It should be in the profile menu on the top left. Perhaps LJ is rolling it out selectively.
I bought it last night and it was half the price in OP’s screenshot. Either it has gone up, or again perhaps there is some A/B testing going on at different price points.
Yeah, I’m in the US, and yesterday it was showing $12.99 for me, and currently it is now $19.99. I guess the dev is still trying to work out the prices.
I don't have any skin in the game, as I don't use the app nor any other, but the userbase for the Fediverse is like a hundred times smaller than Reddit at least. The same work on Reddit that could earn $200 is only going to earn $2 here.
I don't know what the price should be, but it makes sense that it goes up.
Yeah, yesterday on Discord, the dev said he was thinking of charging $9.99 to remove ads, which I thought was very reasonable, but now it’s actually $19.99, that’s a big difference. Don’t get me wrong, I think he definitely deserves to get paid for his hard work on this app, and he’s not forcing any of us to purchase it, but it has made it a little more difficult for those of us who would like to purchase it and support him. I guess I’ll just have to wait a little longer and try to save some more on my Google Rewards.
At some point of time , peopla got excited and paid in drove for Ultra. It signalled a good sign and that might fueled his decision to charge higher.
I nearly bought it, but the come to my senses of how pricy it is. I really like Sync, it’s the smoothest app out there. But, I’ll wait a bit long, and for Boost - to see how it compares in terms of features and pricing. I might be on a double exodus - first from Reddit and then from Sync.
BTW, I can’t reply to the other (kbin) user comment. Not sure if it is a bug. So I’ll paste it here.
You have a point. Anyway, by doing so he will only be targeting a very niche group of users of an already very niche market. The move will definitely help to satisfy the needs of this small number of users but I doubt it will help the expand Lemmy’s market. I expect, which I could definitely be wrong, Sync market share will become stagnant for the coming future. Other apps will learn from this fiasco and offers much more reasonable pricing models, which in turn will hurt Sync more… Just my 5 cent.
Yeah, i was ready to pay for one year ultra and then after 5 minute of use, i realized…wow, it’s barebone. It couldn’t even post! Not to mention not having 2 separate pinned icon, not having mod tools, not even able to view community, can’t see report, so on and on. If you’re an admin/mod, this mean you have to check with the browser ver for admin/mod stuff.
The price is this way because there’s a bunch of diehard fan blowing smoke up his arse in discord.
Ditto. I used to be a big Sync fan and used it for years as my primary mobile client for Reddit until 8-10 months or so ago when the dev did a 'fuck off and be unable to be contacted while something in the app breaks' break, which led to a bunch of ads appearing despite paying for no ads (and according to people on the subreddit at the time it was not a one time occurrence lol). I switched that day to Boost and didn't go back, but I was looking forward to trying out Sync for Lemmy when it released.
All the privacy and pricing concerns the last 24 hours have brought forth does not make me wanna even touch the app lol. I'm not paying that much money to fucking browse a glorified forum on my phone (specially when there's many other options).
Voyager is fantastic IMO. wefwef.app , it is a web app, it will even put am icon for itself on your phone so it feels just like a regular app. Works really great, and is really fast.
While liftoff was the only third party I liked, I still think it was pretty unimpressive. It ran ok and that’s about it. Features were lacking, aesthetics are bad, some glitches. For me the $20 or whatever it is for sync is worth it. I’ve used reddit since 2012 and browsed exclusively on my phone, swapping between relay and sync. If you average that cost out, even considering the $5 or whatever it was to get rid of ads on Reddit, it’s basically nothing. The usage tracking is pretty shitty though.
EDIT: Ok I just saw the lifetime price for ultra, damn wtf lol. Again, averaging that cost over the ten years I’ve used the app means it’s still a good deal but fuck upfront that’s a lot lmao
I’ll just wait, they are usable enough. If you want the Lemmy experience to improve, donate $5 or $20 for Lemmy (in-browser) UI development, which is still default for most devices and it very much sucks. (Part of it is lack of support for anything like cross-domain cookies in browser technology that would store what your home instance is so that you would be always redirected to browse from home but even without it there are problems.)
