Can I just say how much I appreciate this app’s pricing model?
One of the things I hate the most about “subscription” models is that no matter how many years I’ve supported an app, the moment I stop paying the subscription, I lose access to the entire app – even features I’ve paid for years ago.
It doesn’t matter if I don’t want any future updates, it doesn’t matter if I don’t care about new features; if I want to continue using an old app on an old device, I have to continue paying for the subscription.
Agenda’s developers have come up with a new model – the base app is free, but you can unlock premium features for a one-off cost. This one-off cost would also give you any new features that they bring out in the next 12 months.
After the 12 months have elapsed you have two choices:
- pay for another 12 months of new features, or
- don’t pay, don’t receive any new features, but keep all the features you’ve already unlocked, and still continue recieving updates to the app (so it’ll continue to work on new devices and receive bug fixes).
This model is more than I could have hoped for; I don’t expect basic updates or bug fixes after I’ve stopped paying, but Agenda’s development team are making this and the base app free for all users.
It doesn’t have to be said, but I’ll definitely be supporting this app.
Drew McCormack also included a small write up on how they implemented this pricing model and I can only hope other app developers start considering alteranatives to the subscription model.
@vishae As a consumer I love the idea. As a developer, managing all those permissions sounds like a massive headache.
@fiona @vishae All evidence is that most customers don’t actually think this way but I think approaching software as a service rather than a product is the right way to think about it in an era of continually updated system software. And a service model suggests subscriptions are the correct way to go.