First of all, every Dragonframe license is perpetual. You are always allowed to use the version of the software that you purchased.

• Dragonframe 3 licenses can always use any 3.x.x version of the software.
• Dragonframe 4 licenses can always use any 4.x.x version of the software.
• Dragonframe 5 licenses can always use any 5.x.x version of the software.

Starting in 2024, we changed the way we are versioning the software and issuing license keys (serial numbers).

Now, whenever you buy a license, you get three years of updates and support. This means that you will be allowed to install any of the updates we release within three years of your purchase. You are also entitled to software support during this time. This three year window of updates and support is the ‘maintenance period’.

When the maintenance period ends, you may continue to use any version of the software that was released before the maintenance period ended.

If you have a Dragonframe account, the license page will show you which version is the latest you can install.

What about people who recently purchased a Dragonframe 5 license?

If you own a Dragonframe 5 license, you will always be able to use any 5.x.x version of the software.

Additionally, all Dragonframe 5 license holders have a three year maintenance period, starting when they purchased the software.

So if you purchased the software on June 1, 2023 (as an example), your maintenance period will end on June 1, 2026. This means that you will be able to use Dragonframe 2024.01, for example.

You can see the maintenance period expiration date in your account’s License page, or through the Find Your License support email.

Why did we make this change?

Great question! We have a few reasons.

One reason is that we found ourselves holding back big features for a long time, in order to have something important for the next big release. For example, we had multi-camera support ready for a long time, but wanted it to be part of Dragonframe 5. The new version system gets rid of the pressure to make sure that each major version number has a certain amount of ‘big’ changes.

Another reason is support over the long haul. We are a small company. If we released a major version of the software every year, and had users on each version… that becomes a lot of versions that people expect support on, and patches. In the new model, we don’t really update old versions of the software, because everyone will have had three years of free updates.

Lastly, it’s actually more fair for customers. In the previous model, the amount of updates you received depended on when you bought the software. If you bought Dragonframe 4 on the day it came out, you would have received 4-5 years of free updates. If you bought it three years after it came out, you would have only received 1-2 years of updates. The new model gives everyone the same time-span for updates.