back to article LogMeIn: We're stopping our free offering from now

Angry users of the free version of LogMeIn have reacted furiously to plans to turn the remote desktop access service into a paid subscription product. After 10 years of providing a free service, LogMeIn today announced that it would start charging people to use a new beefed-up version of its software. Starting from today, …

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  1. weevil

    I use TeamViewer, I have no rage.

    1. Jim Willsher

      Yep, teamviewer. Free for personal use, installation with fixed ID numbers and passwords for unattended access, facility to reboot remote computer in Safe Mode. And it's free.

      What's not to like?

      LogMeIn can LogMeOut as far as I'm concerned.

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Gotta join the "happy Teamviewer customer" crowd on this one. Couldn't live without it.

    2. Mark Wilson

      Like the look of TeamViewer.

      1. weevil

        Teamviewer is a fantastic product, I use it all the time. Accessing my home PC from work, and my work PC from home.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Like all good tech businesses, they will reel you in on the end of a line, play you and then f@ck you good style. They obviously need the cash and need it fast.

      Expect them to be bought out by one of the major players in a few month time, subscribers will be caught between a rock and a hard place again.

      If you are sensible look elsewhere.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        I used LogMeIn in the past - I thought it sucked, even when I paid for premium service. Terribly slow, and tons of interruptions. TeamViewer looks alright, but all these things are just gigantic security holes.

        Now that external drives are about $50 for 1TB or more, can't see why anyone bothers much with these things. Learn to make a proper VPN connection, and learn how to use SSH and SFTP and do your work in the command line - much safer.

        1. asdf

          Google with more trojan horse goodies

          Just came across Google Remote Desktop Beta which is Google's free lightweight solution. Looks ok for a simple two computer remote solution.

        2. asdf

          >and learn how to use SSH and SFTP and do your work in the command line

          Yeah its just too bad many employers pay employees to use Visual Studio (only way I use it) and provide shitty or non existent remote solutions. Technically you might be able to do this from the command line (text edit cpp and h(pp) files and compile using command line) but it would be very painful.

  2. AndrueC Silver badge
    Meh

    Meh. I stopped using it after I tried the Windows 'Remote Assistance' feature. That suffices for providing tech. support to friends and family and there are other solutions if you want remote control of, say, a server. I just use out-of-the-box RDC for my server.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Windows 'Remote Assistance'

      Personally, given the limitations and caveats that MS place on this product, I wouldn't (and haven't) use it for general remote access to systems residing in environments that I have little control over. Plus it prefers the remote system to initiate the session via Windows Messenger...

  3. Ellis Birt 1

    Uninstall started

    It's as easy as that. There are other, better, premium services out there.

  4. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Oh god

    That means we have to prepare for some other offering outside people always try to use to conduct meeting with staff in the company I work in.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmm

    Will there be a knock-on effect to the "Hello, Sir. I am calling you from Microsoft. Your computer is showing me that it has a virus." callers?

    1. MonkeyCee

      Re: Hmmm

      They'll be using Teamviewer? Or Remote Desktop?

  6. TRT Silver badge

    It was nice while it lasted...

    Worth every penny, in fact. But as a paid for service... there's better.

  7. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    Shock, horror

    After years of using a free service, users are outraged at actually having to pay cold hard cash for it.

    </sarcasm>

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Shock, horror

      ..but life goes on.

    2. bigcat

      Re: Shock, horror

      No, users are rightfully enraged at being given zero notice to get their houses in order. Would you trust a company that puts a gun to your head and says "pay up or sod off" ? . en mistrustful no shut.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Shock, horror

        If you think they are putting a gun to your head then it's probable that you are using logmein in a professional environment for free when you should be paying otherwise you wouldn't consider it to be so critical. I would guess that the majority of free users fall into the should be paying category so on the whole I'm with the OP. What this will do is get those who have been using the free version for their work to stump up or leave, either way logmein win.

        I use it for work to connect to one PC as it's easier than the official method and I've alway had teamviewer as backup. I feel sorry the free version is going but I'm not going to get outraged by it. You should have known there was always that possibility and have been prepared whether you get one days notice or one month.

        Quite frankly if you have a real need to use the service you should be paying.

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Shock, horror

          No, it's a pain in the arse having spent hours on the phone trying to guide my 65 year old mother through configuring speech recognition software on her laptop so she can write her memoirs. So when I visited her at Christmas... "here you go, mum. Seeing as I only get to do the 500 mile drive to see you once or twice a year... LogMeIn! So I can fix a few problems quickly and easily."

          Then before one has the chance to put an alternative remote client on the machine using LogMeIn, they go and may it pay only.

          THAT'S the kind of sh** that;s annoying. I now HAVE to go and visit my mother.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Shock, horror

            Seems to me you've got seven days to use LogMeIn to connect remotely and install something else.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Shock, horror

            I was going to make a reference to the poor old granny or oap parent that needs help but it's such a tiresome excuse, I never knew there were so many of them. I'm about 2000Km from my father on a different land mass yet still manage to help him through skype. There's always the windows remote access thingy, unless you've left you helpless 65 year old mother with linux. And as has been said you've got seven days to install something else remotely. So stop whinging and get on with helping your mother.

