Afternoon everyone,
I wanted to go over a few points related to pricing, stats and the roadmap
Pricing
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Sync for Lemmy is completely free with ads (the same as Sync for Reddit)
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You can remove ads in the account picker or drawer for a one time fee of ~$20
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Sync Ultra also removes ads but it’s not required
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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
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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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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)_/¯
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.
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.
👆
Took me a while to figure out how to sign in with my lemdro.id account.
Maybe it’s embarrassing to admit but I must have scanned through that long list of servers five times before realizing I could just type in my own server. Could be helpful to add a line inviting users to type in their own server.
I did this exact same thing! I kept scrolling up and down thinking I must have missed it somewhere on the list considering lemdro.id is in the Play Store screenshots 😅.
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It’s the best app but the pricing is insane. I mean, maybe you have experience from your other apps and you know this is the optimal price, but otherwise, consider changing it. People are surprised by the high price right now.
If it was me, I would price it like this:
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Remove ads - $10 lifetime.
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Ultra - $3 per month, $20 per year, $50 lifetime.
Those sums are realistic and people are likely to find them acceptable. You would get more users instead of less users paying more.
But this is just me and I speak only as someone who never had an app in a appstore. Maybe you know better. But that’s what I would do.
People are comparing very short timescales for ad removal. Lots of 1 week/2 week comparisons.
I hope to have this app for 4 years, like I had for Reddit. That’s $5 per year or 10 cents per week.
Actually, I’ve paid for 1 month of Ultra to see if Lemmy is worth staying on and if LJ updates Sync, but I don’t mind the idea of $20 for a long-time payoff
Insane? $20 to remove ads is insane? That’s 2 Starbucks coffees
The Starbucks coffee price is also insane. $20 for two cups of coffee?
The inflation has made me stop drinking coffee from these chains. It’s just a ridiculous price.
Please don’t call those caffeinated milkshakes “coffee”. Apart from that, I fully agree.
I dont buy Starbucks, and I won’t buy a 20€ Ad-Removal. It is simply to much. 5 would be an instant buy, 10€ may have been ok.
I bought both pro and dev back on the day, and I expected a similar price.
Then don’t? You can use the app for free, free as in a free beer
Two Starbucks coffees are 6 to ~12USD) where I live and I think regionalisation of pricing is the main issue people are raising, not that the app “should be free”.
I see both sides. I think his point is that people can easily spend 20 dollars/euros/pounds a week in petty cash on coffee, snacks etc. If you’d half those costs for two weeks you have your sync money.
On the other hand 20 dollars is a steep price when it comes to mobile applications.
Maybe a breakdown of associated costs from LJ would help justify his current pricing. I’m assuming it’s based on his experiences with Sync for Reddit.
I was a Sync ultra subscriber and I thought it was a bit steep but on the other hand I loved the app and wanted to support him as I understood that a one time cost of 5 dollars for Sync pro wasn’t a realistic pricing model either.
At the end of the day if the Sync for Lemmy ad free cost is realistic for both his costs yet affordable for the average consumer then I don’t mind if Ultra is a bit steeper.
The only problem with the prices is it’s not yet targeted for regional value. In my country the cost to remove ads is a very fine dinner, not a couple of coffees.
Yeah, Lj said he’s taking this week to regionalize pricing
You also need to be insane to pay $10 for a coffee.
There are a lot of insane people out there 🤷♂️
What kind of coffee are you drinking, damn. Besides the point as I can’t afford Starbucks either.
I would say that is still high for ultra. Imo:
Remove ads - $10 lifetime.
Ultra monthly - $1 per month, $10 per year, $30 lifetime.
I would definitely consider lifetime if that was the case. And you would have a ton more users signing up. The number of users should more then make up for the lower prices.
Edit: Question for people downvoting me, do you think I’m being cheap with these prices? $1/month doesn’t sound much, but that is the point. It is still $12/year and the amount of users would more then make up for it.
I think the problem with comparing pricing on Lemmy with comparing pricing on Reddit is the scale of numbers. Reddit love it or hate it, had a much greater potential of paid users. When you have to make similar (or at least sustainable) income from a smaller pool of users, prices are going to reflect that (at least short term).
Also when you math it out pricing isn’t all that crazy:
$20 ad free lifetime = ~$1.70 USD/mo for 1yr = ~$0.06 USD/per day for a year
$100 Ultra = ~$8.34 USD/mo for 1yr - ~$4.17 USD/mo for 2yrs = ~$0.27 USD/per day for a year = ~$0.14/per day for 2yrs
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A nice feature for us new people would be a way to subscribe to a community from the everything feed as opposed to having to click through to the community page.
This is one nice UX thing I noticed that Threads did and made it much easier to follow people from the main feed.
Twitter appears to have copied it too.
A few things I want to say:
- Congrats for the successful launch! I hope this project continues to improve.
- The ads aren’t very intrusive, they’re just banners in-between some posts and I’m fine with that.
- This app makes using Lemmy more attractive than using Reddit, which means that the goal of moving me far away from Reddit has been accomplished!
Amazing job so far. Here’s to the future of decentralized social media!
I’ve yet to see a single ad…
Just voicing my support for the work you’ve done so far and am happy to pay the $20. Honestly I was a little taken aback at first sight but thinking about how many years of service I got with the reddit app I’m happy to support the developer. I’ll reiterate what I saw another commenter say and it would be nice if a small portion of the fee was used towards to the support of Lemmy as a whole as well. I want to see this continue and flourish. Thanks again to the developer for one smooth app.
