Buying a Zoom Events Annual License: My Experience

[Ray_Harwood]

I'm learning more about Zoom every day.  Today I learned a lot. 

I've been planning on getting a Zoom Events Annual License for some time.  As some of you know, I'm a small (1- person) business that helps nonprofits and small businesses with limited event budgets by producing low-cost Zoom Meetings, Webinars, and now Zoom Events. 

I've had a "legacy" Zoom Events 500 license since Zoom Events went into General Availability 18 months ago (October 2021!).  My small business can't afford a large license, but I decided I'd buy the lowest-level Zoom Events license I can get: 100 attendees.

Today I went for it.  What happened wasn't bad... but it was surprising!  I decided some of you might want to know about this... especially if you're planning to make the leap to Zoom Events soon.

So here we go!

On the Zoom Pricing page there's a view for Zoom Events.  I went there, then made sure the 100 attendee license was selected:

Note that if you click the "Billed Monthly" button, you can't buy a Zoom Events license, and your only option is then Zoom Webinars.  Zoom Events licenses are Annual Licenses only!

Fully expecting to pay $1490 today for my annual license, I clicked the Buy Now button and was taken to this page:

Next came a page to confirm my billing information, which I did. Then after confirming billing info, this screen appears:

I didn't catch that the renewal date was in 5 weeks, but I did see that "Today's Charge" was $1490, and the renewal would also be that amount.  All looked and sounded reasonable to me.  I proceeded to place my order, which went through successfully.  Next I was given the opportunity to view my invoice.

This is where it got interesting:

Note that the license period starts from today (April 28, 2023) and goes through June 1, 2023, and the description detail includes the word "Proration".  You'll also quickly see that the total amount charged was only $142.88.

Do you know when your annual Zoom subscription renews?  I know from attempting to help many people with their Zoom billing issues, few people know, and few people understand the overall Zoom billing process.  But I'm learning!

I'm not upset that I got billed a pro-rated charge.  I'm not upset that the full amount for a full year Zoom Events renewal will occur on my next annual renewal anniversary in 5 weeks.

But I am quite displeased that I didn't learn about this proration and the subsequent tying of the Zoom Events "Annual License" to my anniversary date until after the purchase was completed. 

Apparently whenever Zoom says "it's an annual license", they don't mean "annual from the date you first buy it"... apparently "annual" means "we'll prorate your account now, and charge you a huge amount for all your annual licenses all on one anniversary date."

If your organization does a lot of big virtual events, I hope you'll consider the Zoom Events platform -- it really has matured greatly over the last 18 months, and I'm happy to share my knowledge and experience with you.  And if you do buy a license, at least you'll know what to expect!

[Ohkawa]

Hi, @Ray_Harwood 

Thanks for the detailed info.

In my experience, this kind of fee structure seems to be the norm for other subscriptions, but I too think an announcement is necessary because it is difficult for the general public to understand.

However, for PPAs, the situation is different and needs to be confirmed.

[Ray_Harwood]

@Ohkawa, I also bought a PPA 50 attendee license back on February 4, 2023:

I have no idea why the word "Annual" is included on this invoice.  It shouldn't be an annual license!

My subscription list includes this:

There is no "next invoice" date like I see for my Zoom Events Annual 100 license.

I did notice on subsequent invoices there are two line items for Pay Per Attendee licenses.  Here's information from my March invoice (same information on the April invoice). This one, which seems understandable, since going over your PPA limit incurs a $2.50 per person "Overage" charge:

And this, which I have no clue what it's for:

I've already paid for the "included" licenses... I'll be curious to see what eventually is listed here.

[Ohkawa]

Thanks, @Ray_Harwood 

 Your information has been very helpful.

 Maybe it is valid for one year from purchase.

In the case of PPA, there is no limit to the number of hosts, so I understood "included" to be an actual report of how many PPA licenses were consumed per month for the entire account.

[JeanN]

Hi Ray, we're planning to try the pay per attendee 600-attendee Zoom Events license for an upcoming program.  My understanding from speaking to our account rep in Jan 2023 is that for the duration of one year, Zoom Events will allow us to 'use up' that quantity of attendees in one or more meetings or webinars.  As in, if this upcoming program only has 300 attendees, then I can host another one, two or more events, to use up the remaining attendees available in my license; up until my next renewal.  At that point, if i haven't had 600 attendees totally in all of my meetings hosting in my Events license, I lose whatever isn't used.  I also was told that I can purchase more attendees if needed and would be charged at a fixed rate per attendee from attendee #601 onwards. However I don't see that information listed on their site, so would recommend purchasing a higher number than you expect to need, if you go the pay per attendee route.  You can always 'use up' any remaining attendee count at a future event. 

[Ray_Harwood]

Thanks, Jean. Interesting info … and gives me more questions to add to my Zoom Events question list. 

[JeanN]

I should mention that we're holding on to our regular webinar license as a back up, in case things go pear shaped with this one. 

[PraxRob]

Hi Ray, thanks for sharing. Zoom's billing system is easily the most complicated, opaque and confusing. We have >20 SaaS subscriptions and nothing is as confounding as Zoom's. Their recent change of their Events billing has been terribly communicated, and when trying to decipher this through Zoom support, the poor folks in the chat centre also had no idea about these changes. It really shouldn't be anywhere near as hard as it is currently!