            1. Jonathan Richards 1
              Stop

              Ageism!

              Oi!

              unless you've left you[r] helpless 65 year old mother with linux

              Some of us are coming close to 65, sunbeam, and we're not all helpless. And my 85 year old mother is using Linux on a laptop quite happily, thanks, though I'll grant that she doesn't do very much compiling from source. And of course there is TeamViewer for Linux when I need it.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Shock, horror

          @Chris W

          While you're preaching, do share with us your "humble" opinion on how much people "should" pay to use Linux.

        3. Alan Edwards

          Re: Shock, horror

          > I would guess that the majority of free users fall into the should be paying category

          Going by the comments on the LogMeIn forum (which I've lost the link to now) a lot of free users only want the remote access, they don't use all the extras like file transfer. I'm one of them.

          I did look at paying for their service, as I thought it was good - they wanted £50 a year for Pro on 2 computers, much more for 10 machines. I used LogMeIn to remote onto at least 4 machines, but never used the Pro features I got as a trial.

          I would have paid a bit for just remote access on up to (say) 10 machines, but not what they wanted for the occasional remote session on one of 4-5 machines.

    3. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Shock, horror

      Who is outraged that we are asked to pay? Nobody I know. There's outrage at the lack of time given. There are a lot of folks considering moving to alternatives because the premium offerings don't match up. I don't know of anyone saying "I deserve to have a free offering forever."

      "24 hours notice is a dick move, guys" is a valid complaint for the free-tier users to level at the company.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Shock, horror

        Trevor - 24Hrs would be tough but if people are so dependent on remote access they should already have had a second method installed. Everyone here has both logmein and teamviewer but there is a split on which they prefer. BTW I got seven days as it would appear so did many others. Would be interesting to know if this is regional, based on number of remote machines or purely random.

        @AC What's linux got to do with anything, it's open source, completely different.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Now I know this could come across as 'freetard whinges as profit-making entity takes away his free toys'...

    .

    Yup.

    1. MonkeyCee

      I thought the whole point of "free" software, was when you get to the point of it's actually important to doing a particular function, then pay for the full version. First time I used Teamviewer to do something I got paid for doing, I upgraded to the full version. I borrowed a copy of Spinrite, saved a drive, so I forked over for my own copy.

      I tend to think of free software as trial versions.

      Open source is different, but I still support paying the people who make me useful things a buck or two.

      The risk with not paying/being prepared to pay for a product is unless it serves someone else a purpose, it will one day either go completely (google reader) or become a pay for product. If it is then not worth paying for, then perhaps it's worth researching a product that will stick around.

      I use plenty of "free" Google products, and a few paid for ones. I am under no illusions, based on the ads I get served, that my "free" products are mainly extended market surveys to better flog my eyeball views. But that's fine, fair trade I say.

      I even prefer the free newspapers to the paid for ones. Same pile of bias and guff, both bring the windows up in a lovely shine :)

    2. Gordon 10

      Read the comments. Users of LogMeIn Ignition (a paid app) have also been shafted. I liked LMI so much I bought Ignition to support them when it was launched. I wouldnt have even been bothered if I had been asked to pay the same amount every year- but £29 - EffOff.

    3. psychonaut

      maybe, but they are screwing the paying customers too

      my LMI bill is £1000 per year now apparantly. well, it would be if i hadnt cancelled it./

  9. Irongut

    Should have upgraded to Central

    Should have upgraded to Central back when they put restrictions on the free product last year. It costs next to nothing and there is no change in service for users of LMI Central. The writing was on the wall.

    I'm disappointed in the intelligence of the Reg reader who wrote in to complain. I expected all Reg readers would be capable of telling the difference between 7 days and less than 24 hours.

    1. psychonaut

      Re: Should have upgraded to Central

      thats simply not true.

      central is now tiered.

      i am being billed £1000 for (yes, one thousand) for my central subscription

      with no notice or warning,.

  10. Wensleydale Cheese

    So was it 7 days notice or no days notice?

    The user quotes mention no notice or 24 hours, rather than 7 days.

    Oh well, there's probably no greater motivation for researching alternatives than having your service cut off with no notice.

    1. Darth_C

      Re: So was it 7 days notice or no days notice?

      This is what the email said:

      "As of January 21, 2014, LogMeIn Free will no longer be available. To continue using remote access, you will need to purchase an account subscription of LogMeIn Pro."

      No mention of the 7 days - that came a couple of hours later once you could access your account after a brief outage ...

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: So was it 7 days notice or no days notice?

      Well looking back this has obviously been on the cards for a while...

      A few months back I noted that when I logged into a Free LogMeIn account, it started displaying a screen that implied the free trial period had come to an end and hence a subscription needed to be purchased. Obviously if you clicked the "remind me later" or some similarly labelled button you got access to the control panel/management console and could use LogMeIn as normal.

