How does Ctrl Suite's licensing structure work?
Your license is yours forever.
We love working on Ctrl to create new features and develop new workflows to make your life easier.
When we finish these new features, we want you to enjoy and see the benefits of what we’re creating as soon as possible. Ctrl Suite is a one-time purchase with 1 year of complimentary updates.
If you don’t want to pay for an additional year of updates after the first year has passed, you don’t have to; Ctrl will continue to run on the current version.
From our own experience as integrators, we aren't keen on developers saving up their new features for years, simply to make a big announcement when the next major paid update versions are available.
Given the expansion and changing nature of the industry, we want to be able to respond to change and release new features easily and quickly.
This is where the date of your first license activation comes in!
When you buy a Ctrl Suite license, you get the current feature set. Along with that, you get a year of new features. Everything we work on and release a year from the date of your first activation will be available to you as an update. Just download the new version and use it, all using the same license.
If, after a year, you'd like to keep on receiving these updates, you can renew your license and get another year's worth.
When a new feature gets introduced that you can’t do without, or you want to overhaul your project with all the latest features, purchase a further year of updates for your license. This costs ~40% of the original base purchase price.
Note: purchasing licenses to expand the number of Players or Entities your Engine can support doesn’t change its initial the expiry date.
This is not a subscription!
"Does this mean I have to pay yearly to keep using Ctrl on my project? Once I’ve paid, I don't want to pay all the time."
No. You paid for it, so you own it.
If you're happy with the current feature set, or are deploying Ctrl on an installation and don’t plan on changing anything, no problem. There's no need to update if you're happy with what you have.
Your license stays yours and without restriction, even past the expiry date. You can continue using use the current version for as long as you like. It'll remain registered and run.
However, if you install a newer update released after your 1 year of updates from activation, Ctrl Suite will revert to its demo restrictions. This is because the new version contains features that you’re yet to have paid for.
Even then, if you don't want those new features, simply download an older version of Ctrl Engine and Ctrl Designer valid for your license, to remove the restrictions (Player is fully backward compatible).
In short; your license really stays yours!