-Help as seamless as Team Viewer? Not really. But, I have been able to send suggestions and comments to the Simple-Help and get a fairly quick response from the actual developer. It is always nice to know that there is a real person I am supporting when I pay for a product or service.

 

[HCHTech]

I loathe the move to the subscription model as much as anyone else, but that is the way the software world is going. As each company moves to this model, you can search through the narrowing options for one that hasn't moved yet, but the writing is on the wall. You can either be on this train or under it. Your choice.

Pick your product, figure your cost, adjust your prices to support it, get on with your life.

 

[nlinecomputers]

All software is subscription based. Why do you think companies produce new versions? It is to gain revenue to pay for the ongoing support costs.

Someone used a lawn mower analogy upthread. The problem with that analogy is that a lawn mower is a buy and forget item. It doesn't need patches, security updates, nor call in centers in India for product support.

Unless what you buy is going to be on a stand-alone system that is never connected to the internet, always running on exactly the same hardware it is IMPOSSIBLE not to have ongoing costs associated with support of the software you write. And those support costs are increasing. It is more difficult to support today then it was years ago simply because of the increased security concerns of the modern internet.

 

[Diggs]

My needs are "simple" and Simple-Help more than fills them without any yearly subscription. I've been quietly waiting to hear from someone here that really uses all the features Simple-Help provides.

 

[sapphirescales]

All software is subscription based. Why do you think companies produce new versions? It is to gain revenue to pay for the ongoing support costs.

Someone used a lawn mower analogy upthread. The problem with that analogy is that a lawn mower is a buy and forget item. It doesn't need patches, security updates, nor call in centers in India for product support.

Unless what you buy is going to be on a stand-alone system that is never connected to the internet, always running on exactly the same hardware it is IMPOSSIBLE not to have ongoing costs associated with support of the software you write. And those support costs are increasing. It is more difficult to support today then it was years ago simply because of the increased security concerns of the modern internet.

Sorry, but that reasoning is just BS. Software companies have gotten along just fine letting people buy the software and then pay to upgrade when they CHOOSE to. The SaaS model is nothing but the result of GREED. Not every piece of software needs to be updated all the time. And the software company is able to provide updates for a specified period of time before they stop supporting a product because they were PAID by the original purchase. Should they support it forever? Of course not! It's totally unreasonable to expect that. But software updates function EXACTLY like a warranty you get when you buy a physical product. The warranty expires, but you can CHOOSE when you want to buy a new product. SaaS is like a company FORCING you to buy a new product as soon as the warranty is up, and that is TOTAL BS!

Team Viewer 11 will probably still work fine for the next 10 years. Is it going to support the latest technologies? Of course not, and I shouldn't expect it to. But I can use it for the next 10 years without problems so long as I'm willing to live with its limitations. Just like I can live with my 10 year old washing machine despite the fact that it doesn't link up with my smartphone. If I want that feature, I can CHOOSE to buy a new washing machine. But I don't HAVE to because it still functions fine. And that's what these companies absolutely HATE!

 

[Your PCMD]

Software is NOT a service. It's a product.

So with that logic, would not things like RepairShopr, any RMM or MSP, online invoicing, etc. fall under that? After all, in the end, it is programs and other operating information used by a computer, otherwise known as software.

As far as TV goes, I am happy with my AnyDesk. $350 once and done. I could have got the $950 once and done, but I'm not concerned about branding with it. It does what I need it to do when I need to do it.

I don't know how much Simple-Help is, but I'm sure it is higher than what I use. There are lots of posts on here pertaining to it, and others, both good and bad. I would suggest the "try before you buy" model.

But I don't HAVE to because it still functions fine. And that's what these companies absolutely HATE!

Indeed. I will agree with that. But those companies are "smart?" and will eventually push out a patch that will eventually "break" older products OR end support for older versions, as you "should" agree they would do.

For all intensive purposes, Windows is a SaaS as well as Mac OS, or any OS for that matter. Sure, they will work for an "x" length of time, but eventually, they won't. And your in a way forced to "upgrade" - read pay more money. If you don't, it's having to deal with an inferior product.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Greed has nothing to do with it. Paying off Venture Capitalists does. TeamViewer, for example, was founded in 2005 and then sold to GFI (which at the time was 100% owned by VC companies) in 2011 only to be sold again,along with a lot of other GFI acquisitions, in 2014 to VC holding company Permira who is said to be soliciting bids to sell it again. The change in billing can't be a coincidence.