• Adobe After Effects

  Adobe Volume licensing Vs Boxed

  Posted by Graham Macfarlane on April 22, 2010 at 8:47 am

  I’m going freelance and I’m about to take the plunge and purchase a copy of CS4 Master collection from Adobe sales UK (via phone) as they promised a free CS5 upgrade If I order b4 end of April.
  My question is about Boxed Vs Volume license:

  It would appear that volume license is the obvious choice however something still puzzles me.
  I spoke to Adobe UK sales on the phone and they said the boxed product has an activation limit of 5 or 6 times. After which one needs to re-purchase the product, which seems completely mad! Especially to people like me, who use a Microsoft OS!!

  I was told by Adobe that the Volume license has many advantages over the box including the ability to re-install it as many times as you like!

  Seemed to good to be true since the costs were equivalent, so I did some digging:
  From the Adobe website it also explains that volume licensing has many advantages over boxed but I have yet to find the bit that says you can re-install unlimited times.
  It’s not as though I think Adobe are lying to me about this but it makes me wonder if they might be omitting to tell me something else.

  Can anyone tell me from a practical point of view if the volume license is the way to go or if there is any major disadvantage with it?

  Many thanks
  Graham

  Note: Question not strictly After Effects related I know, but I wasn’t sure where to post this.

  Graham Macfarlane replied 16 years ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Stuart Smith

  April 23, 2010 at 2:25 pm

  You’re freelance? how many systems do you have? just one? I’d go boxed. I’ve never trouble reinstalling a boxed license on a new system when one dies.

  We went volume license a couple of years ago because we have 17 systems, so it makes for much less of a headache keeping track of serial numbers. For one system I’d just buy the box
• 

  Graham Macfarlane

  April 24, 2010 at 8:40 am

  Thanks Stuart;
  I currently only have one machine but if all goes well that could certainly change to two or more within a year or so.

  Perhaps the way the boxed product activation works has changed since you stopped using it. If I recall correctly Adobe stated to me that I can install a boxed product twice without issues but after this would I need to contact them to unlock the product. They apparently will only unlock it a limited number of times at which point the software needs to be re-purchased.

  Perhaps this is a UK only thing??

  Perhaps the unlocking by Adobe is only Licence red tape and isn’t actually required to physically install a third time or more??

  Having said all that seeing as they are both the same cost (actually the volume license is going to be cheaper due to the free upgrade promotion) plus I don’t mind not getting a physical box of DVDs in the post (Volume license product is download only) I think my preference is still on the volume license.

  Stuart seeing as you have been using the volume license for a while now can I assume that there are no major disadvantages?

  Thanks for your advise
  Graham

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