  11. Longrod_von_Hugendong

    Just been to look at the site...

    lots of try thing for free, not a lot of this is how much it costs.

    If they are hiding the price - then its too much. This is a major pain for me, as used to fix my moms computer from several hundred miles away.

    major pain in the ass. :/

    1. lansalot

      Re: Just been to look at the site...

      Read up - www.teamviewer.com is superb, and they have Android/iOS clients too.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just been to look at the site...

      Don't know if they're "hiding" the price exactly. It's easy enough to find although not on the front page, just click buy now and you get a pricelist. Having said that the 2 endpoint price looks a bit steep to me for what is surely aimed at the casual user. (I've never used this service so It may be worth the money).

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: Just been to look at the site...

        Suspect that they have reviewed their customer profiles and realise that their main ie. profitable customers are the business customers, whereas their long-term Free customers are costing them money, with probably a very low conversion rate. Hence why they've discontinued Free and priced the low end Pro license relatively high.

        Obviously, this doesn't explain why they are also hitting their paying users with large price increases.

  12. Eradicate all BB entrants

    So how long until this change ....

    ..... drips down to Hamachi? Best tool ever for mixed LAN parties (Local and internet at the same time).

  13. SnowCrash

    It IS rather galling to find out that LogMeIn Ignition, a paid for app on both iOS and Android, will only be continued for 6 months and then I'll have to pay for a discounted Pro subscription.

    And their handling of the announcement (where a lot have people misread the timescale) coincided with an outage on their website.

    I loved the product and can understand why they want to go down the subscription only path but they can probably learn a lot on the PR front.

  14. jason 7

    Would love to buy a Teamviewer License

    ...buts its way too expensive for a one man band operation.

    Hate how some firms just pander to Corporates/Enterprise.

    1. Cliff

      Re: Would love to buy a Teamviewer License

      Probably the cost/stress of supporting retail punters.

    2. Mr_Pitiful

      Re: Would love to buy a Teamviewer License

      I'm now a 'one man band operation'

      I purchased Teamviewer with a tiny bit of my redundancy pay in 2013 (few hundred quid)

      The only annoying thing is the only way to upgrade to the latest version is to pay again

      So I'm stuck with the version I purchased, and a teamviewer_QS I host on my website

      I like teamviewer, although LMI was good for certain things

      1. jason 7
        Unhappy

        Re: Would love to buy a Teamviewer License

        Indeed and they appear to upgrade it quite often. Basically a version up every year.

        I would have to do a lot of phone and remote support to pay for that. I'd happily pay a reasonable subscription purely to get access to the remote support bit. I really dont need the meetting/training parts at all.

        I've tried the built in Windows remote support but that just falls flat with standard users as it requires more than two steps.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Would love to buy a Teamviewer License

      Quite agree - £439 for something that might get used once a month makes Micro$oft pricing look extremely reasonable. £50-60 would be reasonable.

    4. dotdan

      Re: Would love to buy a Teamviewer License

      Take a look at ScreenConnect - $300 one-off, upgrades after the first year (if you want them) are $65pa

      Runs on your own machine - I run it on an old Atom based netbook plugged into the mains, and the router: open a couple of ports on your router and you're away. Excellent one-use remote connections or 'unattended' sessions ala LogMeIn.

      I've got 100+ client machines running the unattended software so I can connect to them with 2 clicks, and for new or irregular clients we can do a one-off connection.

      Others run it on an Amazon cloud server for $10pm but I've found it to work perfectly well on a crap Atom processor and only 2GB RAM under Windows 7.

  15. davcefai

    VNC?

    I've never used, or even seen, LogMein but wouldn't TightVNC do the job? I have have controlled Windows PCs from a Linux one using Tight VNC over a phone line or a VPN.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: VNC?

      Lots of these tools are based about VNC I think, but build extra stuff on top.

      The timing is bizarre, but so is this attitude that people deserve free software to do important things.

      1. asdf

        Re: VNC?

        >deserve free software to do important things.

        Oh like run most of the web servers on the internet, as is currently the case? But nice trolling.

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: VNC?

          >>Oh like run most of the web servers on the internet, as is currently the case?

          Well done for agreeing with me without realising it. The fact that FOSS exists for web servers stacks is one of the contributing factors to this notion that buying software is wrong, somehow. As someone who makes software for a living, the idea that people will look shocked at the idea they have to pay for my work is not great.

          1. asdf

            Re: VNC?

            >that buying software is wrong, somehow. As someone who makes software for a living, the idea that people will look shocked at the idea they have to pay for my work is not great.

            Another example of how JDX worldview falls apart in any scenario where anything is not owned by one person or entity. Tragedy of the Commons does not translate to the digital world near as well. There are plenty of people who are paid to develop open source software. Many companies have realized one way to pool their resources legally with many other companies is through open source. Hadoop for example allows everyone to scale like Google. The flaw in your logic is free as in beer != free as in free speech (or in a language you understand freedom to spend money). I am not so naive to believe proprietary software does not have its place but plenty of people and even some businesses have realized they don't need it (and I would dare say most companies these days do use some open source products). Proprietary software is just another option out there but it being the only option can be bad even for developers.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: free as in beer != free as in free speech

              Can somebody explain what this means?