Okay, I won’t push you from Sync. But if you have the money to remove its ads, please also consider supporting Lemmy directly or indirectly (Mozilla, among other things, funded the effort to find and patch TootRoot before it became a problem). If you don’t want to just donate, switching to Mozilla VPN will also help.
Yeah I’ve been using a lot of the available apps and while I had my favorites (Summit and Liftoff) there has always been little quirks that I’ve just been dealing with. The moment Sync hit my device it’s like I’m back to my reddit experience for the last decade. I’ll still keep an eye on the other apps, because I very much prefer and try to support open source developers. But I just can’t force a subpar experience on myself.
The Summit dev has been extremely responsive and has added in a few features I requested on a quick turnaround. They also happen to be out of town on a work trip this week so the timing probably sucks for them. And as I’m typing this I’m remembering that ones not even open source 🤦♂️.
Not the person you replied to but I don’t evaluate app prices in a vacuum. First I think of what paying actually gets me (e.g. no ads), then I consider how it compares to alternatives both free and paid. A paid app has to provide some value over a free app and an expensive app has to provide some value over cheaper apps. Furthermore if an app is priced such that I can buy 3-4 other apps while also being more expensive than any individual apps I’ve previously purchased then it gives me some pause.
There are a lot of other apps for Lemmy. Some are not as polished as Sync – but some are. And none (that I know of, on Android) are ad supported. Most are open source and 100% free.
This is a money grab. People were so excited for Sync that they don’t want to call it a money grab. But that’s what it is.
🙄 it’s a small dev, who got shut out of the previous customer base they’d built up, and now has to rebuild with fewer customers (and fewer potential customers at least short term).
If your job lost 70% of its customers, I bet you’d be begging your boss to raise prices to avoid a 70% pay cut.
It’s not a money grab. It drives me crazy how much stuff people say is a “money grab”, “theft”, “a scam”, “predatory”, etc. Asking for money isn’t malicious, neither is asking for more money than you personally think is reasonable/makes sense for your finances, and neither is offering a freemium ad supported app (which is better than nothing if you’re not willing to pay with money).
Edit: and sorry if that sounds overly aggressive, but you definitely struck a nerve/peeve as of late. It just seems like everyone wants to be as dramatic as possible lately.
I see your point. And you don’t deserve to be down voted, as it’s reasonable.
I do think he’s pricing it a bit steep for what the market can bear. Maybe not. I hope he gets as much as possible. I just know that I am priced out and will continue to use Connect.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re priced out, and I think it’s fine to give pricing feedback like that. I just am sick of everything being “outrage” where someone “dares” to try to make some money in exchange for their effort.
I both wish you a better financial situation and that a shorter term compromise arrives where you can afford the app, or that you continue to be satisfied with Connect. One of the beauties of the fediverse is that it’s not an all or nothing thing, there are other clients and other ways to support folks and the community (even just being a friendly person, so props there).
That’s a farce; it happens all the time, revenue stops increasing from growing the customer base, so the prices are raised on the existing customer base to cover costs and keep things operational. Why do you think Netflix still isn’t $8.99, and password sharing is no longer permitted?
If you definitely know you can’t make enough money on 30% of 1,000,000 people, but you can make enough money charging 10% of 1,000,000 people a higher rate, you’re going to do that … because it’s your only option. There are diminishing returns to picking up new customers with lower prices.
I think that asking to be paid for your work is totally fine (albeit I myself made my lemmy app completely free and opensource, simply because its just my hobby project), but its a rather different story when you provide app for open source, nonprofit venture-free platform and start to inject ads and trackers into it. Its goes against the entire idea of free decentralised platform and makes it closer to profit-focused app like reddit/threads/etc imo
Given how much time I spent on Sync with Reddit, I imagine the ultra one-time price ($99) will end up being a dollar per hour in a few months and just go down from there.
