idea Pay as Needed Floating License in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Pay as Needed Floating License

ChrisSkehan — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 22:56:38 GMT

As a small business manager, we don't have the budget to buy anything more than ArcView.
So here is my idea.

Perhaps it would be wise to implement a "Pay As Needed" license for ArcEditor or ArcInfo...or Extensions for that matter. Sure, you wouldn't get that ma$$ive check from your users....but I think you would promote the Jack Dangermond idea that GIS should be for everyone (not just those with the big wallets)!

So here is what I am thinking...

I have the need to build a new Geometric Network file 3 to 4 times a year tops. This requires me to have the ArcEditor license, which is way out of my price range....For that amount of money; you will likely never have my business. Plus, how do I justify spending that much money for something I use maybe 10 hours a year total?

However, if there were a way where I could "Pay As Needed" to use a ArcEditor or ArcInfo license for a few hours, or for the day, I would sign up. (Given that the pricing is reasonable). This approach would only work if you really consider the price in which a small business could afford to use the software.

I could just simply login with my ESRI account, and pay for a License by the hour or by the day. The same principal would be great for extensions too!

This approach would allow the smaller guys to have just as much of a competitive advantage with ESRI software as the big guys with big wallets.

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

curtvprice — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:48:35 GMT

WIth the new check-out capability, seems to me this may be technically feasible!

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

DuncanHornby — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:07:40 GMT

I like your idea and could see a definite place in the market for 1 day licenses. Alternatively the amount you'll end up spending on 1 day licenses (lets face it ESRI will never be cheap) you could buy everything in one system like Manifold. I've never used it but it appears to do everything for a fraction of the price,

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

IsaacOshima2 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:48:59 GMT

I agree. I do not have to worry about this directly, but think this is very worthwhile.
Other than what was originally stated, I believe ESRI NEEDS this for the cloud computing that is
participating in with for example, Amazon.com and their EC2 hosting of server space, storage, and applications like ArcGIS Server. These cloud offerings are basically a pay for usage so it doesn't make sense for all that cloud computing resources to be pay for usage and ESRI's to be only offered as a 24/7/365.

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

DellisStanberry — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:25:44 GMT

I totally agree! I know several people who would love to be able to do more with ArcGIS, but is restricted by the high price tag.

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

AlbertoLaurenti — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:21:17 GMT

Yes, this could be a great idea to meet the "GIS FOR EVERYONE"!!!

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

DaliborKladar — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:11:19 GMT

Yes, I agree, that "Pay as Needed" would increase significantly number of users for ESRI.

For example, Google Earth is free and it has 1000 times more users than ArcGIS.

This would be particularly usefull for small developers working on new ArcGIS applications...

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

JoyRoberts — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:45:27 GMT

I can totally see the sense in this. I have many times where I could have signed in and used a particular license or stepped up to INFO from Map, but the cost to buy them puts them out of my reach and my use. Maybe a particular point where it even trips over to something like "you have used this for ## hours so you have paid for a license". That might help make the business case for purchasing licenses for extensions, etc. if one can say that they spent as much the previous year on it at an hourly/daily rate as it costs to buy it, then it's a justified purchase.
Sometimes it takes using the particular tool to make the case that we HAVE to have it. I hope I've made sense, if not, I apologize.

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

LaurenFagg — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 04:21:37 GMT

This is a really good idea. We occasionally have a project that will run for a week or two tops, and I think "oh, it'd be great if we had this extension, we could do x y and z in half the time!" but I cannot justify getting the extension for one weeks' work that I can do with a long-winded work around. But if I could just borrow a licence for a fraction of the cost it would save a lot of mucking about

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

JillStokes — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:10:21 GMT

I like this idea for parttime self-employeed freelance work. I might only need the advanced licensing for a matter of hours or days, depending on the project needs. An opportunity like this could make that more possible, depending on the pricing structure.

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

JacquesBeaudry — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:49:00 GMT

I just suggested something similar to ESRI and they send me to this site. like many small business, I cannot purchase an extension just for one project. Even something like publisher could be great. I create pdf maps but this is not fantastic especially when dealing with transparencies. Pay as needed would be a way to go as long as the pricing structure makes sense as well.

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

danan — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 08:08:11 GMT

Promoted. Recently, a friend working for local government mentioned the same issue--needing to do a few tasks a year with an extension and not being able to cost-justify the purchase. Participation in the Local Government ELA was too expensive. I don't know if various negotiated ELAs are "all-you-can-eat" affairs. But Pay As You Go would seem to fit better with the spirit of the Cloud.

The shorter term ArcGIS Server licenses--e.g. 1 month, 3 months, etc--are a nice improvement. It would be terrific to see the same implemented for extensions if metered licensing for ArcGIS is not implemented. A utility or on-demand pricing model may work for GIS software. It does for Infrastructure in the Cloud.

To the original Idea posted, would ArcGIS Online subscriptions help you do on-demand geoprocessing of various kinds? I'd be interested to know if ArcGIS Online for Organizations (?) and/or ArcGIS Online for Enterprises (a subset of the former?) would allow you to send workloads to the Cloud and pay as you go. This seems like something more customers will demand as a logical consequence of, and acclimitization to, paying for metered Infrastructure. I'm hoping to learn more about those offerings over the next few months--possibly at the 2012 Int'l UC.

Here are some similar license-themed ideas:

Offer ArcGIS Desktop through the Software As A Service (SaaS) Cloud model for both deployment and licensing
https://community.esri.com/ideas/5281

Offer metered licensing for ArcGIS Server in the Cloud
https://community.esri.com/ideas/5351

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

JeremiahPodleski — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:29:52 GMT

I fully agree!! This is my biggest frustration with ESRI. The products are great, but the cost of entry is prohibitive if you are not an established full time business with enough cash to throw at software. I am transitioning out of full time emplyment next year and will be studying, travelling, etc. I want to freelance my considerable GIS skills, but how the heck can I afford the software??? I think ESRI is missing out on a large user base of ultra small businesses, and especially entrepreneurial freelancers who simply can't afford the expensive yearly purchase/maintenance fees. I'd love to be able to win a job knowing I can estimate the amount of time it will take and roll the cost for that into the cost of the job! That would be awesome! Then, if I gain more clients I could work up to buying annual licenses for the products I use most while pay as you go would get me by when I need to "level up" to complete a special job. Please, if GIS is for everyone, then those of us without thousands and thousands of dollars to throw at software need some options, and soon!

Re: Pay as Needed Floating License

AbbasRaza — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 11:52:42 GMT

It will be great if ESRI will give free extensions for atleast educational purpose...