              Its something I have seen banded about all over the place related to open source software but I don't really understand what the point they are trying to make is... Beer isn't free so I don't understand how something can be "free as in beer". Is the saying trying to make the point that something that costs money is not the same as being able to say what ever you want?

              Perhaps I need to drink beer for it to make sense?

              1. Pookietoo
                Linux

                Re: free as in beer != free as in free speech

                Wikipedia covers it here.

              2. SImon Hobson Bronze badge

                Re: free as in beer != free as in free speech

                > Beer isn't free so I don't understand how something can be "free as in beer". Is the saying trying to make the point that something that costs money is not the same as being able to say what ever you want?

                IMO the Wikipedia article doesn't really put it simply, but then that could just be me !

                There are people who give away their software free (as in for no charge) but they restrict what you can do with it - eg no commercial use, no giving it to anyone else, no reverse engineering, or a myriad other restrictions. So it giving you something tangible for no cost (like giving you a free glass of beer), but it's still restricted in what you are allowed to do with it.

                There are also people who are more interested in the "freedom of use" side. To them, the important thing is to be able to think, speak, use freely. So if someone writes a nifty bit of code, and you think "that would be great if I just altered it a little" then you are expressly allowed to take that code and alter it to suit your needs - and to pass on the unmodified or modified code to others. Also, you are free to look at the code and see how it works - to learn from others. And finally you can use it where you like, when you like, and for what you like. This is the "free as in speech" bit.

                In many cases, the two overlap - so it's free (as in cost) and free (as in freedom to use, adapt, and share). And we are all familiar with commercial software which is not free in either sense.

                In many cases they do not overlap. As an example, you can download the free PDF viewer from Adobe - but it comes with a licence agreement with a long list of things you aren't allowed to do with it. It's free (as in beer) but not free (as in speech).

                And of course, thinking about security you can't look at (or ask someone else to look at) the code of this (or any other no-cost but not libre software) to see if it phones home with your details or any other such freedom/security infringing activities.

                You might think it's not possible to have free (as in speech) without also free (as in beer). But that's not the case. It's quite allowable for me to take some software, adapt it, package it up and build a system to do/manage some task. Under the GNU public licence I am specifically allowed to do that. I am also specifically allowed to ask people for money - and some people may be happy to pay for the convenience of having everything packaged up into something they just "turn on and use". What I am not allowed to do is refuse to pass on the modified versions of the FOSS software I've used. I can keep other bits (eg scripts and stuff, web page designs, etc) to myself and paying customers, but not the modified FOSS software.

                This is the RedHat* business model - a lot of what is in a RedHat Linux system is FOSS which they cannot refuse to let you have. However into the mix they have added their own utilities, configs etc. In effect, what you buy when you pay RedHat for a system is a bunch of FOSS that you can get for free, plus a load of RedHat proprietary stuff, and all packaged up into something you pop in and turn on.

                * RedHat is just the one that comes to mind first - others do the same (SUSE is another, paying gets you their extras).

                The confusing thing is that people talk about "open source" which doesn't automatically mean that it's free (as in speech). And people talk about free software - without specifying which meaning of free they mean.

                Lastly, you'll often hear the name Richard Stallman (aka his initials RMS) when such conversations come up. He's a "hard core" free (as in speech) advocate and can be, ahem, quite blunt. Search around and you'll find a lot of comments that he's "quite difficult" to deal with. I've met him briefly at one of his talks, and he is - to the point where I think he diluted him message by turning people off. But IMO he is quite right in most of what he says - and if it weren't for people like him making the right noises I do think we'd be a lot better off.

          2. asdf

            Re: VNC?

            >one of the contributing factors to this notion that buying software is wrong, somehow

            Oh is that why the software store for both Apple and Google are making hand over fist these days? If anything probably more people have bought software in the last year than any other year in the past. I would even be surprised if the total dollar amount was much lower than any year in the past as well. Just because your wintel world and skill set is crumbling a bit doesn't mean it is for everybody.

            1. asdf

              Re: VNC?

              For the record I do think in this case proprietary software makes sense and why in this space there is no real open source competitor. The reason is because the way Teamviewer and Logmein work it requires the software company to have a rock solid secure server infrastructure available to work correctly which obviously has some decent overhead. If a person is willing/able to provide their own infrastructure there are plenty of open source solutions available such as VNC, X11 over ssh, etc as well as free proprietary solutions such as Win RDC. In the end I think Teamviewer will probably go all paid as well and its hard to fault them (as long as they do better PR). Again each has its place.

            2. JDX Gold badge

              Oh is that why the software store for both Apple and Google are making hand over fist these days?

