Massive price increase for Sage Customers nearly 90% Increase

[Chris Ashdown]

A massive amount of small to middle size companies use Sage 50 software for accounting , Sage probably has 80% plus of the market for small to middle size companies with software normally about £500 now increased to over £1000

Very small companies are lucky there are many Cloud accounts software available to them plus a few downloadable traditional packages

The trouble is there is no real competition for Sage used by thousands of companies who need total control of their accounts and often integrated with other software

Maybe the monopolies commission should look into this company

The only option to most is to continue to use years old software rather than buy the new gubbins every year or two

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Or move to Microsoft dynamics ?

It's not cheaper but blows sage out of the water.

 

[GraemeL]

Very small companies are lucky there are many Cloud accounts software available to them plus a few downloadable traditional packages
o

Hello Chris,

what makes you say 'very small'?

I dont have an axe to grind, but I thought that the Cloud systems could cover large businesses. Aquilla?

 

[Paul_Rosser]

The biggest issue with cloud is when you have internal systems linked to your accounts package.

Then if you move to the cloud you have to try and get the integration working via the Internet, which isn't always that easy as you don't have your own server, security can be an issue and as you are sharing the cloud with others a lot of providers don't allow such things.

 

[garyk]

Doesn't surprise me...scumbags.

Dynamics Paul is at completely different price point, agreed its better but it competes more with Sage 200. Reality is Sage are the incumbent, they gained market share in the 90s via accountants.

I worked at one of their competitors in the early 90s (Pegasus) and they were about level pegging, after that Sage exploded.

I've done work with alot of SaaS providers to help them port Sage data to their products (especially when Sage tried to get legal with me).

People need to vote with their feet!

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Last time I did a nav install about 3 years ago it was £1200 per licence and it's concurrent so you can have nav for 1200 quid.

Setting it up is what costs the money.

 

[Philip Hoyle]

It's literally years since I've had a client where Sage was the only viable option. We use a mix of desktop and cloud systems for our clients and I honestly can't remember the last time Sage came out as the best/viable option. It's just inertia that keeps them going - colleges teach book-keeping using it so book-keepers tend to use it as it's all they know. I know plenty of accountants that use and recommend other software, but virtually every book-keeper I've dealt with use Sage and it often means high book-keeping costs and high accountant costs to sort out the mess! It's often Sage that's on the shelf in computer retailers such as PC World. I think that people feel "safer" opting for what they perceive is the "market leader", rather than sticking their neck out and choosing something else.

 

[businessfunding]

Not my sphere at all, but does xero not do this?

 

[Bob]

I think that people feel "safer" opting for what they perceive is the "market leader", rather than sticking their neck out and choosing something else.

I'm sadly old enough to remember the days when no-one got the sack for choosing IBM. They didn't end up competing in the marketplace and where are they now?

 

[Talay]

A massive amount of small to middle size companies use Sage 50 software for accounting , Sage probably has 80% plus of the market for small to middle size companies with software normally about £500 now increased to over £1000

...

And £500 is what ? an hour's pay ? a day ? a week ?

If you need an accountancy package then surely you are making enough to afford one ?

Or if time is (relatively) free due to low income per hour, then use some of that time to source an alternative ?

As another poster commented, it is really inertia.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Sage is automatically interfaced to a number of software systems that makes great savings in time and convenience, our ecommerce is intergrated fully

There is other product but you have to find them and maybe more important find a local person to interface them
Hard wiring is the choice of many who do not want to use cloud. To date I have never seen any real advantage apart from backups to using a cloud based system to having the software on your own server or computer, others will obviously think different

But the real issue is the massive price rise of sage for no extra benifit, how many companies would dream of increasing their prises by 90 percent

 

[James.C]

With a bit of research you'll find there are plenty of viable options to Sage.

 

[johndon68]

Sage probably has 80% plus of the market for small to middle size companies

Much as they would have liked to they've never had that high a market penetration even before taking in to account all the newer competitors who have arrived over that last 5 years or so...

As far as I am aware, the large price increases relate to upgrades (and that is monstly due to their new subscription rather than outright purchase model) rather than new installs where, I believe, prices are rising around 5%.

John