I got Dorico Pro 2 just 6 months ago, and I like to use my educational status to upgrade to Dorico 3 and I just found LE, etc. under educational category but not upgrade from Dorico Pro 2. Dorico Pro 2 upgrade to Dorico 3 is $150 for non-educational situations but I am hoping it will be less some discount for educational situations, especially considering I just got the software recently!
Many software providers like Avid has free upgrade for their products up to a point (for instance they may announce it is free upgrade for those who bought their software after … date).
I feel it is not fair if Steinberg set things up so users that just bought a software have to pay such a high price AGAIN for an upgrade.
Back then before purchasing, I asked if there is an ETA for Dorico 3 release. I could wait, but the software engineer said there is no ETA! How could it be no ETA if it was only 6 or 7 months ago!
If you have Dorico Pro 2, the update to Dorico Pro 3 is €99.99 inc. Germat VAT or $99.99 US or equivalent in your local currency. There is no educational pricing for updates: once you update, you have a professional license like somebody who bought the full retail version of Dorico Pro. We do provide “grace period” updates for people who have recently bought our products, but “recent” is four weeks, not six months, I"m afraid.
We cannot share release dates that far in advance: even if they are planned, we have no way of knowing at that kind of distance from a release whether or not we will meet the planned schedule.
Typically US prices don’t include state taxes - those are then added on at checkout. That’s quite likely to explain the discrepancy in prices (and certainly was the answer the last time this question came up).
Of course you can say “There is no educational pricing for updates”. It’s a matter of fact, and it is the way that business and relationship between the company and clients is. Companies define and clients follow. But during the product rep demos and enquiries prior to purchase, all the lights are green and welcoming and if a user is comparing a missing feature that exists in let’s say Sibelius, you hear from Dorico guys “we are working on it, it will be most likely available in future updates”. So clients go in the path of being convinced to buy the software and wait for the future upgrade, and later they find out that they need to pay another $150 if they want to see those features! Avid sells their educational licenses with 2 years free upgrade! which I used for 15 years before I switched to Steinberg. For a software that is still in the basic development phase compared to Sibelius, this is quite an inflexible customer service in my opinion.
Ahem. Sibelius offer one year of free updates, not two, and Dorico’s just added at least three features (in one single release) that Sibelius doesn’t have. (It’s probably way more than three; I just don’t have time to count, right now.)
I am sorry to disagree, arya44, in several points.
Avid pricing states that you have to pay 100€ every year to get updates that are ridiculously ridiculous. And if you don’t pay you have to pay thrice the price to restate your support plan (unless you’re student, in which case it has the same price).
The Dorico team have been working very fast and offer great value for the price. I don’t think it’s fair to compare.
I also think that when you buy a software you pay for what you have, not for future promises (that weren’t promised to be free)
Personally, I was also waiting for v3 to buy, and even reached the team for an ETA, until I decided that even v2 was worth the price and it actually saved me a lot of time. I used Dorico for 4 months from then and it was worth every cent, and I’m happy to pay again. It’s well deserved.
Sorry guys. I don’t want to disseminate negativity here and make this thread continue. My Pro Tools 10 educational license (quite a few years ago) had 2 years free upgrade. I’m on PT12.5 without paying any additional money. I remember Avid’s policy for Media Composer was the same, very generous for educational stuff. I don’t agree with their paid support feature either. Generally speaking Avid is known for many unreasonable things they do to clients, but they also had much better educational pricing compared to their competitors back then. Of course things change with time. Anyway, my point was that it would makes sense if Steinberg could also offer a Dorico Pro 2 educational to Dorico Pro 3 educational upgrade pricing that is less than non-educational upgrade pricing. Thanks for your comments.
Steinberg has never, to my knowledge, offered educational pricing for updates, but I do believe the updates are fairly priced, whether you started with an educational or retail license. You are getting an enormous amount of new functionality for your money, and I am certain that you will save more than $100 or even $150 worth of time with the new features in Dorico 3 within weeks, if not days. Plus, you might be able to get edu pricing from Avid for their products, but the real downside is that then you end up having to use Avid’s products.
To add my opinion in here as well, I agree that the upgrade for major features for around $100 (several huge features of which are not even present in the competitor’s products) is well worth the money.
It’s a long time since I was an impoverished student (well, actually I was never really all that impoverished, because back then Student Loans hadn’t been invented yet!) but I sometimes feel there is a lack of perspective, when this sort of upgrade comes out about once a year and costs $100. That’s about the same as buying one (cheap) cup of coffee a week at Starbucks, after all.
I believe Daniel is correct in what he says - Steinberg have never offered educational discount on version upgrades. Generally speaking, Steinberg only offer educational discount on initial purchases. With Dorico, there has always been a little more latitude than with other Steinberg products where only initial purchases qualify for educational discount. There has always been an educational price crossgrade from a competitor scoring product to Dorico (Pro). With Dorico 3, there is also an educational price upgrade from Elements 3 / Elements 2 / LE 3 to Dorico Pro 3 Educational, though this saves relatively little over an outright purchase of Dorico Pro 3 Educational.
I’ve just upgraded my Dorico Pro 2 Educational licence to Dorico Pro 3. As well as the version upgrade, my newly upgraded licence is now a retail licence with no usage or resale restrictions (as is usual Steinberg practice when upgrading an educational licence). That is a remarkably good deal for around two sevenths of the cost of a new Dorico Pro 3 educational licence and around two elevenths of the cost of a new Dorico Pro 3 retail licence. As Rob correctly points out, the cost of upgrading each time a new version is released is around the cost of the cheapest coffee in a coffee shop once per week over the approximately annual upgrade cycle. Indeed, in London, I doubt the £85 Pro 2 to Pro 3 upgrade cost in the UK would buy you much more than two thirds of a year of one cheap coffee per week.
Steinberg’s policies on educational licences are more generous than some other audio software companies. With some companies there is no way to remove all the restrictions from a licence that was originally an educational or academic licence. I have an academic licence for Cycling 74’s Max 8. No matter how many times I upgrade that licence in the future, it will always be Not For Resale.
Ultimately, educational licence policies are a matter of business strategy. Students and teachers have no absolute right to discounts, though companies understandably want educators to train those who will be entering the industry on their product, also those industry entrants to have their own copy of the product.
I know this reply comes a bit late, if we take a look on the last comment.
But I would just like to make my opinion heard.
A 100$ for a big upgrade once a year, that is in danish money around 50 kr. a month. I would gladly pay that as a subscription fee, to have access to regular upgrades.
Perhaps one could set aside the equivalent of $10 / month so that $100 was available each year (with $20 left over to celebrate). That would feel like a subscription but not impose it on others.
