With that price I feel like the dev has 0 faith in lemmy getting very big and feels like they need to capitalize on the currently few users to make back costs. I mean, not even an early access price considering its in beta still
With that price I feel like the dev has 0 faith in lemmy getting very big
It feels kind of the opposite to me.
Going back and checking my Google account history, I paid $1 for Sync Pro. In 2012. And was using it up until last month. In retrospect, that was far too low a price for the utility I got out of the app for literally years.
If anything, it feels like the dev has learned that lesson and has priced the lifetime option where it's actually sustainable for them if Lemmy stays around.
Ah. I agree that regional pricing needs to become more of a thing in general. That said, considering there’s a free option in this case it’s not too egregious. Just set up adblocking at the dns level?
But you can use sync for free. That’s why the dev has put options for you. If you cannot pay the ad removal, you can still support the developer by using the app but with ads
I agree. The original price for a lifetime use is maybe a bit too low. The original sync pro prices, but yearly instead, might be a solution. Not monthly. That is so messed up.
That’s very cynical point of view. This is for the Ultra version, which incurs recurring cost to the developer for providing extra features which requires running some servers on their side. I myself spent that much just for running a Lemmy server for two months. They still have one time $20 option that don’t include services that require the external servers.
Come on man, no need to make assumption when the ultra feature are listed there in the app setting. At a glance you can see the ones that are potential money sink are push notifications (money goes to firebase/Google), Google translate (money goes to Google), OCR (money goes to GPU vps providers). The original sync ultra even have restore deleted comments option, which mean they was practically mirror Reddit public dataset. At $17 per year or ~$100 lifetime, it’s very reasonable, which includes paying the dev as well.
I’d like a cheaper version that doesn’t have all those extra services that I wouldn’t use anyway but still gives me the actual app features like tagging etc instead.
And this is why I don’t mind the cost increase from old Sync.
I bought Sync Pro all the way back in 2014, and considering how long it’s been since then, plus the sub-2 month delivery time for Sync for Lemmy, I think you’ve more than earned an ultra sub from me!
Hey I just want to say thanks for the app. Used sync regularly back when I used to browse Reddit and it must’ve been the most used app on my phone for years. Sync for Lemmy feels just as good I’ll probably switch to the iap for ad free but for now I took the yearly sub just to throw you some money.
Had been waiting for this since you announced it haha.
Exactly. Suck the early adopter users dry just in case lemmy doesn’t get huge. I mean, yes there was dev time for this app, but of importing your syncreddit press into this app is any indication, it wasn’t a rewrite but merely an adaptation of API.
This is most definitely the dev seeing how much he can milk early on. Good for him if it works. I mean the app framework is amazing, don’t get me wrong. But not at these prices.
Okay, well, thanks but it’s too expensive for me. I want to support you but I can’t afford that. I would have paid up immediately if it was closer to the old costs, and have been really happy to do so. I’ve literally been waiting to do that.
For a lifetime price of 40 or 50 I'd probably have just bought it and hoped the dev eventually adds /KBin support. For 110 it's off the table for me altogether and I'm not a fan of subscriptions.
With that said, I've never used this app that I remember on Reddit, so, maybe it is worth it??? I'd probably happily consider a lifetime price of that much if Relay got ported (and basically consider it back pay for getting like 6 or 7 years out of it for like 4 bucks).
It seems like either the dev is planning on the app running forever and wanting to not make the mistake of charging a couple bucks for a forever license OR they don't expect it to last and need to get as much $ as they can up front. Either way, I wish them the best of luck. Since I'm not a Lemmy user, I won't be buying, at that price.
Yeah this feels like early adopter tax. Get your money off people who don’t blink at stuff like $100 for a beta app for a small reddit that’s literally just a front end.
Then lower the price slowly. Like I feel like there are more Lemmy apps than Reddit ones. It’s pretty gauling to charge so much and essentially take everything from server owners by putting this up front for people trying it from Reddit.
Server owners aren’t the only people who are working for free.
There are people that have made skins for Lemmy, do they get paid? Mods as well, not to mention the Lemmy devs and admins. And all of this is nothing without people posting content, are you going to pay them too?
If all one has to do to try and diminish someone asking for a price for their services here is to point out someone else on Lemmy that wants the money too, then everyone looks like a jerk.
