Proxmox PVE ( and/or PBS) homelab subscription

buco

New Member
Feb 22, 2023
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Hi all,

Since ~half a year, I'm happily using Proxmox PVE at home and since a week, I also set up PBS. Works very very well since my main distribution of choice has been ... Debian for like 20 years now :cool:. But, ... I'm feeling sort of guilty not really supporting a great open source project that serves me very well.

It has been suggested before, but I'd love to support the Proxmox team financially by buying a subscription. Only the lowest for PVE and PBS combined is just too steep for a home lab enthusiast with a "limited" budget (Wife Acceptance Factor also plays a role).

Something like: "HomeLab License". For both PVE and PBS. PVE I might possibly get approval from the wife, but PBS is just too expensive for home lab/hobby usage (in my personal opinion/situation that is :) ) If by paying for a HomeLab license you could remove the dialog box that there's no valid subscription and you get access to updates but that's it. You might get a reply on a forum topic but also, you might not because "you only have a HomeLab subscription". I'd be happy to make a yearly payment PVE & PBS with my PayPal account if it's a reasonable amount or maybe even a lifetime subscription if it's more less affordable.

I've also read that you can also support by posting bugs. No-one told me off here and it's probably personal but the fact that I don't have a license makes me feel like a guilty leech and "not really belong here". As in: This is forum for people who actually paid for a license and deserve to be supported.

So basically, please consider making PVE & PBS affordable for home enthusiasts and grab my money ;)
 
It has been suggested before, but I'd love to support the Proxmox team financially by buying a subscription. Only the lowest for PVE and PBS combined is just too steep for a home lab enthusiast with a "limited" budget (Wife Acceptance Factor also plays a role).
Same here, especially when running multiple PBS's on different systems (because you don't want your backups all in the same place). In an enterprise you probably have many more PVE's than PBS's, which might explain the price difference (or maybe support actually does take more time). I think having just a PVE subscription is a good start (and more than most).

EDIT: A previous thread about donations, which also refers to the thread before that.
 
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If by paying for a HomeLab license you could remove the dialog box that there's no valid subscription and you get access to updates but that's it. You might get a reply on a forum topic but also, you might not because "you only have a HomeLab subscription"
What you are describing is basically exactly what the "Communitiy" subscription is. There is no additional support already. You simply want the same thing but cheaper using another name ;)

I'd be happy to make a yearly payment PVE & PBS with my PayPal account if it's a reasonable amount
They offered it in the past, but no one used it for years, so it got removed.

I've also read that you can also support by posting bugs. No-one told me off here and it's probably personal but the fact that I don't have a license makes me feel like a guilty leech and "not really belong here". As in: This is forum for people who actually paid for a license and deserve to be supported.
To ease your conscience you could help some people by answering a question in this forum once a week.
 
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What you are describing is basically exactly what the "Communitiy" subscription is. There is no additional support already. You simply want the same thing but cheaper using another name ;)
Yes perhaps. I'd love to pay for PVE and PBS but $600/year for one PVE/PBS is just too expensive for I guess most of the home lab admins. Only speaking for myself here though :)

I guess 105$/year would go for the wife. But $600/year, I can't sell that to her :p
 
so, get only the PVE community subscription.
for pbs, you can buy another pve subscription, wich will be not used, so always pbs nag screen, but you will fill the pockets of same people.
 
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+1 for the community subscription being too expensive for some homelab use, or some kind of homelab subscription that (somehow) takes into account the level of hardware or something.

There seems to be a disconnect between what one might spend on hardware for a home-lab setup vs what is required to get the cheapest subscription.

i.e. I'd like to help, as so far it all looks top-notch, but I can't justify 315 EURO a year.
 
+1 for the community subscription being too expensive for some homelab use, or some kind of homelab subscription that (somehow) takes into account the level of hardware or something.

There seems to be a disconnect between what one might spend on hardware for a home-lab setup vs what is required to get the cheapest subscription.

i.e. I'd like to help, as so far it all looks top-notch, but I can't justify 315 EURO a year.
same here I have a home lab with 3 low power system, I would love to support proxmox but 315 is wayyy ( like add at least 10 Ys since i live in SEA) too much. It would be great to have a cheaper license with a limit to how many nodes we can use like how portainer does it.

edit: for context to how out of my budget the subscription is, my 3 hosts cost me a total of around 600 Euro ( equivalent ). There's no way I can justify spending 1.5 hosts / year.
 
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same here I have a home lab with 3 low power system, I would love to support proxmox but 315 is wayyy ( like add at least 10 Ys since i live in SEA) too much. It would be great to have a cheaper license with a limit to how many nodes we can use like how portainer does it.
Proxmox seems to be fine with people using all of the software for free and without donating. I do believe their main targets are enterprise customers with many more systems.
edit: for context to how out of my budget the subscription is, my 3 hosts cost me a total of around 600 Euro ( equivalent ). There's no way I can justify spending 1.5 hosts / year.
I just got a single cheapest subscription to "donate to Proxmox" yearly and don't actually use it (except to show it here in the hope people follow the example). Please be aware that it's not all of nothing and there is some choice within their business model.
 
Proxmox seems to be fine with people using all of the software for free and without donating. I do believe their main targets are enterprise customers with many more systems.
I must speak for myself but I'm a home labber and a professional sysadmin. I'm trying to get ProxMox in our company in favor of VMware. It makes sense for the home labbers to get a cheap license. If you can use it, you learn it, and can promote it.
 
I must speak for myself but I'm a home labber and a professional sysadmin. I'm trying to get ProxMox in our company in favor of VMware. It makes sense for the home labbers to get a cheap license. If you can use it, you learn it, and can promote it.
There is no license for Proxmox, only paid support subscriptions. You can use it and learn it without a subscription (or license) and ask questions to the community. I don't understand why it makes sense to have a cheap paid version also (except for enterprise support, which is obviously not free).
 

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