Perch V4 (and future) Megathread

  • I agree. The cost (though significant with 42 licences) is a small issue to me compared to the stability of the product and reliability of the support, which looks very, very doubtful. My business thrived with Perch, but there's no way I could continue with the current instability of product development, support and communication.

  • Particularly given the way Perch has been discontinued and Runway has been updated. No warning, explanation or support.


    It's a tough market for CMS's, particularly at Runway's price point. It seems odd then to abandon Perch's community, it's most loyal supporters, the ones... the only ones giving technical support. It's a crying shame.

  • Let them do their thing behind the scenes. Sounds like something is happening, maybe just go with the flow! They run things at a slower pace, but it's not end of the world.


    Just remember what Drew said about Runway - it's the CMS he "always wanted to make". Standard Perch was a stepping stone to Runway - which is still good for smaller sites. Just pass on license cost to client. The "power" of Runway is under hood and in collection items, which you can ignore and only use content regions if you wish, like with basic Perch. I'll be glad if the focus can be on one product, as that may mean more confidence for everyone. But at this point, it's all speculation I guess.

  • How I look at things, is thus: prior to acquisition by venture capitalists aka the "new owners", drew did whatever he could to get the CMS, i.e., Perch up to scratch in terms of PHP8 compatibility.


    The new owners, went on to fix any remaining bugs in this regard.


    Does that not in and of itself allay any or all fears?

  • Also, if I click the “Buy a license” button in my account, it tells me to buy a `Perch 4.0 single website license` @ € 65 as well as a `Perch Runway 4.0 single website license` @ € 219.
    How am I going to explain to my 29 Standard Perch clients, that they will have to pay € 284, plus my work to transfer their site to Runway, for their next update? Some of them are tiny companies.
    I might as well convince them to switch CMSes. Might be the easier sell, as things stand with the new owners’ communications and all.
    (Sorry, am getting exceedingly bitter over this whole mess.)

    I was able to bring up the cart, for Perch V4.

  • Yes, the cart is available but the Perch 4 download is not. On the public site here, https://grabaperch.com/download, the Perch 4 zip download is empty. Try it and open the download file, it's empty. The Perch 4 download is not available in your account either.

    Clive Walker, I have been running Perch v4 for over a week on one of my websites. I downloaded from my License Account Page on 01/08/2022.


    Health check

    PHP 7.4.27 is up to date

    MySQL 10.2.41-MariaDB-cll-lve is up to date

    Image processing available

    File upload size is low. You can only upload files up to 2M.

    Summary information

    Perch: 4.0, PHP: 7.4.27, MySQL: 10.2.41, with

    Server OS: Linux, litespeed

    Installed apps: content (4.0), assets (4.0), categories (4.0), perch_forms (1.12), perch_members (1.6.4)

    App runtimes: <?php $apps_list = [ 'perch_members', 'perch_forms' ];

    PERCH_LOGINPATH: /perch

    PERCH_PATH: /home/naythank/domain.com/perch

    PERCH_CORE: /home/naythank/domain.com/perch/core

    PERCH_RESFILEPATH: /home/naythank/domain.com/perch/resources

    Image manipulation: GD

    PHP limits: Max upload 2M, Max POST 8M, Memory: 128M, Total max file upload: 2M

    F1: 2e3f0c08e5dfba6417f6ff8947859cdb

    Resource folder writeable: Yes

    HTTP_HOST: domain.com

    DOCUMENT_ROOT: /home/naythank/domain.com

    REQUEST_URI: /perch/core/settings/diagnostics/

    SCRIPT_NAME: /perch/core/settings/diagnostics/index.php

  • Clive Walker, I have been running Perch v4 for over a week on one of my websites. I downloaded from my License Account Page on 01/08/2022.

    I don't have that option in my account. I've only got Perch Runway 4 download available. I don't know what you have and I'm not really sure what's available at the moment. There hasn't been an announcement from Perch team so it's rather confusing.

  • I don't have that option in my account. I've only got Perch Runway 4 download available. I don't know what you have and I'm not really sure what's available at the moment. There hasn't been an announcement from Perch team so it's rather confusing.

    Clive, oops, I misspoke... I actually have Runway 4. I am sorry if I caused any confusion.

  • No NEW licences available for plain old Perch, just Runway V4

    So IF this is the way it's going with the new owners, how long before preV4 vanilla Perch sites fall on their head?

    How long will plain Perch sites continue to work?
    All my sites are for small website owners for whom plain Perch as opposed to Runway was more than adequate.

    They don't need Runway, I don't want to charge them again for a CMS upgrade.

    Can an old plain Perch site even be upgraded to Runway without wholesale rebuild?

    The lack of a clear steer from the owners is most unnerving ...

  • I don't see any reason why older Perch sites will fall over [unless there is a PHP compatibility issue with PHP > 8].


    I'm not suggesting a Perch -> Runway upgrade for my clients unless there are clear benefits for doing this.


    The Perch -> Runway upgrade is not too complex in my opinion.


    I agree 100%, the lack of communication is terrible. This is not a good way to run a software business imo. As a result, I'm not comfortable suggesting Perch for new projects at the moment.

  • Screenshot from my perch account page. Not too sure what you’re adding to the cart when you purchase a Perch V4 license nascent . Maybe it’s a v3 license and they’ve messed up the labelling on the cart to say v4. The “buy a license” link on the perch site redirects straight to runway.


    This is more communication then the new owners have made in months. if you need any more indication that Perch is being run over by runway, I don’t know what to tell you.

  • It has been pointed out that the notice in your Perch account probably means that standard Perch licenses will work with Runway 4. I must admit I misinterpreted the notice. You would still need to upgrade your site of course but would not incur additional license costs. Good news if that's the case.

    Just existing ones I assume?