Poll: Do you purchase or did you purchase maintenance with your CAT tool? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you purchase or did you purchase maintenance with your CAT tool?".
View the poll results »
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If I had one, I would have purchased maintenance with it very probably. Anyway, I continue to get all the work I need without using a CAT tool and I prefer helping my brain work well and improve my own memory than be confronted with text fragments...
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[Edited at 2022-03-26 18:46 GMT]
| | | | John Silva
Brazil
Local time: 03:49
English to Portuguese
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| I've never paid for using Cat tools.... | Mar 26, 2022 |
I use free CATtools such as Wordfast Anywhere or Smartcat. Most of my clients don't ask me to use the paid ones.
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:49
Member (2008)
Italian to English
ProZ.com Staff wrote: This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you purchase or did you purchase maintenance with your CAT tool?". View the poll results »
If you bought a CAT tool that needs maintenance, you bought the wrong CAT tool.
| | | | | if this is about an SMA... | Mar 26, 2022 |
Just FYI, if this is about an SMA, maintenance is not about fixing a "broken" tool, or a need for constant support, or anything of the sort. The maintenance fee provides you with constant updates and major version upgrades after the first year. And those upgrades generally cost you a license without an SMA -- which, in turn, costs only a fraction of a full license.
Anyone who buys each new major version -- after the first purchase -- at full price is usually paying twi... See more Just FYI, if this is about an SMA, maintenance is not about fixing a "broken" tool, or a need for constant support, or anything of the sort. The maintenance fee provides you with constant updates and major version upgrades after the first year. And those upgrades generally cost you a license without an SMA -- which, in turn, costs only a fraction of a full license.
Anyone who buys each new major version -- after the first purchase -- at full price is usually paying twice what they could if they had been paying for the SMA.
Also, web-based tools might seem like they don't need any of this, but that is because they can't afford to offer different versions for each user. They have to update for everyone. So they charge you for it using a subscription model. Which will often cost you a full new license every year. It can even cost you a full new MemoQ/Trados license every year depending on the tool.
So buy the SMA. It's cheaper in the long run. Edit: Unless you don't need any online functionalities or don't have to worry about version compatibility because you create and export your translation files yourself.
[Edited at 2022-03-26 18:01 GMT]
[Edited at 2022-03-26 18:02 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 08:49
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Trados support | Mar 27, 2022 |
María Luciana Rolón wrote:
Just FYI, if this is about an SMA, maintenance is not about fixing a "broken" tool, or a need for constant support, or anything of the sort. The maintenance fee provides you with constant updates and major version upgrades after the first year.
Different CAT tools do this differently, so I don't think we can apply one definition to all tools.
Trados' SMA costs 20% of the full fee per year (currently EUR 171), and includes free upgrade to the next version (if the next version is released in that year). The upgrade normally costs EUR 200, so it's actually cheaper to buy the SMA if you want to upgrade (provided that the upgrade happens in the same year).
https://www.trados.com/support/premium-support.html
You can also buy a 3-month support contract for EUR 50, which does not include a free upgrade:
https://www.trados.com/support/purchase-support-and-maintenance.html
I'm not sure what kind of support is available if you don't pay, but there is a "live chat" widget on the Trados website from where you can contact a support person, and my experience is that administrative requests are dealt with within the same day even without a paid support contract.
With Trados, an SMA is not required for getting updates to e.g. service pack releases of the same version.
So buy the SMA. It's cheaper in the long run.
Trados releases a new version typically once every two years. The current upgrade fee without an SMA is EUR 206. Two years' of SMA would currently cost EUR 342, so buying the SMA is 60% more expensive than not buying it.
Plus, you may not want to upgrade to the very next version. Upgrading from Trados Freelance Plus 2017 to 2021 costs only EUR 296, but the SMA for that period would have costed almost EUR 700.
The maintenance fee provides you with ... updates and version after the first year.
Trados does not offer support in the first year of your purchase, so saying "after the first year" isn't accurate. If you want maintenance and support (in addition to the usual free administrative support), you have to pay for it, even in the year of your purchase.
[Edited at 2022-03-27 09:21 GMT]
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 08:49
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| MemoQ support | Mar 27, 2022 |
MemoQ has a weird model whereby you can only upgrade if you have an SMA.
With MemoQ, the only time you can buy a single year's worth of SMA is in the second year of the license. In the third year of the license, it becomes impossible to buy a one-year SMA (even if you don't care about upgrading). You can only buy an SMA for this year if you bought either a license or an SMA in the previous year, or you have to pay double or triple or quadruple to "catch up" on SMA years.
