The date has been officially announced for Urchin’s retirement this year: March 28th, 2012.
Once purchased, Urchin licenses are permanent. Existing users should be able to continue using the product unless or until their Urchin Software installation becomes unusable due to possible incompatible operating systems updates in the future. All of the available pertinent information about how the discontinuation will affect the software’s functionality is covered on the Urchin Website FAQ.
Urchin licenses and upgrades will only be sold until March 28th, 2012. After March, Google will not be “supporting” Urchin in that they will not be producing any further releases or patches. (With this announcement they did release version 7.200, available for free 30-day trial now).
Urchin Software was acquired by Google in 2005 and is the predecessor of Google Analytics, which is the recommended replacement according to Google. However the differences between Urchin and Google Analytics are not trivial and should be considered before switching. Google Analytics Premium is also listed as an alternative for those who are looking for more enterprise level features than the standard Google Analytics offers.
If you were considering an Urchin upgrade or purchase, please contact us before Urchin is no longer available for purchase after March 28th, 2012.