A dollar per hour for entertainment is generally a good deal to me.
I agree. While $20 could still be seen as reasonable - even though making it one of the more expensive apps, thigh I’m willing to go for it if Sync continues development -, the asking price of $100 for the lifetime ultra is insane. I’m not aware of any other app that is this expensive. Of course, you could argue there’s subscription apps out there that don’t even have a lifetime model - e.g. Adobe, Microsoft Office -, But these provide considerably more value as well and are huge corporations.
My feeling is - and I don’t have facts to prove it - that the developers of the large reddit apps (esp. Apollo) simply became used to the money making machine and want to squeeze as much as possible out of it.
While in the end it is entirely up to them, as there’s open source and free alternatives out there, I’m not too fond of this behavior.
It's very steep since tons of reddit apps were more like $2 for the pro version.
I can see how that's too low to be sustainable, but $25 is a lot more.
I signed up for a year of Ultra yesterday, more as a show of support. I’m already regretting it after seeing how many tiers of pricing are now being shoved out.
I get the dev has to eat, but this is completely going against everything Lemmy is supposed to be about, while costing significantly more than its Reddit counterpart.
While not necessary, it would have been nice if there was a small discount for Ultra subscribers of Sync for Reddit. I got just over 1 year of usage out of my ‘lifetime’ purchase. A gesture, even a small one, would have been nice.
It’s more like blackmail tbh. “Pay or i’ll track the shit out of you and sell the data to advertisers”. I can see why people are put off, and I am also. And what’s the guarantee if we pay that the data isn’t collected and sold anyway?
You can stop using that for free, you can continue using it for free with ads, you can subscribe and use it without ads, you can buy lifetime access and use it without ads
There’s a difference between “There’s a lot tracking happening if you don’t pay!” and “What’s the guarantee you don’t track us if we pay?” and that difference comes in the form of a hat… Made of tinfoil…
I think he meant your last part. You say there is a chance that LJ will collect and sell data, although you paid for premium. That’s a unnecessary accusation.
If the dev tells you “information gathering is deactivated for users who pay.” you won’t believe them, you’ll just move the goalpost and ask that they prove it by releasing their code, which they won’t do because their app isn’t open source and you’ll conclude that because they won’t prove it then we should just assume that they do.
That’s JAQing off and that’s exactly where you were heading with that first question. Guilty until proven innocent, but you don’t accuse directly, you’re Just Asking Questions.
That’s totally reasonable from the point of view of a developer who has to earn something to live. I mean you still have the choice to not use it. The internet simply works through user tracking and advertising
Maybe you should consider further regional prices. Here in Argentina it is U$S 20. I really want to support the app, but it is quite steep given our conversion rate and average income…
I paid for ad removal, considering lifetime ultra but this price is very steep. I have no idea if Lemmy is even around a few years from now. Could you confirm or deny that this price for ultra is here to stay?
Also, would it be possible to get a discount on ultra lifetime later if you already bought ad removal?
I put in for a yearly ultra subscription and I’d do it again. Not everybody here is a FOSS crusader or hanging around on /c/piracy. Some of us are just Reddit refugees that want our Sync back because it was awesome.
Hell, just add a built in pirate mode for these people that removes ads for free. I bet most of us would gladly pay anyway, and it will hopefully put an end to all the sobbing
I appreciate that, but your pricing is still still disproportionately high, especially when compared to the number of fantastic free alternatives out there.
I love your app, and I’ve supported you as a Pro and Ultra member on Sync for Reddit as well, but I really think you should reconsider the current subscription pricing and lifetime purchases for Ultra options. As far as I’m aware, Sync is also one of the only major Lemmy apps that has introduced ads/pay to remove ads option. You’ve brought subscriptions and money into a platform that is now home to an exodus of users that hated how those things were slowly destroying Reddit. It just doesn’t sit right with me.
