Worth it for Silver Support when buying Perpetual License?

Hey everyone, I’m planning on purchasing a perpetual license for Harmony Essentials, and I have two questions:

Is it worth it to buy silver support (mostly for future updates)?

If I don’t buy silver support, is it possible to change my mind later and get it, or is it only at the checkout?

now would be about the very worst time to start silver support, if your primary purpose (like mine) is for updates, since h16 was just released. the main release updates are significantly irregular and are not real annual cycles, so you’d very likely have to buy/renew silver support AGAIN to obtain harmony 17 when it is released. i’d guess that would be next december at the very earliest (if not 2020), so likely 13+ months.

maybe toonboom could work something out with you if a release comes out right after your contract lapses, or give you a grace period renewal or something. i dunno. they are good folks.

i’ve never used silver support for actual support. nice that it’s there, but i’ve been renewing and upgrading harmony via this plan for years now. it kind of strongarms you into perpetual renewals, because the cost of upgrading w/o support is like buying the software outright, twice. even though i don’t use harmony nearly as much as i should, i still keep the renewals up.

hope this isn’t just spam and i’ve wasted my time responding. what’s with the crap urls at the end of your post?

https://forums.toonboom.com/harmony/support-and-troubleshooting/upgrade-path-perpetual-licenses

(Given the potential attempt to appear to be a legitimate post the OP could be SPAM but for sake of anyone truly interested in the topic…)

To add to what has already been said, unless Toon Boom has changed the rules since I acquired Silver Support you do not have to purchase a support option at the same time you purchase the perpetual license. But to emphasize a point, you must have the Silver or Gold support BEFORE AN UPDATE IS ANNOUNCED in order to be eligible for the update as part of your support package.

Again, do not invest in the optional Silver or Gold support until at least January 2019. You receive a basic (Kick Start) support service with the perpetual license. Try utilizing that during the first few months. You need to think farther ahead than 12 months as has been mentioned due to Toon Boom’s pattern of taking longer than a year and this delay growing longer year by year.

One other thing, you will be much better off passing over Harmony Essentials and getting at least Harmony Advanced.

Great answer o0Ampy0o!

I have removed the external link from the original post and I will keep the question since is a valid one!

Best Regards,

Edgar
Technical Support Specialist
Toon Boom Animation