I don't disagree with the last couple replies, however I will point out that iText is the one that caused the mis-expectations on price. Since prior versions cost $0 it is quite a shock to learn that new versions cost $12,500. (Please understand I'm not saying $0 is the right price.) What makes it even harder is that there are no published prices for the new version of iText.
Unless your doing waterfall development (so you think you know everything up front) you don't always know what's needed at the beginning. If I would go to my customer with a Y charge of $12,500 that would be the end of it. I'm only saying all this because I was asked to explain, in my case the older 2.x version is just fine and FOP a viable option if iText continues with the current pricing. -Dave On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 8:19 AM, Leonard Rosenthol <lrose...@adobe.com> wrote: > For those of you doing freelance/consulting development, what you should be > doing is having yoru client take care of the licensing with iText Software - > NOT YOU. You are paid to develop something for them, but that doesn't mean > that your project can't be based on other technologies that they are required > to purchase/license in addition to your work. > > When I used to do consulting, I made this clear to the customer upfront that > they would pay me X for my work but also needed to pay Y to license other > components. Never had an issue, because the details were done upfront. > Certainly, if you try to change things after the contract, then I agree - > that would be a problem. > > And assuming you are delivering source code to the customer and not binary, > then you simply don’t provide iText and they are on their own to acquire it > and build the final app. If you are delivering binary, that's a different > issue. > > Leonard > > -----Original Message----- > From: David Hoffer [mailto:dhoff...@gmail.com] > Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 9:29 AM > To: Post all your questions about iText here > Subject: Re: [iText-questions] What action is requred in terms of License > > In my case I was quoted a minimum charge of $1500 and a max of $12,500 > depending on the number of end users. All charges except the maximum > require quarterly reporting of the number of end users. The problems > with this are many. > > I too am a freelance programmer developing a small app for a client. > I have no way of know how many users will use the application (but > since its a start-up I doubt very many), so to avoid the maximum > charge I'd have to build in a end user counting framework to the app > (that adds to my costs) then there is the question of how to report > this data (my client couldn't care less about my need to report so I'd > have to build in some auto report sending mechanism which adds to my > costs. So all this rules out all but the 12,500 option which is > several times the pay I am getting for this small app. Obviously > these rates make no economic/business sense. > > Now let me tell you what does make sense. I did purchase a GUI > framework library for the app at at cost of about $800. That was a > high percentage of the pay I'm getting but I felt like it was worth > the cost. I consider the PDF part to be less critical than the UI (I > could have used HTML for instance...but PDF has some nicer features) > so I would expect to pay less than $800. I was not hoping to pay just > $5 as mentioned somewhere in this thread but given my usage of iText I > think about $300 would be fair. (Plus I've already paid the $70 or so > for the latest revised iText book) > > Just wondering, if you are proud of your rates for iText why not > publish them on the web? > > -Dave > > > On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 5:50 AM, Michael Schmodt > <michael.schm...@googlemail.com> wrote: >> Hi Bruno, >> thank you very much for the clarification. I wrote to sa...@itextpdf.com and >> described what type of application I am developing. I am programming as a >> freelancer for customers who pay me and the 5000 $ is the wage for the whole >> projects that take about one month (and not 5 days) to complete. The >> customers themselves publish the applications.I neither have details about >> the sales numbers, nor do I have the possibility to open source the >> applications. From sa...@itextpdf.com I received the information, that I >> needed an OEM license with the given prices. Obviously, there was a >> communication problem and I will write to sa...@itextpdf.com again. I hope, >> there is the possibility to find a compromise, because I otherwise would >> have to stop using itext, which I really like. Maybe it could help to openly >> communicate license details for commercial licenses on the net in order to >> avoid misunderstandings. >> >> So, what license is needed in this case in order to get things right this >> time? >> >> Bye, >> Michael >> >> 2010/4/25 Bruno Lowagie <br...@lowagie.com> >>> >>> Michael Schmodt wrote: >>> > P.S. I can post the mail from the sales department with the licensing >>> > details, if you want. The prices are not my idea, but I received the >>> > list from itextsoftware.com <http://itextsoftware.com>. >>> >>> I think you should post this to sa...@itextpdf.com >>> because I think you are mixing different things. >>> >>> Seems like you are talking about the prices for an OEM license, >>> but you sound like you need a limited number of simple end user >>> licenses (end users who don't not distribute the product). >>> There's a huge difference. >>> >>> Note that I know very little about the actual pricing. >>> So it's best to discuss this with sales. >>> >>> On a personal note: >>> >>> What is the return on a /product/ that is made with a budget of >>> only $5000? That's a product involving about 5 days of work >>> (European price for a senior developer; imagine how much money >>> I'm giving away giving free advice on this list). >>> >>> I don't understand. Wouldn't it be better to publish such >>> a low-budget product for free and make it AGPL? >>> >>> Or are you talking about a /project/ you're doing for a customer who >>> only pays $5000? In that case, why are you talking about OEM prices? >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> _______________________________________________ >>> iText-questions mailing list >>> iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions >>> >>> Buy the iText book: http://www.itextpdf.com/book/ >>> Check the site with examples before you ask questions: >>> http://www.1t3xt.info/examples/ >>> You can also search the keywords list: >>> http://1t3xt.info/tutorials/keywords/ >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> iText-questions mailing list >> iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions >> >> Buy the iText book: http://www.itextpdf.com/book/ >> Check the site with examples before you ask questions: >> http://www.1t3xt.info/examples/ >> You can also search the keywords list: http://1t3xt.info/tutorials/keywords/ >> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > iText-questions mailing list > iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions > > Buy the iText book: http://www.itextpdf.com/book/ > Check the site with examples before you ask questions: > http://www.1t3xt.info/examples/ > You can also search the keywords list: http://1t3xt.info/tutorials/keywords/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > iText-questions mailing list > iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions > > Buy the iText book: http://www.itextpdf.com/book/ > Check the site with examples before you ask questions: > http://www.1t3xt.info/examples/ > You can also search the keywords list: http://1t3xt.info/tutorials/keywords/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://www.itextpdf.com/book/ Check the site with examples before you ask questions: http://www.1t3xt.info/examples/ You can also search the keywords list: http://1t3xt.info/tutorials/keywords/
