Buying HSPiP, Hansen Solubility Parameters in Practice
Price
HSPiP costs $1450 for a single copy. For 2-5 copies (made in one purchase) it is $1200/copy and for 6+ copies it is $1100. See "formalities" below for our generous licensing and support terms. The main point is that you get free updates and free support for life. These prices are for on-line purchases. The prices were raised on 1 Jan 2024 with the launch of the 6th Edition - they had been fixed since the 5th Edition in 2015. Of course all current users get free upgrades to the new version.
Purchasing on-line
Depending on whether you are buying 1 copy, 2-5 or 6+ copies (with their automatic discounts), choose the button that takes you to our secure Stripe checkout. You will receive a full purchase invoice.
We have just switched over to Stripe as our eCommerce supplier. There might be some minor procedural issues which we will quickly resolve. But don't worry, your purchase and license will be fine! Obviously we will remove this paragraph as soon as everything is running smoothly
In fact we have found some issues with Japanese sales which Stripe are slow to sort out. Until then Dr Hiroshi Yamamoto is in charge of purchases from Japan: How2Buy in Japan
Once we are notified that the purchase has gone through, we send you the license(s) and Download/Install instructions.
Off-line purchases
For those who insist on purchasing off-line (it's a puzzle to us why anyone would choose to do so as it's so cost/labour intensive) we charge a $100 admin fee. Please contact steven@stevenabbott.co.uk for quotes etc. Purchases are via his company www.stevenabbott.co.uk.
For those who like to purchase via re-sellers, the re-sellers buy on-line at the standard price(s) and then charge you whatever they like for the service they offer.
Support
Any questions after purchase, please contact Steven Abbott directly: steven@stevenabbott.co.uk
Download and Updates
The installer is always downloadable as HSPiPInstall.msi and is currently v6.0.04. We offer free updates to all users - just download and install over the previous version (no need to uninstall first). Users are usually notified of major updates but need to check from time to time to see if there is a newer minor version.
Windows only
The software is designed only for Microsoft Windows. Previous versions worked on all versions of Windows but from the 5th Edition it works only on 64x (i.e. modern) PCs under Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11. The package does not work under Linux or on the Mac (except under Windows emulation mode where it works well). The installation puts the necessary program files into the relevant Program Files folder and then all the user-accessible files (lots of them!) into My Documents/HSPiP Data. Files go to no other destination and there is no external internet access during installation or running.
The formalities
Each user gets a license. It is not tied to a specific PC and we adopt "fair use" policies so that you can use the license on, say, your desktop and on a travel laptop. The licenses do not time expire and users get free upgrades to new versions. This is our "thank you" for the feedback we get from our large user community.
We love hearing from HSPiP users so we offer free technical support whenever they hit a problem. Often the issues are best resolved with an on-line live demo on Steven Abbott's laptop. Simply email steven@stevenabbott.co.uk to arrange how to do it. If you have a corporate WebEx-style system it can be done that way, otherwise he can invite you to a session that works through an HTML viewer so there are no corporate IT problems of having to download software.
Academics
We do not offer an academic discount (it's far too difficult to manage) but we are happy for a single license to be used by everyone within a single research group (not a whole institution!)
Large corporations and networks
Many large corporations have decided to have HSPiP available throughout (parts of) their organisation. To get a corporate license we agree what constitutes a "fair use" number of licenses. If a large research centre has 10 power users and another 10 occasional users it is unfair for us to demand purchase of a total of 20 licenses and unfair to us that only 10 licenses should be used. So we reach a fair compromise.
Rather than implement a network version that can soak up a lot of our time and IT time, it turns out to be useful for a company's shared data files to reside on the server with each local user able to use their local files or access the global ones. One HSPiP power user is all that's required to keep such a system in good shape. Many large corporations operate in this manner with good success.
Command Line Interface
For those large corporations who wish to do HSPiP calculations via something like Pipeline Pilot, then a CLI license is available that unlocks a large suite of functions that can be carried out on your server. The results are identical to the GUI version as they use exactly the same code. Email Steven Abbott for a copy of the CLI documentation and to discuss the cost of a CLI license.
Installation
The installation and running are designed to be as easy as possible - it is all done via a standard Microsoft .msi installer and the software is all standard Microsoft DotNet. For personal users, there should be few issues. However, corporate IT policies may pose some problems. If you are installing on your own PC with Admin rights you can skip most of the following few paragraphs. Otherwise, show this webpage to your corporate IT experts if you or they have any doubt. It will all make sense to them!
- First, download HSPiPInstall.msi (see above) which is a Microsoft installer file.
- Some companies place restrictions on downloading files which install software so you may have to consult your IT department. To install it requires Administrator privileges which again might require IT help.
- It also requires the Microsoft DotNet Framework 4.6 (Microsoft’s standard for modern programming) which is already installed on Win 10 PCs. If you don’t already have that version of the DotNet Framework, the installer will automatically redirect you to the Microsoft site where you can obtain a free download, but again this might require your IT help.
- Note that the installation places files only in its own folder. All Settings and Data files are saved to your My Documents/HSPiP Data. This allows users to access these key datafiles without the the problems of access rights or unhiding folder. If the installation is via Admin, makes sure that you end up with the HSPiP Data folder in your My Documents, not Admin's.
- Once it's installed you need a license to run it. When you purchase on-line you automatically get a temporary license HSPiP.license so you can be up and running immediately. Shortly afterwards your personal license is emailed and should replace the temporary one. The license has to be placed in the HSPiP program folder, typically c:\program files\Hansen-Solubility\HSPiP. Don't try to "run" or "install" the license, just place it in that folder - and not the user's HSPiP Data folder. Note that from the 5th Edition the program is in Program Files, not Program Files (x86). If you have an older version it will not be overwritten when the 5th Edition is installed.
- Occasionally within some corporations the program will issue a file error warning. This is invariably because "permissions" are far too restrictive on simple files such as the .hsd files (simple tab-separated text files) that store HSPiP data.