              Exactly - selling entire applications for £0.50 - £2.50 in most cases. You see reviews stating that "even at the high cost of £5 it's worth it" for software which is often a full-blown application that wouldn't be out of place on a PC.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. asdf

      Re: VNC?

      As for TightVNC it requires you to open a port and do port forwarding on the router which is not trivial for some people and impossible for others (such as on corporate network). Logmein and Teamviewer phone home to servers owned by the companies (so only need outbound access) that can be logged into on the other side from anywhere on the internet. Easy way to access a machine with internet access from anywhere else on the internet without having to setup anything else up but the software (corporate IT can block though by requiring a web proxy and blocking it with their software.

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: VNC? @asdf 21-Jan-2014 17:18

        Adding to asdf's comment, tools such as LogMeIn, TeamViewer and TechInline that utilise servers owned by a third-party also get around the problems caused by the majority of users not having a static internet addresses on their internet connection (both home and mobile).

        Services such as LogMeIn hide the complexity of reliably establishing a connection between two systems (that may both be mobile) that may or may not be directly connected to the Internet but have web access to the Internet to a simple user chosen login name - unique to the remote access service and a permanently running client listener service on a desktop/laptop.

        So in some respects what LogMeIn are asking you to pay for, isn't so much for the software but the use of their servers; because without the LogMeIn servers the LogMeIn client is a pointless install.

    3. Silver

      Re: VNC?

      "I've never used, or even seen, LogMein but wouldn't TightVNC do the job? I have have controlled Windows PCs from a Linux one using Tight VNC over a phone line or a VPN."

      I used to use TightVNC but then switched to LogMeIn Free. The biggest issues with TightVNC was that I'd have to get my parents to tell me their IP address so I could connect, I had configure the router to assign static IPs to the laptop and desktop and then punch holes in the firewall (and remember which port was used by which machine) so I could get access to them. Also in a multi-user system, I couldn't switch users without the TightVNC connection dropping.

      In comparison, with LMI I just open the website, log in, click on the PC I want to access and I'm connected. No further configuration was necessary and even if they took the PC to another house (with different firewall connection) I could still connect without any issues.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Freetards to advance

    Time for them to learn how to use OpenVNP.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Freetards to advance

      That's probably why the rage, no more point and drool, they have to make an effort to learn something else.

      (If they want it to be free to use that is).

  17. intrigid

    Does this impact LogMeIn Hamachi, a very useful tool for playing LAN-based multiplayer games with your friends over the internet?

    1. psychonaut

      hamachi, a piece of shit at best, will be next im sure

  18. Alan Bourke

    I wouldn't have a problem with going to LogMeIn Pro ...

    ... except it's kinda expensive.

  19. Soruk
    Go

    UltraVNC

    I use UltraVNC on Windows boxes, configured not to listen, and when someone I support needs assistance, they just have to add the new client, put my address in, and it connects to my listening viewer. Job done.

    1. Adam 1

      Re: UltraVNC

      Do they need to port forward or is it just your end in that configuration?

      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: UltraVNC

        Just your end. That's the nice bit about it, it's a reverse connection.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LMI Central

    It appears you still can buy it

    https://secure.logmein.com/products/central/purchase.aspx

    $299 for 100 computers

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: LMI Central

      $299 for 100 computers

      Trouble is, for me, I use it for 10 computers.

      Which I help people with for free. You know, 5 minutes talk them through stuff. Family etc.

      So $29 for 10 computers would work.

      However it's $29 for 2 computers.....

      Plus bugger all notice. I have no issue with them terminating the free product.

      Its the amount of time they've given people. (Zero according to their email) 7 days on the site.

      The crap way they announced it.

      The fact that the email pointed to the blog as if it was old news, but had been written 5 minutes before hand.

      As for me, they'll never get my money now, even if they did say it's $29 for 10 computers, as I'd not trust them to change their mind with buggerall notice again.

  21. Paceman

    When I saw this earlier today, I went on to the few machines that I need access to remotely (all family machines) and installed TeamViewer. Works for me!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pricing

    Pro for individuals

    Up to 2 computers

    $ 49.00 /year

    Includes access from 2 mobile devices Learn More

    Pro for power users

    Up to 5 computers

    $ 129.00 /year

    Includes access from 5 mobile devices Learn More

    Pro for small businesses

    Up to 10 computers

    $ 229.00 /year

    Includes access from 10 mobile devices Learn More

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pricing

      Is their pricing calculated by a random number generator, or are Brits twice as needy of support?

      Pro for individuals

      Access up to 2 computers.

      £ 64 /year

      Pro for power users

      Access up to 5 computers.

      £ 164 /year

      Pro for small businesses

      Access up to 10 computers.

      £ 289 /year

      1. neilg
        Happy

        Re: Pricing

        It's probably the real cost of correcting atrocious Septic spelling.....

  23. This post has been deleted by its author

  24. Ol'Peculier
    Thumb Up

    Teamviewer web

    I've been using Teamviewer for years and works a treat.

    Another plus is that you can use their website as the client, I needed to check something on my home PC whilst away and used it from the shared PC in the hotel, worked a treat.

