We're moving to a new store and licence code provider - here's how the move affects our users.
eSellerate Checks Out; We Get on Board with Paddle
The end of this month will mark a somewhat sad farewell for us: the demise of eSellerate. eSellerate has provided our web store and licence number activation schemes since we first opened our virtual doors way back in January 2007; if you bought Scrivener or Scapple from our website, your licence was generated by eSellerate.
We’re sad to see eSellerate go for many reasons, not least the many features it provided us and how helpful its wonderful staff have been to us over the years. But as they say on Love Island (apparently), “It is what it is.” With the closure of eSellerate, we have to move to a new web store provider and serial number scheme: enter Paddle.
Paddle is a well-respected e-commerce platform used by many popular apps. Before the end of this month, our web store will be updated to use Paddle instead of eSellerate, and we will be releasing updates to all of our apps (on both platforms) which use the Paddle frameworks for activating serial numbers.
Here’s what this means for our users:
- Er, not much, really.
- Your licence will continue to work. All of the serial numbers generated by eSellerate for our current apps have been (or, for those bought in the past few days, will be) imported into, and thus recognised by, Paddle.
- Our updated apps will continue, for the time being, to incorporate the eSellerate frameworks so that any existing activations will continue without interruption. In other words, when you download the update, you won’t notice anything and won’t have to do anything.
- If you need to install Scrivener or Scapple on another computer, or to reinstall, your serial number will be recognised even though it will be activated using Paddle instead of eSellerate.
- Unfortunately we will no longer be able to offer offline activation. To register and activate Scrivener, you will need an internet connection.
Buying Our Products Using Paddle
Here's how the changes will affect new users or existing users buying another of our products:
- You will now be able to buy our software using an in-app checkout, as well as via our web store.
- Those wishing to upgrade from an older version will now do so in-app, rather than via our website.
- We can no longer offer cross-grade discounts - that is, if you own the Windows version and want to buy the macOS version (or vice versa), you will have to pay full price. Sorry.
- If you want to purchase both the macOS and Windows versions of Scrivener, you will be able to buy them as a discounted bundle as long as you buy them at the same time, just as you could before. (Right now the bundle option has been removed from our site in preparation for the upcoming changes, but it will be returning with the new store.)
Pricing
There’s one other change we’re making which impacts new users: we are raising our prices slightly. We will be increasing the regular price of Scrivener from $45 to $49, while that of Scapple will be increasing from $15 to $18. We haven’t changed our prices for many years, so we hope you understand the necessity for these modest price hikes - they will allow us to plan for more future improvements to our apps. These changes will come into effect on the day we transition to Paddle, so anyone wanting to buy at the current price can still get in if they’re quick enough.
On a more positive note, VAT and sales tax should be included in all prices you see in the store now, something that was never possible with eSellerate.
Scrivener 2.9 for macOS
Scrivener 2.9 for macOS is now free to use on macOS 10.11 and older. Previously we allowed Scrivener 3 licences to be used with Scrivener 2.9, so that those needing to run Scrivener on an older system could do so. As it’s not practical for us to port the Paddle code to the now hoary 2.9, we’re making it free on those older systems. (It won’t run on 10.12 or above unless you have an old eSellerate licence - on 10.12 and above, you should be using Scrivener 3.)
Down Time
Please note that on the day of transition, our web store and site will be down for a few hours while we make the switch, and import any remaining serial numbers into the Paddle systems. (We’re still moving a few final pieces into place, so we haven’t got an exact date at the moment other than in the next couple of weeks.)
I’ll close by saying a huge thank you to all of the people at eSellerate with whom we have worked over the years. And thank you too to the hardworking team at Paddle that has been helping us with the transition.