Why a subscription.

MaryJaneLK
MaryJaneLK Member
edited April 2022 in Before you Buy
If you buy a disk, you own the program don't you, so why are we being made to "subscribe" year after year. The financial people are the ones who download "my information". I just purchased another stand alone copy of quicken. I do not want "online access, I do not want online backup. I want to own my program, and be able to download from websites whenever I want - not just for a year.
[Removed-Disruptive]
MaryJane

Comments

  • Quicken Paloma
    Quicken Paloma Alumni ✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2022

    Thank you for reaching out to the Quicken Community. To clarify, a subscription allows the user(s) to download transactions into their Quicken (express/Quicken connect & Direct connect), obtain updates/latest releases, and use the mobile & web features. The "stand-alone" products needed to be purchased the following year (s) to obtain the latest release, but that is no longer needed with a subscription. 

    In addition, the Quicken cloud is not an online/cloud-based storage. We do not have access to your files or information since that is yours, as stated in our data-access guarantee. 

    For more information about the benefits of a Quicken subscription please refer to the link below. 

    https://www.quicken.com/why-quicken

    Hope this provides clarification. Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns. 

    -Quicken Paloma
  • splasher
    splasher SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    You can't afford to truly buy your own software.  If you owned the software, you would have the source code and could make changes to it.  It would also cost you millions of dollars for a a program like Quicken.
    It doesn't matter if you buy a download or a CD, you are purchasing a license to use the software under the conditions spelled out in the User Agreement (used to be End User License Agreement) and to use Quicken, you have to agree to the User Agreement, otherwise the software will not install.

    -splasher using Q continuously since 1996
    - Subscription Quicken - Win11 and QW2013 - Win11
    -Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list

  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    If you buy a disk, you own the program don't you
    As noted above, no you don't. When you buy software on a disc, you're only buying a license to use the software. That's noting new; it's been that way since the earliest days of personal computers.

    I just purchased another stand alone copy of quicken.
    There is no such thing. If you purchased something within the past 4+ years, you purchased a subscription to use Quicken software for a year.

    I do not want online access, I do not want online backup. I want to own my program, and be able to download from websites whenever I want - not just for a year.
    Your statement contradicts itself: "I do not want online access" followed by "I want to... be able to download from websites whenever I want". That's what online access is: the ability to download from financial institutions, either directly into Quicken, or to download a file to your computer and import it into Quicken.

    There is no online backup service. There once was, but not for many years. Users of Quicken software can backup to their local computer or to cloud backup services of their choosing. 

    As for wanting to use the software "whenever [you] want, not just for a year," Quicken gives you somewhat of a way to to this. If you are willing to enter your transactions manually, and if you can live with losing roughly a quarter of your Quicken screen to a permanent ad to subscribe, you can use the current Quicken software indefinitely for not cost after your subscription expires. But if you want the ability to download/import data into Quicken, then you have to pay for an annual subscription. The choice is yours.
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • Ps56k2
    Ps56k2 SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    If you buy a disk, you own the program don't you, so why are we being made to "subscribe" year after year.
    Simple - just like cable, cellphone, internet, magazine, Microsoft, Adobe, etc -
    You are paying for any ongoing "service" -
    and that service is the ongoing support for the company to financially exist ....
    For me, I am more than willing to support Quicken to help manage all my financial accounts at Chase, Schwab, Ally, PNC, Fidelity, Vanguard, and TRowe.  For some that only use it for banking accounts, its probably overkill, and other solutions might be better.  That is also why Quicken has - https://www.quicken.com/simplifi/ - as a simple web based solution.



