CENOS Launches Affordable And Easy-to-use Simulation Software For Antenna Design
Over the past few months we have posted a few times about the beta of CENOS, a new antenna modelling and simulation design package. Recently CENOS has exited it's beta testing phase, and they have put out a press release about the first release.
Of most importance is that the software is affordable for hobbyist's, with a 10-day free trial and subscription price of €20 (US$25) per month for hobbyist use (no live engineering support).
Electromagnetics simulation software company CENOS (Riga, Latvia) continues on its mission to democratize simulation software by releasing its newest application designed for radio frequency and antenna design engineers. CENOS released its first electromagnetics simulation software focused on the induction heating applications in 2017 and it proved to be a success - mainly because of the simple and straightforward user experience and the specialization and focus on a single industry. After a year of development and testing in close cooperation with its avid beta-tester community, the Antenna Design simulation software was finally released for public use at the end of April, 2021.
CENOS Antenna Design is an intuitive FEM-based software that helps engineers to speed up RF antenna design, it solves Maxwell’s equations directly with no simplifications or limitations. Therefore, the results provided by CENOS are accurate for wide ranges of geometries and antennas, including very complex geometries. For instance, the software is good for high Q, multi-port simulations with arbitrary 3D structures. It is specialized for the simulation of microstrip- and wire-type antennas that include various geometries (fractal, helix, horn, loop, slot, patch, spiral, and others), as well as dipole and monopole antennas.
CENOS co-founder Dr. phys. Mihails Scepanskis: “Two years ago we launched a specialized induction heating simulation software to cover the growing demand in the SME sector - smaller equipment manufacturers, tooling shops, and production plants. Following the success in the low-frequency applications, we decided to move to the microwaves with the same mission - to democratize the simulation software, make it accessible for every engineer. I believe, it is an awkward situation in the market - engineers have to choose either to pay tons of money for enterprise-type generic simulation packages to utilize just a fraction of their functionality or to use over-simplified 1D approximations with the hobbyist-level software. With CENOS we have leveraged the power of open-source algorithms to break the status quo - to deliver a full-functionality FEM software for price-sensitive business users and individuals.”
CENOS Antenna Design is free to try for 10 days, after which the users can choose from the two subscription plans - for an individual or business use, starting from 20 euros per month ($25). The business version includes the features that help to automate and speed up simulation processes and has more integrations with the existing software and, most importantly, it has a live customer support through the chat and video calls. More features are planned to be added in 2021 and thus the prices may be increased over time, so now it is a good moment to subscribe and get all the future updates for a lower price.
The company name CENOS stands for “Connecting ENgineering Open Source” highlighting the new software approach they invented. It is a platform that connects the best of community-driven open-source algorithms into one seamless user experience and since it is a desktop software - the data do not leave the owner’s computer. CENOS was founded in 2017 by 3 PhDs in physics and mathematics who committed themselves to the democratization of the simulation software by making it easy, affordable, and secure for every engineer. CENOS is a startup, funded by the leading San Francisco early-stage investor ‘500 Startups’, the leading B2B European accelerator Startup Wise Guys, and the cohort of the Baltic business angels.
CENOS offers a 10-day trial, follow the link to sign up: https://www.cenos-platform.com/antenna-design
It sounds like they invested a lot of work in wrapping usability around a lot of tough to apply math, plus they extended it in new directions to accommodate novel element cross sections and bend. I don’t doubt they’d like to earn money from their sizeable efforts.
People who use these tools will range from curious hobbyists to professional RF engineers. A hobbyist may only to be looking to home build some device for personal use, while an RF engineer may be using it to optimize product designs for their company to sell devices with a competitive advantage for a premium price and higher profit.
Normally a tool is sold at a single price; you pay $20 for a shovel that you use a couple times in your yard, but the same tool might be sold to a road crew who will use it constantly to help build a million dollar road. It’s still a $20 shovel
They set their price in order to recoup their expenses in time and education, all to put food on their tables. Beyond that, they’re trying to offer a substantial discount to hobbyists — which they are under no obligation to do.
And you’re free to go to the library and crack open a book on Antenna Theory and Design, and do the same work they did for yourself. So that’s always an option.
If it was your product, what discounted pricing scheme would you offer to hobbyists?
would you be willing to pay a $5 per day subscription for a $20 shovel? that’s what people are objecting to: not the fact that it costs money at all, but that it’s a recurring charge that’s way more than the product is worth.
and on top of that, they have the nerve to call it “affordable”.
I get that they have to make their money somehow, but $25 a month? Only for hobbyist use? I’d rather put in effort to learn OpenEMS (which is absolutely free). I don’t think they’re gonna have much luck with that price. It still seems like a good software though, and if they made it just a one time fee <$100 I'd 100% consider it
Companies who decide to charge a subscription for their software clearly don’t THINK before they implement their “money machine” plan. It’s either stupid, or deceptive, to only offer this option for occasional users. By deceptive, I mean that maybe they think the user will use the software once or twice and then forget to cancel the subscription, thus making unearned money from the customer’s oversight. Or stupid, because they don’t understand that only professionals need to model antennas every day and that the majority of their potential customers will only want to use the software occasionally. I would love to have the software but NOT at a monthly recurring subscription plan. Same with Adobe and other stupid companies.
“CENOS was founded in 2017 by 3 PhDs in physics and mathematics who committed themselves to the democratization of the simulation software by making it easy, affordable, and secure for every engineer”
LOL April Fools Day never ends…love it!
20 € a month (25$ a month) seems to be just the start for early adopters.
The price will gradually increase with the development of new features as shown in roadmap below https://www.cenos-platform.com/ad-pricing-euro
USD $300 per year recurring forever. Nope, subscription Software as a Service (SaaS) doesn’t work for me as a non-professional that only needs to simulate antennas once in a while.
It may be “affordable” compared to big industry-standard software packages, but the price is far from reasonable for your basic tinkerer/hobbyist. Also, for a company that praises itself on open-source software, it should be easy to find the source code of their solutions. After all, they “believe in the power of community and open-source”. Surely they’re not capitalizing on free and open-source software!
Instead of paying $300 per year for simulating antennas, I will probably spend a fraction of that amount for building prototypes. I also have doubts if the time spent mastering this software is well invested for an occasional user.
I would expect a downgraded software version without access to support to be free for non professional use.
I’ll spend $25 for the package but not over and over again per month. That’s called a money grab, plain and simple. Pretty cheeky to aim a product at hobbyists and then charge them $300/year to use it. This is why I don’t do subscriptions.
because 4NEC2/EZNEC ins’t as shiny….you want people to shell out for a software as a service program…um na thanks.
They will either change their pricing model or fold, mark my words.
$300 *per year* is not affordable.
I’ll pay $25 for a copy but never per mouth. Good luck with that one! I wouldn’t call $25 a month for reasonable.
So they want to play with the big boys and also charge a monthly fee.
Good luck finding enough hobbyists that are willing to pay $300 per year for just one of many shiny toys.
Especially in a situation where most people experience a loss of income, and try to cut back on non-essential spends.