Enhance free license: Page 2 - Enhance Control Panel

Enhance free license

DracoBlue

The demo does not provide full testing capabilities, it has limitations. $5 is small, but if someone tests several panels and wants to choose something, a free license, e.g. 14 days, should be available.

manu

I am not sure now but when I started using enhance, I was given a 60 day trial. While a 60 day trial is certainly a long time, a standard 15 or 30 day trial would be nice. A free version is not something that I would support. It costs a ton of money to develop and support so a free version will only derail and demotivate the company to keep building!

tofandel

I'm surprised there is not a free trial.. I am in the market for a new panel because I'm dropping plesk and so I went to deep dive and test a lot of panels, to see if they would suit my needs. I tried hestiacp, aapanel, and cyberpanel.. But somehow you can't try this one without spending 10$.. The problem is not the asking price, the problem is asking anything at all which is company spending, meaning it needs to be authorized and there is paperwork.. For a product you are not sure you'll be using

So now I'm trying to get a feel for it via youtube tutorials.. Not a great first impression

cPFence

tofandel

They used to offer a free trial, but it’s no longer available, likely due to the support load. You can still try the live demo to get a feel for it.

XN-Matt

tofandel Is $10 really a deal breaker?

If I had to jump through such hoops as you seem to have to at your org, I would just pay the $10 personally. What about expenses, often you have an allocated allowance not needing authorisation or what not.

I'm sure that you and most people wouldn't think twice about sinking $10 on something far less important on a day to day basis.

JohnB

XN-Matt If I had to jump through such hoops as you seem to have to at your org, I would just pay the $10 personally.

Or not work there lol. Thats insane. If you are tasked with finding a software provider its expected that there will be expenses. Virtual servers, licenses, etc.

This is why I don't work in coorperations and acomplish twice as much in half the time. Don't have to wait for approval from 5 managers who don't even know how to attach a PDF to an email.

As for free license, the support load would be too high.

slimx

Could just have a ZERO support tier?

XN-Matt

slimx It doesn't matter how much you have this, people will still expect and demand support. If they don't get it, they'd then say "shit product" etc.

$10 is not a barrier to entry.

gmakhs

The barrier for me was their wording .

They say 0.15 $ per website .

Automatically I am thinking 0.15 per active domain , which is not true .

I believe the wording of website should be changed to website container or something like that .

10 USD is not a block for commercial clients, and I don't believe hobbyist are the target audience of enhance, don't forget they make their money frommhow big your clientele is, not how many servers you have .

XN-Matt

This has come up before in the def between website vs domain vs container vs account.

eddiecheng

I think Free license is not feasible. For 5 - 10 usd , we already have quite a number of users that wants to shape how enhance develop their product. There will be a group of Free users that might expect prompt support from enhance team or community which further slows/wear down resources to build better product.

JohnB

eddiecheng Exactly. You can put in big bold letters "NO SUPPORT" and even a checkbox acknowledging that the free license has no support.

They will still email insisting there is a bug (when actually they just have no clue how to do basic sysadmin). What follows is bad reviews.

People are not reasonable and most are incapable of logical thought. They really think everything can be free. Just look at Wordpress plugins that offer a free no support version. Filled with bad reviews regarding support or blaming plugin for compromised/slow/broken site.

For example, saw and export/import plugin review that basically said

plugin broke site and support is ignoring me, ran import and lost everything!!

............ there is a checkbox that is NOT checked by default that literally says it will replace all content with imported content.... They assumed it was something they had to check without reading first and then blamed the software immediately....

WebInfinity

I think a free tier with no support would drive growth, especially if Enhance can get web hosts to preinstall the panel with a new server subscription. Perhaps you make the free tier exclusive to select hosts that preinstall the panel.

The hosts could take on some of the support duties. Interserver, for example, provides support for the panels they preinstall.

XN-Matt

Not sure free customers to drive growth is the way to build a decent product….

… because as many times as you say “no support” people will expect support and when they don’t get it, will bitch and say “product is X” in a negative light because they didn’t get support.

WebInfinity

XN-Matt WordPress is free and it's a pretty decent product...

XN-Matt

WebInfinity Yes and i'm sure every host here has at least one, probably more, who get a basic hosting account, use a wordpress auto installer and then get pissed off because they a) can't do what they want and b) don't understand that their need to support themselves and that paid hosting != support with third party software.

ferrokot

-1
If you are not able to spend 10$ - you don’t need to think about websites/hosting management. Enhance it’s just a very very very small part of expenses.

Nickske00

-1

Have seen this with directadmin (no free license but cheap) where hosts were supposed to provide support. People kept coming to directadmin for support. So they stopped with the cheaper licences.

From what I understand you can preinstall Enhance without a license key.
Documentation on migrating your control panel server: https://enhance.com/docs/advanced/control-panel-migration.html#preparing Step 2: Install Enhance as if it were a new cluster. You do not need a licence key.

WebInfinity

Free tiers and free trials are tools used for gaining paying customers. That's why everybody offers them. If you are thinking of this only as adding non-paying customers, you are not thinking about it correctly.

Plesk, for instance, is full price on its website, discounted at many web hosts, and free with web host, IONOS.com. Likewise, Enhance should seek to have its panel as a selectable option with all top web hosts in exchange for free and discounted tiers.

XN-Matt

WebInfinity Plesk, for instance, is full price on its website, discounted at many web hosts, and free with web host, IONOS.com.

It's not "FREE". When a host offers a "free" licence as you seem to be making a point of, they are required to provide support with it. It will not be free to IONOS either, someone pays for it. IONOS will factor this cost in to their build and what they make extra over the cost of a retail licence or one someone may have to pay for elsewhere, will pay for any of the support overhead.

If you're offering a free licence and the host does not make extra money for that, you're expecting the host to then support third party software at the same cost as they were charging before...?

There is no such thing as truly free as in cost or as in burden. There is always a cost element, even if youre not paying for something.

WebInfinity That's why everybody offers them

Such a sweeping statement. There are many businesses that don't and for good reason. We don't and never will. Customers, like with Enhance, can try a service with the smallest outlay possible which carries minimal risk. If they don't like it, they are not committed and just cancel. Easy.

btraill

WebInfinity Everybody offers free trials? Most of the software I use does not, never has, and never will. It's actually apart of their philosophy.

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