  25. ez2x

    Hahaha suckers

    Should have installed Linux - where free means liberty.

    1. frank ly

      Re: Hahaha suckers

      You could have said it better.

  26. Timbo

    is this "new" news?

    I installed LogMeIn on a friends PC a year or so ago and when they had a problem, I could do a remote log in and sort it out for them.

    However, about 2-3 months ago, when in need of sorting out another problem for them, I found that the LogMeIn program I had installed (on both PC's) wouldn't work anymore and a new version had to be downloaded...which I duly installed, only to then be "advised" on-screen that it was a "subscriber only" release....and I had to pay to activate it.

    So, was it "just me" that had this problem 2+ months ago... ?

    1. psychonaut

      Re: is this "new" news?

      no, you didnt read the screen properly. it said "blah blah blah pay this now to upgrade to pro" and then just below it said "no thanks".

      you dont (well, didnt) need to pay for free. RTFM

  27. Philip Lewis
    Flame

    Unfortunately the latest version on the Mac is load of bollocks and is worth exactly what we have paid for it - zero.

    This is a shame because I have used it a lot to help fam,ily remotely, connect to my home server remotely etc. It is not too popular with the IT department at work though, they prefer we use the dedicated VPN.

    It has never supported Linux, for reasons I don't quite understand, since OSX is Unix, it cannot be that hard to support Linux. Maybe it's a market too small.

    Anyway, the new "pluginless" version loses connections constantly, it is almost unusable. And there is this new bozo hybrid model they have employed, where one needs to login via a browser, then there is an "app" that is downloaded and started from browser. It is supposed to store it somewhere secret, and use it for the next login - yeah, right. Completely bogus architecture - the web browser is a pointless distraction, just deliver an app. Oh, and it is broken with Firefox for many users, going into an infinite "download app" loop. I did get it somewhat stable with Safari, except of course it couldn't hold itself afloat.

    LogMeIn used to be an outstanding product. Now it's pants.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wonder how long Teamviewer will carry on letting people break the T&C when they get the influx of people from Logmein. (note the terms that say personal usage doesn't include not just direct payment but also indirect, so no just going to your work PC from home on that free license)

  29. MissingSecurity

    I don't think the rage is really cost...

    It's timeframe. For indivdals, I think its fairly easy to switch to teamviewer, for a business well, that where this hurts. I'm glad a moved away from LMI, I VPN into the network, and than use TightVNC / SSH to connect to remote servers.

  30. Alex Walsh

    I paid a HUGE premium for Logmein Ignition on Android- around 20-40 times the average price of an app- to avoid paying regular subscriptions. What are my choices? Use an app that will no longer be supported or get a temporary discount from the very sort of subscription I paid well over the odds to avoid in the first place?

    Hope they go out of business as a result of this.

    1. Kris Akabusi

      I've used the free logmein for about a year now at home and on the back of that purchased the pro version at work to support our regional sales people. This month I bought the LogMeIn Ignition android app for about £20.14, the most expensive app I've bought by some margin to support the company even though I only use it on 2 pc's.

      This is a kick in the b0ll0cks for me and everyone else who bought the app.

  31. geoff 9

    What it actually says

    This is what was displayed when I just logged in. It sounds like you get seven days after you next log in. Given that I use it to support friends and family, I've no appetite for paying.

    "Soon LogMeIn Free will no longer be available.

    To continue using remote access, you’ll need to purchase an account subscription of LogMeIn Pro. As a loyal user, you’re entitled to discounted introductory pricing, with packages starting at $49/year for two computers.* Your new account includes our signature remote access with premium features like remote printing, file transfer and cloud data access, plus desktop and mobile apps to improve your experience.

    Please note: If you do not take action, the Free computers highlighted in your account will become inaccessible on 1/28/2014. Only 7 days left! "

  32. Arachnoid

    Team viewer pricing

    Well they only need to raise it to 50% oflog me in and they are still on a win win situation

  33. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Doing so much evil...purchase by Google a sure bet!

  34. Terry 6 Silver badge

    Pro version but....

    I have no problem with them making the Pro users pay a pro price.Even an annual fee.

    But an annual subscription of a considerable sum for a home user helping out the friends and family is a different matter.

    For my own home use VNC ( various versions) is more than adequate.

    But remoting to a PC on a different network, with an IP that will have changed by the time you next need to go there and users who can't tell you their IP or haven't got port forwarding set up does need a web based product.

    I used to sort out my late mother's PC for her with free logmein. She was too far away to drive there.

    It was ideal for that.

  35. Nifty Silver badge

    Us freetards in the UK have it good - Ovivo Mobile for free smartphone data, Spotify goes free on smart devices too now. Was that a bird or a plane? No, LMI going in the opposite direction.

  36. Zacherynuk

    Well

    At least they didn't just surreptitiously change their TOS to state that they would be selling your user data and MD5 scans of all you hard drive contents to 3rd parties.

    That HAS to be in thier favour, shirly ?

