WHMCS kills lifetime licenses (sort of)

InceptionHosting

It seems that WHMCS has made some changes to the lifetime licenses so this is part PSA and part FYI.

1. You can no longer transfer lifetimes, they are account locked now, they are intended for use by the current owner only.

This means any lifetime license sales are now not legitimate, WHMCS do not sell them any more and will no longer allow a transfer.

It is also possible that account takeovers if detected will result in termination of the license i.e. you take over the entire WHMCS account to gain access to the license.

Do not buy any lifetimes.

2. They no longer allow anyone with a lifetime license to subscribe to the support or updates 1-year renewals.

This effectively makes owning a lifetime license useless and version locked essentially forcing people onto the monthly subscription path to get support and updates.

tl;dr WHMCS lifetimes just died and are technically no longer lifetime licenses.

Xsltel

We (owned license holders) are still able to renew semi-annually. so its still semi-alive

Xenic

Oof that's not good, more money for them and more costs for the Hosting Providers.

InceptionHosting

@Xsltel said:
We (owned license holders) are still able to renew semi-annually. so its still semi-alive

I guess you can just buy the cheapest monthly license anyway for updates but they will never support your current install in an emergency. that is the risk of continuing with the lifetimes now.

Xsltel

@AnthonySmith said: I guess you can just buy the cheapest monthly license anyway for updates

Anyone tried this method. I thought updates are license key locked. I mean what the point of buying semi-annual Update/Support service when I can get same update files for 15.95$. lol

InceptionHosting

@Xsltel said:

@AnthonySmith said: I guess you can just buy the cheapest monthly license anyway for updates

Anyone tried this method. I thought updates are license key locked. I mean what the point of buying semi-annual Update/Support service when I can get same update files for 15.95$. lol

You misunderstand me.

I meant you can run a parallel install that does nothing, just so you can download the updates etc.

You can also then open support tickets about general things.

Xsltel

@AnthonySmith said: You can also then open support tickets about general things.

Ohh you meant other license to report bugs. sure I'm willing to do that

InceptionHosting

@Xsltel said:

@AnthonySmith said: You can also then open support tickets about general things.

Ohh you meant other license to report bugs. sure I'm willing to do that

yep

wdmg

It seems the WHMCS/cPanel/Plesk monopoly is just getting greedier by the second. It looks even more viable now for hosts to jump over to Blesta or Hostbill with these changes.

chocolateshirt

I am starting to use Blesta on BuyVM... Pretty good experience for newcomer like me..

SMARTHOST

May need to buy another hosting company that owns one if you need one that bad. ;-)
.

Ympker

@chocolateshirt said:
I am starting to use Blesta on BuyVM... Pretty good experience for newcomer like me..

Blesta has been good for me, too. Looking forward to its' future

InceptionHosting

@SMARTHOST said:
May need to buy another hosting company that owns one if you need one that bad. ;-)
.

Why would anyone want one at all now if you don’t get updates or support any more?

Radi

@Xsltel said:

@AnthonySmith said: You can also then open support tickets about general things.

Ohh you meant other license to report bugs. sure I'm willing to do that

Doubt that will work. In newer versions, there is mechanism to check if you have updated your WHMCS without access to support and updates. If it finds out that this is the case, it just locks you out. I have a friend who tried to do almost same thing, he was forced to buy support and updates addon to access his WHMCS.

vpsgeek3333

@Francisco was the first one to predict it https://talk.lowendspirit.com/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/33208/#Comment_33208

vpsgeek3333

With this dick of a move what they have said indirectly is "Thanks for supporting the development of WHMCS in the past by buying owned licenses but now just fuck off"

After what they have done I think those with owned licenses should not trust them anymore & start looking for alternatives

Expect a big price hike soon as well. It will be 5 years in 2021 since the last WHMCS price increase so be prepared for that as well

Ympker

@AnthonySmith said:

@SMARTHOST said:
May need to buy another hosting company that owns one if you need one that bad. ;-)
.

Why would anyone want one at all now if you don’t get updates or support any more?

How can they, legally, do that anyway? Saying "okay, updates&support can no longer be included in lifetime licenses due to too high expenses/extra hours which is why we will charge LTD holders now x€/year for updates&support" is kne thing. Cutting any option (even paid ones) to get support&updates is highly questionable imho. Then again, there's a reason why these companies don't reside in Germany, I assume.

hostEONS

they have just made it expensive, I just renewed for 1 year (renewed 2 x 6 months) to get updates for additional 1 year, cannot get discounted annual price for updates ... I doubt if they will completely stop updates for lifetime license, but they just might keep making it expensive

Already invested in Blesta owned license as well as partner program, will switch to it once it gets some more features

qps

It's hard to believe that they let the owned licenses transfer for this long. I'm sure there was a fair amount of staffing required to manage that process.

As for shortening the max renewal from 1 year to 6 months, I'm not sure it really matters at this point. It indicates that the owned licenses are on their radar as a potential way to put the screws to long-time loyal customers, but that's nothing new with the "banker web bros pros"...

Francisco

@qps said: It's hard to believe that they let the owned licenses transfer for this long. I'm sure there was a fair amount of staffing required to manage that process.

It used to be limited to a single transfer.

So if you own it and transfer it to Bob, Bob can't then transfer it in the future.

Bob can give up his account to get around this, but if he has multiple licenses in there he's screwed.

Francisco

Mich79

Sorry for bumping an old thread. But is it possible to transfer WHMCS lifetime licenses?
I am looking for one and I do not care about updates.

qps

@Mich79 said: Sorry for bumping an old thread. But is it possible to transfer WHMCS lifetime licenses?
I am looking for one and I do not care about updates.

No

BlaZe

@Mich79 said:
Sorry for bumping an old thread. But is it possible to transfer WHMCS lifetime licenses?
I am looking for one and I do not care about updates.

I have about 6-7 lifetime licenses in my account (gotta re-check how many they are)

All are transferred ones so you cannot transfer it to out. Willing to sell the whole account if that's allowed (idk really)
Oh and updates are expired I think.

Can show you the licenses via Teamviewer/Anydesk.

JeDaYoshi

@BlaZe said:
All are transferred ones so you cannot transfer it to out. Willing to sell the whole account if that's allowed (idk really)

The thread itself mentions it:

It is also possible that account takeovers if detected will result in termination of the license i.e. you take over the entire WHMCS account to gain access to the license.

Mich79

Ah okay. That sucks. Thanks nevertheless.