(Edited to add context) Paywalling features most other apps have for free isn't a great look - eviltoast

#EDITED TO ADD CONTEXT:

The developer has responded quite a bit in the comments here, and has made adjustments to the free tier feature set based on my and others’ feedback. See more info in this update thread: https://lemm.ee/post/12353243

If you’re reading this post after update 1.0.7 I suggest you skim these comments and that update thread before forming an opinion.

#ORIGINAL POST:

I like this app a lot, I can tell there’s been a ton of love and hard work put into it.

The strategy for monetization leaves a bit of a sour taste though.

For one, nobody wants another subscription - and $30 lifetime for a brand new app is a huge asking price compared to, say, Apollo, which was $5 or so (with a subscription tier for things that actually made sense to buy due to recurring cost).

But this app is paywalling basic stuff like a comment jump button (everyone else has this for free), content filtering, video scrubbing, and various other things that have no recurring cost to the developer.

My recommendation, take it or leave it, if you want my money make it a reasonable one time purchase for things that don’t cost you money (under $10 imo, $5 would’ve been an easy sell).

If you want to justify a subscription model you are gonna need to build features that justify it - push notifications, stuff like that.

  • Nix@merv.news
    323·
    1 year ago

    Yeah its a really bad look and the $30 price tag is so intense. Procreate Dreams is $20 for a fully fledged animation program that competes with Adobe Animate…

    $5 would be reasonable. I bought Toot because it’s a good mastodon app. But I won’t be paying any subscription for any apps.

    • kobra@lemm.ee
      123·
      1 year ago

      I’m glad to see this topic come up because it’s been weighing on me too. I want to support the devs but the $30 lifetime price is just way too high unless it covers iOS, iPad, AND macOS apps (with syncing!)

      In addition to the extremely high price, not even being able to ‘trial’ the fully featured app is just… weird.

      I stopped using Avelon when they paywalled a bunch of features and just over the course of writing this comment I think I’ve decided I don’t want to support a dev like this 😕

      • Nix@merv.news
        121·
        1 year ago

        I only use ios so the bundle wouldn’t do anything for me. I just wanna pay once for an app. This whole renting this is getting absurd why does every app expect to soo much payment when massive apps like Procreate and Procreate Dreams understand they can pay their teams with one time payment of apps

        • kobra@lemm.ee
          51·
          1 year ago

          I was talking about the $30 lifetime price. Absolutely no way I would subscribe and pay monthly.

      • danielton@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz
        61·
        1 year ago

        Me too. I liked Avelon at first and was even on TestFlight, but a subscription (or $30) for the jump button is ridiculous.

        When I saw the pro option on TestFlight, I was hoping pro would be something reasonable like a one-time $5 or $10, but nope, everything is a subscription now.

      • LazaroFilm@lemmy.world
        41·
        1 year ago

        I decided to I oh do one month for no to test it. But I agree. It’s the nicest app in terms of functionalities for iOS but the pay is too steep and too restrictive.