Hi friends....I picked up DO a little over 1 year ago.....just trying to understand the upgrade path. Is my only option to pay for the upgrade to 13? The cost seems to be what I paid for 12 back a year ago.
Sounds like you were looking at the price to buy a completely new licence. Upgrading your existing licence will cost less than that.
Enter your details into the upgrade form and it will tell you the price based on how long ago you bought 12:
It shows 50 AUD to upgrade which is what I paid for the initial program in November of 2022 (53.40AUD).
Presumably that was with a heavy discount, maybe during a black friday sale? The full version usually costs more than that.
Ya, I think it was.....kinda sucks to have to pay again so soon. This bidenonics is tearing me a new one so I might have to sit this one out 
I'm in a similar situation (purchased 12 Pro in November 2022) and I'm facing a bit of a sticker shock.
Are there any active coupons right now to bring the price down a tad, or do I have to wait until the next Black Friday sale?
You'll get a discount but not a completely free upgrade, since the purchase was well over a year ago.
I know. I'm being offered a $50 upgrade and a two-year update subscription for my 13-months-old Pro license.
As much as I like Directory Opus, I'm still coming to terms with the fact that it's effectively an annual subscription now. I fully understand why this is the healthier revenue model, but I really don't love this trend as a consumer.
I, sadly, haven't really followed development until the upgrade message popped up today:
Since when is the upgrade to Directory Opus 13 purchasable? Would I have been able to upgrade last November already, when my license was less than a year old, or when there was an active sale/discount code available?
Are there any additional, celebratory, coupons planned soon, or is waiting until next November the most frugal option here?
That's two years in the future if you upgrade to 13, and still completely optional. Doesn't really affect what's happening with the upgrade from Opus 12 to Opus 13, which is the last upgrade under the old model.
The new model should actually be better for people in a similar situation in the future, since they won't have to decide whether or not they want a huge update that costs more; they'll be considering a smaller update that costs less. There won't be any ups & downs to buying at different times in a long and unpredictable long release cycle, because everyone will get all the updates released for a year (or two) after their personal purchase date, and changes will go out as soon as they're written. When the updates run out, you'll have the option of paying a small amount to get updates for another year or pay nothing and continue using the version you already own.
The amount per year for updates, for people who want them, is going to be about 4-5 cents per day in US currency. And that is the total, not an increase. Updates under the old model weren't free (paying for the last update under the old model is exactly what we're talking about now), but putting an exact price on them per day/year was difficult due to how varied the old release cycle was, and it depending when people bought during that cycle.
About a week ago. People who bought Opus 12 close to the start of the Opus 13 public beta get a free upgrade, and people who don't qualify for that still get a larger discount if they only just missed the cut. But a full year isn't a near miss, sorry.
This shouldn't seem unusual. I can't think of many programs where you'd get a free upgrade to a huge new version over a year after purchasing, unless the company's business model has ulterior motives (like Windows updates being free now, but Windows itself existing only to trick people into using other Microsoft products and services these days).
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Curious....when did the Opus 13 public beta start?
That's two years in the future if you upgrade to 13, and still completely optional. Doesn't really affect what's happening with the upgrade from Opus 12 to Opus 13, which is the last upgrade under the old model.
I guess it depends on how one looks at the current upgrade pricing: It's either a $50 upgrade with two-year "free" subscription or a "free" upgrade with a mandatory two-year subscription at full price.
The amount per year for updates, for people who want them, is going to be about 4-5 cents per day in US currency.
I'm not from the US, please don't mistake me for the person who started this thread and had to squeeze dumb US politics into their reply.
But a lot of subscriptions are "only a few cents per day" and that's the problem: there's a lot of them, and their numbers just keep growing - this change certainly doesn't help the crushing weight of the global shift towards "everything is a service now" in almost every industry.
But I fully acknowledge that you do provide a service here, and this is far from an unfair model in this case - it still makes me uncomfortable and takes some adjustment. Hence, all my questions:
The new model
Do I understand correctly that "Directory Opus 13" is effectively the ultimate and final major version and there will be no more major, paid, upgrades?
What happens if I let the subscription lapse?
Can I just take a break from updates and pay the annual fee whenever something looks worth upgrading to?
How is a lapsed subscription handled from a software point of view?
Will I be warned before upgrading to a now unsupported version?
