SparkLabs Blog.

The latest news and releases.


Store and Licensing Improvements

We've been working hard to improve the experience of purchasing Viscosity, and so we're pleased to announce the improvements and changes we've made over the past year. While these are not as glamorous as feature additions to Viscosity itself, we hope these changes help improve the Viscosity experience and show that we're listening to all feedback we receive.

Licensing Improvements

  • Cross-Platform Licensing: Late last year we began to offer a cross-platform license option (as an alternative to separate macOS and Windows platform licenses). This has been an overwhelming success, and we greatly appreciate the positive feedback we've received from both home and business users.
  • Server-Locked Licensing for Education: A common request from schools and universities was a better licensing option for students and visiting guests. To address this we have introduced "server-locked" licensing, which allows for Viscosity to be licensed for unlimited use for a particular list of VPN servers. This option is only available for educational institutions, and more information can be found here.

Store Improvements

  • Upgrade Section: With the introduction of the cross-platform license option we wanted to provide an easy method to upgrade from a single-platform license (for those moving between Mac and Windows machines). The Upgrade Section also provides an instant way to add seats to an existing volume license and automatically applies volume discounts.
  • Gift Option: It's now possible to purchase Viscosity on behalf of others using the new "This purchase is a gift" option. This option allows different license and billing details to be entered, as well as choosing what email address the license email is sent to (so you can choose to send it straight along from us, or deliver it yourself).
  • Direct Credit Card Processing: The store now allows direct payment using Visa, MasterCard, and Amex cards. This was a long time coming, and avoids the need to use the PayPal payment gateway for these card types.
  • Apple Pay Support: The store now also supports payments via Apple Pay when using Safari on macOS or iOS (for linked Visa, MasterCard, and Amex cards). Apple Pay offers a number of security benefits over standard credit card payments, so we encourage those with the option to give it a try.
  • Bitcoin Support: Support for Bitcoin payments has been a common request for many years, however due to compliance and legal issues it was difficult to accept it as an Australian company. We're please to now be able to activate its use, which should help those purchasing Viscosity from countries where credit card access is limited. We're also working towards adding support for additional crypto-currencies including Ethereum and Litecoin.

For our Australian users only, we're required to begin charging Goods and Services Tax (GST) on purchases. This does not affect purchases from those in other countries. Users can download an invoice from the View Invoice page for claiming back the GST where applicable.

If you have any feedback to offer about Viscosity, our online store, or anything else, please don't hesitate to contact us. And for existing Viscosity users, we have some exciting Viscosity feature additions planned for early next year, so please keep an eye our our blog and Twitter feed!