ATI 2020: One-time purchase vs Subscription
Hello,
According to KB you can`t use Local backup options after expiration date if you have Subscription. It looks a bit weird because I can pay 50 euros for Standard or Advanced license but 2nd license will cost me much more than 50 euros in future because I should renew license every year to keep local backup option active.
IMO I think ATI shouldn`t lose the major functions after the expiration date. Only cloud backup should stop working but local one should be active even after expiration date. Ofc your shouldn`t able to install new ATI version if your subscription already expired.
May be I misunderstood smth or that KB has wrong information?
Local backups (with perpetual license, which are non-subscription) can be used indefinitely with all functionality. That covers both backup and recovery.
The trade with perpetual license is it only is good for the current major version (I.E. if you buy 2019 you don't get to upgrade to 2020 unless you buy a separate upgrade). However, you can use the perpetual version that you bought for as long as it is working - which could be several years before you might need or want to upgrade to a newer version.
A subscription, gives you access to all major versions that come out ... so if you buy a 1 year subscription with 2019 and then 2020 comes out, you get to upgrade to 2020. The downside is that if you don't keep up the subscription, you lose the ability to backup, but can still use the application or recovery media to restore existing backups. It's a limitation to help consumers want to continue their subscription and keep the software current so that it is easier (usually) and less costly (usually) to support as a result.
Essentially, if you like to always have the latest version and features, a subscription could be potentially cheaper, especially if you also want/need the Cloud features. If you don't need/want the latest every year or don't need cloud features, than a perpetual license might be a better way to go - especially since there are discounted prices a couple times a year.
Subscription isn`t cheaper if you like to always have the latest version and features because you should pay 50 in both cases but if user won`t always update to latest version and features then he can purchase perpetual license once per few years. Also you can`t "mix" this 2 licenses if you need local backup for full HDD backups and cloud backups for some files and folders. For example: user mostly use local backups and he want to buy license once per 2-3 years for this but at the same time he need cloud backup option too for some files and folders and he agree to pay a bit more for such option but ATI2020 lic system doesn`t offer such way. You can choose between local backups only and pay for license once per few years and subscription and pay for license every year.
:(