This is Why People Leave LogMeIn
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I know in the not so distant past there was a large following who dropped LogMeIn because of pricing and the communication thereof. This thread is not really about that particular instance, nor is it meant to bash LogMeIn. I just want to share a conversation I had with someone there yesterday afternoon.
We still use LogMeIn and really like it. We have about 180 servers / pcs with LMI installed that we manage (and even some on which it is not installed yet).
I called to ask a question about our renewal price and why it was more than triple what we paid to renew in 2013. They told me about the changes made to LogMeIn Central and how they have now split it into 3 different products - Basic, Pro, and Premium. There's one LMI client, and based on your version of Central, the client software features get unlocked automatically (no separate installer). They told me how they did away with the mix of LMI Pro and LMI Free clients and let Central dictate what features are unlocked for all clients. They put more development into the product for newer features, etc. They analyze your usage and try to help you make a decision on which version of Central to pick, which I found pretty helpful. They had me on the right tier for 101 - 250 computers and didn't really try to upsell me on going from Basic to Pro.
So here's the kicker...I was given a renewal price to stay with Basic or to go up to Pro, and honestly, both were pretty reasonable. The Basic renewal price I got over the phone was more than even my "discounted" renewal price online (so shocker there). I don't really think it is that expensive to renew based on our usage. But to be thorough, I asked the question, "what happens if at some point during the subscription year I exceed the 250 clients and need to move up to the next tier (which is 251 - 500 clients)?"
The person on the other end told me that whether I was on the Basic or on the Pro version of Central, moving up to the next tier requires me to pay FULL LIST PRICE for the next tier. Now, you do have to manually request to move to the next tier, which is good. But it does not matter if I decide to change to the next tier 1 month after my renewal, 7 months into it, or even 4 weeks before the next renewal. I get hit with the FULL LIST PRICE of the next tier. And then, they will credit back to me the portion of my former subscription (the one on the 101 - 250 computer tier) that I was unable to use because I had to change tiers. That does not renew you for another year once you hit the next tier. You just get hit with the full price of the next tier.
What I took from that is there is no incentive to upgrade past the tier where I am currently. I even asked if they prorated the next tier's list price if you change tiers in the middle of a subscription. They said no. That seems really backward to me. Basically, they will get your money one way or another, whether through price hikes on your current subscription (as people have seen) or by getting you when you have to go to a new tier. Has anyone else heard a similar story?
I'm not bitter toward LogMeIn or anything, but this makes no logical sense. I will likely renew with them this year and then look to move away in the coming subscription year if we get closer to our tier ceiling of computers.
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NTG has made the decision to move away from LMI and move to Screen Connect. The pricing for LMI and their general changes to things has made it not the best option for us.
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@Minion-Queen said:
NTG has made the decision to move away from LMI and move to Screen Connect. The pricing for LMI and their general changes to things has made it not the best option for us.
Do you feel like the feature set is pretty much the same?
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I've always liked LMI. The price for our renewal this year will be many, many times what we've been used to paying even with around a 30% discount, but I still feel it reasonable value for money considering how much I use the product. I will almost certainly stay.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I've always liked LMI. The price for our renewal this year will be many, many times what we've been used to paying even with around a 30% discount, but I still feel it reasonable value for money considering how much I use the product. I will almost certainly stay.
I agree with you about liking LMI. I think they have a great product that is very easy to use and manage. But the lack of incentive to grow in the product really has be frazzled.
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Screenconnect actually offers a couple more things than LMI did. https://www.screenconnect.com/Remote-Support-Features
We do have to host it ourselves. Which is a downside. But one time cost rather than ongoing makes me happy and the discounts for upgrades and for adding licenses.
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I use Hamachi for our VPN which is included in our subscription, so if I moved away from LMI I'd have to pay for a new VPN as well, which wouldn't be cheap. And Hamachi has been pretty solid.
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Wow...that's messed up...
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I've always liked LMI. The price for our renewal this year will be many, many times what we've been used to paying even with around a 30% discount, but I still feel it reasonable value for money considering how much I use the product. I will almost certainly stay.
We used to like it. But my team tells me that it isn't working anymore. They've had stability issues and can't use it. The inflated price wasn't an issue, although obviously it wasn't good, but we had to move away because people were no longer able to work via LMI.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I use Hamachi for our VPN which is included in our subscription, so if I moved away from LMI I'd have to pay for a new VPN as well, which wouldn't be cheap. And Hamachi has been pretty solid.
Pertino can handle the VPN portion. Tends to be a very transparent drop in for Hamachi.
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We were having horrible issues with it across a couple customers. So between that and the price we moved.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Pertino can handle the VPN portion. Tends to be a very transparent drop in for Hamachi.
Sure, if I was going to switch it would definitely be Pertino. But the price of Pertino alone is roughly what I'll pay to renew LMI and I get a lot more with LMI.
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From my perspective, we never had a paid solution for our remote access to client devices as it was never a large base at any one client
Then 4 years ago we acquired a new client with a lot of users scattered over multiple sites.
I had to look into solutions. I used Join.Me as a temporary measure while I was researching choices.
I settled on ScreenConnect a year ago because of the one time cost and simple upgrade discount process if you do want more after the first purchase.
If the features turned out to not be the greatest, I was only going to be out $600. Turns out I was not out a thing. The service has been great. The continual updates are adding good features as well as improving stability on various devices.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Sure, if I was going to switch it would definitely be Pertino. But the price of Pertino alone is roughly what I'll pay to renew LMI and I get a lot more with LMI.
Have you spoken to @josh about pricing?
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No..
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Might be worth seeing what they can do for you. Especially since they are active here in the community.
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We left LMI in 2013 or 2014 (can't remember) because we were in the same boat. They more than doubled the price, and said take or leave it. So we left for other options.
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@NetworkNerd I would encourage you to switch to ScreenConnect now. It's a great product!
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@Aaron-Studer said:
@NetworkNerd I would encourage you to switch to ScreenConnect now. It's a great product!
It looks pretty cool, but I'm afraid it was too close to our renewal date to make that kind of change this time. Next year we will know what to do, however. Thanks for the tip. ScreenConnect looks like a great product.
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@NetworkNerd said:
@Aaron-Studer said:
@NetworkNerd I would encourage you to switch to ScreenConnect now. It's a great product!
It looks pretty cool, but I'm afraid it was too close to our renewal date to make that kind of change this time. Next year we will know what to do, however. Thanks for the tip. ScreenConnect looks like a great product.
And there is already a Linux how to here in the community and lots of existing users to help you with anything on it.
