Is there an overall limit on how much time you can use EAP builds?

Answered

I've been trying out PhpStorm EAP builds for a couple of months. Each new build released would bump expiration time a few extra weeks. However, I installed 171.4330.2 on 19th April (the very same it was released) and it's expiring tomorrow 27th April, after only one week. A prompt on startup warns me that my evaluation licence expires in less than 1 day and I'm basically only given two options: buy a stable release or continue evaluation.

Is there a global limit on how much time you can join the early access program?

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2 comments

Hi there,

>Is there a global limit on how much time you can join the early access program?

No.

But ...

1) EAP builds for major releases (2016.3, 2017.1, 2017.2 ...) come with own 30 days license (so they are "free" -- anyone can use it).

2) EAP builds for minor releases (e.g. 2017.1.3 -- latest one) require proper license/subscription. Without license/subscription IDE runs in Trial mode.

It has been like that since first version.

The reasoning is simple:

  • For major releases dev needs as much feedback as possible on new features/functionality -- code is fresh so it can be buggy and unstable.
  • Minor releases the code is stable .. and it's mainly a maintenance releases (some bugs fixed etc)
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Very clear explanation, thank you. I wasn't aware of that distinction.

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