Don’t forget, the whole reason Lemmy is so successful these past few months is because the work these devs do wasn’t appreciated on Reddit, and we all came here instead. Are you saying all these redfugees should leave and take their money to X instead?
Server owners aren’t doing this for free. They are doing it at cost. Some of them quite a bit. I genuinely can’t see how you can sincerely equate someone paying thousands of dollars a month to host the infrastructure of Lemmy itself as someone designing a CSS theme in their free time for something that wouldn’t exist without the mentioned instance owners. These aren’t the same. And this is the first form of mainstream monetization to hit Lemmy at any level past donations and it’s aggressive. Childish reply. Someone posting content is not spending a dime but them posting that cost the server hosters one.
So then donate to your server. But denigrating other people on Lemmy for offering highly anticipated services is appalling. Ask for donations in a more appropriate place. My server was swimming in donations and told us to stop donating. Devs adding to the tapestry of options on Lemmy, whether foss or not, don’t deserve to be harassed because you think people’s money should go elsewhere.
I bought the reddit lifetime this year. Lemmy is no where near as interesting or engaging as reddit so far. I guess I’ll just stick with the ad free version.
People have been spoiled by the app store. Like I agree its a lot of money, but it also takes a lot of money to live, and if someone is a solo developer for a living then they depend on software sales. Lifetime purchases are tough. Once you get that money, the potential for more money from that customer is gone. Unless you follow a traditional software licensing model where you buy a version and upgrading past a major release requires another purvhase.
Im pretty sure he LJ has taken into account the heavily decreased sales potential of the lemmy market. Hes going to make substantially less sales, so he needs those sales to be worth it, especially if its a lifetime purchase. Its hard to strike a balance between worth it for the customer and worth it for the dev. Ideally the lifetime cost pushes would be purchasers towards an ongoing subscription while still providing value for both parties.
I agree $179aud us too much, and I wont be paying that myself, but I feel for LJ at the same time. Its not going to be easy making the money he may need to continue developing at the same rate.
Because people want to pay $1 or $2 for a full version of an app, and that may not be enough to justify development.
A windows license is still legacy software model. You dont buy a lifetime windows key, you buy a version key and have to pay again after a major update, although this looks like its currently evolving to a more free to play model. Microsoft has an exponentially wider audience who are mostly captive though, as opposed to LJ who has just had his audience dramatically reduced.
At the end of the day development takes time. Time is money. If LJ cant make a sustainable wage from sync they will have to work elsewhere and sync and its users are the ones who suffer.
For an app that you can’t even make a post from yet. I don’t care who you are, $180 for an app still missing basic functionality is always going to be a hard sell.
That wouls be a fine value add, especially if it integrated features into the server code that were open sourced and down streamed. That would add some real weight to that purchase price.
Nextdns.io works well, and lets you customize tons of features. Alternatively, you can run a pihole on pretty much any spare computer to work as an home adblocker. You can also route up to an adblocking dns with it to double up.
You want to get extra wild, setup a wireguard vpn server at home after that, and have your phone auto connect to it when you leave your home wifi.
Those donation buttons, rarely ever get used. Because everyone would rather just think that everyone else donated so it’s fine if they don’t. And sure, some do donate (I’ve donated before) but that’s the actions of the very few.
I know I’m cheap and I know this app is great and is a lot of work but fuck, this is expensive. Subscriptions are the worst model capitalism can offer. And the one time payment price is ridiculous, I can’t afford that.
Realistically it’s the only way he can sustain the development costs with such a small userbase. I’ve subscribed monthly to show my support. It’s not really that much money considering how much I use sync.
These models are designed in such a way that those who can afford to support do, and those who can’t afford to still have access through the free version.
They certainly don’t expect everyone to purchase ultra, let alone lifetime.
I recently cancelled my Netflix and Spotify accounts because of horrible support and constant rate hikes. It’s the perfect time to splurge and support a dev that deserves the money.
I feel as though this information is left intentionally absent in this post.
App development ain’t cheap and lifetime subscriptions are an incredible deal if you like the features and intend to keep using the app for the next decade plus. But you’ve got to look at it that way or else it’s not worth it.
Great point. I am not familiar with sync or the dev so I couldn’t speak to their reliability, although the outpouring of support suggests they’ll be active.
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