Afternoon everyone,
I wanted to go over a few points related to pricing, stats and the roadmap
Pricing
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Sync for Lemmy is completely free with ads (the same as Sync for Reddit)
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You can remove ads in the account picker or drawer for a one time fee of ~$20
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Sync Ultra also removes ads but it’s not required
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I’ll be working on regional prices over the coming weeks
There are now 24k installed users up from 100 the previous day!
I’m going to be spending the next few days going through all of the comments / messages and fixing any crashes.
As always thanks for the support and hope you’re liking Sync!
Lj
Edit: testing edit
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I just wanted to say I’m sorry for the backslash you’re getting for charging money.
I’m also sorry people expect it to be $1 because the Reddit app was $1 back in 1825. I genuinely believe it’s children complaining, because no functioning adult would complain about a price increase when rent has tripled or quadrupled since the $1 Reddit app. It’s also annoying to see that people think that saying they bought the Reddit app for $1 and enjoyed it for 10 years is an argument. It goes to show it was severely underpriced.
It must be frustrating to have that type of response. Lemmy users seem to be really entitled when it comes to software, and the response you’re getting scares me for the future. I really hope the Boost developer doesn’t cancel his app after seeing how entitled Lemmy users are being right now.
What frustrates me more is the people complaining are continuing to use the free open source apps. Like great, you already have an alternative you prefer. Shut up. Stop bringing others down.
I wish you the best. Thank you for choosing to develop for Lemmy. I have my eyes on Boost, but I’m gladly using your free tier for the time being.
Thanks again!
I paid 5 dollars back in 2016, and I was fully expecting to pay more for this version. 20 dollars for no ads is fine by me. However, I don’t feel like the 100 dollars for lifetime ultra is worth it. Maybe someday when I feel like those extra perks are worthwhile
I paid like 80 bucks about a year ago. And here I am rallying for ljd to keep providing a solid client that works the way I want it to.
I followed like sheep, and baaaah take my money.
I’m fine with a price increase, but 4 times the price is quite the increase. Haven’t made up my mind if it’s worth it for me yet, if it was 5€ or maybe 10€ I would have immediately bought it.
Agreed, $10 would’ve been an insta buy.
At $20 I guess maybe I’ll get it once v1.0 comes out, we’ll see.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What bothers me with this controversy is that it’s not clear for me how one can earn a living in the lemmy ecosystem if everything is FOSS. Also, one should understand that the app is in beta, but there was so much hype around that app.
The people complaining about the price are the people that truly have no understanding how much love and care goes into creating good software. 20 dollars to remove ads for however many hours sync is going to save me with searching for each instance is well worth the cost for supporting development in the future.
👆
Under AUD$2 to AUD$34 is quite the leap, and more than double what I anticipated.
I was very happy to drop AUD$10-15, and I’m aware that what I paid in 20 dickity 13 was a steal.
Quadrupled app costs would have been a bargain in my eyes.
It’s the best app but the pricing is insane. I mean, maybe you have experience from your other apps and you know this is the optimal price, but otherwise, consider changing it. People are surprised by the high price right now.
If it was me, I would price it like this:
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Remove ads - $10 lifetime.
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Ultra - $3 per month, $20 per year, $50 lifetime.
Those sums are realistic and people are likely to find them acceptable. You would get more users instead of less users paying more.
But this is just me and I speak only as someone who never had an app in a appstore. Maybe you know better. But that’s what I would do.
People are comparing very short timescales for ad removal. Lots of 1 week/2 week comparisons.
I hope to have this app for 4 years, like I had for Reddit. That’s $5 per year or 10 cents per week.
Actually, I’ve paid for 1 month of Ultra to see if Lemmy is worth staying on and if LJ updates Sync, but I don’t mind the idea of $20 for a long-time payoff
Insane? $20 to remove ads is insane? That’s 2 Starbucks coffees
The Starbucks coffee price is also insane. $20 for two cups of coffee?
The inflation has made me stop drinking coffee from these chains. It’s just a ridiculous price.
Please don’t call those caffeinated milkshakes “coffee”. Apart from that, I fully agree.
I dont buy Starbucks, and I won’t buy a 20€ Ad-Removal. It is simply to much. 5 would be an instant buy, 10€ may have been ok.
I bought both pro and dev back on the day, and I expected a similar price.
Then don’t? You can use the app for free, free as in a free beer
Two Starbucks coffees are 6 to ~12USD) where I live and I think regionalisation of pricing is the main issue people are raising, not that the app “should be free”.
I see both sides. I think his point is that people can easily spend 20 dollars/euros/pounds a week in petty cash on coffee, snacks etc. If you’d half those costs for two weeks you have your sync money.
On the other hand 20 dollars is a steep price when it comes to mobile applications.
Maybe a breakdown of associated costs from LJ would help justify his current pricing. I’m assuming it’s based on his experiences with Sync for Reddit.
I was a Sync ultra subscriber and I thought it was a bit steep but on the other hand I loved the app and wanted to support him as I understood that a one time cost of 5 dollars for Sync pro wasn’t a realistic pricing model either.
At the end of the day if the Sync for Lemmy ad free cost is realistic for both his costs yet affordable for the average consumer then I don’t mind if Ultra is a bit steeper.
The only problem with the prices is it’s not yet targeted for regional value. In my country the cost to remove ads is a very fine dinner, not a couple of coffees.
Yeah, Lj said he’s taking this week to regionalize pricing
You also need to be insane to pay $10 for a coffee.
There are a lot of insane people out there 🤷♂️
What kind of coffee are you drinking, damn. Besides the point as I can’t afford Starbucks either.