I’ve signed up for a year out of a show as support for you. The best thing you could do is show your long-term support for this platform by encouraging growth and fair options for users rather than creating multi-tiered pay walls with questionably high prices.
Well as far as I am aware, not much if any of the ad and pricing policies have changed from Sync for Reddit, so it does not make much sense to be all the sudden surprised that Sync for Lemmy continues to be ad-supported. Sync for Lemmy is basically just a faithful port of Sync for Reddit with as few changes as necessary, which AFAIK is exactly what everyone asked for.
ad and pricing policies have changed from Sync for Reddit
The ad-free version of Sync for Reddit (Pro) was around £2 to £5, depending on when you bought it.
There was also a fairly priced lifetime cost for Ultra (around £25). The pricing policy you’re referring to is vastly different from what’s on offer right now. I’m not sure how you’re managing to even compare them.
There’s a huge difference between wanting something for free and wanting something fairly priced.
I never said I wanted it for free. I’ve even paid for a year of Ultra to show some support towards the dev. But I still think the lifetime and regional pricing needs to be adjusted.
Why are you getting mad? The economy of scale is simply not there yet because there is only a handful of us lemmy users right now. With 100,000 active monthly users, even if 1% of them bought a subscription at $17/year, it’ll still going to net the dev ~$12,000 per year (after 30% google play fee) which is actually below US minimum wage. As lemmy got more and more users, I’m sure the dev would revise the pricing. If he were greedy he would just quit and work at some big corp instead of working full time on a lemmy client for peanuts.
So I just took a look because I paid 19cad for the remove ads option which was distinct from “sync ultra”.
I think part of what’s confusing is there was never previously a sync ultra lifetime price it was always just monthly or yearly. And sync pro was the lifetime price which was also out before ultra was a thing.
If you open the menu, above sync ultra is there a “remove ads” button with a more reasonable (lifetime/onetime) price?
…or Thunder, which is very similar to Liftoff. I use them pretty much interchangeably. Both are built with Flutter, have similar UX and performance and they work on both Android and iOS.
I’ve tried thunder, and the UI looks really good, but for some reason when I try to scroll up on a feed the whole list starts shaking, almost as if the posts on the top of the list are changing size.
I’ve seen 4 posts in the last two days that have solidified the fact I will never even TRY Sync. Dev seems like a real scumbag. I’m pretty happy with Liftoff so far.
Ok, I don’t agree with the price and all the people that are answering with excuses about pricing more because Lemmy has less users, so people have to pay more for a platform that is still on their early years? That honestly makes no sense to me.
Said that, Laurence (Sync dev) is a really awesome person.
The amount of work and feedback he replies to, makes Sync, while closes source, feels like a collaborative software.
I was trying different apps since Infinity was my go to for Reddit but I caved and downloaded it this morning. Honestly it’s just a great app that works even as an early port. I’m sold again.
Oddly enough I think Jerboa was my second favorite for Lemmy. It's just so incredibly basic in functionality that it feels lacking. First impressions back then weren't good though, as it simply crashed constantly. Infinity has a lot of features, but the options menu is quite messy.
Regardless of what you think of the pricing, the dev is not a “scumbag”.
I used Sync for Reddit for many years, and he is without a doubt the most responsive and accommodating app dev I’ve ever encountered. Always updating the community, always looking into improvements, and always friendly and helpful. Not to mention extremely skilled at what he does, as you would discover if you tried Sync (even in its free form).
Your accusation is absolutely over the top and completely contrary to reality. Of course you’re free to use whatever app you like, and to disagree with the Sync pricing policy. But there’s no need or justification for talking about him like that.
I get that there’s inflation and all… but there are no Imgur API fees to deal with like there were with Reddit (images upload right to the Lemmy instance).
