As much as I browsed reddit throughout the day for the past 5 years....$20 seems like nothing. Hell I spend $10 a month of a few Patreons for ad free content.
Hey if it's not stopping you, more money to support the developer and signal more Lemmy content! I'm personally doing the $2 sub until Boost for Lemmy comes out and may switch. Dunno yet, may come back and buy Sync too.
It is but it also isn't. I paid $5 for sync pro for reddit and have gotten literally thousands of hours out of it. $20 isn't that significant in the grand scheme of things if you like the app.
I'm on the verge. Let's be honest, it's fucking expensive. Where I live it's pretty much an entire day's worth of work to buy this app remove ads. I understand LJ wanting to be paid for his work, but this steep pricing seems like he doesn't believe in Lemmy and just wants to capitalise on it before it eventually goes to shit. Let me just point out greed was what originally drived us all off reddit.
I'm not going to argue with what you're happy to pay, I'm just curious why you are doing the math based on how much you use it instead of some other metric like the amount of labour it took to produce or maybe how much ad revenue you need to replace?
I see $23/year for a few years equaling the cost of outright owning a AAA video game (that will receive support and updates for years to follow too) that took millions of dollars and many thousands of man-hours to produce and it doesn't add up...
Life in London is very very expensive, it's one of the most expensive cities in the world. And Sync author lives in London. I live in London myself and I can see his price as fair, lol.
I paid €2.51 to remove ads on Sync for Reddit. I would have spent maybe a tenner but it's over €20 for the Lemmy app. As much as I love Sync, that's a big nope from me.
No, we're paying to remove ads. And $26 CDN to remove ads feels really high when I paid $3.69 to remove ads in Boost and $4.49 to remove ads in Relay in 2019.
I like how you bothered to speak of supporting the dev yet mentioned how to stop ads with a VPN based blocker.
If people want to keep supporting the dev, just buy the subscription or check if he has a donations link. But this purchase is just what it says: Remove Ads.
Last thread was complaints of not wanting subscriptions this thread is complaints of too expensive 🤷. By all means keep the ads or use another app. Imo it's not super surprising to be pricey when it's a one time purchase instead of the subscription.
God forbid you pay $20 once to support the dev and for an app you'll use 1-2 hours a day for potentially the rest of your life...yet you'll pay $10 for a streaming service you'll never touch for months on end...
How is the amount of time you spend on a app a consideration for the price? Using Sync more doesn't cost the dev any more so not sure why they would be factored into it. It feels like you're conflating personal value with cost.
Quite the opposite. I already block ads, I want to support the developer. But I don't want a subscription nor do I want to pay a huge fee for one app. I use a lot of apps and it's not feasible to pay that much for each one.
I think the issue is that Lemmy is still developing and we don't know what it's going to look like even 6 months from now. $20 for unlimited access isn't bad at all if you know you'll get your money's worth. I'm still hesitant with Lemmy because there are features that it lacks. I'm optimistic that they will be added, but I can't be sure.
I have a hard time justifying $20 for a mobile app. I don't think I've spent more than $5.99 on an app and I used play rewards money so it wasn't even mine.
It's okay... whiners on this thread will spend $20 for two Starbucks drinks which last you minutes of taste enjoyment...but browse Sync everyday and complain $20 for life is too much...
That's lifetime for an awesome app made by an independent developer. And its being updated regularly. Honestly if I wasn't broke I wouldn't mind paying it. That's like 2 pizzas
I know it's "just two pizzas" the problem is everyone and their uncle wants two pizzas.... Everywhere we turn people are extracting us for every cent at some point you've gotta draw lines.
I've already cancelled most subscriptions.
Sync lemmy is simply too much.
Compare it to nzb360, one OF THE BEST apps out there, and he's like half the price.
Lifetime should be 9.99 MAX, then make lower tiers so people can still support the dev.
