Which Beatle are you? Free, Permanent, Prime and Enterprise Explained.

"Bernard Mickey Wrangle had developed a psychological test of his own. It was short, simple, and infallible. To administer the test, merely ask the subject to name his or her favorite Beatle. If you are at all familiar with the distinct separate public images of the four Beatles, then you'll recognize that the one chosen reveals as much about the subject's personality as most of us will ever hope to know." (Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker)

Decisions, decisions…With Dolphin you have a range of options - Free license, Permanent license, Prime and Enterprise. Whichever you choose, you are going to get the same Dolphin installation on your server with exactly the same features, BUT, and boy is it a big fat BUT…

The choice that you make on the Start Now page will affect your entire community-building experience, and if you plan to spend a part of your life (even if only a small part) working on Dolphin-based sites, make sure to start with a package that fits your position, personality and plans.

Free License

Recommended for software assessment and testing, small hobby sites, personal sharing sites, small group blogs, etc.

With a Free license, you must display the BoonEx link on the footer of your site, on all pages. If you want to remove any clue that your site may be a cookie-cutter default installation of some freely-available script, consider a full License. The Free License is a way to internally test Dolphin or run a very small hobby site with a limited budget. Once communities get bigger and more popular, web-masters choose to buy a full license anyway. So, it's all about a little bit of forward thinking and an assessment of how committed you are to your new project. 

Perhaps the most important reason to consider the full (paid) license is your support of the further development of Dolphin. BoonEx is committed to community software only! We have focused on this for over 11 years, and every dollar spent on licenses is used to make Dolphin better and give it back to our clients. Think of it as of an investment into the R&D of the software that you use.

Permanent License 

Recommended for small niche community sites, and social sites operated by experienced web-masters, etc.

The Permanent License is permanent. That means that it doesn't expire. Even when new versions of Dolphin are released, it's still effective. Basically, it's a one-off fee that permits you to be independent and never worry about potential price changes that we may come up with in the future. Another comforting thought is that the Permanent License is now sold for the lowest price in its history - $99. It used to be $299 and even went up to 1K at some point. Think of it as buying gold bullion at a deep price drop. You can't go wrong.

The Permanent License best suits a Dolphin guru that doesn't need any help and isn't interested in sticking their own label onto our super-wicked iPhone and Android Apps. A little step up to Prime may work far better when you don't want to bother with installation and plan to penetrate the fast-growing mobile social networking space.

Prime

Recommended for 

- social networks of SMBs, companies, brands, artists, professionals, dedicated enthusiasts, clubs, events, etc. 

- startup community sites that require BoonEx assistance and exclusive updates.

- communities aspiring to offer a mobile experience. 

Prime is a package, a solution if you will. Prime includes one Permanent Dolphin License, one Mobile License (works for both iPhone and Android apps and any other mobile apps we may release in future), installation service and one year of Premium Membership here at BoonEx.com.

First, and foremost, Prime is one of only two ways (Enterprise being the other) to get a license to rebrand iPhone and Android Apps for your community. We do not sell Mobile Licenses separately. Any Dolphin site may use "oo" apps from BoonEx, but it would be BoonEx-branded. If you want your logo and company name to appear on your mobile apps, or if you want to modify them and submit them to iTunes yourself - you would have to go Prime.

Next, we'll take care of the proper installation of Dolphin on your server. Dolphin installation is not as simple and straightforward as it is with most simple PHP scripts - Dolphin comes with a video converter, media server and a bunch of modules that need to be properly configured, so it's a sophisticated CMS, which has to be installed professionally. 

Premium Membership is what keeps you ahead of the pack after installation.  Premium Members get exclusive access to the BoonEx Trac (for submitting bug reports and improvement suggestions) and "for Premium Only" notes. Early previews of upcoming new features and "Premium club" discussions give a unique perspective and strategic advantage in planning your social business move. Well, that and a 10% discount on everything at the BoonEx Market, of course - this alone may save you thousands, since BoonEx Dolphin is famous for hundreds of extensions available at the BoonEx Market. 

Prime used to be priced at $999, but is now reduced to a more digestible $499, which makes it a steal. As good as it sounds, it may get even better if you think about starting more than one community site – and that's when you need to look past Prime, to Enterprise.

Enterprise

Multi-site solution for full-time social entrepreneurs, service agencies, studios, multi-brand companies, club chains, idea-generators.

Not only this is the best, all-inclusive package BoonEx has to offer, but it is by far the best value-for-money deal we’ve ever had. In a nutshell, you get 3 full Prime Packages plus the Server Audit Service. Sounds like a bulk pricing offer, but it's not (okay, not only) that… 

The Enterprise license commands a different approach to community-building and online entrepreneurship altogether. When your ambition propels you beyond the single-site idea, and when you start spending a little more than after-work hours on your own NETWORK of sites - that's the point where Enterprise is essential. 

For example, you started with a basic fan site for a local rugby team. You feature events, members upload photos from the games, you found some advertisers and things seem to be going great. Eventually your dedication and organizational talent start to pay off, and you get enquiries from other clubs. Or you just think about launching a site for sharing yoga videos to extend your wife's little "hobby.” In fact, as soon as you become handy with this, you want to try out different ideas and you learn what works and what doesn't. Now, wouldn't it be cool to concentrate on ideas and let BoonEx take care of the effective server setup and installation of your sites? You bet! Save yourself time and money, and go for an Enterprise license! You'll be able to launch three sites (each with its own mobile apps), and we'll make sure they run as fast as Dolphin can.

Another example is a web-design or custom development company that needs to save on their license costs and still deliver an excellent product. Enterprise is effectively a way to get a massive 33% discount on Primes, not to mention the Server Audit.

Or, even if you're in charge of social marketing in a large company, think about what you could do if you launch a small community site devoted to every specific product that you market. Engaging users in discussions and social sharing may dramatically improve sales and communication with your customers. Any brand, any producers, retailer or promoter may benefit.

Choose wisely, act quickly.

As you may guess, it's cheaper to choose accurately from the beginning. There's no way to "upgrade" for the difference in price, so we recommend thoroughly assessing your needs in advance and choosing just once. As I noted before, current pricing is at a historically low level and we do change it sometimes. More importantly, you want to get to the creative stage of your new venture as soon as possible and not fiddle around with licenses and installations over and over again. 

BoonEx benefits somewhat from whatever choice you make. We balanced our packages to make sure there's no need to up-sell anything and we'll be happy to see you aboard either way.