Unraid License Pricing Changes and My Opinions / Thoughts

Talking head video giving my opinions and thoughts on the changes that are coming.
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[@ShinyTechThings]

They definitely need money so that they can grow and hire and retain good talent.

[@ChrisRider]

I think it is fair as long as current licenses already purchased don't get changed/voided. To quote Darth Vader (maybe not exact): Pray I don't alter the deal further.

[@SPXLabs]

Only time will tell. For now though, it's mostly harmless and not nearly as egregious as other companies licensing changes have been.

[@chrisdover8014]

@@SPXLabs You mean like Broadcom with VMWare......

[@rooksisfuniii]

The model seems fair. Lifetime expectations of technology are unrealistic. I’ve gotten 4 years of great functionality for $129 and see no problem paying more occasionally for technology updates. I also agree with your take on security patches vs feature updates for people on a tight budget or who just don’t need new features. I wonder how many of the “I’m never using this software because it costs money” are actually using UnRaid in the first place.

[@SPXLabs]

I'm surprised they've gone this long on the curren... previous model. Like you, I've gotten nearly a decade of functionality out of my license and over the course of that time, $129 is merely $1.08 over 10 years which is incredibly value IMO. Hopefully the new Lifetime key can achieve similar value moving forward. It would be very very cool of them to differentiate security versus feature updates where possible. It doesn't make sense to me for existing customers to be upset because nothing changes for them. Like at all.

[@dominicpascal5512]

I tried it and would be willing to pay money, but not forever. $129 for life I would gladly pay but $250 is just too much for the trouble it gave me setting everything up - the optimal SMB settings for Mac I should not need to gather from a KZbin video for a $250 software. TrueNAS was way faster for me to set up, included those settings, and is free. Personally I think they've lost an ideal customer.

[@Nicholas-im8bd]

But it is currently relying on the community for sup[port... supporting a product those people dont profit from. They need to bring in some level of support if they expect to charge for a linux distro

[@SPXLabs]

That's very true, which I believe is why they are also changing the license policy so they can afford to hire the talent they need versus relying on us.

[@laurikvo]

Tbh I was worried their money will run out and we’re left stranded so I’m glad they made the change and they did it this exact way. Since lifetime license basically also mean lifetime of the company and I’m too fond of the OS since it has worked so well for my needs of photo/video/general backup storage needs. Hopefully they can keep this awesome product moving on and the community is another key part with it’s success!

[@SPXLabs]

Same here dude

[@carbongrip2108]

I mean TrueNas Core does everything Unraid does for Free now... not sure charging for a custom Linux Distro like Unraid is very feasible.

[@SPXLabs]

Yeah it’s going to be very interesting. It feels weird paying for a Linux distribution lol. But idk. So far it’s been worth it.

[@carbongrip2108]

@@SPXLabs Yeah, kind of like Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

[@ptessier73]

I'm using TrueNAS Scale and couldn't be happier.

[@SPXLabs]

I mean hell. Even red hat is free with a developer license. And technically you could roll Almalinux with is binary compatible with RHEL and that would be even more free.

[@SPXLabs]

@ptessier73 this guy over here shilling for TrueNAS. lol joking of course

[@xkraztv]

I actually dont mind them doing this. Unraid has been great, given the budget UnRaid currently has.

[@EminezArtus]

Please make an in-depth license comparison if you have some time for it. I think this is still not clear to must users.

[@erichankins2634]

Can we now get off the O/S flash drives?

[@SPXLabs]

Technically yes, I've seen some forum posts of people using alternative methods for storing the OS on other storage medium.

[@NeptuneSega]

I use an SD card reader (some Samsug) so if the card dies, the ID is linked to the reader, no to the card. That means I can have backups just in case.

[@alienJIZ1990]

Interesting, I'm curious how they check the USB serial then because if you throw a device in front of it like a SD reader, I believe hdparm is the only tool that can get the actual serial number rather than the reader/adapter serial. I guess the reader must have a USB serial so it takes it, I didn't think of that I had my flash drive die once and I was able to switch it (thankfully didn't happen more than once that year) and I was going to try and spoof the serial somehow with a iodd device to emulate a virtual USB but that was a dead end - your method is way easier than what I was trying to do haha thx for the tip

[@39zack]

Its not an subscription at all and your example was not an subscription ether. Buying version X and have yo pay for version Y was never called an subscription. An subscription is when you loose access to the product/service once you dont pay.

[@rodstephens6612]

I think their change is long overdue. It gives me more confidence that they have a strategy to still be around and productive in 10-20 years. A longer term access to security patches does sound good from a consumer's perspective, but this introduces a multiverse of support threads that would be costly to test and maintain. Consider this. Jim buys Unraid 6.12 but does not continue paying the annual subscription after 2 years (he is now on 7.4). 3 years down the track a critical patch is produced on the now current 8.1. What is Jim expected to pay to get that patch? If it were the lower annual renewal fee, then he should only get the patch and not the 8.1 feature set. However 7.4 has not been explicitly tested with the security patch and may not work. Or, since he let his maintenance lapse, is he up for a whole new subscription giving him a current patched 8.1. Regardless, it seems like there are some questions still to be answered by Lime Technology regarding renewal pricing for lapsed maintenance.

