The specific allocation of features and prices may still vary. And we will say more about promotions, coupons, etc. later.
The model is partly inspired by Timing.app’s license model. OmniOutliner uses the names “Essentials” and “Pro”. We are not affiliated with those companies, but we considered them when designing our models and names. (We also looked at a lot of other apps.)
The pricing info is not completely clear, but since the “essentials” team only provides 12 months of updates for $19.99 then what you’re really selling is a subscription – if people want to continue updating the program. This is the Tinderbox model.
What’s not clear is if this “12 months of updates” applies to “pro”, but I assume it does. So that would possibly mean that $29.99 gets all features for 12 months and, again, is a subscription if people want to continue updating the program beyond that.
I don’t mean this disrespectfully, because no doubt the company has invested a lot and expects a lot, but $29.99/year is rather steep. (Frankly, $19.99 is steep – and since most of the useful features of Hook are not included in “essentials”, it is not really an option.)
Especially since there is no clear roadmap beyond the beta.
I’ll respond generally as many people will have similar questions and thoughts.
It does.
I’ve clarified the licensing terms on the buy page.
Not to split hairs, but I’d call it a licence renewal. The key conjunction is “if”, of course. For the benefit of other readers who might not know: With a subscription model, for any continued use of key features of the software, the user must regularly pay --no pay, no play. With the model we put forth, borrowed from Timing’s model, users can continue to use the app, they just lose updates and “priority support” (they’ll still be in the support queue). It is noteworthy that Timing is similar in that it uses scripts to connect to other apps. The renewal fee will be substantially less than the original fee.
Thanks for the feedback on the specific prices too. Those may change as might the distribution. We definitely want Essentials to contain essential features that will satisfy most users.
Our goal is to ensure that we can sustain future development, which means paying our bills, paying back our investors (loans), and covering our own time.
Obviously, that means not pricing it too high or too low, whatever that will mean.
We will also have a way to thank beta testers who have contributed to our development via feedback.
Thanks for this too. I will address it in a separate topic or reply.
If I understand the separation correctly, the Lite version will be read only. It would make more sense to me to call it something like Read Only as Lite and Essential are often referring to the same things in other apps.
thanks for the feedback. Our original idea was to also allow Lite users to create a certain number of links to emails per month, so they can share them. It made describing Lite a bit too complicated, but the Lite features are not final yet.