I was taken a back by the prices at first too and I’ve made many comments how I still feel it’s expensive, but bought it anyways because I am a long time user of Sync. I was mostly concerned about being able to convince others to buy it.
But the more I think about it, I feel it’s deserved and I won’t really complain about it anymore. It’s such a great app and has earned it over the years. I still can’t believe it’s here on Lemmy. My brain really feels at home again. It’s the good ol’ days again.
Yeah, have to admit that despite my initial shock at the price of ad-free, if I think of it as a back payment for over a decade of Sync Pro, even though I bought it a few times to support LJ’s fantastic work.
But I also agree that if LJ is bumping it up by a thousand percent, I’d be happier if some of it was going to Lemmy World.
I’m sold, buying ad free now
For those who are a bit skint, just install NextDNS, it’s free and blocks the ads
Hey mate,
Yeah I’m another one who followed you over from reddit.
I think I maybe need to play with Lemmy a bit more - it’s a bit confusing. Is there a map? A general guide or explanation for the ignorant?
Also, cheers mate - you must have put in a shit load of effort in a very short time to put this together. Fast development since the reddit API bullshit. Respect. An I paid ultra cos I like your work
Anything in particular that confuses you?
There are many guides, but depends what you feel is confusing. Read this and see if you understand more:
Thanks, will do.
I got the lifetime sync ultra subscription for the reddit app for 34.99 after getting the ad-free version and then the pro version because I really liked it. I only used it for half a year, but hey, I guess that’s the gamble you take with lifetime subscriptions. I now see that the lifetime subscription is €114.99?! Is this a mistake? What is going on here?
If I compare it to the 18.99 a year price, it’d take over 6 years to break even. If I compare it to the old 11.99 price, it’d take over 9.5 years. I just don’t understand the logic here.
6 years to break even is probably a bit much, maybe 2-3
But it’s your choice if you want to use it or not. I’m happy using the app with ads
Your lifetime is probably longer than 10 years.
Mine is, but the app might not be.
Proof: Sync for Reddit Ultra Lifetime lasted around half a year.
Also remember it was Reddit that decided Sync’s lifetime, not LJ.
I’m a user of Sync for Reddit Pro. I hope we can have more price options to remove the ads starting from a lower amount. Let’s say, $5, $10, $20, $30 and maybe a custom amount (>$5). In this case those who are willing to pay $20 can remain to do so or even more but others can now support the developer by the amount they feel fit.
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You would make a great CEO. $2 to $20, a %1000 markup, and you attribute it to “times have changed.”.
If it was 9.99 or something that would more than make up for the inflation + additional profits per purchase. The rest is greed. This is the exact reason people left reddit.
The portion of purchases should be donated to Lemmy devs. Lemmy, just like any other open source platform, relies on donations.
What percent goes to Lemmy devs? If it’s a high portion (50%ish) then I’m on board.
Do you have a source on this, or are you making a suggestion?
It’s a suggestion. A lot of Firefish instances have notices asking everyone to donate to the instance owner or the devs of Firefish.
Lawrence, you’re awesome, thanks for making it happen! I paid to remove ads.
Thank you for working so hard and fast! I know there’s a lot of people talking down about it being closed source and optionally costing money, but as a long-time user and patron it’s completely worth it for the quality of experience you’re able to deliver!
I never used sync for Reddit, I was (and remain in my heart) a die hard RIF user. I appreciate the work you’ve done so much and more than ANYTHING the ability to have multiple columns again. It’s sync for me now.
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Any chance there will be a separate Sync for Lemmy Pro app available? I’d prefer this method as I had with Sync for Reddit Pro instead of the in-app purchase.
Probably not
Google has supposedly started cracking down on apps like that. They don’t want duplicates of the same apps anymore so it’s likely to remain IAP only.
supposedly
Nope, they do that in reality, it has happened to LJ a few times already with Sync for reddit free/pro/dev
Google no longer allows for a separate pro version. Sync was grandfathered in before. I also don’t like the IAP way of doing since the ads come back when google has issues or you shut down your device, but there won’t be a good way around it.
Nice. I just hope lemmy continues to grow.
🙏
Installed and could immediately tell it was a great app. I just bought Ultra Lifetime.
My request would be the ability to collapse comments and to be able to promote certain post options buried in the menu to a button (like bookmark), namely, I use “hide post” a lot, and would like to choose to access it without having to drill into the menu. I recognize others might use other post options more frequently (like share or something), so it would be nice to make that configurable.
Thanks for a great app!! 👍
Edit: thanks to some helpful replies, I now know that I can collapse comments by long pressing on them, and I can hide posts quickly by swiping them to the left!
Do you know about long-pressing comments, or did I not understand you correctly?
I didn’t know until now, thank you!!
In the settings you can also reverse so a short tap collapses and long tap brings up comment options. And another setting to also collapse the parent comment instead of only comments below it.
Long press a comment to collapse it
Thank you, I did NOT know that!!!
Swipe to the left on posts themselves (not comments) and it hides them without the menu
Awesome, thanks for this! Very helpful!!!
I just realized that hidden posts do not stay hidden between browsing sessions.
For instance, I will open Sync, swipe away a post to hide it, close sync, reopen, and that post is no longer hidden. Am I missing a setting? Or is this a bug?
I think it’s a bug that the dev is working on. Lemmy doesn’t support hiding natively is the answer I got.
Under comment options:
- Single click to hide comment Settings shortcut: Comment options > Single click to hide comment
- Collapse parent Settings shortcut: Comment options > Collapse parent
Pro tip: if you long-press a setting it copies a sync link to it, so you can paste it like so:
Cool, thanks for the tip!