  37. psychonaut

    YOU ARE NEXT

    uh, you are missing a trick here.

    im a central customer. with 940 or so clients on LMI. ive been amassing them for 6 or 7 years i suppose. . i run a small it support business. last year, it was £199 for a central UNLIMITED license. most of these licenses are dufunct, dead or duplicates. can you mass uninstall them? no. you have to sit there, and push "client x", "delete", "sure?" "yes" for each one. jesus. ive phoned them up about this, theres no way round it. even iof i remove all of these, its still going to be £500 or so quid a year. FO!!!!

    i dont have a problem paying for it. i loved the product - but they have jacked up the price, WITHOUT telling anyone. especially, you know, the person who pays the bills. (my bill, they reckon, is going to be £1000 (yes, one thousand) pounds per year. uhh....err, nope. but of course, did they email me? no. this has happened to a lot of people.

    add to this that they have just, with 7 days notice, cancelled LMI free. anybody who uses cubby, hamachi, join.me , LMI backup or any of their other products - YOU ARE NEXT.

    personally, i am now on teamviewer. bye bye logmein.

    heres a post i put up on the lmi forums a few days ago,

    2 things have happened in the past week, neither of which you have made me aware of (or anyone else for that matter).

    1) you foist this .exe downloader stuff on us and it doesnt work properly. we understand that browser plugins are becoming extinct. but TEST your software before releasing it, unannounced, on us!

    2) the price of central has increased by a factor of 5 for me.

    the thing that is the worst is that there is no mention of either of these anywhere. you havent even bothered to send me an email in good time.

    in your forums, people have been billed 5x what they paid originally with no warning.

    when i signed up for this last year it was £199 full price for unlimited free clients. you now want nearly £1000 for renewal (which ive only discovered by accident)

    a lot of the machines in my account (there are 940 of them) no longer exist or are duplicates. i havent bothered to trim them because i had an unlimited plan.

    theres no way i am paying £1k per year for this.

    ive been using log me in in various forms for about 7 years. i have evangelised about it, its the one part of my business that has been fantastic, i have probably been responsible for a hundred or so paid "pro " accounts from my personal recommendation alone.

    i am flabberghasted at what you are doing to the services you provide, and i am not alone. you want to go and check out your forums and other places where IT guys hang out. you wont have any SME customers left pretty soon because its way too expensive, and people are P**sed off about the way you have handled both of the issues above.

    you should check out what your competitors are doing - i can get what is basically central and rescue for £333 - not per year, but a one off from remote utilities. and they support mobiles as of next week.

    you are forcing me to leave on price alone. but i have a lot invested in my log me in network, so i am going to ask you to do something about the price you are requesting.

    i am more than happy to pay £199 per year for unlimited clients as was the deal last year, but no more.

  38. Snarkster

    A (better) alternative

    ammyy - been using it for a while now over logmein, seems to work much better and it's affordable.

    Generally speaking, if you want something to work, go to those who use the cutting edge (i.e scammers & criminals) and use what they use.

  39. psychonaut

    spiceworks

    by the way, if you start posting on the spiceworks forum about LMI, you get moderated and your threads deleted. well, i did anyway. what a bunch of cunts.

    1. Huw D

      Re: spiceworks

      You got modded because there were already 38 separate threads discussing exactly the same thing.

      You'd already posted in 6 of them including going off on one at the LMI rep and then decided to start one of your own.

      Perhaps you ought to take your own advice and "RTFM" - there are guidelines for the use of the Spiceworks Community and they're based on American standards, so what goes over here on El Reg (and people have been modded to death here as well) doesn't necessarily fit their rules.

      And thanks for effectively calling me a cunt.

      Regards,

      Me.

      1. psychonaut

        Re: spiceworks

        You are welcome. I was talking about the mods but never mind if you want to be included .

        Read the guidlines for a forum? Of course. I also read the eulas every time I install any software.

        1. Huw D

          Re: spiceworks

          Whatever. I'm just explaining the situation. And I'm one of the UK based Mods.

          Calm down dear.

          1. psychonaut

            Re: spiceworks

            Im flattered that you found all my posts. I really couldnt give 2 hoots about being modded on a site ive not ever used before yesterday just thought it was odd that you cant have 100 threads all aboua similar thing if thats what the commentators want. Meh whatever.

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Odd, that. I have had a pro account for a number of years which includes 2 PC's. Last time I checked there were about 60 in my account (basically for those very hard to reach sales guys that can be anywhere at any time and never get in the office). 2 "Pro" clients, the rest all free subscriptions. I haven't received any mail, have seen nothing referring to this when I just logged on to check, and I can still add "free" computers.

    I don't know if I'm an exception, but if not you could basically get the "smallest" Pro subscription and add whatever number of free subscriptions you want.

    That being said, once the current subscription period is over I will switch to TeamViewer. A lot faster and more stable, especially if you're dealing with people in Asia.

  41. PeterM42

    I used to use Logmein but...

    ......TEAMVIEWER is always my preferred solution.

    Go Teamviewer (FREE) - You know it makes sense!!!

