Many years ago, Aitoc introduced a pricing strategy that would be copied by many other Magento module companies. it is still being copied today. This was that Commerce Edition customers (then called Enterprise Edition) would be charged more for a module purchase compared to Open Source (Community) Edition customers.
We're sorry.
Like all of the companies in the Magento ecosystem who copied Aitoc, we've always known that the codebase was the same and that a premium was being charged on the basis of the end-customer using a commercial version of Magento, and somehow assuming that "they pay for that license, so they can afford to pay extra for our product".
In reality, there is zero additional value - only additional cost.
Some companies charge x2 for Commerce Edition, and one even charges nearly x3 for Magento Cloud! It's crazy. They ought to be ashamed of themselves - it is price gouging. Even the argument that larger customers need more support is false because, in reality, it is often the smallest merchants who need the most assistance.
Fixing Magento module pricing - our Fair Price Guarantee
Since On Tap's recent purchase of Aitoc, we've been on a mission to right this wrong, and earlier this year, we introduced our "Fair price guarantee".
This means that Aitoc now charges the SAME PRICE for a module regardless of the Magento edition you use. We think that this properly reflects the reality of the situation whereby the codebase is exactly the same.
This means that our modules are very competitively priced.
Subscriptions are not liked
Likewise, the shift towards a subscription-based approach to Magento modules has failed. Merchants hate it and the way other module vendors introduced it collectively was extremely badly handled.
Aitoc's policy is not to provide Magento modules on a subscription basis. Instead, a one-off purchase gets you lifetime code updates to the product that you purchased. You then pay for additional support in the future should you need it, and our support plans cover ALL your products - you don't have to buy this individually for each product. Again, it's entirely fair and based on the value we are delivering to you.
The brave will copy us again
Aitoc's long history has meant that some of the module vendors that are tenuously mentioned in this article were, in fact, spawned from us (employees left to form their own companies). It is somewhat ironic. However, Aitoc is now back, and we are making things right - we are putting customers first. The brave will copy us again.
Best regards,
Dan Garner,
CEO.
