Movable Type 3.0 Developer’s Edition

Six Apart has released Movable Type 3.0 Developer’s Edition. I’ve played with the beta, and it looks pretty slick. The real story, though, is the new pricing system.

MT 3.0 is only free if it’s for personal use and you only have one author and up to three weblogs. News Goat has two authors, but there is no license for two authors, so I would have to pay $69 for three authors and, I don’t know, give one to my dog, I guess.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. We use MT to completely run the Central Oklahoma Mensa web site. We have six weblogs and 23 authors, even though it’s only one site with Angela and I running it. We use all those authors to assign newsletter articles to their original authors. Six Apart doesn’t give a price for that many weblogs and authors. It’s one of those, “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it,” things.

Movable Type is a phenomenal content management system. Is it worth the prices they are asking? Probably so. Unfortunately, a non-profit organization like Central Oklahoma Mensa cannot afford $700+ for blog software. And I can’t really see myself spending $69 to publish News Goat. (Although, it might be interesting to toss some Google Ads up here and see how long it takes me to raise enough for a license. Something to think about.) Most likely, I just won’t upgrade.

The responses I have seen to the new licensing have not been positive. Hopefully, Six Apart will reconsider their pricing for personal use.