Backbase courts small Ajax development shops

By Tom Sanders on Mar 21, 2007 12:30 PM
Filed under Software

Ajax framework vendor introduces per-developer licensing.

Ajax development tool vendor Backbase has unveiled a new licensing programme designed to appeal to smaller software development shops.

Backbase has been focusing on selling its Asynchronous JavaScript and XML development framework to enterprises such as Bank of America, Canon and Motorola.

The package is currently priced on a per-CPU basis for deployment, test and development servers with prices starting at US$6,000 per CPU.

The new pricing model offers a flat fee of US$2,000 per developer seat for any Backbase development suite and up to two CPUs.

Developers typically use multiple development tools when crafting Ajax applications. Microsoft's tools are used in 56.3 percent of these cases, followed by Google's Web Toolkit (38.1 percent), Eclipse (20.4 per cent) and Yahoo(19.3 percent).

Of the developers questioned, just 3.3 percent were using Backbase, according to the figures from analyst firm Evans Data Corp.

About half of all software developers are expected to write Ajax code by 2008, the firm predicted last year.

The programming technique is slowly moving up the development chain, expanding from a base of hobbyists and web-centric firms to include traditional enterprises.

Evans Data Corp declined to comment on Backbase's move, but did point out that most development organisations with 10 or fewer employees spend less than US$5,000 on development tools annually.