Changes in IPVM Legacy and Group Plans
Starting October 1, 2013, IPVM shall discontinue legacy personal plans and change group plan options. This will not impact most subscribers on current personal plans. Indeed, the personal annual plan will remain unchanged at $199.
However, those with legacy personal and group plans will need to select new plans when their current term expires. This will make payments fairer across the community and help us to continue improve our offering.
Discontinuing Legacy Plans
Before 2010, when IPVM was IPVideoMarket.info / 'Honovich's blog' we charged $99 per year for a personal plan and as low as $299 for a 'corporate' plan. (Here's what the site looked like then - very primitive).
While we have increased our size 10x since then and membership prices at least double, we had not increased rates for anyone from 2009.
Starting October 1st, when these member's current term expires, to continue, they will have to switch to a current plan - either $199 personal annual or a group plan. We think this is fair as (1) those members have benefitted from 3+ years of lower prices, saving hundreds and (2) IPVM offers far more value today than 2009/2010.
Changing Group Plan Options
Additionally, we are adding new group plans and discontinuing our legacy group/'corporate' plans. This resolves a few issues.
Previously, our group plans had a hard max for users in the group (most recently 5). This created many problems for companies who wanted more, either having to buy additional group plans or personal plans or break our licensing rules, etc.
Now, we have added (5) Group plan options, allowing choices amongst the total number of users needed: 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80. The annual plan price will be 5 users -$749, 10 users - $1,349, 20 users - $2,499, 40 users - $4,599, 80 users - $7,999.
Discontinuing Old Group / Corporate Plans
As part of this, old group / corporate plans will be discontinued. Group admins can select one of the new plans or downgrade to a personal plan.
Secondly, this will increase fairness across members, making sure that organizations who want to share with more people, pay appropriately, rather than disproportionately burdening smaller organizations.
Not Automatic / Requires Explicit Choice
We will not automatically renew or change anyone's existing plans. Each member impacted will be allowed to choose (or cancel) at the end of their current term.
Making IPVM More Valuable to You
As we make more money, I want to spend it on hiring more engineers to do more tests and research. While we are doing ground breaking work already, we can do even more to cover more products, to do more comparisons and to provide more help to our members.
These changes will help increase fairness in contributions across members while enabling us to do more to serve you. Let me know if you have questions or feedback, either in the comments below or directly to me (john@ipvm.com).