I would say that is still high for ultra. Imo:
Remove ads - $10 lifetime.
Ultra monthly - $1 per month, $10 per year, $30 lifetime.
I would definitely consider lifetime if that was the case. And you would have a ton more users signing up. The number of users should more then make up for the lower prices.
Edit: Question for people downvoting me, do you think I’m being cheap with these prices? $1/month doesn’t sound much, but that is the point. It is still $12/year and the amount of users would more then make up for it.
I think the problem with comparing pricing on Lemmy with comparing pricing on Reddit is the scale of numbers. Reddit love it or hate it, had a much greater potential of paid users. When you have to make similar (or at least sustainable) income from a smaller pool of users, prices are going to reflect that (at least short term).
Also when you math it out pricing isn’t all that crazy:
$20 ad free lifetime = ~$1.70 USD/mo for 1yr = ~$0.06 USD/per day for a year
$100 Ultra = ~$8.34 USD/mo for 1yr - ~$4.17 USD/mo for 2yrs = ~$0.27 USD/per day for a year = ~$0.14/per day for 2yrs
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A few things I want to say:
- Congrats for the successful launch! I hope this project continues to improve.
- The ads aren’t very intrusive, they’re just banners in-between some posts and I’m fine with that.
- This app makes using Lemmy more attractive than using Reddit, which means that the goal of moving me far away from Reddit has been accomplished!
Amazing job so far. Here’s to the future of decentralized social media!
I’ve yet to see a single ad…
Hey mate,
Yeah I’m another one who followed you over from reddit.
I think I maybe need to play with Lemmy a bit more - it’s a bit confusing. Is there a map? A general guide or explanation for the ignorant?
Also, cheers mate - you must have put in a shit load of effort in a very short time to put this together. Fast development since the reddit API bullshit. Respect. An I paid ultra cos I like your work
There are many guides, but depends what you feel is confusing. Read this and see if you understand more:
Thanks, will do.
Anything in particular that confuses you?
I got the lifetime sync ultra subscription for the reddit app for 34.99 after getting the ad-free version and then the pro version because I really liked it. I only used it for half a year, but hey, I guess that’s the gamble you take with lifetime subscriptions. I now see that the lifetime subscription is €114.99?! Is this a mistake? What is going on here?
If I compare it to the 18.99 a year price, it’d take over 6 years to break even. If I compare it to the old 11.99 price, it’d take over 9.5 years. I just don’t understand the logic here.
6 years to break even is probably a bit much, maybe 2-3
But it’s your choice if you want to use it or not. I’m happy using the app with ads
Your lifetime is probably longer than 10 years.
Mine is, but the app might not be.
Proof: Sync for Reddit Ultra Lifetime lasted around half a year.
Also remember it was Reddit that decided Sync’s lifetime, not LJ.
Took me a while to figure out how to sign in with my lemdro.id account.
Maybe it’s embarrassing to admit but I must have scanned through that long list of servers five times before realizing I could just type in my own server. Could be helpful to add a line inviting users to type in their own server.
I did this exact same thing! I kept scrolling up and down thinking I must have missed it somewhere on the list considering lemdro.id is in the Play Store screenshots 😅.
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Lawrence, you’re awesome, thanks for making it happen! I paid to remove ads.
Thank you for working so hard and fast! I know there’s a lot of people talking down about it being closed source and optionally costing money, but as a long-time user and patron it’s completely worth it for the quality of experience you’re able to deliver!
Nice. I just hope lemmy continues to grow.
🙏
Hidden posts don’t stay hidden https://imgur.com/a/hLbF0VT
This was added today.
Still not persistent when chancing to another account and back, unfortunately. Is this a lemmy limitation?
Unfortunately they’re just hidden locally at the moment. Swapping between accounts clears the local database
Any chance this could be fixed in a future Sync update?
It looks like Lemmy are planning to add hide natively to the platform.
Yep came to ask about this. Same thing happening for me.
Yep same here. And the app seems to auto refresh and start me over
Just want to say amazing app. It’s so polished! I’ll be using Lemmy much more. I came from boost on Android. I don’t see the value in the ad free version yet but glad there are tiered options.
A nice feature for us new people would be a way to subscribe to a community from the everything feed as opposed to having to click through to the community page.
This is one nice UX thing I noticed that Threads did and made it much easier to follow people from the main feed.
Twitter appears to have copied it too.
Ive been using Sync for 2h now and its just perfect. As already said I havent really used it a lot but until noa everything was great.
The only thing that I immediately saw and changed was teh font size. On default it was on “smaller” and I changed it to “normal” so I could also read the comment, because on smaller it was really small.
Also the price is totally ok on my perspective, you put in the work and make it even opptional so we can use it for free.
Overall the UI is glorious and for my preferences even better then reddits ones.
I agree with the font size. By default, I would recommend 2 steps higher.
I don’t know if this is already the case or not, or how hard it would be to implement, but since Ultra is a superset of ad-free, it would be swell if there was upgrade pricing so you could pay $80 to go from ad-free to Ultra. I definitely want ad-free but I’m not sure about Ultra and so I’m not getting either until I can make that decision to avoid throwing $20 down a hole.
I could go down that route but for now if you want to switch DM me your order number and I’ll do it manually.
Props to you for both the offer and the plan. I appreciate you ljd.
Can anyone confirm if the imgur album link in the comment below opens like it should in the app?
https://aussie.zone/comment/1519180
When I click on the link, I get a toast with an error and then it uses the internal browser to open the link on the website:
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“error loading album, opening in browser”
Same for me
This has actually been an issue on sync for reddit for ages too
I get the error, but can still see the album and the email screenshots.