... See more MemoQ has a weird model whereby you can only upgrade if you have an SMA.
With MemoQ, the only time you can buy a single year's worth of SMA is in the second year of the license. In the third year of the license, it becomes impossible to buy a one-year SMA (even if you don't care about upgrading). You can only buy an SMA for this year if you bought either a license or an SMA in the previous year, or you have to pay double or triple or quadruple to "catch up" on SMA years.
Essentially, with MemoQ, if you want to upgrade, you must buy an SMA equivalent to the number of years since you last bought MemoQ or an SMA (what's more, the SMA that you buy isn't valid for subsequent years). So, if you want to upgrade MemoQ after 4 years, you have to buy 3 years' worth of SMA, but you only get 1 year of SMA (plus you get the new version of MemoQ).
This means that there is no price difference between buying an annual SMA and upgrading to the next version of MemoQ (unless it's been 6+ years since you bought MemoQ last).
A MemoQ license does include 1 year's worth of SMA in the first year, so maybe that is where the comment about "after the first year" comes from.
You don't need an SMA to download/install updates within the same major version number (this is also true of Trados).
[Edited at 2022-03-27 09:57 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 08:49
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Wordfast support | Mar 27, 2022 |
Wordfast doesn't sell a separate SMA. A Wordfast license is valid for 3 years, and during those 3 years, you have access to facilities that would otherwise be included in an SMA (e.g. a hotline that responds quicker than the coldlines).
Wordfast phones home, so unless you apply some clever tricks, Wordfast will stop working after 3 years, unless you buy a subsequent 3-year license. (Subsequent licenses cost 50% of the full price.) During the 3 years of the license, you get all up... See more Wordfast doesn't sell a separate SMA. A Wordfast license is valid for 3 years, and during those 3 years, you have access to facilities that would otherwise be included in an SMA (e.g. a hotline that responds quicker than the coldlines).
Wordfast phones home, so unless you apply some clever tricks, Wordfast will stop working after 3 years, unless you buy a subsequent 3-year license. (Subsequent licenses cost 50% of the full price.) During the 3 years of the license, you get all updates and version upgrades that become available during those 3 years.
[Edited at 2022-03-27 09:57 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 08:49
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Cafetran support | Mar 27, 2022 |
Cafetran doesn't sell a separate SMA. Well... it does, and it doesn't.
Cafetran can be bought as a once-off purchase (EUR 200) or as an annual subscription (EUR 80). The once-off purchase is valid indefinitely, but it includes SMA-type of support and free updates/upgrades for 3 years. The annual subscription includes support and free updates/upgrades for that year.
So, if you want SMA-type of support after 3 years, you'd have to buy an annual subscription (and keep p... See more Cafetran doesn't sell a separate SMA. Well... it does, and it doesn't.
Cafetran can be bought as a once-off purchase (EUR 200) or as an annual subscription (EUR 80). The once-off purchase is valid indefinitely, but it includes SMA-type of support and free updates/upgrades for 3 years. The annual subscription includes support and free updates/upgrades for that year.
So, if you want SMA-type of support after 3 years, you'd have to buy an annual subscription (and keep paying for it in subsequent years) or you'd have to re-buy CafeTran for a second time.
[Edited at 2022-03-27 09:57 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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You are correct.
I did not mean to provide full explanation of how SMAs work. Honestly, anyone can just read their corresponding terms to better understand what they offer and how does that benefit them.
I did, however, completely ignore Trados there. Sorry. I don't touch it if I don't absolutely have to. It has cost me more money than it was ever worth. But YMMV there.
There are plenty of other online tools out there too. Some offer different prices based on diff... See more You are correct.
I did not mean to provide full explanation of how SMAs work. Honestly, anyone can just read their corresponding terms to better understand what they offer and how does that benefit them.
I did, however, completely ignore Trados there. Sorry. I don't touch it if I don't absolutely have to. It has cost me more money than it was ever worth. But YMMV there.
There are plenty of other online tools out there too. Some offer different prices based on different kinds of use, or word count, per year, etc.
Whatever you choose:
- web-based tools offer subscription models that pretty much include upgrades because they are web-based;
- other tools generally offer some kind of SMA with upgrades that generally cost about the same as paying for regular upgrades as they come out or less.
Other SMA models exist, some focused on support even. But the important thing here is that this is not because the tool needs constant "maintenance". ▲ Collapse
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