Hello Greg,

Even though these services are restricted, everything in the software should operate as usual. We are not taking away any rights in using the software and neither are we restricting the use of the software. It is only showing the message because it wasn't able to obtain the latest version details.

By the way, not too sure where did you get the info about us not offering multi domain licenses but we do offer multi domain licenses as you can see from https://stackideas.com/easyblog/plans

As to why we have decided to implement this recently, it is simply because:

Extensive abuse of support
People have been writing to us to change their domains almost every month and they have been requesting support for their "multiple domains". We don't have the luxury in spending time doing profile checks on them to see if they are abusing our support.

In fact, some even have contacted us and told us that their customer ditched them and they need to change their domain but the product is still installed on the premise and support has already been provided for that domain. There is no way that we could reject this request can we? The only way is to restrict them from pinging our services.

Some of these requests were private while some are public on our forums. You could just look at the pre / post sales section.


Servers are costing a lot more than before
Our servers are being pinged at a continuous rate of 500 - 1000 requests every minute. This also includes people who downloaded our software from unauthorized sources. When I mean unauthorized sources, people who has a valid license and decided to redistribute our software.

Previously we do not block these requests and it's costing us a lot of money to maintain a larger server

Launcher installer requests uses up on average 15 - 20mb per download. We have a customer who only owns a Pro license but installs it on over 1000 domains. Can you imagine the amount of data being transmitted just by 1 license holder that barely only pays for $79 / year ?

Yes, you are definitely allowed to install on as many sites as you want as stated on all our plans but these are "additional" services which makes everyone's life easier.

For instance, if you cannot use the launcher to download, because your domain is not permitted to, you can download the full package and install it on your site.


We had to take necessary measures to ensure that we are protected and can continue to sustain. After all, what good is a product if it isn't being maintained and what more if we cannot continue to provide awesome support to you and your customers.

I hope this would clear any confusions that we may have caused and Thank you for understanding.

Sounds to me like you need a new hosting provider ! if your "pings" as you call them are costing you at 500-100 per minute you have the wrong provider. A ping should cost you nothing, most "good" providers provide unlimited traffic. if you need a list we can provide you many.

Long and short is a change in your software such as what you have done costs you a lot more time and money than what would cost you leaving it reporting true facts . That one client (with 1000 installs) redoing update several times a users eat that savings up and im sure they do try over and over. .
At $199 that "developer" plan is just ridiculously priced why not simply lock the software to one domain no change. in the many many years I have had 6 installs I have asked like 2 support question you penalizing all for a few.
I'm not sure how that saves any traffic on the server telling users to download the software again that just contradicts what you just said you did for savings.

What I mean was ping backs to our server to obtain the latest version details. We currently have 6 different servers running that provides different services to your installs and unfortunately they all cost money.

I am not sure why do you think paying $199 is ridiculously priced considering that if you have 5 different customers, it only costs you $40 per site for a year. I am pretty sure you charge way more than $40 on your customer's bill

Actually, if our client use, your software we get them a subscription we don't keep it in our name!.They pay you not us!

You should be paying us for selling your product in my mind you are wasting our time and our dollars with the block any indication of "OUR" installs are up to date. We know how to run the software we do our own support our clients call us not you.

so $199 is a ridiculous, price for support of 1 site. The indication of the software being update is a "standard" service across the industry whether service is paid or not. Sure charge them for support and a renewal if they need, but instead, you want me to waste your bandwidth downloading a new copy just because we don't know if its current. that's just a ridiculous way of looking at things.
What we may be doing is looking at how many clients are using your software. We currently have many many servers and thousands of clients and looking at alternatives to your now closed door approach to software support. Asking my client to make sure their subscriptions are up to date and paid for just to know the current version.

Actually, if our client use, your software we get them a subscription we don't keep it in our name!.They pay you not us!

I don't mean to be sounding rude but I think you are trying to take things way out of context and it's getting really frustrating and confusing, sorry.

1. If your clients are paying us for the subscriptions and not you, then I do not understand what problems do you have with this considering each your client only have 1 site.

2. Yes, we do pay you if you refer customers to us. If you have an affiliate account with us at https://stackideas.com/affiliates we do payout of up to 30% of each sales lead from you.

3. The developer edition ($199) grants them support and services for up to 5 domains. If they do not have more than 1 domain, I don't see a point of them getting the developer plan.

4. Your allegations to the claims of closed door software is incorrect. The source code is 100% open and we have closed nothing. You have the choice to do anything that you want with the software. We are not restricting your usage. We are only restricting services that we provide through our web services.

The developer plan seems like a great option if you plan on distributing the software to different clients or even for your own needs. I can see how it could be frustrating if you install the software on several domains without being able to receive support or even version checks but from a business point of view, the logic seems sound.

With the quality of the product and the customer service support, I've always felt like the pricing models are justified. I especially like the new plans and am looking forward to being able to benefit from the awesome new bundle prices.

Thanks for your input on this Fidel, appreciate this very much.