Every once in a while, we receive a question from a bewildered customer asking us what they receive when they buy a product from us. My hope with this post is to clarify some of the more common questions we receive.
Products for Visual Studio .NET
First, I thought I came up with a real clever name for our .net package - DXperience. Turns out, people have a hard time pronouncing it. It's actually pronounced "The Experience"
DXperience is a bundled package of products. It comes in 4 versions.
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DXperience Universal
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DXperience Enterprise
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DXperience Professional
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DXperience ASP.NET
The following web page describes what you pay and what you get in return for each of the products listed above. http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/DXperience/editions.xml
In addition to these bundled offerings, you can purchase nearly all of our .NET offerings individually. For instance, you can purchase the XtraGrid along with XtraReports if those are the only product you plan on using.
Our website contains detailed information on each product and/or suite we offer. If you want to know what is included with a given product library, simply visit the appropriate product web page. The following is the product page for the XtraGrid - http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/WinForms/XtraGrid/
If you navigate to the specifications/pricing page (use the navbar on the left hand side of the page), you'll see that when you purchase the XtraGrid Suite (either individually or as part of a DXperience bundle) you will have access to over 50 controls. The page also lists pricing - the XtraGrid is available for $399.99 with source code and $299.99 without source code.
The Subscription Model
All DevExpress Visual Studio .NET products are sold based on a subscription model. All this means that when you purchase one of our products, you receive 12 months of free updates from the date of purchase...be it a minor service update or a major new version. After the 12 month period and at your discretion, you can "renew" the subscription and receive another 12 months of free updates. If you choose not to renew...no problem...you can continue using the last version you obtained or are eligible to use. The 12 month time frame is merely for new versions/updates and has no relevance to rights of use (as long as the EULA is not violated).
I have to admit, the term subscription can be a bit confusing...some of our competitors dont sell individual products as we do and only sell bundles. These bundled products are given the generic label of a "subscription." In our model, subscription is a term used to describe the method by which we issue new versions and whether a person is entitled to that new version. DXperience is a bundle of products (be it for WinForms, ASP.NET, etc)...and it is sold as a subscription. XtraGrid Suite is an individual product library (contains over 50 controls)....and it is also sold as a subscription.
Royalties
This one is real simple...We dont charge royalties. If you abide by the terms of the EULA, you never have to worry about royalties or ridiculous per server deployment costs.
More info on licensing/royalties can be found here: http://www.devexpress.com/Support/LicensingFAQ.xml
Products for Delphi/C++Builder
Our VCL product line is a bit different than our .NET product line. When you purchase an individual product, like the ExpressQuantumGrid, you receive the current shipping version. If at a later time we release a new version, you can upgrade to the new major version. As an example, we just released a new version of the ExpressNavBar. If you own an existing license, the cost to renew that product was $29.99. Minor service updates for a given product version are provided to you automatically.
As many already know, we do have a VCL product bundle - it is called the VCL Subscription. It works just like our DXperience bundles and it is based on a subscription model.
Finally, in our VCL product line, we offer 2 other non-subscription bundles....one is the ExpressPack (a combo of the QuantumGrid and ExpressBars) and the QuantumPack. Though product bundles, these 2 products are not sold based on the subscription model.
Hope that makes things a bit more clear...