A True "Killer Deal" on MSDN Subscriptions

If you’re in the market for an MSDN Subscription, as I was recently–I missed my “renewal date” while I was overseas for the last week of January and the first week of February, and found myself in a “grace period” upon my return as a consequence–don’t overlook the third-party channel. For years, I’d been buying my subscriptions direct from Microsoft, but when I ran into trouble renewing my subscription online this morning at the MS Partner site, I decided to go shopping and see what kinds of deals I could find on the outside, as it were.

Download this free guide

Download: Our 23-Page Editorial Collection of Windows 10 Blog Content

Inside this exclusive download offer, you’ll find a compilation of all of our top followed Windows 10 blog content written by our expert editors, who combined have over 30 years of experience in the IT industry. We’ve compiled a variety of these expert blogs for you - offering best practices and breakdowns designed to help IT professionals tackle the top Windows 10 tips, tricks, concerns and more.

Start Download

• Corporate E-mail Address:

  You forgot to provide an Email Address.

  This email address doesn’t appear to be valid.

  This email address is already registered. Please login.

  You have exceeded the maximum character limit.

  Please provide a Corporate E-mail Address.

By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

By submitting your personal information, you agree that TechTarget and its partners may contact you regarding relevant content, products and special offers.

You also agree that your personal information may be transferred and processed in the United States, and that you have read and agree to the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.

The MSDN Subscription home page

Boy, am I glad I did: I found a 3-year subscription deal at Software International (www.software-intl.com) that cost less than two years’ worth of full-price MSDN but delivered three years worth of service at that price. And because the company’s in Colorado, and I’m in Texas, no sales tax on the purchase, either (an additional savings of around $100 as compared to direct purchase from Microsoft). I ended up paying $1,086 for three years for an annual rate of $362 per year. Compare that to a straight annual renewal at Microsoft for $699 plus tax (total $756) for the OS-only MSDN license and $1,099 plus tax (total $1,190) for the same package I just purchased — namely, the Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Professional license — and you’ll quickly get a sense for the kinds of savings available on the open market.

Like the old song goes “You better shop around.” There are deals out there, and they go all the way into Open License and other software arrangements with Microsoft, where the same kinds of discounts are available, even at the enterprise level. Let your purchasing folks know that there are some awesome deals to be found in the reseller channel, right now.