TeamViewer licensing strategy???

djuka01

As an old TeamViewer user/sucriber I just wanted to express my dissatisfaction and disapoinment in regards to how things are developing in the licensing space and ask other community members about their thoughts. I rearly write these kinds of posts (in fact never did before) but as a long time satisfied client it's a big dissapointment for me when a good application is ruined by lousy managment decisions.

As of version 13 TeamViewer management has decided that subscription model is the only road that they should take. OK, clear, this is a business and subscription models are always more lucrative but shouldn't this be an optional thing, allowing old customers to "smooth in" the transition in despite to loosing the client base which is not yeat ready/supportive of the subscription model? Again, something that I was not happy about, but could understand from business perspecitve, so I've renewed the lic (last year)...

Now this year, as their next "smart" decision, they have decided to slim down the premium license, removing most of the usable benefits  (namely .msi packages and mobile device support)  and moved it to the corporate license. Now I've found miself looking at the license comparison chart and wondering why have they done that, because now, I do not see any reason to buy a premium license but instead a cheaper business license. Very smart...

But hey, looking at the comparison chart was not enough obviously, because I have just found out that business license comes with a 3 device login limitation which is nowhere to be seen on the comparison charts. Now some of you will say that I should have informed myself better, but from my perspective, TV licensing was never about installations but rather about sessions so as a regular customer I didn't expect this, and now I feel cheated. Do I really need to go and look for the small print, or is this something that any reputable business should make visible in their license comparison chart? Are they trying to hussle us into one more purchase or are they trying to keep their client base long term?

Well, all things considered I feel cheated and ripped off and I think it's the right time to look for alternatives...

Your thoughts?

 

JoshP

Hello @djuka01 

Thank you for your feedback. 

Up until TeamViewer 10, the Business License was a one-device license. This meant that you could use one specific TeamViewer ID to connect out to any other remote device. With version 11 and on, we introduced the ability to license three devicesfor outgoing commercial connections (with one channel shared between the three devices). You are still not limited on the number of devices you may connect to from your licensed devices.

For all three licenses, at the top of the comparison chart a description of 'seats' and 'sessions' can be seen. If you hover over the question mark for the Business License, you will see more information regarding the license.The same goes for the Premium License and Corporate License desciptions.

You can also find this information and more about all three licenses in our support article What TeamViewer license do I need?

Regarding Mobile Device Support, this is an add-on service that can now be added to any subscription, but is not included in any license by default, including the Corporate License.

MSI deployment, however, has always been an included feature only for the Corporate License (and more recently, our enterprise license TeamViewer Tensor).

Thanks again for the feedback, and I hope this helps clarify.

djuka01

Fair enough, obviously I wasn't informed correctly on some parts (.msi) and I would take those comments back. But the core point of my post remains: 

1. Info on the install limit is hidden! Elaborating that 5 years ago the limit was even less just doesn't cut it for me. What about the new users who are trying to find their information and old ones, like me, who are used to unlimited installs and have never known that there was a limit? Why is this cruicial limitiation hidden in some popup instead of following the same table logic? As said, feels like I need to read the small print to avoid the possible damage. 

2. Subscitpion only licensing, downer for me, but hey, I can only comment that one...

3. Mobile device support was part of the license, now as addon, downer for me also. Not to mention that the price remained the same when you removed this. Why didn't you then reduce the price for the value of mobile device support addon? That way we could add it ourselves for the same money...

As stated, my post was more targeted to the community, sharing their toughts, but I appreciate your answer especially in clearing the parts where my statement was wrong. 

BR

M

pzobolas

I feel similarly to the original poster. We purchased several TeamViewer licenses for my company and at no point was it explained that such a 3-install limit would exist. You clearly advertise that 1 session at a time is possible with the business license (which was ok for us) but it's a bit ridiculous to, on top of that, limit the number of installs! I mean, you already ensured that only 1 computer can access your software at a time so why inconvenience the user - other than to get more money, that is? And on top of that ridiculous limitaiton you also limit the "moves" to 9!

Are you not realizing that a Windows Update can (and has done so) make the machine no longer recognizable by TeamViewer? This happened to me yesterday - several times in a row. So I had to "lose" 3 out of the 9 possible "moves" (and I had already used 2-3 in the past for similar reasons). What happens when all 9 moves are exhausted? Do we have to wait for hours for someone to reset this counter? Or do we lose the license forever?

I urge you to rehink your strategy. Your software is expensive as it is. Once upon a time I used the free tier to be able to help my parents and brother remotely. And I decided to support your company and suggested we use it in my company's work environment. But if this type of upselling continues, you will lose us. There's no way we'll pay more than $50 per month - like you ask each time we hit the install limit. Instead, we'll look at one of your many competitors.