Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #16
    Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

    For anyone interested it would appear Alpha Five Version v11 is still available at the old prices, Depending on your needs it may do.
    I can remember when you would get a constant stream of discounted price offering Emails, certianly haven't seen any of them in a while.
    I suspect their low prices more than anything excluded them from the enterprise market, that shouldn't be a problem now.
    http://www.alphasoftware.com/shop/a-la-carte.asp

    Comment


      #17
      Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

      Originally posted by scrimej View Post
      I am new as of new today, so I am/will be using Alpha Anywhere V3. I just downloaded the product although I utilized the full 30 day trial.

      I got prices on other software that makes Alpha look like a steal. Anywhere from 10,000 per year, 12,000 per year, 35,000 per year, 50,000 per year all the way up to 200,000 per year.
      Wow ... really ?
      Care to PM me said softwares ?

      Comment


        #18
        Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

        I don't have Private Messaging options available to me through the forums. Do you know how I activate that functionality?

        Comment


          #19
          Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

          I have used since v8. My last update was V11, and I will not be upgrading again.
          I am an individual who uses it almost exclusively for building desktop apps for the clubs and societies that I am involved with. These jobs are almost without exception done at no charge, so I cannot justify the expense. This is the same reason that I am still using 'old' Adobe products, rather than the new monthly subscription ones.
          That is not to say that I feel Alpha Anywhere is overpriced - if anything, I consider it the best value relational database product available given what can be achieved with it.
          It would just be nice if Alpha could produced a cut-down product for their many small users who have supported them when they were also a small player compared to the likes of Filemaker and Access.
          If computers are so clever how come someone as dumb as me has to tell them what to do?

          Comment


            #20
            Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

            Like Paul, I stopped updating with V11 and will not be upgrading again. Mainly due to the subscription cost and the limitations of Alpha only being a Windows product.

            As a small developer I cannot justify the current cost structure of Alpha. I understand they are now going after Enterprise account level companies and more power to them but it does leave all of us small developers out in the cold.

            As a result I will be moving to Pcsoft later this year. The initial cost will be about what Alpha wants for a subscription but once on board with Pcsoft the upgrade cost for new versions is very reasonable. Plus I will not be locked into using a Windows server if I decide to develop web apps.

            Comment


              #21
              Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

              Originally posted by preston2 View Post
              Plus I will not be locked into using a Windows server if I decide to develop web apps.
              Hard to belive but that is what Microsoft also thinks nowadays.

              Comment


                #22
                Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                Originally posted by kkfin View Post
                Hard to belive but that is what Microsoft also thinks nowadays.
                why would you want to use SQL Server On Linux ?
                why not just use MYSQL + Linux, all at 0 dollars ?

                Comment


                  #23
                  Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                  Originally posted by subroto View Post
                  why would you want to use SQL Server On Linux ?
                  why not just use MYSQL + Linux, all at 0 dollars ?
                  When business needs more than single instance of server/database/region and they all need to work together then the license cost may be the smallest problem one have with databases.

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                    Personally, I think MS is way behind on this. Very few other sql products are out there that cannot sit on either Windows or Linux.
                    If ms wants a larger share of deployments, they need to do this and they need to do it the right way.

                    MsSql is not in my plans at all right now since 90% of my web work is done on Linux. I do not have the option for mssql, but I do have the MySQL and other options when I have to put a web app on windows server.

                    Future use of mssql would depend on speed, stability, usability and security with tests.
                    Dave Mason
                    [email protected]
                    Skype is dave.mason46

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                      I've been using Alpha since it came on 5" floppies (or was it only 1?), I don't think they had numbers back then.
                      I remember when upgrades were $79 - $99 and I thought that was fair.

                      I remember the steep learning curve when the gui came out, I was a dBase dot prompt programmer. Once I made the switch they came out with Xbasic, by then I was mouse oriented and haven't written 1 line of Xbasic code.

                      I only use A5 for internal stuff, workout log, frequency databases, invoicing, etc.
                      I hope to keep using ver 11 for years to come, I have not made the transition to grid components or web apps yet but hope to.
                      I hope they realize that there are many of us do not need all the power that Anywhere gives.

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                        I am in the same boat. I started with Alpha 4v6 years ago developing an application for my personal business. I have updated many times over the years and been a loyal customer. I am at the same pass now where I would like to update and keep up, but V12 is out of reach. It's all the original small users like myself that are hurt by this. I understand that Alpha has targeted a new audience, but there should be a way to maintain the many smaller users. Maybe offer a discounted version based on only allowing a smaller number of concurrent users?

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                          I have been with Alpha since 2008. Originally I had my own license; however due to Alpha's capabilities, my former employer purchased a subscription. I now find myself without a license. As the saying goes...."Use it or Lose it" is very true in programming. I believe there should be an affordable option for a developer license only for users like myself or beginners learning the software. A monthly subscription for a development license would be great as long as the person respects that the license is for personal use only. Alpha Software's pricing for business is certainly affordable and superior capabilities compared to other products on the market.

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                            Originally posted by spmat View Post
                            I have been with Alpha since 2008. Originally I had my own license; however due to Alpha's capabilities, my former employer purchased a subscription. I now find myself without a license. As the saying goes...."Use it or Lose it" is very true in programming. I believe there should be an affordable option for a developer license only for users like myself or beginners learning the software. A monthly subscription for a development license would be great as long as the person respects that the license is for personal use only. Alpha Software's pricing for business is certainly affordable and superior capabilities compared to other products on the market.
                            They used to offer monthly subscription...

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                              I see from the dates on these posts that no one has made a comment since April of this year. I am in the same boat as some of you here. I am a freelance developer and I needed a development environment to create desktop applications for customers. I choose Alpha5 V9. I wrote a few applications that my customers are still running today. I kept upgrading all the way to V12. But then I was paying $99 per month. And $1200 per year was a cost that was hard to justify and pass on the customers just because that was how it was now. So I stopped getting updates. My customers are still running the applications, and ask about upgrades and bug they find. But I really have no good answer. You can't buy upgrades any more, you have to spend $1500 per year for a "subscription". And I really can't pass that much on to my customers because they ask simple questions like, "Why should this cost to much for an upgrade?". "What new DESKTOP features am I going to get out of it?". And then there is the year after that and after that. The cost is not justifiable for a freelancer any more. I am thinking of going to another platform, and maybe getting my customers to approve of re-writting the application in the new platform. But, if any of you have any experience with customers, you know that is a hard sell. They ask logical questions like, "Why?". It is unfortunate to be in this situation. If anyone reads this, have you found another platform to convert the Alpha applications into? If so, would you mind revealing what you found. Thanks to all for some good years with Alpha5.

                              Comment


                                #30
                                Re: Has anyone else found it difficult to move up to Alpha Anywhere because of cost?

                                I advise my customers that the alpha server licenses pay for themselves many times over by making me more productive. I will produce more quickly and save them a lot of money in the long run. Customers will gladly pay if you are productive and deliver solid apps. Alpha makes me look better than I really am.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X