Understanding Acronis Licensing: Perpetual vs Advanced Subscription vs Premium Subscription

Jack, in essence there are really only 2 types of license for ATI.

A Perpetual license allows you to use ATI for as long as it will work, assuming that you meet the system requirements for the product.  So there are users who come to these forums who are still using ATI version 2009 through to the latest 2019 version. 

Support for a Perpetual licensed version is restricted to a period while the product is current, i.e. normally is the key product being advertised by Acronis, and will end around 30 days after the next new product is released.

All the features of the product will remain working regardless of the support status, so you can continue to make backups, do recoveries, clone drives etc.

The second license type is Subscription (which comes in 2 flavours, Advanced and Premium, each with different tiers of Cloud storage).

The key difference with a Subscription license is that it is for a defined time period of 1 or 2 years, after which time the product will stop working apart from being able to recovery an already existing backup.  Data stored in the Cloud will be deleted 30 days after the end of the subscription.

Subscription users do get free upgrades to new versions, and support from Acronis for the period of their subscription etc.

You can also only have 1 such incremental backup scheme per hard drive.

You cannot have a differential backup scheme to the cloud.

The first statement is not strictly true.  I currently have 2 identical Cloud backups from my laptop of the exact same source data but with different names.

The key difference between a Cloud backup and a local / network backup, is that the backup to the Cloud works differently to local / network backups.  An initial full backup image is required for all backup types, but for the Cloud, the backup then uses a delta comparison algorithm to determine exactly what has changed and upload only that.  This is akin to an incremental backup but not exactly the same, as Acronis uses a versioning scheme for the Cloud that allows them to remove the oldest versions without compromising the integrity of the whole backup data.

The second statement does not apply as stated above, Cloud backups are not either incremental or differential, but a hybrid of both using the delta comparison.

The final choice of what version and what license type you purchase for ATI is down to the individual.  For myself, I have been using ATI going back to version 9.0 and have had perpetual licenses for most versions since that time, up to ATI 2018 currently.  I have a Premium Subscription license for ATI 2019 by virtue of my being an Acronis MVP, and in order to allow testing of the product and support for users via these forums.

I doubt that I would choose to buy a subscription license in other circumstances as having a Cloud backup is only as good as your internet connection speeds.  I get 100MB download speed but only 5MB for upload, so backing up a whole disk drive to the Cloud can take several days!

Both ATI 2018 and 2019 bring Ransomware protection with the Acronis Active Protection feature which was one reason I upgraded from my earlier version for my 2018 perpetual licenses.  Beyond that, each new version brings support for newer hardware and devices, plus includes fixes for some issues that were simply too big to bring as an update to an earlier version of the product.

But if a new version comes out in 31 days time, then you will lose chat/email support for backups.

While chat and email support disappears, you still have access to the MVPs via this forum.  I have found that more valuable than the chat or email support (which I think I have used only once).

Jack, see also KB 61590: Acronis True Image 2019: Licensing and Upgrade FAQ - which should answer many of your questions with the official Acronis statements.

Patrick, thank you for your kind words about the MVP's - your own contributions are always of good value to all of us users here in the forums.

Steve Smith wrote:

Patrick, thank you for your kind words about the MVP's - your own contributions are always of good value to all of us users here in the forums.

Patrick, like Steve I appreciate your kind words and your own contribution to the Acronis Forum and beta testing.

Ian 

Thanks Steve for the very clear clarifications! Could you please help me with these questions?

If you have a Perpetual License and a new version of ATIH comes out, you will lose chat/email support, but will still have access to these forums.
But you can still get unlimited support for Activation problems or Recovery problems.
Is that right?

What happens if you have either an Advanced subscription license or a Premium subscription license and your subscription expires.
Can you still use the ATIH software at all?
Is there any support for recovery problems?

Thanks very much.

If you have a Perpetual License and a new version of ATIH comes out, you will lose chat/email support, but will still have access to these forums.
But you can still get unlimited support for Activation problems or Recovery problems.
Is that right?

Chat/Email support is only available for products still within their support lifecycle, as defined by Acronis.  See webpage:  Acronis Support Lifecycle Policy for Consumer Products - for specific information.

See also KB 25191: Acronis Customer Support Handbook

Acronis published a specific forum topic on Support back in 2013 which stated how support was to be delivered according to different scenarios, including activation & recovery issues. 
See topic: How to get Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information - this used to be quoted a lot in the forums.

See KB 6031: List of support options for Acronis products - which has the following initial statement that would cover activation issues:

Free support by e-mail and chat is available for Customer care issues (license/serial number, web navigation, download and presales questions).

What happens if you have either an Advanced subscription license or a Premium subscription license and your subscription expires.
Can you still use the ATIH software at all?
Is there any support for recovery problems?

See KB 61593: Acronis True Image 2019 licensing - which should answer your questions above - see in particular the paragraph copied below:

After your Acronis True Image subscription expires, all product functionality will be blocked until further subscription renewal, however, the backed up data is still accessible:

• For 5 days after subscription expires you can continue making backups to Acronis Cloud storage.
• During 30 days after subscription expires you can restore data from Cloud Storage. Thirty days after subscription expiration the data in Acronis Cloud storage is destroyed.
• Local backups remain available for restore.

Note: I cannot find any KB document that explicitly states that Acronis will provide unlimited support for Recovery issues.  The 2013 forum topic referenced above stated this, and if Acronis are still telling users that this is the case, then I would hope that this remains true.  In reality, most users will come to the Forums for help with recovery issues and we will try to help them as best we can.

Steve Smith wrote:

Note: I cannot find any KB document that explicitly states that Acronis will provide unlimited support for Recovery issues.  The 2013 forum topic referenced above stated this, and if Acronis are still telling users that this is the case, then I would hope that this remains true.  In reality, most users will come to the Forums for help with recovery issues and we will try to help them as best we can. 

I can confirm that support for recovery issues is provided for any product version of Acronis True Image (A solution or workaround will be provided. An upgrade is considered a valid solution if no other options are available https://www.acronis.com/en-eu/support/lifecycle/consumer.html)

Recovery Issue entitlement does not apply to:

• Corporate products
• Image Deployment;
• Cloning issues;
• Issues with disk management leading to unbootable system.

Assistance with all licensing and customer care related issues is also provided free of charge regardless the product version (via email and chat).  Assistance with activation issues is provided free of charge for all the product versions which are listed in the table "Support Lifecycle of Consumer Products" (currently, the oldest product version that we support for activation issues is Acronis True Image 2015). 

Thanks for confirming / clarifying Ekaterina.