CS-Cart Ultimate Edition: New Details
Today I would like to provide some additional information about CS-Cart Ultimate (formerly known as Multi-Store), the biggest and the most sophisticated edition we are going to release soon.
Its core features have already been described in the post called Multi-Store Hits Beta. So, I tend not to repeat myself, but instead tell you more about the practical side: licensing, support and upgrading.
Licensing
CS-Cart Ultimate provides an easy way to create and manage unlimited number of storefronts via a single back-end. That makes using of an ordinary CS-Cart license impossible. So we have made up a special flexible licensing system: there is a core license for an Ultimate installation itself and domain licenses for each store managed by it. A core license is just the right to have 1 software copy while its domain licenses specify the domain names (e.g. www.example.com) on which its storefronts are available. The number of domain licenses that can be attached to a core one is not limited.
The initial purchase of CS-Cart Ultimate includes a core license bundled with 2 domain licenses (a core license cannot be purchased without them). Additional domain licenses can be purchased anytime and in any number. Domain licenses cannot be rearranged between core licenses, so it will be required to select a core license for which a domain license is being purchased.
Support
Like all other commercial editions CS-Cart Ultimate comes with our in-house technical support service. Buying the first CS-Cart Ultimate license you have a choice of 30 support days or 80 support credits. An additional Ultimate core license (bundled with 2 domain licenses) will add 60 credits to your support account. Each additional domain license will give you 30 support credits. If you need more credits or would like to renew a support period, they can be purchased on our website.
Access to Upgrades
CS-Cart Ultimate comes with a year access to new versions and upgrades. Just to remind: a single Ultimate installation can handle unlimited number of storefronts, so an upgrade package will update them all. A storefront cannot be upgraded separately, because CS-Cart Ultimate source files (except templates) are common for all its storefronts.
After the first year the access to upgrades can be renewed (if required) for 1 year for a fee. An upgrade subscription plan is purchased only for a core license via our Customer Help Desk and its price depends on the number of associated domain licenses (no matter when they are bought). At this moment, it costs $39.50 per each domain license if the plan is purchased within a month upon termination. So, if you have a CS-Cart Ultimate installation with 3 storefronts, it will cost you $118.50 to renew a year upgrade subscription, which is 20% cheaper than the same subscription plan for 3 CS-Cart Professional installations.
Upgrade to Ultimate
Only CS-Cart Community and Professional installations can be upgraded (converted) to Ultimate Edition. There will be a special tool available for that some time after the CS-Cart Ultimate final release.
It will be possible to exchange a CS-Cart Professional licenses to Ultimate domain ones with no additional fee. If you have, say, 2 Professional licenses and bought CS-Cart Ultimate (with 2 domain licenses), you can convert the first ones and get a CS-Cart Ultimate with 4 storefronts. Of course, data from these 2 CS-Cart Professional installation can be imported as well.
The details on the possibility to exchange a Professional license to an Ultimate one will be announced later.
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