Will there be a huge archive of older builds, so people can re-download the final one they can upgrade to? It certainly feels a lot messier than the previous "pay-per-major-version" system.
Is there a loyalty bonus? A penalty for a non-continuous update subscription?
It's a joke Karen......
No, I asked the support what happens if you pause the maintenance subscription and the answer was:
If the subscription / maintenance expires after one or two years, depending on what you have purchased, then you can continue to use the program forever but you will not be entitled to any updates or free upgrades after your subscription expires. Within 6 months of expiry of the subscription, you will be able to re-subscribe to the maintenance model dated from the expiry date of your original subscription and continue to receive updates / upgrades. After that, you would have to buy a new licence to obtain new versions.
I'll be removing it today......for my use case I picked up DO after watching a youtuber review it and I decided it was cool and I don't mind supporting a small shareware type project. Picked it up for $35 USD so I was ok with that. Fast forward a little over a year later and I need to pay another $35 to stay current. This is simply a file manager for me....I don't use the advanced features. Good luck with your new business model.
You can simply continue to use Opus 12. The licence is still valid.
But I think Opus is not a small shareware project. 
October 2023: Announcing Directory Opus 13 - Public Beta now open!
People who bought Opus 12 a few weeks/months before that get a free upgrade, and people who bought a bit longer before that get a very discounted upgrade, scaling back to the normal upgrade discount as the time grows.
It's AUD $50 for the seven years of work and massive new features across the board in Opus 13.
We can't win here. We use one currency, someone complains. We use another, someone else complains. When we're talking about a tiny amount like 4 cents, it hardly matters which currency it is anyway.
You're talking as if upgrades were free in the past. Nothing has changed here other than a move from infrequent updates that cost more to frequent updates that cost a lot less. If people care enough to even talk about this at length here, I don't think it's a lot of money either way.
We'll probably bump the big number every year or so, as it's useful to do so, but it won't mean very much. Which updates people can install will be based on when they bought, not the version number.
There will still be big features added, they just won't be held back for years so we can release them together with other big features. They'll go out as soon as they're ready to use.
We're still working out the exact details of that, since it isn't going to happen for another year (new users) or two (people upgrading from 12). You'll be able to stop paying but if you want to get updates again you won't just be able to pay for another year from that point on and get all the time/work you didn't pay for for free. Current plan is as Mosed said, but may also be relaxed; we're still working that out, and trying to focus on the current release rather than what happens in a year.
The installer will warn you if you try to install a version that your licence doesn't cover.
Yes.
But also a lot better, because new features come out sooner, each update costs less and is less of a decision to make, with timing and pricing being entirely predictable, and there won't be future situations like someone buying Opus 12 six years after it came out and then being surprised that 13 is out a year later and costs more than they expected.
It's the old model that you're complaining about here. The upgrade from 12 to 13 is the old model. The new model starts after 13. Opus has never been a "pay once, get all future updates for free forever" deal.
No reason to uninstall 12 if you don't want 13, either. You've paid for 12 and can keep using it forever.
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This pricing structure is bogus and scammy. Charging your customers that supported development by purchasing the product initially is asinine. That earlier version we are being required to upgrade from, allowed you to develop DO 13. Period. And to take the stance that its a new product entirely is unfaithful. If it's truly a new product, change it's name. But this stance that 'it took a long time so we have to charge everyone for it' is a shallow view and ignores key themes for business <> customer relationships.
This is just silly that they've put your existing customers in this position. Of course you never said that their purchase wont cover any new updates...and why would there ever be a reason for customers to assume that?!
" It's the old model that you're complaining about here. The upgrade from 12 to 13 is the old model. The new model starts after 13. Opus has never been a "pay once, get all future updates for free forever" deal."
Spin it however you want to.......charging more for a version upgrade than I paid for the original version just a little over a year after I bought it is not right......
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If you're paying more for the upgrade than you paid originally, you got a huge discount on the original purchase.
And, again, it's the old model you're complaining about if you dislike the upgrade fee for Opus 13, which represents seven years of work and a huge upgrade over Opus 12.
Under the new model, it's going to be a much smaller fee to get new versions each year, instead of a large fee to get them much less often. Opus 13 is the last time you'll be asked to pay a large amount for an update, and if you object to that you should be in favour of the new model, not against it. Unless you're just against paying for our work in general.