Afternoon everyone,

I wanted to go over a few points related to pricing, stats and the roadmap

Pricing

  1. Sync for Lemmy is completely free with ads (the same as Sync for Reddit)

  2. You can remove ads in the account picker or drawer for a one time fee of ~$20

  3. Sync Ultra also removes ads but it’s not required

  4. 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

  • Polar@lemmy.caEnglish
    20833·
    1 year ago

    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!

    • Taako_Tuesday@lemmy.caEnglish
      47·
      1 year ago

      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

      • m0nky@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        I think his only mistake was offering lifetime at all. Nobody knows the future of Lemmy; people are seeing $100 and getting a bit of a shock, we could buy two AAA games for that. A couple of dollars a month or annual is easier to justify. Then, if Lemmy does become the next big thing and lasts 20 years, the developer is taking a big hit. Lifetime at that price feels like there will be a loser for either the user or dev.

        • EliasChao@lemmy.oneEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I think that the possibility for Lemmy being around for the next 20 years is a compelling argument for pricing the lifetime version that high.

          The dev needs recurring money to support himself, and having a ton of users not paying at all after a certain amount of time would only hurt him in the future.

          I agree that it’d be better to stomach if there was a cheaper recurring monthly/yearly fee for it (in case it doesn’t exist right now).

      • keefshape@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        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.

    • chemsed@lemmy.caEnglish
      301·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • o_oli@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        1 year ago

        What is unclear? If someone makes an app that improves the user experience and they charge for it, then that’s exactly how?

        Lemmy is still FOSS, doesn’t mean everything that interacts with it has to be.

        • theragu40@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          1 year ago

          That’s not what the majority of people bitching that Sync is bad simply because it’s not FOSS would have you believe.

          The controversy is just silly to me. I didn’t hesitate for a second to pay for the app. I’ve spent literally thousands of hours using Sync for reddit. $20 is nothing for that.

          FOSS is great and all. But the attitude that everything should just be free no matter what is exactly why the internet turned into the data mining ad supported hellhole it is today. I am very willing to pay for things I spend time using. I honestly don’t understand thinking any other way.

          • ratofkryllEnglish
            6·
            1 year ago

            I’ve spent literally thousands of hours using Sync for reddit.

            Same here. I’ll probably end up buying Ultra Lifetime. Even if I don’t end up using Sync for Lemmy for the same number of hours as Sync for Reddit (lol I probably will), it still seems fair considering the thousands of hours I got out of Sync for Reddit for ~$5 CAD. And if I only use it for 100 hours, it still costs less per hour than a parking meter around here. Frankly, I wish I had the option to pay the ads away for every app I use regularly.

            It’s like any of my hobbies. Will three skeins of nice yarn run me $80-100? Sure. Will I get 80-100 hours of enjoyment out of knitting with it? Absolutely. $1/hour seems like a decent deal, not to mention the years of wear I get out of the finished product.

            I love FOSS, but there’s also a place in the world for paid software. Ljdawson knit us a very cozy, warm Sync sweater and I’m happy to pay him for his work.

    • Aasikki@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      283·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • o_oli@lemmy.worldEnglish
        155·
        1 year ago

        The userbase is also like 100x smaller yet it takes the same amount of upkeep as a developer. Of course he is going to charge more and that is fair enough imo.

        Ultimately if you don’t like it, don’t pay it.

        • Aasikki@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          16·
          1 year ago

          I sure as hell like the app, but the issue of lemmy user base being smaller goes both ways unfortunately. I mean it makes sense for him to ask for more money to make up for it, but also at the same time it’s less worth it because Lemmy’s communities aren’t nearly as active as their reddit counterparts. I’ll probably use the app for a couple months and then pay to remove ads if I end up using it enough for the ads to annoy me.

          • o_oli@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            Yeah and I think that’s a fair take. I think most people are probably in a similar boat. I’m not willing to commit much money to Lemmy because it’s such a new and untested platform so we will see.

            For me so far I’ve yet to see a single advert on Sync anyway so I’m not exactly sure where they are supposed to be in the first place.

        • yuriy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          9·
          1 year ago

          “don’t like it, don’t pay for it” is fine, too many folks seem to have a “don’t like it, don’t bitch about it” attitude and that fucken sucks.

      • poquitocabeza@lemm.eeEnglish
        8·
        1 year ago

        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⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

    • Lemmington Bunnie@aussie.zoneEnglish
      181·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • boyi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      111·
      1 year ago

      they bought the Reddit app for $1 and enjoyed it for 10 years is an argument

      Can you share a link for the $1 comment. I am not aware of reddit sync being $1.

        • boyi@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          14·
          1 year ago

          Yep. I stand corrected. $1.01. Just check my payment history in Nov 2012.

          edit: and this was full price during the early days, I think.

            • spamfajitas@lemmy.worldEnglish
              151·
              1 year ago

              Someone pointed out the difference in active user counts, too. 2012 Reddit had ~43 million active users. Lemmy has an active user count somewhere around 60-90 thousand.

              Point is, if you’re a dev looking to recoup some target cost, you’d be looking at a way smaller and riskier user base than the one that Sync saw on Reddit.

              Edit: I didn’t even notice the dev essentially says that here https://lemmy.world/comment/2017279

              It’s priced in a way that allows me to work on this full time. If Lemmy suddenly had 10X users I could bring the pricing down.

              • Toribor@corndog.socialEnglish
                4·
                1 year ago

                Plus it’s a more mature product at this point. Sure the back end changed, but a lot of features carried over from Reddit.

    • momoitinEnglish
      156·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Polar@lemmy.caEnglish
        114·
        1 year ago

        You should learn the difference between an opinion and attacking/bullying.

        You’re allowed to have an opinion.