UPDATE
We have now successfully completed the transition to Paddle.com. The price of the JCE Pro Subscription is now set at €29.00 with the renewal at €23.00
TL;DR: From the 31st March 2018, JCE Pro Subscriptions will be sold from this site via Paddle.com. The price of a new subscription will increase to €27.00 and a renewal to €23.00
A little history
We started selling subscriptions for JCE 12 years ago, and at the time there were very few options for doing this in the Joomla ecosystem, so we decided to create our own system, using 2Checkout.com for payment processing.
This system was upgraded over time, improving stability, adding PDF invoices, and new payment methods with Stripe and Paypal.
In 2015, the European Union changed its VAT rules. This was an attempt to crack down on tax evasion by large multi-national companies who could base their European operations in countries with low tax rates. The new rules changed the "place of supply" for digital services so that VAT would be charged according to the rates and rules of the customer's country, not the seller's. Unfortunately this was not tempered with a turnover threshold, meaning that even the smallest businesses were required to comply.
We quickly updated our subscriptions system to deal with this, adding location and VAT number validation, and generating invoices that met with legal requirements. This has worked well for a number of years, and we have slowly improved the system over time.
Recently the situation has become even more complex, with a number of other countries around the world also changing their "place of supply" rules.
A new solution
Complying with the tax rules of more than 40 countries is obviously not possible for us, and with the catastrophe of Brexit set to possibly complicate the matter even further, we decided to move our sales operations to Paddle - an online merchant that will sell JCE Pro on our behalf, while handling all the related tax issues. This will reduce our existing administrative burden, and take care of any future compliance issues we would have had to deal with otherwise.
So, from the 31st March 2018, JCE Pro Subscriptions will be sold from this site, via Paddle.
Paddle's excellent API has allowed us to integrate their process into our existing system, so from the customer point of view there should be very little difference when buying or renewing a JCE Pro Subscription, except for
- We need less information from you.
We don't need your billing address anymore, as we don't generate invoices for the purchase. This is handled by Paddle. You only need to provide a username, email address and password. - Receipts, invoices and Subscription information are sent to you by Paddle.
When you complete the purchase, your subscription is activated instantly, and you can access you downloads and subscription key from Your Account, as before.
Paddle will email you a receipt and information about your order, which will include a download link, and your subscription key.
We will still handle all product support, and queries relating to your subscription. Billing queries, ie: stuff to do with the payment you made, will be directed to Paddle.
A small change
In December 2016 we released JCE Pro 2.6.0, which integrated the JCE extension with all the common plugins available with a JCE Subscription. At the same time, as a promotional offer, we dropped the price of a new JCE Pro Subscription from €29.00 to €25.00, and a renewal from €25.00 to €20.00. We intended to revert this change after a few months, but so far it has stayed at this level for more than a year!
With this in mind, we have decided to increase the price slightly, to €27.00 for a new JCE Pro Subscription, and €23.00 for a renewal. This change will take effect on 31 March 2018, when we switch over to Paddle. Existing subscribers eligible for a renewal at the previous price, can use the coupon JCE-PADDLE-2018 to get a €3.00 discount until 01 May 2018.