New "expert plan" price change$... BIG CHANGE$$$ - serious impact for all users.

[Agemo]

The middle section of the marketing email is the bit that will focus most and you probably already received it but wowzers, I've no problem with the anyone making a profit but this is one of the largest price JACK UPS I've ever seen.

I loath when a great business and platform gets to this point.

Without knowing the current corporate makeup of elemental, but have there been recent changes or burins or take overs, usually indicating a new or new style (focus) of Management - classic is when the venture capitalists arrive, this often spells disaster for the existing user groups involved and is usually when things start to go pear shaped.

So it's not merely about the massive price hike but what the future may or may not hold for loyal and very dependent users, yea you bread and butter income may be seriously affected by this change.

Oh dear I hope this isn't the beginning of what I've seen happen far too many times now with company...

Opening spiel...

We don’t want to distract you from making awesome websites, we just want to let you know that we are updating our Pro plans. On March 9th, 2021, we will be adding new Studio and Agency Pro subscription plans and updating the Expert plan, to best accommodate our users’ growing needs.

These changes will only apply to new purchases. If you’re on an existing active subscription plan, nothing changes for you.

Since we launched Elementor 4.5 years ago, we have evolved from a modest page builder into a comprehensive website building platform, used by our diverse community to build more than 7 million websites. As we continue to add value to the platform and scale, our new plan structure aims to grow alongside your business, meet your different needs, while upholding the same entry-level affordability.

Mo' Money Part here:

What’s staying the same?

All current users with an active Pro subscription keep the same terms for that subscription.
Personal and Plus plans are not changing in terms of price and service. They will be renamed Essential and Advanced respectively.

What’s changing?

Expert plans, purchased after March 9th for $199 / year, will now support up to 25 sites.
We want to give everyone a chance to get in on the current Expert plan ($199 / year for 1,000 sites) before it is discontinued - so users who wish to purchase this plan have the opportunity to do so before March 9th - purchase here.

What’s new?

Two new plans designed for bigger teams and users with a larger client base - Studio ($499 / year for 100 sites),and Agency ($999 / year for 1000 sites)
New plans will have access to VIP support (24/7 chat and team access),tailor-made, relevant content and the ability to open a profile on our Experts network.
We are continuing to make significant improvements to our Premium support (relevant to Essential, Advanced, and Expert plans) response and resolution time. This year we aim to double our support team again, as we did in 2020.

Don't worry closing, everything will be just fine, it won't hurt a bit...

Important note for current Expert plan users! Users on the current Expert plan ($199 / year for 1,000 sites),who would like to access the Agency plan to enjoy VIP support, team access and more, will get a limited-time 50% discount when upgrading to the Agency plan (valid from March 9th until June 9th 2021). This discount will also apply on renewals as long as the account is kept active. These changes will help us to continue to offer you the best product whatever the size of your business, while ensuring that the level of service matches.

Learn more about our new subscription structure, benefits and future plans.

 

[Agemo]

What previously cost 200 bucks, is now gonna cost 1000 bucks = 400% increase in price.

 

[Community]

PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL ELEMENTOR SUPPORT FORUM, SO I am a licence buyer and end user like you, not anything to do with Elementor.

It won't affect existing licence holders, so what you are paying now will not change.

Im considering purchasing another 1000 Licence for $199 before the price increases so we have 2000 licences before having to consider a larger bill.

Realistically though, I if you've got 1000 site licence then you will/are earning revenue from that said licence ( or should be ),if your using at least 120 of those, you should be making more than enough in revenue from those 120 sites very month to run an effective business, those that are not.....probably wont be in business to long anyway as they are not charging enough to supporting their client base properly long term.

Lets break it down :

120 sites - Lets be extremely conservative and say £10 a month maintenance plan. ( Ours are more like £40 - £120 per month )

At £10 per month maintenance, you'll be making £1200 per month in revenue. Thats £14,400 per year.

BUT, thats not the point.......is it ? There is more to the Elementor Eco system than Elementor it's self, especially for end users, not agencies and support services.

Additional possible costs

Elementor Licence
Gravity forms licence
Wordfence Licence
Advanced custom fields licence
Crocoblock licece
Anywhere Elementor Licence
Brainstorm Force licences ( Astra theme etc )
Rank Math licence

This is only naming a few and some of which if requiring a unlimited ( Or high number ) of sites licences are simply not viable in some business models.

Our process

As a support service provider, we have very specific outlines of what clients want and need. We limit the requirement for support from external providers such as plugin, theme developers. ( sometimes cant be avoided )

We do not use plugins for the sake of using plugins, everything has to have a purpose.
This change wont mean anything to me personally, our customers know when they use our services that they are paying for more than just support, they are paying for someones time to help them, the licences for their businesses/websites to run without the bother of taking care of it all themselves.

If anything, Elementors Price increases will most likely result in more people using our support services instead of buying a licence them selves, and/or more people getting active on forums like this and the community coming together for Free support.

Obviously just an opinion, every licence holder will see this differently

 

[Agemo]

It will dissolve some peoples business models (or force change) and other will absorb it and there will be those in the middle, but that's a great option about ancillary costs via plugins licenses you can not absorb these and your pricing model and clients need to be on board with the end cost (minus the details) once you are able to provide a service they can trust and rely on, you can bake in these cost to their final price or monthly plan.

One thing fromyour comment suggests a way about this is to put the cost for a yearly single license in the hands of the client (since they have only one need for one website),but this removes the simplicity of billing the client everything in single invoice price, which they may prefer.

Not a problem for "design houses" per say, but maybe a bit more troublesome for smaller single person type operations.

 

[Community]

There are so many different kinds of business models, like you say some will struggle with these changes.

I am a single person operation personally, but have built a client base over 14 years so what a single plugin developer does like Elementor won't effect the business or the way I work.

I personally find it better to fund/purchase all licences as agency expense without putting focus on offloading the expense to the customer/end user, we charge maintenance or other recurring services for which more than cover those expenses which make it viable.

The ONLY time i would tell a customer that they will need licences them selves is if we were not providing any service beyond the initial build, for example if they were not an SEO client, we're not hosting on our servers, we're not in a maintenance plan.

I don't know about others, but the VIP Support isnt an attractive prospect for the additional outlay, so im glad I'm an existing licence holder. If I was coming into the business now as these price increases start or only now discovering Elementor as an agency.....I would almost certainly choose another building method because of those pricing models. There is nothing unique being offered that a skilled agancy of freelancer couldnt get elsewhere.

The biggest problem here is the "popup shop" businesses who have completely based their business around a drag and drop page builder, with no experience of design, custom developement etc, but saw an entry to earn money quickly with little to no experience.

Most being totally reliant on Elementor, their services and the free communities to provide them with support, they have no diveristy in revenue to sustain and look after their customers properly in my opinion.

 

[xdunicorn]

Doesn't impact all users, old users still have the old plan and that wont change as I know