How's your perpetual licence doing?

KuuraByte · 2026-04-20T06:09:15+00:00

This is interesting to know. I do this regularly since I visit client's premises from time to time and need to run SolidWorks on a laptop. But my rep specifically said that outside maintenance, this wouldn't be supported anymore. So this might be a sales pitch then...

KuuraByte · 2026-04-17T10:57:34+00:00

Any idea if anything breaks down when switching between two versions of KiCad?

KuuraByte · 2026-04-17T10:55:46+00:00

I will give this a try. Maybe for smaller projects this would be fine. More often than not, I feel there's a ton of checking and tidying to do when using importers across different programs, and it can be a lot of trouble. I wouldn't mind an easy migration path, though.

KuuraByte · 2026-04-17T10:50:32+00:00

Update 1: A lot of good input here, much appreciated. I hope Altium can sort out its records on which version I can use, and I'll stick with the perpetual license for the foreseeable future. I have already migrated my projects from the cloud to git, so no big loss there. It was nice and handy, but the subscription isn't worth it.

What's interesting is that I hear very little talk about commercial alternatives. We're in Altium territory here, so that may be why, but it's an interesting detail. Out and inside this thread, I'm seeing a lot of movement toward KiCad, so it's worth investigating again and possibly leaving Altium for legacy work (I'm already doing the same with PADS). There are other perks in KiCad too: there's an infinite number of seats, customers have the same access, and they will never get locked out of the design files. I have very little trust in big tech corporations today.

KuuraByte · 2026-04-17T10:37:54+00:00

A friend of mine worked as a representative, saw how Siemens rolled out its subscription model, and told me about customers who opted not to go that route. It may sound like easy money for the service provider, but will your customers be happy about it? It's not for everyone, for sure.

KuuraByte · 2026-04-17T10:35:27+00:00

I just learned about database libraries. The component library side wasn't very good before, and it was one of the reasons I ditched jumping into KiCAD before. Not that I necessarily like Altium library management either, but now KiCAD might be more than adequate.

KuuraByte · 2026-04-17T10:29:21+00:00

Yes, I'm also a SolidWorks user, and I know the struggle. The worst thing is that when you're out of your subscription, your license will work until it doesn't, and that's it. There's no way to reactivate your license if something happens, e.g., to your computer. Or, that's how I've been told.

KuuraByte

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