I just wanted to get some confirmation on licensing. I’ve purchased the 25 year license for the Endpoint Manager but, it says that maintenance has ended and that I’m unable to download a security patch. I don’t understand. When you pay for that 25 year license what are you paying for if not at least for security fixes? I understand about updating firmware versions or anything to do with updates to features but I would have expected to at least receive security patches for that time because a 25 year license just to have something show up in your list as licensed without any other benefit seems like kind of an unethical practice which was not apparent when I purchased it. Is that what’s happened here or am I mistaken? What is a purchaser paying for when they buy that 25 year license?
Thanks
Thanks for the question, it’s a good one. The 25 year license gives you the right to use EPM in perpetuity (25 years), but it doesn’t include ongoing support or updates. Those are limited to one year unless renewed.
Here’s the EULA - It covers the full details. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
Yes, I’m sure it’s been documented but it definitely wasn’t clear. In any event a module in a network connected device is useless without security updates. Anyone continuing to use it without the updates is not someone I’d call conscientious. I’m sure it doesn’t matter to you but what it does is throw in to question all your other commercial modules. What other easter eggs have been thrown in to the EULA so people will commit to a module or service to find out later it’s not an actual license for anything substantial it’s just like a freemium product but with the privilege of paying a fee and in most cases the freemium product still provides updates.
I guess the message I’m trying to get across is that this was a surprise to me and that’s not a good experience because it feels like I’ve been tricked. It just seems like Sangoma could still make money without having to make people feel like they’re getting something for that fee they’re paying that corresponds to the license. I actually really like FreePBX but I’m definitely souring on Sangoma.
My 2 cents.
Thanks for the feedback. The 25 year licenses were introduced long before my time here and long before Sangoma was the maintainer, and while I know it doesn’t ease the concern in any way, Sangoma has continued to honor them rather than remove access entirely.
To avoid confusion going forward (and since 2020), all new commercial modules are licensed only on annual or monthly terms- this makes it clear that they are licensed products, not perpetual purchases.
Thanks again, I appreciate you having raised this concern- community feedback like yours helps us to improve.
We completely agree.
Being required to pay an annual maintenance fee after purchasing a 25-year license is misleading at best. Software licensing is not new, and we’ve never encountered a model structured like this—certainly not one that was not clearly disclosed at the time of purchase.
To make matters worse, our organization uses only Sangoma phones, yet we were told we still have to pay the yearly maintenance fee, even though Endpoint Manager is advertised as being included at no cost when using Sangoma hardware.
This raises legitimate concerns about transparency in product marketing and licensing terms. For $36/year we did not make a major fuss about it. However, If more customers have experienced similar issues, this could warrant review by consumer protection or even SEC authorities.
I used to use non-Sangoma phones with Endpoint and I bought a 25 year licence that I had to pay for maintenance on. When we replaced out phones with Sangoma ones, I asked Sangoma Customer Support to remove the licence from my Deployment. They did that, no questions asked and I’ve been using the free version for several years now.
It looks like there might be a bit of confusion here, and I completely understand how this can seem unclear. The details around maintenance and licensing are outlined in the EULA, but I’ll try to simplify it.
The 25 year module licenses actually date back to long before Sangoma became the maintainer of FreePBX. We’ve continued to honor them over the years out of respect for the community and the legacy of how FreePBX commercial modules were originally structured.
Regarding your note about “only Sangoma phones”… If that’s truly all you’re using, you don’t need annual EPM renewal. If a commercial EPM license was previously activated on your system, I can remove it, this will revert your setup and you can update accordingly.
If that interests you LMK- We can handle it over DM, just send me your deployment ID.
This is simply untrue. You are not required to pay maintenance fees for the free version of EPM when it is only used with Sangoma Phones. If this is the case then you have the wrong EPM for your needs and should ask Customer Services to remove the commercial license. There is also no requirement to pay the annual maintenance on any 25 year licenses. Whether that’s sensible or not is up to the user, but no one is forcing them nor revoking the license after 12 months. Dependencies and security patches are another conversation entirely, but perhaps thought should be given when buying a 25 year license to save money with no intention of purchasing the ongoing maintenance. Bad advice and bad choices are not Sangoma’s fault. There has always been the option to buy the license for a year for those that need it simple, temporary, or don’t mind paying more long term.
Not experiencing a model structure like this doesn’t make it uncommon. Microsoft, Atlassian, VMWare, Red Hat and others all deploy a model like this. So you may want to cool the jets on the whole SEC talk. On top of that, this is in the EULA and well it’s your responsibility to read it since you agreed to it at purchase.
I spoke with Sangoma customer service on 9/3, and we truly only use Sangoma phones. The representative — ironically, we can pull the CDR from our FreePBX system to confirm the call — said that converting the existing EPM license would be “too much hassle” and could potentially require a reinstall.
Given that, we simply purchased a three-year renewal at $36/year. For $108 total, it wasn’t worth the operational risk or downtime.
We appreciate your offer to remove the existing license and issue a refund, and we’re open to that as long as it does not disrupt the production system. I’ll DM you the DID for reference.
For those jumping into this thread to speculate on legal matters — unless you’re actually licensed to practice law, it’s best to stay in your lane. Keep the discussion focused on facts, licensing terms, and customer impact, not conjecture.