QuickBase Admin2: I am not sure if they are making it mandatory to switch (Amber may be able to answer that), but typically what they have been doing when it is time to renew they will tell you, to stay on the per user model you need to pay retail price. I am not sure the current price, but last time I checked a year or so ago it was $50/user/month. This increase usually encourages people to move to the read model.
Everyone gets put on the platform at a cheap rate so they can get you in, usually between $25-35/user/month, then as soon as you have to renew they tell you that you need to pay full price. It's a shock to your system because suddenly your price doubles or maybe even 10x. This can be crippling for small businesses, so it's an unfortunate (and in my opinion, borderline evil) business practice.
I think when people are on subscription services, they expect price increases to be a few percent, maybe even 10 percent max. QB does usually 200% to 1000% increases each renewal, so you should be ready for that. It's pretty awful, and I know I personally have stopped recommending QB to new businesses (and I really love QB, it pains me not to recommend it). They tried the increase for me, and the only reason I was able to get something reasonable is that we were at a point where our QB had grown so much, we already were looking for a bigger plan knowing we would double our price. Since we were volunteering to go to a much bigger plan, and because I was kicking and screaming, we were only slightly gouged (though, they quoted me one price, and we waited a few months to do it and the quote expired and the new quote was 25% more than the original.....I was furious).
Additionally, I know behind the scenes some developers are making ways to help people transfer out of Quickbase. I think that will actually become a business - the idea of how to get out of QB and to another platform, as I don't think that many businesses will be able to keep up with their enormous price raises.
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Mike Tamoush
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