Comment by Chio 2 days ago
I can't share pricing details since they are confidential but if you just want to play with MIP you don't need to buy one of the big three (XPRESS, Gurobi, CPLEX) which are all very expensive but usually available for free for students. There are at least two good open source / free for non-commercial use MIP solvers available:
Check out the Mittelmann benchmarks: https://plato.asu.edu/bench.html
I've used both. They are waaaaaaaaaay faster, waaaay more reliable, and actually have support. You're not going to want to run your product that is responsible for millions off of something without really solid support.
You can get a temporary free license for Gurobi. You are limited to a 1000 node problem size, but you can learn how to use the tool and set up your problem.
If you have a problem that needs Gurobi, it’s worth paying for it. Talk with their sales team. They are happy to help you get started. They know once you know how to use it, and how it can solve problems you will be inclined to use it in the future.
> If you have a problem that needs Gurobi, it’s worth paying for it.
Thit statement is baed on the assumption that it is a "big money" problem. On the other hand, I know lots of problems interesting to nerds for which Gurobi would help (but nerds don't have the money).
This is not true: to get an academic license of Gurobi, you have to be a member of a degree-granting academic institution (otherwise every person could easily (illegally) get one):
> https://www.gurobi.com/academia/academic-program-and-license...
"You must be a faculty member, student, or staff of a recognized degree-granting academic institution.
[...]
To activate your license, you must connect from a recognized academic network."
Their price list wasn't that confidential last I spoke with the sales team. It depends on the license type. Last I heard, it's around $15k/year for a standard subscription license. You can probably trial it for free, or be a student and have longer free access.
How do those stack up against lp_solve (https://lpsolve.sourceforge.net/5.5/index.htm)?