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Is Sencha's latest price jump legal?

4 points by jarben ↗ HN
Sencha (ExtJS) just introduced new pricing which starts at $3,225 for a single developer. This is 10x increase from the original price. The trick is that they don't offer a single license anymore. So I wonder, is this actually legal? More info here: http://www.sencha.com/forum/showthread.php?292734

7 comments

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toddkazakov
Why would you think it is? At the grocery store I often buy a six-pack, without the possibility of buying a single beer.
jarben
I had the same thought on my mind but I think it's different as you can't easily switch to another brand or store. There is literally no other option for single developers than paying 10x more. It's like if your mobile operator starts charging existing customers 2x and there is no way to transfer your number to the competition.
tptacek
There's no such thing as a monopoly on ExtJS. If the pricing is a problem, switch to a different library, like pretty much everyone else in the world.
jarben
This is easy when you start a project, a multi-year project would be almost a complete rewrite which would cost much more than a few $K. Sencha nows this and is abusing its position.
debacle
Of course it is legal. On the other hand, Sencha regularly pushes the license cycle by slowing/stopping bugfixes for older versions of the software. They also pioneered the predatory open/closed model. They are not a good company to place your trust in.

Someone at Sencha decided that the value of squeezing their locked in users is more than the value of acquiring new users.

hkarthik
Welcome to enterprise, closed source software.

There are two rules you need to know.

1) They will price things as high as they think their customers will pay.

2) Nobody pays sticker price, but you have to go through sales people and trade parts of your soul to negotiate better pricing.