Capture One’s move away from perpetual software licenses marches on and it has replaced its Multi User license system with what it calls Capture One Studio for Teams. It has some improved features to be sure, but it also costs upwards of 344% more per year.
As reported by Capture Integration — one of Phase One’s largest dealers — Capture One Pro is no longer offered in a perpetual license to its biggest users: studios and e-commerce businesses. Any studio with more than one user now has to pay an annual subscription. The cost is obfuscated on Capture One’s website, but Capture Integration was able to see the numbers, and while a price increase isn’t wholly unexpected especially when it brings new features, the jump here is substantial.
“Last week Capture One multi-user customers could upgrade their perpetual license for $183 per seat. This option is now gone as perpetual multi-user licenses have been discontinued. As an alternative, last week, a multi-user could buy a subscription for $160 per seat. This is still possible, however, after today that price has increased to $550 per seat,” Dave Gallagher, founder of Capture Integration, writes.
Last week, a 10-seat Multi-User annual subscription cost $1,598. Today, that same subscription has a new name and costs $5,500 — that is a price increase of 344%.
According to Gallagher, Capture One rationalizes the price increase by pointing to three new features available with Capture One Studio for Teams: AI Crop, a faster AI, and what it calls “Tethering Boost.”
AI Crop automatically aligns a reference image to create consistent crops even while shooting to reduce manual effort and errors. The improved AI is accelerated to allow AI Masking to work four times faster when creating subject/background masks and 18 times faster for AI selection. Finally, Tethering Boost allows users to optimize workflows by routing file types to specific devices during tethering with file destination selection. The tethering experience has been boosted for Fujifilm and Sony cameras significantly as well.
Gallagher argues this isn’t enough and the price increase will squeeze Capture One’s biggest and most loyal customers, forcing them into uncomfortable budget discussions.
“This price increase is unprecedented and will cause some serious budget issues with the majority of our corporate customers. After speaking to a few today, they have expressed the desire to move to a competitive product themselves,” Gallagher says.
“We are hoping that the management of Capture One will look at this increase and see the error in this mistake. Or maybe with enough customer complaints, they will be forced to be more price competitive with their loyal and long-term customers.”
Gallagher says he has for years advocated for Capture One because it is the “gold standard” of workflow software and he resists using any digital camera that cannot be processed in Capture One Pro. That stance is becoming more difficult to continue to hold.
Given the amount of turnover at Capture One and the changes the company has made over the last year, it is easy to argue that the Capture One Gallagher has long advocated for no longer exists; the people who are working there are most certainly different. This new Capture One, wholly separate from Phase One (although both are majority owned by investment group Axcel), is most concerned about making money.
Capture One’s individual perpetual licenses remain $299, but that doesn’t come with future updates. It isn’t clear how long Capture One intends to offer this option either. Subscriptions start at $179 annually and can get as high as $549 annually for expanded features.
Image credits: Capture Integration