Big changes to kick off 2015

Mark Hamstra | January 06, 2015

We've made a few big changes here at modmore to kick off 2015. With these changes, we're preparing modmore for the future by making payments easier, unlimited licenses more accessible and support more responsive for those who need it.

Improved Billing Engine

We have rebuilt the order process from scratch to be more flexible, interactive and intuitive. It is now possible to purchase multiple extras in a single transaction, there is a quick summary of your current order in the top right of any page on the website, and four new payment methods are now available:

  • Bancontact/Mister Cash (Belgium debit solution)
  • SOFORT Banking (available in 11 countries, popular in Germany)
  • SEPA Bank Transfer (for all EU countries, takes a few days to process)
  • Bitcoin!

Secondly, because of new EU VAT legislation we now charge consumers (or businesses without a VAT Identification Number) from within the EU their local VAT rate. Previously these clients were charged the Dutch rate of 21% VAT, but in the new situation this may vary from 15% to 27% depending on your country. To ensure compliance with these new rules, you may be asked to confirm your country again even if you purchased from modmore before. 

Finally, we have implemented Authorizations for PayPal and Credit Card. With Authorizations you enter your card or account details once, tick the box to remember the details, and take advantage of a simple one-click checkout in the future. This uses secure token billing, so we still don't have access to your credit card number. This feature is also used for our all-new Unlimited License Subscriptions. 

Unlimited License Subscriptions

Back in 2013, we first launched Unlimited Licenses. They have been a popular option, but because it's a single up-front payment covering a lot of licenses, there is also a significant barrier. Especially for freelancers and smaller agencies it can be a big investment. It also makes our monthly revenue near impossible to predict.

That's why we are launching Unlimited License Subscriptions. For the simple price of a single license each month, you will have access to an unlimited number of licenses for that extra. These subscriptions are charged automatically to either a Credit Card or PayPal account monthly, and there is no minimum commitment or lock-in - you can cancel at any time. Installed licenses will continue to work and updates will still be available. 

Already purchased an unlimited license before? No sweat. Nothing will change for you. We will also continue to offer both the subscription and regular unlimited license for now.

Premium Support Subscriptions coming soon

To make support more responsive for when you really need it, we will soon be introducing a new Premium Support Subscription. Premium Support guarantees you are first in line to getting help at a small monthly fee.

First of all, your tickets will receive top priority within our 24-hour email response time, backed by a service level agreement with compensation if we fail to meet the response time. You will also receive access to an invite-only chat channel. This chat channel provides real time access to (part of) the modmore team and fellow subscribers for questions, early previews of things to come and general banter. 

We've piloted Premium Support - and in particular the chat channel - for the past few months with a few of our favourite clients, and here's what they say:

Premium Support is awesome! I needed a very quick help on a project using ContentBlocks; I got the answer to my problem and even more tips in a very short time! modmore does not only provide some of the best MODX add-ons, they also guide you through any trouble you might encounter!
~ Julien Studer
Mark and his team provides very fast and accurate support, even if the question is not directly related to their products! Definitely a must-have :)
~ Patrick Kriechbaumer

The Premium Support Subscription is not yet available while we iron out the final details of the SLA and complete the integration with our help desk, but it will launch soon.

Putting Gitify to Work

If you attended the MODX Weekend, chances are you saw Mark's talk about Gitify and we're glad to say it's finally in use to manage the entire modmore.com website. Over the next weeks and months we will continue building out the workflow and automating and speeding up the progress as much as possible. We also look forward to sharing details about how we set up this workflow with modmore.com in the coming weeks and months. For starters, you can find our .gitify file in the Gitify wiki.

You can be a part of this, too. Gitify is open source and we would love to hear your ideas and feedback on the various open issues. 

With new features come new terms, so our Terms of Service have been updated to reflect this. There are no major changes in the existing terms, but mostly just new sections for Authorizations, Subscriptions, a bit of cleanup, and fixing typos. As we are legally required to keep more of your information on file for the EU VAT regulations, we have also updated the Privacy Policy to clarify what we store and collect.