Every SaaS investment should be justified by return on investment. That’s the fundamental premise behind the subscription model: predictable spend, continuous innovation, and improved outcomes.
Arena PLM breaks that promise.
Most SaaS providers raise prices annually to cover their costs. While nobody likes to pay more, customers understand that those price increases fund R&D to build new features and capabilities that increase their productivity. That extra productivity has to justify the increase in cost for customers to remain happy.
So, how does Arena justify price increases with little to no product advancement? And on a platform with long-standing gaps that continue to hinder productivity. There’s no added value, no new functionality, and no real innovation to show for the escalating spend—and yet costs keep climbing.
In short, Arena has become a high-cost, low-yield asset.
Arena’s Pricing Model Creates Long-Term Problems
Based on what we consistently hear from customers who have made the switch to Propel, Arena’s pricing model doesn’t just lack transparency—it actively works against user success.
- Renewal price spikes hit hard once you’re locked in.
- Add-ons are the norm, not the exception—essential features are paywalled instead of included in standard upgrades.
- SOWs often underrepresent actual implementation costs, leading to inevitable and expensive change orders.
- Partner implementations are often underscoped, with follow-on work billed at higher rates once initial discounts disappear.
These tactics make it difficult to plan, budget, or scale with confidence.
Every SaaS vendor—including Propel—has add-ons and experiences price increases. The difference with Arena is the lack of upfront clarity and predictability compared to others.
Unpredictable Costs Undermine Your Ability to Operate
Arena’s model forces difficult trade-offs that can hinder growth, impact profitability, or both:
- If you want to expand features but don’t have the extra budget, you’re stuck without key functionality—and that erodes productivity.
- If you do have the budget, every feature expansion requires more investment, making it harder to hit profitability goals.
That’s not a sustainable operating model. Every SaaS company—including Propel —offers add-ons and new products that cost money. The question buyers should ask is whether those add-ons feel like a different product or special feature that warrants a separate cost, or whether it feels like table stakes for your existing license.
Modern manufacturers need confidence in their tools and clarity in their costs—not a guessing game every time they want to innovate.
No Innovation, Yet the Costs Keep Rising
Here’s the bottom line: Arena isn’t getting better—it’s just getting more expensive.
The reason is simple: Arena is no longer a priority for its parent company, PTC. All investment is flowing toward Windchill, the flagship PLM, to fund its transition to the cloud.
Let’s call it what it is: a cash cow. A static product wrapped in a dynamic pricing model that generates good cash flow thanks to periodic revenue increases and static R&D.
When asked what new capabilities Arena has delivered in recent years, the answers are either underwhelming or overdue—features that should have been part of the core product long ago.
And if you think artificial intelligence is going to magically fix this? Think again.
Without a strong foundation—like intuitive search, configurable workflows, and unified data—AI will only exacerbate Arena’s deficiencies.
Propel is a Better Path Forward
Propel was built to be different. We reinvest your subscription dollars into R&D that delivers real value—fast.
Our platform evolves continuously, our product roadmap is ambitious and transparent, and our customer relationships are grounded in clarity and trust.
With Propel, you get:
- A modern, cloud-native PLM that’s truly intuitive
- Predictable pricing aligned with value delivered
- Enterprise-grade search, workflow, and analytics capabilities
- No-code/low-code UI built on a robust and flexible architecture
- Native AI that actually does what it says
And yes, like any SaaS platform, we have add-ons and incremental pricing—but it’s done openly, with clear value and purpose.
Final Thought: Invest in a Platform That Invests in You
SaaS platforms should never feel like sunk costs. If your current solution delivers diminishing returns year after year, it's time to reevaluate.
Innovation isn’t a line item. It’s a strategy. And it starts with choosing the right platform.
