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Comparison of openness within various OT platforms
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The licensing for Beckhoff is transparent #6

Closed RalphKoettlitz closed 3 months ago

RalphKoettlitz commented 3 months ago

The licensing for Beckhoff is depending on HW and the used runtime features. The system is easy to understand and can be configured in the project. Even software developers can build their licenses based on the system Beckhoff has developed.

zantiu commented 3 months ago

Do you have an official link to the licensing?

shanereetz commented 3 months ago

Here are official, and non-official but useful docs on the licensing strategy. I am having trouble finding specific prices, other than forums and reddit posts.

General page on licensing https://www.beckhoff.com/en-us/products/automation/twincat/twincat-3-licensing/

As Ralph mentioned, HW can influence the runtime license price: The price of TwinCAT 3 runtime licenses depends on the performance of the control computer employed. The performance is subdivided into so-called platform levels.

More detailed answer about "platform level" implications Beckhoffs licensing model for TwinCAT and all the supplements is built on a model based on [platform levels](https://www.beckhoff.com/english.asp?twincat/twincat-3-platform-classification.htm). It starts on the platform level of 10 for basic single-core low-performance CPUs, all the way to platform level 94, for 64 core CPUs. The higher the platform level, the higher the cost of the license. The platform level 90 to 94 is for everything that is not Beckhoff hardware. The IP67 PC we found had the exact same CPU as a Beckhoff PLC with performance class 40, but because it was not a Beckhoff PLC, it was classed as performance class 90. If you are at level 90, licenses get really expensive considering we were using a low-power 2 core CPU. Because of the cost of all licenses, it was not possible to motivate us to run TwinCAT. https://alltwincat.com/2020/06/15/the-five-best-and-worst-things-with-twincat/

Various functions extending beyond pure PLC programming (TwinCAT 3 functions) and all TwinCAT 3 runtime licenses are chargeable, however. https://infosys.beckhoff.com/english.php?content=../content/1033/tc3_licensing/920379275.html&id=

TwinCAT itself is available for free via forever renewable 7-day trial licenses: The free TwinCAT 3 download enables a straightforward, unbureaucratic acquisition for education and training purposes. The TwinCAT 3 development environment can be installed on any number of development computers. The [7-day trial license](https://infosys.beckhoff.com/content/1033/tc3_licensing/921947147.html) for TwinCAT 3 products, which can be renewed over and over again, enables TwinCAT functionalities to be used in a straightforward and cost-effective manner in the lab.

zantiu commented 3 months ago

An example of transparent licensing: https://inductiveautomation.com/pricing/ignition

TheColonel2688 commented 3 months ago

Ummmm I see no prices anywhere on their website.... so "Transparent"??

"I don't think that word means what you think it means"

This is Open and Transparent https://us.store.codesys.com/howto_applicationbasedlicenses

zantiu commented 3 months ago

Transparency have have different interpretations, which is fine. The requirement here is to have at least the basic list prices available.

RalphKoettlitz commented 3 months ago

This is a very narrow definition and doesn't serve any purpose, since pricing is always dependent on contracts between supplier and a customer.

TheColonel2688 commented 3 months ago

Obviously it doesn't always, since that is not how other platforms work

zantiu commented 3 months ago

Price transparency strategy is actually a big topic, and an important thing to decide for the vendors. It creates a lot of friction in many situations if it's not in place. There's a reason why companies like Codesys and Ignition decide to do this. There's also a correlation between pricing transparency and innovation. Anyway good to have the column available for people who think it's important.