    Much more reliable than Logmein anyway and less hassle to connect once installed. File transfer and VPN - it's all there!

    Anyone who treats their users like Logmein suddenly decided to do, doesn't deserve ANY users.

  42. Lord Lien

    Will be LMI..

    … who soon. Even Chrome supports remote desktop sessions for free. So many alternatives (been a teamviewer use for years now) wonder if they are going to go the way of Real & end up on the scrap heap of technology/software we used to use.

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Moved 4 machines to TeamViewer, no bad feelings except for removing the account

    I used LogMe in for about five years to support older relatives and it worked well. I used it perhaps once a month and always thought it was a service worth paying for if I wanted to use it professionally. But $50/year for being able to use a desktop remotely once a month? Too expensive.

    So now it is TeamViewer for me, and for the basic remote screen use it is more than enough for me. As was LogMeIn free, by the way. I switched all of them yesterday, using LogMeIn to install TeamViewer and then switching to TeamViewer to uninstall LogMeIn.

    Perhaps the only "bad" about all this is that I can't see any means of removing my LogMeIn account from their site?

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Free versus Pro

    It makes snese to me that Pro users pay for Pro tools.

    However, in the modern world of IT some parts of the PRO toolkit functionality are also going to be needed by the ordinary home user, or the casual user who isn't running a big (or IT) business.

    For both of these groups there is a price point that is way below the the professional/full time cost..

    Even if they can afford the cost they may not be able to justify spending it.

    In other words, how much is it worth to a casual user to have MS Office for a few letters and a simple spreadsheet or two, or Logmein to fix granny's PC problems?

    At the low end it makes sense, surely, for the companies to provide the software cheaply, possibly in a limited version.

    Better that than earn nothing from a large number of potential users and at the same time encourage both copyright theft and small competitive startups who may steal the core business in a few years time.

  45. Naruhodo

    I don't think it's reasonable to expect a free service to last forever but the way this change has been announced at a moment's notice says a lot for LogMeIn's attitude to users.

    I'd have been happy to move to a paid service with no upgrade to functionality at a reasonable price and maybe a 30 day warning. As it is, I've started the uninstall process.

  46. JackieleChang

    Free Upgrade

    Logmein sent me one email that said free would no longer be available but to soften the blow they offered me 6 months Pro for free and then after that 6 months they would give me 50% off.

    Now I won't be taking the 50% off in 6 months but they have given me 6 months to find free alternative.

    I have no problem with them charging now - they are a business after all! Seems funny that people are complaining - the only ones who can are those who paid for LogMeIn Ignition on the iphone and that is now not gonna work - but they could have complained 18 months ago when LogMeIn brought out a free App instead.

  47. David Goadby

    I moved to NoMachine some time ago. When they offer their "NoMachine Anywhere" service then I will no longer need LogMeIn.

  48. Duke2010

    Simple, switch to Teamviewer. Its more secure too.

  49. Daz555

    I simply use OpenVPN and connect to my network directly.

  50. Duke2010

    Whatever you do dont use Chrome Remote Desktop.

    1. Peter 53

      Why not?

  51. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LMI Ignition

    So I paid for LogMeIn Ignition on my iDevice not too long ago at £90 and in 7 days im going to have to bend over and let them pull even more money out my ass.

    Great.

  52. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    logmeout and teamstewer

    Yes, we want free. I want free, I want fast access, I want good remote media streaming and I want it now. Logmein is now out, and Teamviewer stewed me for my professional use. Furthermore, they both have video streaming which is c**p. Splashtop perhaps?? NoMachine even?? The game is on. Let's see who will win.

  53. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If this is a move by LogMeIn to try to stop the scammers using their software I applaud it. For supporting my father remotely I've been using TeamViewer.

    I wonder if the "Windows Support" scammers are going to stump up the $1000pa for the LogMeIn Rescue (LogMeIn123) accounts they've been using for free so far, or switch to something else. Should have an idea in about 6 months, it's about twice a year they call me and it's only been 2 weeks since the last call. Any ideas on what I can say to them next time? I managed to get the "support agent" to lose his temper and threaten to hit me last time, going to see if I can wind them up and get a a death threat next time ... it's so much more fun than just putting them on hold :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I ask them something along the line as to whether their mothers/fathers would be disappointed in them if they knew what their children were up to.

      Perhaps if more people could get the callers to lose their rag, then they might have to give up due to the stress-realted illnesses.

  54. Aylee

    Switch to Central

    An idea for those who need to manage a lot of computers. Apparently if you subscribe to Logmein Central (normally £200, but 50% off if you are a new subscriber), then you still get to use up to 100 free Logmein host subscriptions with that type of account, and Central is not affected by this change (apparently no plans to do so, but you never know).

  55. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    TV isn't a panacea

    Just as quickie - I love and use TV a lot for personal PC support, but it doesn't work on Windows 2003 servers. LMI did, hence a free option was great for myself as a small IT business. Paying hundreds of pounds is not an option for me.

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