“Jetbrains has historically added significant value to their product year over year and made the purchase of new versions worthwhile. Reddit user “slccsoccer2” summarizes his opposition to the new model by writing:
Developer Daniel Yankowsky observes that his concerns are not just licensing changes, but also includes the fact that the new software licensing requires “that the software will need to phone home… every 30 days”. No longer will the JetBrains tools be “owned”, they are only going to be “rented”, and when payments stop it is no longer to be used. Rather than have choice as to when to make a purchase, a regular payment stream to JetBrains will be established. Immediately upon announcing these changes, many developers have taken to protest and criticize the decision. The all-inclusive price (subject to change) is currently listed as $19.90/month for an individual developer and as high as $39.90/month per developer for “companies/organizations”. The new licensing terms will apply to IntelliJ IDEA, AppCode, CLion, PhpStorm, P圜harm, RubyMine, WebStorm, ReSharper, ReSharper C++, dotTrace, dotCover, and dotMemory. JetBrains states that this change will address (undisclosed) feedback that they have received on their current pricing model, and be “simpler and easier to understand” while “ a more flexible model for everyone…”.
Customers are able to choose which products are part of their Toolbox and are charged accordingly. This Toolbox will be available via either monthly or annual subscription terms. Starting November 2, perpetual product licenses will be replaced by a subscription based service that is called JetBrains Toolbox.
JetBrains has sparked massive debate in the developer community over their announced changes to their product licensing for all of their primary developer tools, including IntelliJ and ReSharper. InfoQ will provide coverage of the changes (if any), when they occur.
SeptemUpdate: JetBrains has yet to elaborate on revisions to this plan that they announced were coming on September 8. SeptemUpdate: JetBrains has announced the new terms.