Why FineReader PDF was switched to the subscription model?

Question

Why FineReader PDF was switched to the subscription model?

Answer

ABBYY is constantly improving FineReader PDF by adding new features, updating existing and developing new core product technologies, fixing bugs, and so on. These improvements are included in either minor or major releases of the software. By switching to the Subscription model, we make sure that FineReader PDF users are always using the most recent, up-to-date, and functionally rich product. All updates and upgrades are included in the subscription and are delivered to users without additional upgrade or SMUA fees. In addition, access to the Support service is also included for all categories of customers.

 

Subscription will help ABBYY optimize and focus our team efforts and resources on delivering the best possible software product to our customers and to maintain high standards of providing customer services throughout the whole time of the software usage.

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Comments

11 comments

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    J. R.

    I understand that ongoing development must be paid. But this also happend with earlier price models due to new versions. So people could decide themselves if the ongoing development in a new major version was worth switching (or switch only every 2 versions) - of if not stay with the old version. This is not possible anymore. You could at least offer perpetual licences to a higher price (so e.g double of the subscription price and without feature updates which would be offered in subscription model). So the user can decicde. Even microsoft offers a subscription model + perpetual versions which are probably snapshots of development status to that time (Office 365 and e.g. Office 2019, 2021, ...).

    Would be nice if this feedback could be forwarded to the relevant product administration.

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    HD

    The new model is very troublesome for blind children who (or their assistants) need Finereader for school.

    For most private users the new model is not affordable anymore. 

    Please reconsider to go back to the roots before you merged FineReader and PDF Transformer and sell the FinereaderOCR as standalone for a reduced price again. (like Mac-version)

    I wanted to upgrade to Finereader 16 in autumn, but I will save this money and use version 14 forever now.

     

    Btw.:

    Upgrade prices were 129/199 Euro (Standard/Corporate). ABBYY published updates every 2-3 years (3 Updates from FR 11 to 15 in 7 years & 8 month).

    The new prices are 117/165 Euro (yearly), so you are increasing the price by more than 100%?!

     

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    Victoria Dvornikova

    Hello J. R.,

    I have forwarded your comments to the corresponding department of our company. Thank you for your feedback! In case there are some changes, information will be published on our website https://pdf.abbyy.com/pricing/ 

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    Victoria Dvornikova

    Hello HD,

    I have created a support request based on your comment here. Please await a reply from our Customer Support agent. 

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    Commerce

    I'm with HD on this one. This is a VERY bad move on the part of ABBYY. I've paid for every major version since 11 or 12, but the subscription model now prices me out of the market. These exorbitant prices on subscription models that many of these companies are going to are pushing more and more people toward open source alternatives. Fortunately, there are MANY competitors out there with products that do just as well or better than ABBYY. Since ABBYY is not offering a non-subscription option, I'm just going to have to say goodbye to ABBYY and choose one of the competitive products. Folks, that is the best thing to do. Just go elsewhere.

     

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    HD

    There is no real competition.

    If you have to do OCR and edit the results then you won't find any better software on the market. You can only find software which is good enough for you, The changes from FR 12 to 14 and from 14 to 15 are minimal.

    FR 15 has a better epub export than FR 14. That's for sure. But the OCR is pretty similar.

    Sometimes I get better results with FR 14. Sometimes not. 

    I do not think that you will switch to another software - I would not (I tested and compared many programs in the last years). But you can use the older versions as long as possible. 

     

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    Commerce

    I'm already on version 15 and have been for a while. However, I will switch. There are competitive products out there. I'm already using another product at work that does just as well as ABBYY. There are many OCR engines out there that do very well, and some programs allow you to choose which OCR engine you would prefer to use. Even Acrobat Pro, normally considered an expensive program, has OCR built in and is only $12.99 per month as opposed to $19 per month.

    Omnipage served me well, but their support was terrible, which is why I switched to ABBYY in the first place. The program I use at work is a document management program which includes OCR that I have found to be just as accurate as ABBYY, but without many of the features of ABBYY.

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    HD

    I am also using Acrobat Pro 2020 (at work). But in my opinion Acrobat makes more errors than finereader.

    And editing Finereader is much easier. 

    But as good Finereader can be with tables as bad it can be sometimes with some cells of the table. (when FR insists that the text is vertical)

    I never liked the workflow of Omnipage. 

    Since I have to scan and edit pages for a blind child every error counts.

    I think (hope) that this is an open minded support area and you can say which other product you use at work. There is no perfect program and sometimes the software #1 does one job better than the other and for the next job it is software #2.

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    David Spake

    Yea, this is a pretty damn disappointing change, and incredibly shortsighted in it's implementation. I well understand the realities of software support costs, and the popularity of subscription models to fund development.  The downside is that these one-size 'Subscription' costs are widely out of whack for my purposes.

    For example; I'm a hobbyist who edits and OCR's old PDF's just a few times a year.  Looking at my work over the past 3 years, I've done a total of 10 OCR/Edit operations with FineReader. Sometimes those were serious documents (300 pages or more), and other times they were 4-5 page projects.  With the 'Standard' license, I had a fixed cost that was once and forget; easy-peasy.

    However with the changes to the pricing, I now have the choice of paying annually what I payed for the Standard license, or managing the damn hassle of YET ANOTHER monthly subscription(*).  It takes the cost of the software out of the "it's acceptable for 'fun' work" to "errr... I'll find another product that doesn't cost so much or that takes a lot less *hassle* to manage".

    At my place of work, I was the one who introduced ABBYY (and we have a dozen or more licenses).  I don't need it there, but this one change would have stopped this from ever happening. Simply because with a subscription model I'd have never tried ABBYY in the first place.  I've successfully steered my employer away from plenty of software simply for the lack of a single, perpetual license (looking at you Adobe).

    Without a priding re-evaluation, 15 will be the last version I ever purchase. I'll gladly, readily buy a perpetual license from a PDF competitor to supplement FineReader 15, rather than hand over another frickn' monthly fee. Plus, the benefits are that I'd finally get things like support for creating and searching 'Embedded Indexes'.

    (*) It's sad to say, but many businesses bank on the fact that people forget about a subscriptions, and pay for something they rarely, if ever, use.

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    Commerce

    @HD

    We use FileCenter DMS and Paperport. Both are doc management programs. Paperport is sufficient, but FileCenter is more accurate, and also allows you to choose which OCR engine you wish to use. Accuracy is what I look for. I have yet to find an OCR program that formats the doc correctly without inserting tables, and even then, the fonts are often wrong. We do our own formatting after OCR.

    FileCenter and Paperport both have features outside of OCR that make them more useful to us. I prefer FileCenter over Paperport because Nuance's support was practically non-existent, which is why I went with Abbyy, who has great support. Kofax bought Omnipage and Paperport in 2019, but since I have not used Omnipage in years, and we have not needed support from Paperport in a while, I do not know if it has gotten any better. It may be worth investigating Omnipage as an alternative since they are not on a subscription model.

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    Commerce

    David Spake

    Regarding your comment: "managing the damn hassle of YET ANOTHER monthly subscription(*)"

    Yes... EXACTLY that.

    Furthermore, I have also convinced several of my clients in various businesses to switch to ABBYY over the years. When they are ready to upgrade, I'm certain they will be calling me for suggestions when they learn of the overly expensive subscription only model. Sad day...

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