

Big Data App Deployment Demo - sgh_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O3Z2R8Xvixo

======
dkersten
So I went to the Appcara website to have a look at the product, especially
pricing information, and I couldn't find anything. My best guess is that if I
download the trial (after filling in the lengthy form), a sales rep will call
me. No thanks, tab closed.

Ok, so yes, I'm one of the people who hate talking to sales reps - just show
me the price I'm going to pay and I'll make a decision. If I have to talk to a
sales rep, I feel I'm being cheated because I don't know what discounts other
people got and I feel like the rep is only trying to get the most they can out
of me. The thing is, though, that these things are usually complex software
solutions and I'll need to trial them to determine if they will even work for
me and the trial itself will take a significant time investment. If I don't
know the price up front, how do I know that I even have the budget for this?
If I trial before I know the price, then there's a chance that my time is
wasted, regardless of the outcome of the trial. So I avoid such companies like
the plague.

While this is the case here, that isn't the reason I closed the tab though.
The reason I closed the tab is that nowhere did it tell me this. I didn't see
a pricing page that tells me to contact sales, or a _buy now_ button that
tells me to contact sales, or an _Are you interested? Contact sales!_ notice.
Nothing. I am left guessing and I suppose that if I download the trial I'll
get a sales call.

I understand that they are trying to filter the hot leads out (if I download
the trial and filled out the lengthy form, surely I'm a pretty hot lead), but
this is getting ridiculous. There are a few products like this one that I've
come across recently where I would happily pay tens of thousands a year, but
don't want to jump through these hoops. So they lose out and companies with
more transparent pricing get my business.

\---

As an aside, while I'm not yet convinced about Datomic (I've had no need for
it) and therefore the price seems a little high (I expect I'd quickly change
my mind if I did have a need for it), I love their attitude to pricing:
[http://www.datomic.com/pricing.html](http://www.datomic.com/pricing.html) and
[http://www.datomic.com/faq.html#pricing](http://www.datomic.com/faq.html#pricing)
I love how transparent and to the point they are and I love how everybody gets
the same price for the same thing. I wish more enterprise software were like
this.