    QWin - R54.16 - Win10

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    If you buy a disk, you own the program don't you,
    NO, you own the disk and the right to use the contents of the disk subject to the license agreement.
    AND, if you truly don't want to download (in spite of your contradictory earlier statement) you don't need to renew the subscription.  The program (except Starter) will go into 100% manual mode and about 1/4 of your Q screen will be taken over by a "nag message" to renew.  Starter will go into read-only mode.
    Your choice.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • cudell
    cudell Member ✭✭
    Why a subscription? Once Quicken split off from Intuit, they wanted to generate more money. With the old "model" you only were forced to upgrade when communications technology changed. With the subscription model they don't need to count on new customers (growth), now they just charge the old customers every year. They make more money, you pay more money. Once the customers start complaining loud enough, someone else will create a competitive product and many customers will switch. Then they will do the same thing. Wash, rinse, repeat...
  • BK
    BK Member ✭✭✭✭
    This is perhaps the most eloquent and effective response I have seen on this topic and deserves to be praised.  Thank you @jacobs .  I'd strive to communicate like you when I grow up!  Cheers.
    - QWin Deluxe user since 2010, US subscription on Win11
    - I don't use Cloud Sync, Mobile & Web, Bill Pay/Mgr

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
    cudell said:
    Once the customers start complaining loud enough, someone else will create a competitive product and many customers will switch.
    What naive statement.

    As if it is the "lack of complaints" that has kept competitors from trying to produce a product.
    Quicken users have always had a love/hate relationship with Quicken.  There has never been a lack of complaints, and certainly not for when the subscription was first started in 2018.

    There aren't comparable products because first off it is very hard to create one, Quicken Mac started from rewrite from scratch in 2006 and isn't "finished" yet.  The integration with trying to get transaction downloading is another big barrier.  And then on top of that is how to do this and make a profit large enough that a company will continue to do it, with more than a half a dozen employees.

    Microsoft got out of this business because of they didn't find it profitable.  Intuit sold off Quicken because it was a drop in the bucket of their revenue, and a BIG source of complaints.
    Signature:
    This is my website: http://www.quicknperlwiz.com/
  • Boatnmaniac
    Boatnmaniac SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2022
    The thing about wanting "the good old days" to return to when Quicken was part of Intuit and we needed to purchase a new stand alone program every 3 yrs instead of needing to renew a subscription every year is that it fails to recognize that Quicken was not profitable.  If a private equity company had not stepped in to purchase Quicken from Intuit and implemented the annual subscription model the odds are that Quicken would have been shut down and ceased to exist.  Intuit came to the same conclusion wrt Quicken that a few years earlier Microsoft had come to wrt MS Money...the business models weren't working and weren't profitable enough to justify maintaining them.   I for one am happy that someone thought Quicken was important enough to save, even if it does cost more than it used to.  There is not another competitive program available that has all the features and functionality that Quicken has at this low of a price point.

    (Quicken Classic Premier Subscription: R54.16 on Windows 11)

  • rbonin
    rbonin Member
    My wish is that there was a simpler version of Quicken that was a stand alone not requiring a subscription or much less expensive subscription version for simple offline check balancing and account reconciliation. I do not and have never used the online functionality. When in the past I had tried to, it really messed up my quicken check register For the amount of time I currently use Quicken, I cannot justify spending $60 per year just to balance my checkbook. I will likely try another less expensive software package to install on my new computer, which is sad as I have been a loyal Quicken user since 1996 and would have liked to continue to use the product on my new computer
  • Greg_the_Geek
    Greg_the_Geek SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Just find a copy of Quicken 2017 or 2016.
    Quicken Subscription HBRP - Windows 10
  • Ps56k2
    Ps56k2 SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    rbonin said: My wish is that there was a simpler version of Quicken
    There is a simple web based product from Quicken - https://www.quicken.com/simplifi/
    but even that has gone from $39 - to now $47


    QWin - R54.16 - Win10

  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    Ps56k2 said:
    rbonin said: My wish is that there was a simpler version of Quicken
    There is a simple web based product from Quicken - https://www.quicken.com/simplifi/
    but even that has gone from $39 - to now $47 
    But Simplify is entirely online. So perhaps not a suitable replacement for someone who doesn't want to do everything online. Since it's now close to the price of Quicken desktop, there's not much reason to switch from Quicken desktop to Quicken Simplify unless someone expressly wants (a) to be rid of desktop software (e.g. using a tablet or Chromebook) or (b) to be able to access all their data online from anywhere on any device. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
  • splasher
    splasher SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Back in 2012 & 2014, Quicken had an edition called Checkbook, they gave it away and people didn't go for it, they wanted more bells and whistles, it was never offered after that.

    -splasher using Q continuously since 1996
    - Subscription Quicken - Win11 and QW2013 - Win11
    -Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list

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