Substance Subscription Changes: details & FAQ

[Vincent Gault]

Starting November 2019, Substance Alchemist will be officially launched at the end of its beta-phase, and automatically added to your Substance subscription at no additional cost. Furthermore, perpetual licenses will not be sold through our substance3D.com website anymore. However, you will be able to renew your maintenance until October 31, 2020.

Q: What is included in the Substance subscription?

    A: Starting November 2019, Substance Alchemist will be officially launched at the end of its beta-phase, and automatically added to the Substance subscription at no additional cost. The Substance subscription will then grant full access and upgrades to:
    - Substance Painter
    - Substance Alchemist
    - Substance Designer 
    - 30 downloads/month on Substance Source

Q: Will the subscription pricing change? 

    A: Pricing remains the same for the Substance Indie monthly subscription and Substance Pro subscription. Indie annual subscription price will decrease starting November 2019, from $239 to $219.
    If you own a perpetual Indie license and wish to move to annual subscription before December 31st 2019, you get a discounted price at $149 (instead of $219).
Pro annual subscription is at $990 per year per user.

Q: What about the buy-out option (also known as rent-to-own)?

    A: Starting November 2019, the new subscriptions will not include buy-out option anymore. If you have been a subscriber before November 2019, you will be able to exercise your buy-out option for Substance Painter and Substance Designer until October 31, 2020 (as a reminder, the rent-to-own conversion to perpetual does not include Substance Alchemist).

Q: Where can I buy a perpetual license for Substance?

    A: Starting November 2019, perpetual licenses will not be sold through the substance3D.com website anymore. You can still purchase perpetual Indie licenses for Substance Painter and Substance Designer through Steam.

Q: What happens if I own perpetual licenses (under maintenance or expired)?

    A: The perpetual licenses you already own remain active.
    For Indie, you will be able to renew your maintenance until October 31, 2020, for $75 per application.
    For Pro, you will be able to renew your maintenance until October 31, 2020, from $490 per application.

Q: Is Substance a part of Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps?

    A: Substance is not a part of Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps.
   

Q: Does my pricing change as an Enterprise customer?

    A: Your plan does not change. Please contact your sales representative if you have additional questions.
   

If you have any other question, don’t hesitate to ask them here.

[designtechnology]

Will there be a standalone option to just have a subscription to Substance Alchemist for those who don't need the whole suite?

[AdamJanz3D]

Thank you, Vincent, for the heads-up about that. If the perpetual option will be gone from the Substance website in November 2019 but existing users are still eligible to get it until October 31, 2020, how do we perform the upgrade after November 2019? Do we just contact support? Thank you

[Vincent Gault]

Will there be a standalone option to just have a subscription to Substance Alchemist for those who don't need the whole suite?

no, Substance Alchemist will remain in the Substance Subscription model.

[Vincent Gault]

Thank you, Vincent, for the heads-up about that. If the perpetual option will be in gone from the Substance website in November 2019 but existing users are still eligible to get it until October 31, 2020, how do we perform the upgrade after November 2019? Do we just contact support? Thank you

The option will be available for you with the same pre-existing conditions: once you have been subscribers for 12 months, you're eligible for buying a perpetual
 to buy a perpetual. We specifically chose the dates, so any current users will be able to apply for the perpetual if needed.

[AdamJanz3D]

The option will be available for you with the same pre-existing conditions: once you have been subscribers for 12 months, you re eligible for buying a perpetual
 to buy a perpetual. We specifically chose the dates, so any current users will be able to apply for the perpetual if needed.

Thank you, Vincent. November 26 will mark one year for me, so I guess I will need to contact support to cancel automatic renewal and then upgrade to perpetual at that time.

[Vincent Gault]

The option will be available for you with the same pre-existing conditions: once you have been subscribers for 12 months, you re eligible for buying a perpetual
 to buy a perpetual. We specifically chose the dates, so any current users will be able to apply for the perpetual if needed.

Thank you, Vincent. November 26 will mark one year for me, so I guess I will need to contact support to cancel automatic renewal and then upgrade to perpetual at that time.

