I have been a user of the product since the early days, favoring it over the other products on the market because it "just worked", I know that a business has to support itself, and this is a niche of a niche.

Today I downloaded the latest version and was glad to see it was finally becoming a pay product, so I went to buy my key, but sadly I won't be purchasing a version of this now, I have used it day to day for well over a year. Why wont I be spending my cash on something I like, because it has priced itself out of my market, R# which I also use is only $199 for a full version, (I use the c# only version!), I can't on that basis justify $159 for what is a test runner framework, I am truly sorry but I think you may have priced yourself out of the market, I know the amount of work that has been put into this product and it is a truly great thing, but for me the maximum I am willing to pay is around $50.

I am sorry, but I thought it would be best if I explained why I will not be buying a key. I wish you all best and hope NCrunch is the success it deserves to be.

Remco,

You've certainly caused a stir where I work! I understand your motivations and I will likely recommend we purchase licenses. Open source software is great but it doesn't put food on the table and I can't imagine you could sell much support as its a pretty easy to use tool. In the blog post comment you link to above you say:

"Consider that the current version of NCrunch barely does even 30% of what I'd currently like it to in the long term. The remaining 70% is sitting in a list of objectives half a mile long, and they're all possible and all within reach if enough people are prepared to buy licenses. The 30% of this concept that is implemented has been enough to significantly change the way that many people develop software. Just imagine what the 70% will bring. This is the big deal. This is why I'm prepared to risk lower adoption of the product. Because if I don't get the chance to see that 70% happen, then I'm convinced that everyone loses big time."

Now if the current version of NCrunch is only 30% of what you'd like to do why expire the current version? The 70% to come will motivate those who can afford a license and the rest of us can make do with the community version, a la NCover. Redgate took a risk when they introduced a paid for version of Reflector. Now everyone I know uses a free alternative and no one cares about Reflector. Currently you are the only person in this space, but it won't stay that way for long. I hope you retain the lion's share of the user base but most dev's will go the free option given the choice. I think that if you had a free version and a Pro version then as concurrent testing becomes more mainstream IT managers would be happy to buy licenses for the compelling 70% to come.

I admire you for trying to make this your source of income and I hope it works out for you.

Best,

Marc

Sorry Marc, I just re-read your post and realised I'd completely misread your question and given an almost completely off-topic answer. You were asking why the older version of NCrunch needs to expire - not what the future 70% of NCrunch holds.

If I were to allow the old versions to remain unexpired, this would fairly certainly kill any business I could turn NCrunch into. Effectively I would have very little I could actually sell other than the promise that I could make NCrunch better. As described above, I'm not big on selling promises. There would be far too few people putting forward the money to finance a delta that would valuable enough to stand commercially. Even if I could find enough generous people to help fund V2, I would effectively be competing against my own V1 creation, while still needing to support and maintain it.

The cost of maintaining the old V1 release(s) of NCrunch would be considerable, as the user base for this version would probably be larger and therefore would be subject to a wider range of integration and compatibility issues. Any effort involved in maintaining this version would be completely surplus to maintaining the later commercial versions, as the commercial versions would need to be developed on a completely different branch of code that would be difficult to keep aligned with the older code. Not maintaining the old code isn't a good long sighted option, as NCrunch has so many moving integration points that this code would quickly lose alignment with current development environments, and this would tarnish the reputation of the product as a whole (people won't know why it doesn't work, they'll just see that it fails).

From a morality perspective, I think it would be hard for anyone to express an expectation that the existing code should be kept free. This would basically be expecting me to give away 3 years of hard work for free, then dip into my own empty pockets to fund further development. Even if I could convince myself that this was a good idea, my wife would likely divorce me!

I'm sure that many people will be upset by this decision. There may be shouts of 'boycott NCrunch!' from the rooftops. I'll probably get some hate mail. No one likes having free stuff taken away, even if there was no suggestion that it would remain free forever. This is basically human nature. I made this choice because from every angle I've analysed it, it seems to be the sensible one to make.

I realise that commercialising the product will result in a large reduction in the size of the user base. Many people will look for alternatives. Some will go back to manual testing. This is all to be expected. I'm trading a larger, more viral user base for a smaller one that is more enthusiastic about the product. The uptake will suffer. Other products will expand their markets. But NCrunch will have chance of survival, and those that are prepared to pay for the product will see much more future benefit from it.

I hope this answers your question, and thanks again for your constructive thoughts.


Cheers,

Remco

Completely agree with NCrunchFan. An even simpler formula: $159 / 8 (hrs) = $19/hr. If you're a .NET developer making < $19/hr, then NCrunch's pricing model is not your problem. This price is completely fair so just sacrifice a half-a-day's salary and in return, enjoy 365 days of better code and product support. This is a no-brainer!

I wanted to throw my two cents in on the expiration of the old version in. I am running the old version now, and was planning to wait until the holidays to ask for the upgrade to a paid version as a gift. I didn't realize it would be expiring so soon, making that a somewhat more difficult proposition.

Would you consider extending the beta licence to Jan 1 2013 so that the it runs through the holidays for others who were planning to put off the purchase until then?

So I to have had my own discussion with Remco about the price of NCrunch. I agree the ROI figures in the post make sense, until you weigh in a business license that offers nothing for teams with low turn over from can benefit from. Aside from the two licenses I gift purchased for developers NCrunch will not be counting on my additional $1,300.00 dollars of revenue.

Doesn't make sense to have a business pay nearly twice as much for a license that has a feature you can't use. If developer turn over is on average two years or greater the "Roaming" business license is useless and truly silly business feature separation.

Hi Remco,

I am NCrunch user for 5 months so far and the sad story to share:
The day you went commercial I submit a request for purchasing 1 license for my company. I wanted 1 license for me first and then to request more for my team - 3 more developers.
Our help desk answered me the following (literally): Price for NCrunch - $289 +23% VAT - $358, means no chance.
And that's the end. Simply it is too much.
I believe that Price for Company Seat around $120 would be acceptable in my place.

Story aside, is there a chance for Xmas/NY sale price?

Anyway, thank you for such a good tool.

Remco, have you considered a monthly billing option? £10 a month which I can cancel at a month's notice is a lot easier for me to justify and budget for than £140 for a perpetual licence - even though the rolling cost will (probably) be ~£70-80/year, for a personal licence for me using your existing pricing.

Also, do you plan to support old commercial versions once they are replaced with a newer version?

Thank you for your time, and NCrunch is wonderful - but £140 blows a hole in my budget!

Hi,
I am a trainer, I give TDD training to my student and I was always showing your product, one of the best, but now with the limit of 30 days I cannot anymore and that's really bad. I cannot afford to buy 10 licenses for some training, it is too high for me. Is there any way you can create a license to use only on training ?

thanks
Alex