#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.

  • evgiz@lemm.eeM
    1·
    10 months ago

    Hi, sorry for the late (and long) reply. You’re right, $30 is definitely a lot to be asking for an app. I’ll try to explain where I’m coming from, and why I’ve landed on this price & monetization model. If anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve things while considering my points as well I’m definitely open to discuss.

    But this app is paywalling basic stuff like a comment jump button (everyone else has this for free), content filtering, video scrubbing

    When I was working on this update I spent a lot of time considering which features were “essential” and which features were more convenience/nice-to-have features. Two of the bigger features I’ve decided should be free are multiple accounts & post creation, both of which have been paid features in other apps. I thought everyone having access to these was way more important than app themes or a smart jump button.

    Everything that was free in the last version is still free, and of course there’s a bunch of new non-pro stuff too. My intent with this update was not to paywall “basic” features, but to offer more hardcore users some extra niceties that in turn support development. I don’t expect the majority of people to upgrade, which is totally fine. I’ll still keep improving the app for everyone regardless.

    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

    I get that the lifetime price is high, I really do. The #1 reason I’m going for this type of subscription model is that Lemmy is so small. Apps like Apollo easily had tens of thousands of users and could therefore charge way way less. For some context - if every single active Avelon user paid for a $5 upgrade, which I’m sure you’d agree is unreasonable, that’d still be barely enough to finance one month of development. That’s it. I’m not saying this justifies the price, but Lemmy is still very niche, and with such a niche market the development cost will naturally be spread among much fewer users. With the slow growth of the Lemmy userbase a one-time purchase is very risky from my perspective, and I want Avelon to make sense over a long period of time. I think the devs of both sync (which is $99) and Bean (which is $50) realized this too.

    I do believe Avelon can continue to play a part in lowering the barrier of entry to Lemmy and improving the platform as a whole by pushing for more high quality apps. I hope to see Lemmy continue to become the best link-aggregator platform ever, and as that happens prices will naturally decrease.

    • 'M' as in 'MANCY'@lemmy.ca
      1·
      10 months ago

      I, for one, don’t think your pricing is absurd and your explanation makes total sense.

      All those paywalled features are not necessities. With the free version you’re still getting a smooth and polished app. What even is the smart jump function? I’ve been enjoying the app without it and am okay with it being a paid feature.

      People using other apps’ stagnation as an argument are not realizing that stagnation occurs because devs lose steam. They lose steam because there’s no longer any incentive to develop. I don’t think it’s fair to ask devs for more features and continue to maintain apps for free.

    • gianni@lemmy.ca
      1·
      10 months ago

      Hey FWIW I support your pricing model and feature decisions. I have paid for lifetime and would consider also using a tip jar feature for future releases. Thank you for Avelon!