The whole pricing debate is so exhausting. Anybody who feels $20 is too steep for an app they might use for the next decade is welcome to their opinion, but they'll never have the same perspective as those of us who enjoyed a decade of improvements to Sync for Reddit. LJ is a class act, Sync is leagues ahead of all other 3PAs, and I'm happy to pay my share.
There are so many FOSS & alternative options. LJ is dedicating his full attention to a niche platform and has set up a subscription model that allows this project to remain sustainable for him & his team (yes, team). Feel free to go with any other option, but let's not pretend that Sync is the antichrist for being the first Lemmy 3PA developer that is prioritizing sustainability after a decade of supporting users who paid $2
Even without it being a decade, people happily spend $20 to get 2 drinks at a bar, go see one movie, get one game (or one third of a AAA game), eat one meal at a restaurant, pay for parking once, or on a trinket or toy that looks neat on their desk.
Acting like $20 is steep for software is, imo, part of the reason we end up in this ad-supported model in the first place. A lot of people don't attribute the actual challenge of writing software and the value they get out of it because it's so abstract to them.
The Fediverse is still a pretty big experiment. The first thing I thought when I saw that Ultra lifetime price was if Lemmy would even still be as relevant as it is today (which isn't that high of a bar, mind you) in 5.5 years—the amount of time it would take for the lifetime purchase to pay off as a better deal than the yearly subscription.
Not only that, but it truly is a front end for Lemmy; not the service itself. I get that the dev has bills to pay and I guess that this is their only hustle (?), but $100 is a bit of an unreasonable ask in my opinion. If I were rich, I'd buy it. But I'm not, so there you go.
Not that anyone should care, but personally I'm waiting to see what Boost does, as that was what I used back in Reddit.
Exactly my point :) This platform is unstable & the userbase isn't dependable, especially so in the context of 3PA customers
How do you make this project viable/sustainable? Price it appropriately. I've already completed one decade with LJ & Sync, so I'm happy to bank on this app. And if it doesn't, that's the gamble - nobody is forced to agree, but it'd be odd for anyone to argue Sync should be priced in accordance with any expectation that the platform dies in the next year or so.
Because the money doesn't stop flowing out, with countless subscription services already, you gotta draw the line somewhere before finding yourself paying so much more for things you wouldn't have, just because you lost oversight of your costs.
Having the option for a one-time payment settles this discussion, it's fire and forget.
Everybody have their choice now so why even bother trying to convince anyone.
it was 12.99 for a hot second if you grabbed it when it first went live. I was thinking about it, but then saw it went to 19.99 just recently. Imma gonna wait.
There was some talk on Discord about making the pricing regional, no idea on timeline though. But it does not sound reasonable if that's half a monthly entry salary for you!
It is not friendly to regional pricing. Can't really blame the dev since their own bill are probably in dollars, but I think I'll pass myself as it is fairly expensive for an app here. I could buy like 3 or 4 full video games for the price.
Just got the update and... Yeah, it's almost $100 on my currency. I'm not sure if I ever saw an app this expensive before, not that I buy a lot of apps, but still. Love the app and lj has always been awesome, but will have to pass :(
way too expensive.
also no regional pricing?
I would never pay more then 8-10$ for a full game, let alone 20$ for lack of random black rectangles in a free app.
ah, right my fault.
apparently just having an American google account on your device forces all prices to be in usd.
installing from the play store web page remotely should make the app show the correct prices, but i haven't tried that yet.
burger is 2-3$ here, around 1-1.5$ for a McDonald's cheeseburger (the cheapest option in the menu), i would rather buy like 10-15 burgers for that price.
Twenty dollars one time in a world of subscriptions for an app you use hours a day really isn’t that bad. Think how much you spend on other luxuries in your day to day and $20 doesn’t get you that much.
I also spend my days drinking tap water and breathing air. You can't say that because you use something every day that you have to pay an inflated price for it. Other developers also spend a lot of time on their apps and don't ask these absurd prices.