You can do this, but I would recommend waiting the upcoming SP release which shouldn't be long after

And if you go for a perpetual, don't forget you can apply for one year of maintenance

[Vincent Gault]

Anyhow, no stress: you have one year to decide (just check some of the offer we are doing during the transition time just in case

[AdamJanz3D]

You can do this, but I would recommend waiting the upcoming SP release which shouldn't be long after

And if you go for a perpetual, don't forget you can apply for one year of maintenance

Okay, sounds good. Thank you. So if I stop auto-renewal in November, but don't choose to upgrade immediately, I will still be eligible to buy perpetual up until Oct 31, 2020? If so, that would be great. I haven't been able to make a lot of use of SP lately, so being able to stop my subscription when it's done in November 2019 and then upgrade it later (in 2020) would be very ideal for me.

[Vincent Gault]

Okay, sounds good. Thank you. So if I stop auto-renewal in November, but don't choose to upgrade immediately, I will still be eligible to buy perpetual up until Oct 31, 2020? If so, that would be great. I haven't been able to make a lot of use of SP lately, so being able to stop my subscription when it's done in November 2019 and then upgrade it later (in 2020) would be very ideal for me.

No: when you decide to leave you have the option to buy a perpetual --> you have to take it at this moment or the opportunity is gone.

[AdamJanz3D]

No: when you decide to leave you have the option to buy a perpetual --> you have to take it at this moment or the opportunity is gone.

Okay, understood. Thank you for clarifying that.

[aerobraking]

Thanks for sharing the Information!

Could you explain what the reason for this change is? I don't get the idea behind removing the perpetual license from your website but still selling it through steam, and then only Painter and Designer. Do you give any guarantees or at least hints that perpetual license will not be removed in two years? Because this move looks a lot like the first step in slowly removing them at all.

I just looked at the first quote from the Allegorithmic is joining the Adobe family thread:

There is currently no change to the licensing models. We will announce new options in the coming months but rest assure that it will be really fair.
 - Jeremie Noguer

I'm not sure if selling Alchemist only by subscription can be called "really fair". What is so special about it, that I won't be able to buy it like Designer/Painter?

[Vincent Gault]

Thanks for sharing the Information!

Could you explain what the reason for this change is? I don't get the idea behind removing the perpetual license from your website but still selling it through steam, and then only Painter and Designer. Do you give any guarantees or at least hints that perpetual license will not be removed in two years? Because this move looks a lot like the first step in slowly removing them at all.

I just looked at the first quote from the Allegorithmic is joining the Adobe family thread:

There is currently no change to the licensing models. We will announce new options in the coming months but rest assure that it will be really fair.
 - Jeremie Noguer

I'm not sure if selling Alchemist only by subscription can be called "really fair". What is so special about it, that I won't be able to buy it like Designer/Painter?

Actually it's a bit the way around: Substance Painter & Substance Designer was available as standalone historically so we maintain this for them. Substance Source was already available via the subscription model only, and now we are adding Substance Alchemist at no additional cost (which imho is fair).

 We understand your point of view, but we want to preserve maintain the perpetual options for what was already existing, but the goal is not to do this for the new products.

[kemenyz]

This news shocked me. My plan was to convert my subscription into a perpetual license on November 30 since I started my subscription on that month.
Our deal with Allegorithmic was that after 1 year of subscription I can change it to perpetual. Not 10 month,  not half a year, but 1 year. I paid for that 1 year and I don't want to stop it before it runs out.
After the adobe buyout in every forum and every news told us, that nothing is going to be changed, at least for a year. That was the promise. Now I just got the mail that I can not have a perpetual license anymore? This is rediculous and this is the violation of our deal.
So
What I would like to have a perpetual license! And continue to have the latest upgrades and source until November 30 since I paid in advance for it 10 month ago.

[Vincent Gault]

This news shocked me. My plan was to convert my subscription into a perpetual license on November 30 since I started my subscription on that month.
Our deal with Allegorithmic was that after 1 year of subscription I can change it to perpetual. Not 10 month,  not half a year, but 1 year. I paid for that 1 year and I don't want to stop it before it runs out.
After the adobe buyout in every forum and every news told us, that nothing is going to be changed, at least for a year. That was the promise. Now I just got the mail that I can not have a perpetual license anymore? This is rediculous and this is the violation of our deal.
So
What I would like to have a perpetual license! And continue to have the latest upgrades and source until November 30 since I paid in advance for it 10 month ago.

No stress: you will have until October 31st 2020 to convert to perpetual (it's more than 12 months)