Upgrades
What's the story with the number of licences you can buy doubling at every increment, if you only want 1 more and you have to buy 4,8 16 etc then it's kinda expensive. Is this likely to change in the future. My Mac could not cope running more than 5 camera's anyway.
Comments
I have two cameras. So logically, I purchased two licenses.
After trying to figure out how to enter the second license code, I searched the forums and I see that that’s not how your licensing works (kinda strange actually). Instead, I have to purchase your four-camera license - even though I only have two cameras ;(
Your licensing model makes sense if you offered a discount for a multi camera “bundle”. But since it’s just a multiple of the single license, it does not make sense you’d have to purchase the equivalent of ‘four seats’. I'm glad other software manufactures like Adobe don't follow this model. In general, there are two models - per seat (camera) or volume licenses (bundle price for multiple cameras).
I see that you're not planning to change your license structure, so I’ll go ahead and upgrade, since I really don’t have a choice. Doesn't make for a happy customer though.
Please refund my purchase of the second single license.
I've replied to you by email and refunded the superfluous 1-camera license.
We do state on our download page, online store, and on our FAQ page: "One license covers a single copy of SecuritySpy running on a single computer."
Different developers of video surveillance software have different licensing structures: some charge a fixed fee per additional camera, some charge in blocks like us. Under the former scheme, a system with many cameras becomes very expensive if you have to pay for each camera license separately for the software. Under our scheme, large installations (more than 16 cameras) get cheaper on a per-camera basis (of course I understand that this doesn't help you with your two cameras though).
With a system of any size, especially when using high-quality cameras (which is the kind of market we target), the cost of SecuritySpy is typically a very small proportion of the cost of the overall system.
So we feel that the licensing structure is working well, and after all we are a business and want to make a return from all our hard work! We strive to make top quality products and I think our software is very good value. I hope you will be happy with your license, and if you ever decide to add more cameras to your system you can expand up to 4 at no extra cost
Pretty sure my Favorite Wife doesn't want any more cameras around the house, so I've either got to pay $200 for that one camera, or repurpose an older Mac Mini for a 1-license ($40) server, which means maintaining Yet Another Machine...
I can see charging less per license when you buy more licences, but this "bit-shift" thing is just inconvenient.
How hard would it be to sell 1 license for $40, blocks of 4 for $25 each, blocks of 8 for $20 each, blocks of 16 for $15, or something? [And yes, if you give a mouse a cookie, I'd also want "I've bought 8, so my price going forward is at the $20 price till I hit 16", but that's just me overreaching.]
Love the product, and I want to give you more money, but not going to do $200 for one camera...
There are pros and cons of each licensing system. The problem we face as a business is that changing the system completely to a flat per-camera fee will have unpredictable results. The current system is bad for users with 9 or 17 cameras, but comparatively very good for users with 8 or 16 cameras. Changing to a flat-rate system would make it better for the former customers but worse for the latter ones (because we would have to charge more per camera than an 8- or 16-camera user currently pays). Plus, there is limited information that we can gather at this point that would tell us whether this would be a good decision or a very bad decision from a business point of view.
Therefore sticking to the current licensing structure, which has worked well for us for many years, seems like the best way forward.
I would recommend trying all the cameras on your existing Mac first, and reduce the frame rates of the cameras until the Mac can comfortably handle the load (make sure the "Idle" figure in the CPU tab in Activity Monitor is at least 10%). If that doesn't give you acceptable performance, then you should look at splitting the cameras over two Macs, or upgrading to a more powerful Mac perhaps.