Upgrade to Studio 2024 Pricing is abusive

Hi,

RWS pricing policy is really abusive.

This will summarize the problem:
Upgrade from Studio 2014 FL+ to Studio 2015 FL+ : 140 CAD
Upgrade from Studio 2015 FL+ to Studio 2017 FL+ : 195 CAD
Upgrade from Studio 2017 FL+ to Studio 2019 FL+ : 264 CAD
Upgrade from Studio 2019 FL+ to Studio 2021 FL+ : 231 CAD
Upgrade from Studio 2021 FL+ to Studio 2022 FL+ : 182 CAD

And now :

Upgrade from Studio 2022 FL+ to Studio 2024 FL+ : 556 CAD !!!

Are you mad, at RWS? Do you think translators are millionaires? We can hardly increase our per word rates for years with our clients, and many of us, at this point, charge rates that are not far from what they charged 20 years ago.
In the same time, many translation agencies take advantage of neuronal translation and post-edition to try to lower many translators' rates.

Amid that, what makes you think you can triple Studio's prices, while the consumer price index is just about 1.5 x the one it was20 years ago?

Also, why such a difference between an upgrade from Studio 2022 FL to Studio 2024 FL (367 CAD) and an upgrade from Studio 2022 FL+ to Studio 2024 FL+ (556 CAD)? Almost $200 more just for the luxury of installing Studio on a spare machine, while you and I know you can only work on one machine (and instance of Studio) at a time!
Your pretext of using the cloud to transfer from your PC to your laptop is a bad faith one. Not all the translators want to use the cloud (e.g. for confidentiality concerns). And the requirement to deactivate your installation on your main computer to continue your work on your spare computer is nothing but an additional complication and stress for users. What if you travel and forgot to deactivate your main installation before leaving?

That's very disappointing from SDL/RWS I have been loyal to for 23 years.
I never missed an upgrade, I was in the very first ones to use Studio when it was released in June 2009, but, for the first time, I consider not upgrading. Mainly when I am pretty sure there will not be major enough changes in 2024 version to justify to an upgrade. I may have accepted to pay 350 CAD for an upgrade from FL+ to FL+, but not at the currently published prices.

 Sincerely,

 



Typos
[edited by: Philippe Riondel at 4:24 PM (GMT 1) on 26 Jun 2024]
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  • Hi Philippe,

    Thank you for your feedback.

    In terms of pricing, as any business, at times, we have to review our pricing structure not only in line with our technology offering but also due to factors that are out of our control such as inflation and currency fluctuations which I’m sure you’re aware have had a significant impact over the years.

    Along with pricing, we also have to review our product portfolio.

    Freelance Plus licenses were created a number of years ago to enable Freelance Translators to have 2 simultaneous activation's on 2 machines for one named user. For example: 1 x activation on their PC and 1 x activation on their laptop.   Over the years not only has technology moved forward, with many Freelance Translators now only working from one device, so has Trados Studio and the license options we offer to the Freelance community.

    We understand that not all Freelance Translators want to move to the cloud which is why Trados Studio is hybrid license offering users the option to work on the desktop, in the cloud or a combination of both.

    The introduction of the Trados Studio Freelance subscription license enables a user to be able to install Trados Studio on any device, and to be able to log in from any one single device at a time. The subscription license also comes with cloud capabilities and enables a user to log into the cloud as well as their desktop license.  It also has the added benefit of a user always being on the latest version of Trados Studio whilst they have a valid subscription and removes the need for a paid upgrade.

    If you would like to reach out to me directly to discuss then please feel free to contact me via email fpearnrowe@rws.com

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  • I think that we, as freelance translators and freelance project managers, always feel that we are getting an unfair deal. We feel that we don't get what RWS says we get, and probably for most of us it's not worth having Trados with all its features.
    Why don't we have glossaries with the Language Weaver description? Why do we need another subscription to get the best out of Smart Review? Etc, etc, etc. It is also very difficult to find information, good tutorials, etc. How much should a freelancer spend as a percentage of what he gets from his work in all this technology? Not all of us will save time and get more jobs, probably we will have more time but less money. Probably this money will not pay the rent and we will have to find another job. I know this is the way the world works, but maybe a big and successful company like SWR could treat us better, with better prices and more access to all these new technologies for the same money, because we have been the basis for the improvement of all these technologies. I used the word "feel" because it could be just a feeling, and not a fact. 

    Love. <3

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  • Hi Diego,

    We do listen to and take on board all our customer feedback. 

    As part of your Trados Studio license you do receive 6M Characters of Language Weaver NMT free of charge, with an option to have a paid Language Weaver subscription which includes dictionaries.  For further information you can  contact your local Reseller from whom your purchased your Studio license or contact us directly at trados@rws.com.

    For the AI features such as Smart Review a subscription is required to a LLM (Large Language Model) provider which is outside of our control.  Currently the supported LLM Providers are Open AI and Azure AI.

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