ravex

Owned licenses will still be usable, you just won't be able to get any support or upgrade the version. So no, I am not missing the point.

I didn't use the tool, I didn't have many clients, services, or invoices and so I migrated everything by hand. I have however asked on the Blesta Discord if someone who has used the import tool can come and answer that for you. They have a copy of the updated tool on their forums, I would post a link but I suspect it will be moderated, but the thread can be found in General -> News. The updated tool will be bundled with 5.1, which is entering beta very shortly I believe.

How is it too much effort? Have you even investigated it? The team at Blesta have taken lots of input from people and updated the importer to work with WHMCS, the software, 8.x. There are always helpful people on their discord, and during office hours the owner and other staff members are around too. In my opinion, continuing to use WHMCS, the software, gives WHMCS, the company, the green light to do the same in the future, but next time they might just say that owned licenses are now cancelled, and if you want to continue to use WHMCS, the software, you need to pay monthly! Same here, our price was only going up a few dollars a month, but I felt that I could not condone the mafia like actions of WHMCS, the company, and so on principle migrated away! It is also a bonus that there are only three files, out of more than 9,000, that are encoded with Ioncube.

We have migrated to Blesta!

Ahh, fair enough!

So you went with Blesta? Which makes your replacement of the s in Blesta with a $ even more confusing that it already was!

One that basically says "We heard you, and f$%k you"

Yes, there is! Paul has written a blog post about this situation and has addressed this very point! In his blog post he writes "As long as I have a say in it, we will continue to put integrity first.", he goes on to say "No bait and switch. No empty promises. That doesn’t mean that changes at times aren’t necessary, but there is a way forward that preserves integrity with gratitude.". He then finishes that paragraph saying "Blesta is privately owned, so there are no cold Venture-Capital hands pulling strings here, and we have no plans to sell. We aren’t making any changes."

Chances are this topic won't be in their April or May one either!

And open themselves up to a lawsuit from WHMCS? I don't think so!

No, it is called reading the public blog post from Paul!

They encode a maximum of 3 files, every other file is released 100% unencrypted. Paul has also confirmed to me that as long as the code is up to their standard, and it benefits all of their clients, they will accept a pull request, and potentially merge it into the core code. It is not guaranteed, but then again that is something that even WHMCS did not even allow, as 100% of their files were encoded. Is that why Blesta has more trials active now than they have ever had? Is that why they have issued more developer licenses in the last week than they had in the 3 months prior? Is that why they have spoken to hundreds of companies that have migrated to Blesta? Because people won't migrate to Blesta! Just because you won't migrate to Blesta doesn't mean others aren't and won't!

You would lose! And in the UK that means the loser not only pays their court costs, but they also pay the winners costs!

They do have a plan for that. It is called honoring the items terms, limiting the number of lifetime licenses sold to a reasonable level, and once they have been sold to remove them from sale. They make enough from monthly and resold licenses to not need to dick around with the prices, like WHMCS has done, going forward!

The owned unbranded requires a yearly payment of $39 for updates and support. The Owned Lifetime, which costs $750, does not require such a yearly payment. Basically, if you are going to be using Blesta for 11 or more years, then it is more cost effective to purchase the Lifetime license. And Blesta strictly monitor the number of owned licenses sold, if they have sold a large number of a specific license, they will remove that license from sale while still honoring the commitments to their clients who have already purchased that license.