Essentials Permanent License or Advance Annual License?

Gonna see about getting either Essentials permanent license or Advanced annual licensing. Which would be a wise choice? (Unless anyone has any better idea on what to do.)

Ok. Annual or Permanent License?

I would suggest Advanced since there are so much more features than essential.

I dont know the currents prices but I have a permanent license and pay a silver support every year so I get all the updates ( within version and upgrade ) so you have to count what gives you the best value. In the long run that I guess it’s cheaper than subscribtion since I use the software regulary.

Well as of now until August 31st, it’s three hundred and forty two dollars for an annual license. And for permanent license, it’s 975 dollars. I might just ask my family to help with saving up the money for it. (Me making 60% and my family pays 40%.)

Ok. So I permanent is about 3 years of annual subscribtion then.
I had this for a few years so I dont know which costs it is today.

Then its maybe better with an annual subscribtion and maybe later when you get paid work coming in going for a permanent.

Its hard to know which is best.

I often bought software/upgraded when I had projects paying for it.

Ok. I will just save up for a permanent license.

A used Andvanced until a 3 years back. Then I upgraded to a permanent Premium. Costed some money but I could do it because I had projects going on where I used ut.

Premium has a lot of features that Advanced dont have ( node view options) but you can still do a lot of things with Advanced.

And what about opentoonz ? Did you tried ? Not fit with your workflow ?

My goal is to just get either Essentials or Advanced. But I’m NEVER gonna save up for a permanent license of Premium. Just can’t afford wasting SO MUCH time just to get that. Even if it has tools that’ll help out.

See, what I want to do is mostly frame by frame animation. That is ALL I want to do. But I just don’t know whether I should go with getting a permanent license for Essential or save up for Advanced and be done with it. (I have a graphics tablet so I don’t have worry about saving up for one of those.)

Hello Austin,

Have you tried our free Harmony 17 trials of Essentials and Advanced? If not, that might be good place to start to get a feel for everything. You can try both at the same time, or one after the other without issue.

Since your focus is on frame-by-frame animation, I would encourage you compare both products on the following page: https://www.toonboom.com/products/harmony/pricing

Things like Bitmap drawing tools, Shift and Trace and Advanced Onion Skin may matter a lot to you, and those are not available in Essentials.

If you have done the free trials and still aren’t sure, just let me know and I can get someone from our office to reach out to you and help out!

Well I have tried them, all three of the versions to be precise. I’m just gonna go for Advanced but I want to make sure I play my cards correctly before I jump in head first.

I might just go and save up for a permanent license for Advanced. Maybe start off with an annual run. But I just need to consult it with the family. (Just to make sure I don’t end up wasting more money on this.)

What kind of features will I miss if I get Essentials?

What attracted you to Harmony in the first place? You can do frame by frame but all versions come with tools used for non-frame by frame style animation. So you will be investing money in features you don’t need and will not use. In your other thread you mentioned troubles with TV Paint. There is a steep learning curve with Harmony as well. These
‘Troubles” are mere challenges to be worked through. You will not get anywhere making them insurmountable walls.

It’s merely because the layout of the software was similar to Adobe Flash er I mean Animate CC. I have tried out some things with Toon Boom during my time with the trial versions of the software. So I have some knowledge of the thing. Also I do have videos saved on my flash drive so I’ll at least have something to help with those curves.

I just don’t know what would be the best way to buy the software that won’t end up biting me in the ass. All I got this far is either saving up for a permanent license for Advanced. (Which would mean I would wait a bit long as my family and I save up for it.) Get Essentials, which pretty much is the bare bones of Harmony. Or just get an annual licensing for Advanced. (Which means I’ll have to renew it once a year.)

At this stage of your life I believe you are better off with a subscription. Later when you are making more money or if you get a lump of cash awarded to you for some reason you can invest in a permanent license. As a plus with a subscription you have the Silver support plan and the software is always updated to the latest with the latest features.

A permanent license has to be upgraded at some point. You could skip some upgrades but to really get the best pricing you need to invest in the Silver support plan which includes an upgrade to the new version when it is released. And you need to keep your software current.

To reiterate, your software must be current for this to work out. The included upgrade that comes as part of the Silver support plan only applies if your version is the most recent. You would have to pay the money to bring it up to that state in order to take advantage of the Silver support automatic upgrade. It does not pay off skipping upgrades. The sweet deal is in keeping it current with a Silver support plan. So overall a permanent license is not a one time lump investment unless you plan to use that single version until it becomes obsolete and no longer runs on available hardware.

Imagine some desirable new feature introduced in a future upgrade. With a subscription you will have access to it. With a permanent license you will have to get in the Silver support plan game. (Not meant to be criticism …the Silver support plan/upgrade is a sweet deal).

Your earlier question has not been addressed (some relevant features Adv has over Ess):
Shift and Trace
Advanced Onion Skin
Variable width Pencil Lines
Textured Vector Brushes and Pencils
4 Art Layers