How JetBrains Lost Years of Customer Loyalty in Just a Few Hours

NOTE: This post was originally written after JetBrains announced a controversial new licensing model. Many people spoke out about it. The next day, they followed up to say that they were listening to the feedback, and two weeks later made a final post with significant refinements from their original announcement. But the content in this post predated either of those follow-ups. Keep that in mind when reading.

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Yesterday's big news, at least for many developers, is that JetBrains - maker of popular tools like IntelliJ and ReSharper - is moving to a software-as-a-service subscription model for their products.

Previously, buying a JetBrains product got you a perpetual license and a year of upgrades. Once the license expired, any software you had received under that license would continue to work, but you would need to buy another license to get further upgrades. It was a simple model that worked just fine for many people, and most customers upgraded every year.

Starting November 2, though, that all stops. After that date, JetBrains will no longer sell these perpetual licenses. Instead, you can rent access to their software on a month-by-month basis.

And there was much raging.

Now, don't get me wrong. A subscription model has apparently been a common request, and some of the feedback to the announcement has been positive. This arrangement is especially good for consulting shops that do one project in C# and the next project in Java. Rather than committing to a year of use, they can choose to only pay for what they need in any given month.

But that's just one type of customer. There are also plenty of single-platform shops. I know a lot of people who just need ReSharper or IntelliJ. These customers will probably notice no big difference - they will renew for a year at a time, and probably get a small discount as well.

This all sounds great! What's the problem?

The first change, and probably the biggest, is that the software will apparently stop working when you stop paying for your subscription. That's probably going to impact indie developers the most. For a developer with an unstable income, it might be perfectly fine to stay on an older version of the software until they've stashed enough cash to afford the upgrade. That will no longer work. But it's not just indie developers. I've seen companies who forget to renew their licenses promptly or who have long and convoluted processes to approve the expenditure. I guess, under the new model, development grinds to a halt until the purchase goes through.

Another controversial aspect is that the software will need to phone home. Now, JetBrains has given a gracious window - the software only has to dial the mothership once every 30 days. And customers in an internet-restricted environment will be able to install a license server inside their network to manage the license pool. This is not an uncommon practice for enterprise or specialized software. But it does create an interesting challenge. The licensing FAQ indicates that it's allowed for an employee to use their personal license at work; I've often taken advantage of this. But it doesn't look like the JetBrains license server supports personal licenses. For people in an internet-restricted environment, it looks like this perk is no longer available.

OK, so users lose some ability that they previously had, but the software is cheaper, right? Customers win a little and lose a little, so maybe it's a wash. Yeah, the software is cheaper... sort of. My last IntelliJ upgrade was $99 for the year. Under the new model, I'll only pay $89 for a year. Huzzah! Well, that's only applicable for users who already own IntelliJ. New users will pay $119 per year, which is a lot less than the old, introductory price of $199. But here's the deal: if I ever let my subscription lapse, it looks like I end up losing my grandfathered discount. And even then, the prices given are all listed as promotional prices that are only good until Jan 31, 2016. Is this a sign that the prices will jump in the near future? JetBrains certainly tried to promote this new licensing model by saying that it would make their software more affordable. It does make it cheaper, especially for new users (which is great!), but the situation for existing users is a little more murky. It's only cheaper for me if I keep renewing promptly. If I ever miss a renewal, my yearly costs jump by 30%.

But none of those details really explain why the internet got so upset. I think JetBrains miscalculated just how much people like the current licensing model. Sure, offering a subscription-oriented model makes sense for some kinds of customers. But there are many other customers for whom a subscription model is going to be worse. JetBrains indicated that this change is being made primarily to provide a better service to their customers. The feedback that they got today is that many customers don't see the new scheme as an improvement. Now, JetBrains has said (update 3) that they would take the feedback under consideration, which is definitely a good sign.

It's always awkward when a company says "this is good for our customers" and the customers respond with "no it's not". We saw this a few years ago with Adobe. In that case, it was completely clear that they didn't care what their customers wanted. They had decided on a course of action and nothing could stop that train. But I don't think anybody was surprised to see Adobe go in that direction. People liked Adobe's products, but I don't know that anybody really liked Adobe as a company. JetBrains was different. They built a loyal customer base on quality software and reasonable policies. JetBrains products had become the examples people used when saying "you know, open-source is great and all, but I'm happy to pay for quality software". When I read some of the responses to yesterday's announcement, I get the impression that existing customers feel a sense of betrayal. They're confronted with the idea that maybe JetBrains is no different from Adobe. Maybe all the goodwill that they felt for this company was misplaced.

Ultimately, JetBrains's response to this kerfluffle will show the underlying motivation behind this change. Will they listen to the feedback and truly offer licensing options that keep everybody happy? Or will they double-down on the software-as-a-service model, in the hopes that the controversy will just blow over?

Of course, listing the problems isn't super useful. If anybody from JetBrains reads this, I do have some suggestions for what you could do to appease the crowds:

• Continue to offer perpetual licenses. I don't think people are bothered by you offering subscription licensing; indeed, some customers seem to prefer it. But for customers who are happy with the status quo, forcing them to switch and threatening them with software that could suddenly stop working, it's a really hard pill to swallow.
• Or... require that corporate licenses be subscription-based, but continue to offer perpetual, personal licenses. I'm guessing that most of the people upset with this change are people who are currently using personal licenses. These are probably your most loyal, and also most vocal, customers. These are the kinds of people that get your products into an enterprise environment. At least keep them happy.
• Take another look at your pricing. You're asking users to replace perfectly functional software with software with a coin slot; if you stop feeding money into the meter, the software stops working. You have to give those users something in return. If you did something drastic - like cutting those prices in half - people might be far more willing to accept this software-as-a-service model.
• Offering lower introductory prices is great! But you don't need to fundamentally change your pricing model to do that. You've offered sales before - I got my initial ReSharper and IntelliJ licenses during your end-of-the-world sale back in 2012. If you want to attract new users, you could just, you know, lower your buy-in price. Heck, you could even raise your renewal prices by 10%. I suspect that such a change wouldn't have even raised an eyebrow.
• (Late edit after reading more comments) As a reward for subscribing for a year or more at a time, issue perpetual licenses for products released during that time. If I subscribe for a month and then let my subscription lapse, my software stops working. But if I subscribe for a year and THEN let my subscription lapse, any software released during the window continues to work. This creates a situation where JetBrains keeps making money, but customers aren't punished for letting their subscription lapse.

I was a huge Eclipse fan back in 2010, but a friend convinced me to switch to IntelliJ and I've been a loyal user since. I'm not writing as an outside observer, but as a concerned customer. Now, JetBrains doesn't really care about my business; I'm guessing that I pay for something like 4 of their developer hours per year. But people like my friend, and now me, are vital to JetBrains growing their business. I pushed and pushed to get ReSharper installed on all my coworker's machines; that ended up being something like 10 corporate licenses, which pays for a lot more development time. JetBrains got to where they are today by building a very loyal fanbase. I hope they realize that alienating that fanbase could tear them back down.