16 replies to this topic

[rudy]

It's been 30 long years but the Canadian dollar is finally worth as much as the US dollar (or very close to it, at least - time for a parity party!). The cost of consumer goods, however, still seems to reflect the mentality of an 80 or 85 cent dollar with the result that consumer goods in Canada cost 15% more than they do in the US.

What does this have to do with mapping? Well, we are considering purchasing ArcGIS in the very near future and have a quote in hand from our ESRI Canada contacts. I am wondering if anyone out there can provide me with a pricing for ArcGIS for US customers for me to compare to. I couldn't find one listed on their website (but then that's a pretty big place). With the US dollar dropping against all currencies I'm sure this would be of interest to more than just potential Canadian ESRI customers.

[david17tym]

hi rudy,

just be glad you're not in the uk, from arcview to itunes, we get fleeced every time....

dave

[GISRox]

I purchased my copy for a little under $1300 USD last year from a distributor.

[rudy]

Perhaps just to clarify things - I'm looking for US prices on

• ArcGIS Desktop
• full fledged ArcGIS
• Maplex extension

I'm looking for initial year's costs, annual maintenance costs and primary versus secondary seat licences costs.

TheGrinder - The $1300US - what kind of licence does that get you?

[travelbug]

Quick thinking Rudy
But unless you really need it now, you might want to hold off the purchase for a while, as most people expect another 50bp rate cut in 2008.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Do keep in mind that there may be restrictions. E.g. as a European, I can't buy in the US Adobe online store...

[rudy]

Do keep in mind that there may be restrictions. E.g. as a European, I can't buy in the US Adobe online store...

It's not that I'd buy from the US store - I can't do that. I need to deal directly with the Canadian reps. I just want to have some leverage when we are negotiating a price.

[Hans van der Maarel]

Do keep in mind that there may be restrictions. E.g. as a European, I can't buy in the US Adobe online store...

It's not that I'd buy from the US store - I can't do that. I need to deal directly with the Canadian reps. I just want to have some leverage when we are negotiating a price.

Well... it now also works against me... I got a request for a price quote on some software licences from a US organisation recently. Quoted them in Euro's as I don't want to get bitten by the freefalling $. So they get back to me and request a quote in $. Sure enough, it gets declined (even though it's still below the official US list price...).

Oh well... live and learn...

[merft]

ESRI software pricing is at http://store.esri.com/esri/

[rudy]

Thanks but . . . it doesn't list prices for ArcEditor or the full-fledged ArcGIS.

[merft]

Sorry, thought it did. I don't know the retail prices, but at my previous employer I think we were paying somewhere around $5400US for ArcEditor and $7800US for ArcInfo, but don't hold me to those numbers. I am pretty sure those were Business Partner prices. As I heard through the grapevine, our London and Australia offices were paying close to $20,000US for the same ArcInfo licenses (tariffs or something).

[GISRox]

I had ArcView on my mind.

Here is a pretty good deal. EDN + ArcGIS at $4000 USD

http://edn.esri.com/...fa=misc.program

[merft]

Rudy,

Other than Maplex, are there any specific functions you are looking for from the higher level versions of ArcGIS Suite? The reason I ask is because many of those analysis functions can be done by 3rd-party applications/extensions at a significantly lower cost. For the most part, since switching to ArcView 9.2 w/ ETGeoWizards and Global Mapper I haven't felt much of an impact. Though that might change here in the next month or two as I need to use ModelBuilder pretty heavily.

I know that the advanced cartographic functions and maplex that come with the higher versions of ArcGIS are nice, but until ESRI trashes the Windows GDI and replaces it with a functional print/export library, there is really no reason to be doing advanced cartographic in ArcGIS. Regardless, without the cartographic functions and maplex you can still create nice looking maps in ESRI. Just gotta figure out how to trick the application into doing what you want it to do, then cross your fingers and hope it exports/prints.

-Tom

[David T]

• ArcGIS Desktop
• full fledged ArcGIS
• Maplex extension

From reading your list, I think you may need to clarify exactly what you are looking for a little better. ArcGIS Desktop is the software package - it comes in three different levels - ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that when you say 'full fledged ArcGIS', you mean an ArcInfo license, while 'ArcGIS Desktop' is probably referring to an ArcView license.

At ArcGIS 9.1, the Maplex extension is included in the ArcInfo level of license (see here). I have no idea if it's available for purchase with an ArcView license (or whether it's more cost effective to purchase ArcInfo instead of the ArcView/Maplex combo).

I'm sorry I can't give any insight into pricing, though.

[rudy]

I know that the advanced cartographic functions and maplex that come with the higher versions of ArcGIS are nice, but until ESRI trashes the Windows GDI and replaces it with a functional print/export library, there is really no reason to be doing advanced cartographic in ArcGIS.

I'd be looking mostly for the cartographic functions and would include Maplex in my list of things I'd want to get. The other GIS functions would be nice but wouldn't be used all that much, except for the data creation stage. I'd like to know more about some of the issues you're having with printing / exporting. My ideal is to produce all of our maps for press within ArcGIS. I believe it can be done but I'd like to hear your opinion (and the opinions of others) on it.

From reading your list, I think you may need to clarify exactly what you are looking for a little better.

Sorry - I'm looking for ArcEditor and the Maplex extension or ArcInfo (which comes with the Maplex extension). Agreed that I probably can the some of the same functionality cheaper through 3rd party extensions. Again, much of this functionality would be used for data creation. My primary focus is cartographic output.