***OFFICIAL HOMESEER PRICING THREAD***

[justonemore]

That is a good question. I just saw on the HS board where (xxxx) was raising his price to 39 bucks for his plugin, more - or - less blaming HST's new pricing index ( of 29.....go figure the xtra 10 bucks)

Man...this sounds like debates from over 2 years ago that another ol'timer started.

 

[Bruce L]

Well I hope to see more of the sharing of ideas for scripts and plugins to manage the simpler tasks.
I currently have purchased 2 plugins, the DooMotion and the Message Server and feel they both were well worth the money. I also purchased the WAF-NetCID script but feel that one would be better served as a free script as there is really not much too it. Nothing against David - just not sure anyone is going to pay 30 bux for a script to control a $5 device.

 

[huggy59]

As far as I'm concerned, and I paid the $39.95 price for my Homeseer purchase way back when, I'm not entertaining a move to 2.0 until I see it has been around and bugs fixed, as well as added value for the cost. Right now, there is no additional value for me that persuades me to jump.

Plugins being a minimum of $29.95? Ok, HST wants to cover its costs for the maintaining updater and get a piece of the pie for the plug-in, no problem. But I think they should allow others to write plugins for free and not have them hosted by the updater or even mentioned on the HS site. It certainly would stir up a lot of competition! Maybe we could go underground? ;-)

Ah heck, they ought to just charge $300 for the SDK! That will make the plug-in authors happy about the new charges. hehehe

 

[Skibum]

THat's what I suggested. There is nothing stopping someone from writing a free plug-in, and distributing it themselves....

 

[smee]

The NetCallerID is a good example of this. There are several people who have written scripts and programs that they are distributing for free - these have been discussed on the HS boards and here. Nobody has to buy the plugin if they don't want to.

I also happen to think that this is a perfect device for people to write their own scripts to use (a good way to learn scripting). The interface is a piece of cake (as far as hardware interfaces and communications go).

I like the way David set up his plugin (WAF-NetCallerID) and I wrote mine to be somewhat compatible with his (so my scripts would work with his plugin). Because of this, I'm hesitant to share my core functionality because I believe it would be stepping on his toes. But I'll share my support stuff.

 

[Bruce L]

Smee: I agree on the WAF-NetCID. It would be very easy to have added a call to Davids main handling script in my NetCID script but I didn't need the funcitonality and there was no sense under cutting any of his business. I like his script but I didn't like his 2nd line support methods so thats why I wrote my own.

I think there will be more free scripts but prolly fewer plugins. THere will be less incentive for peeps to write plugins for profit unless it's a fairly large one. THey'll squeeze out the little guys.

 

[bblackmoor]

Special introductory pricing...

That's more like it. I'd pay $50 for HomeSeer. $150 is just ridiculous.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Unfortunately, there is the little problem that they couldn't survive selling it for $50 so the product wouldn't exist in that case.

 

[jlehnert]

I think some people have forgotten some of the comments made earlier in the thread.

First, the minimum price change for plugins is not to make extra money for HS. It is to provide extra margin to allow other distributors (think Automated Outlet or Worthington) to also sell the plugins. Yes, HS will make some extra money on the plugins sold through the updater, but that is a side benefit. Rich & Rick are a bunch of upstanding people, and I don't think they would bother to lie to us about this.

Second, very few (if any) software developers provide unlimited free upgrades. Most provide unlimited "dot" upgrades (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc), but charge for major releases. As pointed out, many of us picked up HS for $39 ages ago, back when HSTech was called Keeware Software. In the several years since then, how many upgrades has HS charged for? Zero, zip, nada, none, etc. There are several of these releases that HS could have called "new" and charged an upgrade fee, but they didn't. Unlike (pet peeve) Intuit, that changes the look of the Quicken interface every year, and calls it a "new" version. (and yes before you ask, I would still be using Quicken 99 if my bank didn't provide free copies of the latest version). I don't think that anybody would dispute that Hs 2.0 qualifies as a "new" release. The $40/50 upgrade fee is fair and reasonable. If you don't want to pay it, or don't see any need to upgrade, then don't.

Do I fully agree with all these changes? No! I also want to see what will happen to those plugins that cannot justify a $29.95 price. And yes, I'm not sure I would pay $200 for HS if I was starting the hobby today. But give credit to HS when credit is due.

/Soapbox OFF

 

[Skibum]

Well said. I agree totally.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I do believe Homeseer is one of the more stable and easy to use software product I have ever used. It fits a lot of complexity and options in an easy to understand menu system. Usually you don't even have to read the instructions to get basic options to work. It also has the capability to make it complex (i.e. the options are there) for the advanced users as well.

I LOVE the fact that it interfaces with my Caddx Security system, Ocelot, NetCaller ID box, and MR26a as well.

I also CHOOSE to use Main Lobby as I like the quick and easy interface it provides with no programming. (Yes, it costs a lot and I didn't pick up the full suite all at once, but I would never find the time to get the complexity and nice graphic interface it provides on my own). There is a Homeseer interface for this as well.

Usually you will not find software with this multiple interface capability. (Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe NO product exists to date that will do this. Plus, I only listed the peripheral items I am using, a lot more exist).

Yes, a lot of this capability is actually NOT written and supplied by the Homeseer software designers, BUT it does exist. This is a big plus in my book!

Price is also a relative thing with various people. What some would pay a lot for, others wouldn't pay a dime for! Is the price increase worth the extra capabilities for this software? Well, a lot of that will depend on the individual. For me having one piece of software that has the capability of interfacing with all of my HA items is worth the cost. But, here again, I would never find the time, nor do I have the expertise required to do this on my own (writing ASP pages for instance), nor do I have the patience to learn another piece of software at this point.

Just trying to provide some pros and cons. I do think its good for users to express their opinion, whatever it may be, so each can decide their own perspective!

Regards,

BSR

 

[Skibum]

Are you running for office??

 

[jlehnert]

BSR for President! BSR for President!

 

[Rupp]

BSR needs to change his name to Henry Kissinger.

 

[justonemore]

Well said, everyone. And believe it or not, after the other night's tirade from me, I agree with ALL of it. I have no issue whatsoever for the UG HS price, and am looking forward to it.

I should have kept my mouth shut before about the plugin pricing. I don't use them, therefore...........