[@SPXLabs]

I agree, I've always worried about their longevity and this is them trying to solidify their foothold. That sounds like kernel level patching in which case, that person sounds like they will need to pay for the security patch. But if ssh needs a patch, that should be more than safe to patch. It really just depends on the type of security patch. It's definitely a web, the easy button is to only cover that version for a year and that's fine. But if at all possible it would be cool to try and do some security patches where possible. If they cannot come up with a strategy then so be it.

[@darthkielbasa]

License fees can stink, but this doesn’t feel like a rug pull as has happened with others recently. Plus, I’m sure the policy will evolve. SPX makes an excellent point with security updates around a license expiration. I had not considered such a circumstance. IMO, the main gripe of the common man regarding Unraid was the OG license fee. The license isn’t a dealbreaker for me. I’m have two keys and will probably grab another soon. I have zero qualms financially supporting development for useful projects. Whether that be compulsory or voluntarily. There’s a buzz, to be sure. I’ve read numerous comments of homelab content creators saying this is actually enticing them to give Unraid a shot.

[@SPXLabs]

Been a long time since I’ve seen such a wonderful comment like this. I could get used to this!

[@darthkielbasa]

@@SPXLabs I took my meds today. I’ll reintroduce you tomorrow.

[@SPXLabs]

lol nice

[@JasonsLabVideos]

Good video sir,

[@jfkastner]

Well done! And very Interesting ;-) One Day I'll try Unraid, too

[@SPXLabs]

Do or do not, there is no try.

[@patm95]

Of course I don’t like it, but I totally understand it. I’d rather them, make good money so they can continue supporting the product. I’ve used it for over a decade now and would do it all over again even if it was a subscription model. I use it for home and business.

[@SPXLabs]

Approaching a decade myself and I’ve gotten every single cent out of my purchase. If they would have started with this model I would have been all aboard back then too

[@GotWire]

This definitely wants me to look into switching my Nas to free Nas/True Nas Core Software! Love the video man!

[@SPXLabs]

Phew buddy, haven't seen a comment from you in a long time. You doing well? Get that fiber installed and working?

[@GotWire]

@SPXLabs o ya doing well and yep got it installed and working! haha trying to make some more videos! I just bought a unifi talk phone to mess with and trying to get it to work with pfsense was not fun lol

[@SPXLabs]

@@GotWire Sweet dude! I saw you posted something about PFSense recently, no lie, I haven't watched it or kept up. Sorry! Neat! I really want Unifi talk but I'm too cheap to fork over the money lol.

[@NeptuneSega]

They will kick people off the life-time keys they have now eventually. I've seen it happen so many times before. This is a shame, but they need to eat

[@SPXLabs]

This is a possibility, only time will tell. There will probably be something newer and better out by then to be honest.

[@AustinMichael]

Back to Truenas

[@39zack]

No they wont

[@saiyantwan]

@@39zack only time will tell but I thought the same thing about Playon back in the day. Bought a lifetime license then they decided a name change was enough to drop all those that did and try to force a monthly subscription. then when confronted they decided to lie and say the change was due to windows 11 even though many people tore apart the code and found they only changed a flag and everything else was the same between 10 and 11.

[@dominicpascal5512]

I find this model a mess and outdated. Either buy OR subscription, but I'm definitely not doing both … and certainly not forking over $250 for "life". They're relying way too much on community apps and people supporting in the forum and youtube to justify that cost for an operating system. It's just not as polished as it needs to be for that price point. IMHO the model makes it absolutely unattractive to run (multiple) smaller systems, plus maybe a bigger one because you're gonna get poor. I really wanted to like unraid but this model has pushed me away - now I'm running truenas scale on proxmox and can't complain. No, I can't run a growing array but the performance it gave me was really terrible anyway, so I have ZFS raidz pool … which is better supported in truenas.

[@jfkastner]

Patches for severe Bugs should be Free, everyone would benefit from better Security & Less Problems - besides Unraid would 'run' better even on older Installs, and hence get a good Reputation from it. You could charge for Feature updates, possibly even for more Disks than e.g. 5 or 6 - Let's say you buy 10 times 20 TB you spend let's say $ 400 ea - that's $ 4,000 Total - you should be able to shell out another $ 100 for Software (e.g. $10 per Disk)

[@SPXLabs]

Agree to this sentiment as well. Although Kernel level patches where a new kernel update is required should fall under the "you must pay for that" category unfortunately.

[@carbongrip2108]

@@SPXLabs I suspect users will just manually install a new kernel without paying, I think it's Debian based, so would a Debian Kernel break anything?

[@SPXLabs]

That’s always a possibility for more skilled folks. It’s based on Slackware but the principle is the same

[@ruwn561]

There is no way they will guarantee updates for life. They,like others in the greedy tech world, want monthly forever rental. They can feck off never using them again.

[@SPXLabs]

I agree that they cannot guarantee it, which to their credit, I don't believe I have ever seen them use that word written nor spoken. Out of curiosity. Do you already own a key? If so, nothing is changing for you in the foreseeable future, so why not just continue using the license you already paid for?