And this is exactly why I bought the app without thinking. I paid $1.99 for Reddit Sync in 2012 and have been using it since then. I consider buying the new app payment for all the value I’ve gotten out of the app and the developers work over the past 11 years.
And that included a few features that are now ultra only like tagging users. (and maybe more, that was the one I used and noticed is missing from pro now)
To be fair, you paid once 7 years ago but the developer didn’t stop working on the app and didn’t make you pay for the upgrades they implemented if anything they have discovered the original price was too low for long term use.
I paid a similar price to that over a decade ago and don’t consider this price to be totally unreasonable given they are full time on this now and will need to keep updating the app as lemmy gets updated.
We also have so many alternatives that it isn’t an issue if people want to use something that is free. We are in the wild west of lemmy apps due to the Reddit fallout, things will quieten down eventually and a preferred few apps will come out on top.
I paid the $30 for Lifetime Ultra after 7 years of using Dev/Pro just to support. But this new pricing is simply insane. I get the feeling LJ quit his day job to rush Sync for Lemmy out or something, because historically he never seemed to do this kind of thing.
that’s us inflation maybe but LJ lives in the UK and I can tell you it’s a lot worse than that for us the bank of england says a certain inflation rate that isn’t that high like 30% over the last year but that’s a lie it feels like the cost of everything including food has at least tripled over the last year or two maybe more sync at its end was a fiver and hadn’t gone up in a few years so if you triple that you get 15 which yeah is below 20 by a quarter but S4R lasted 10 years before it died only cause of reddit I don’t think that’s a bad price to pay for a lifetime of adless sync sync is ljs job so it’s only natural the price is gonna go up with food going up this much 20 quid for 10 years or more of updates for an app I use constantly isn’t a bad deal
I have read punctuation free text and it never bothered me it’s perfectly readable all of those examples you gave are intentionally ambiguous sentences if a sentence is ambiguous without punctuation it’s poorly written
Well, you used “us” and “us” close to one another, and one of them referred to the United States and the other was a pronoun. It took several reads to make sure I rewrote it correctly in my other comment. I am pretty sure you’re not being considerate about how “unambiguous” your sentences are without capitalisation & punctuation, and even if they were, they take significantly longer to read. As a person who became proficient in English as their second language, I am baffled by how frequently natives botch their national heritage.
I think they are using shitty speech-to-text software that does not do punctuation.
FTFY:
That’s US inflation, maybe – but LJ lives in the UK and I can tell you: it’s a lot worse than that for us. The Bank of England says a certain inflation rate that isn’t that high (like 30% over the last year) but that’s a lie. It feels like the cost of everything, including food, has at least tripled over the last year or two, maybe more. Sync at its end was £5 and hadn’t gone up in a few years, so if you triple that you get £15 – which, yeah, is below £20 by a quarter – but Sync4Reddit lasted 10 years before it died only ‘cause of Reddit. I don’t think that’s a bad price to pay for a lifetime of adless Sync. Sync is LJ’s job so it’s only natural the price is gonna go up with food going up this much. £20 for 10 years or more of updates for an app I use constantly isn’t a bad deal.
The real reason is the development cost stay the same, but the pool of potential buyers is 100x less for Sync for Lemmy compared to Sync for Reddit. With only about 100,000 monthly active users on Lemmy, even if 1% of them bought the app at $20, the dev would only net about $14,000 (after 30% play store fee). The dev himself even said he’ll lower the price as the number of active Lemmy users grow.
I think a lot of the outrage is the people that used to use the app on Reddit but have been priced out by this strategy. It’s very disappointing and, if my time on Reddit has tought me anything, people are very quick to vent the frustrations by posting.
The healthy thing is to just find an option in the right price bracket, that’s how I found Voyager.
me too, infinity is free, open source, very good looking, customizable, fits android and is fast, very fast(infinity for lemmy has some bugs but it just released)
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