WinRAR is in the same ball park. Seems reasonable. $20 is the pre Adpocalypse price for small software. It's the insanely low price of apps when Smartphones started that where off. Now we are back again.
I paid to remove the ads. I want to support the developer and this is the best Reddit app I used as well.
Having said that, this is a really steep price tbh and will be a hard sell for my friends. I am loyal to Sync and still see value in this price since I use it so much. But it really is steep.
People (including myself) gladly pay for convenience of being able to do it in the app, and that just works anywhere. Pihole is limited to your home, unless you go down the route of a personal VPN connection too.
Taxes. US prices are always net prices, as taxes are depending on which state you live in. 20 USD = 18.28 € + 19 % taxes (let's take the German one) = 21.75 €. If you are from Italy you are even better off, as with your VAT it would be 22 % = 22.3 €.
Paid. Haven't actually seen any ads. The only complaint that I have, is that u/spez doesn't get a notification, with a comment on the value of building brand loyalty through respect and support of your user base.
That's for ultra. (and it's pretty much the same price everywhere) If you just want the ad-free version it should be ~$20. Tap the profile icon in the top left corner, then "remove ads".
I fully recognize I'm in a position of relative privilege, but I am more than happy paying an annual subscription of <$20 for an app like this.
Building an app of this quality with this level of polish is a massive time investment, and I'm more than happy to reward that time with less money per year than I spent doordashing lunch this afternoon because I was too lazy to make myself a sandwich.
Really slick and professional looking app but, you gotta make price adjustments for the purchasing power. Especially for the ad removal option. My income and ad revenues you will be getting from me are way less than that of the US and EU users.
I would probably buy premium if it was $20 but $99 is way too high.
And $20 just to remove ads is also a lot, at least for me. I have a dns level ad blocker and it's needed these days in the extreamly hostile user environment we exist in.
god, honestly this has kinda turned me off even trying sync at all. liftoff works fine, and these devs are neither asking me for money, nor showing me advertisements.
i sincerely hope no one is out here thinking they’re gonna earn a living with an unofficial-app for a fledgling social media service, for which there currently exists no fewer than ELEVEN other fully featured apps in the google play store.
I've used 5 of them. Not a single one is what I would call "fully featured" compared to the million features I loved in Sync for Reddit. Sync for Lemmy promises to be as good, but for Lemmy. That's worth money to me. If that doesn't describe you, or most people, then OK.
i’ve used 3 and none of them were missing features i needed, what are you referring to exactly? lack of messages is something i’ve seen, and i don’t make use of them myself so i admit i wouldn’t notice them missing. what is there beyond that, customization options?
i’m not trying to be a shit by the way, i’m genuinely curious.
Will there be a premium app in the store? I recall the reddit version with IAP periodically having issues with purchases not being recognized. I'd rather spend my money on that then.
Yesterday it was 69,99 PLN which was rather high but not that bad, but today I saw the price went up to 99,99 PLN. As much as I like Sync I'm not going to pay this much to remove ads.
Thanks. I cancelled my subscription, updated the app, and saw the jaw dropping price of $99. Turns out you can pay $20 to remove ads through the Profile menu on the top left. That was what I wanted all along.
It's pretty steep. But I appreciate the option at least. I generally hate apps that only give subscriptions so at least it's here and the dev has every right to charge what he feels it is worth (likewise you have every right to not see that value). I'll probably pick it up in a few weeks
Before saying that the ad-free version is not 19.99, please update your app to the latest version. You will see the new option to only buy lifetime ad-free.
I think people mean regional pricing. for example in Australia this means $34. you can buy Microsoft Office for that price. I love the product and I may spend that but it's still high.
I do agree with the sentiment that the price is a tad steep. I think $10 is a more agreeable price imo.
Personally I still prefer the $17 a month considering that backing up my settings through the cloud is an important and convenient feature since I own multiple devices and 8 lemmy profiles (don't ask why lol). Hopefully LDJ has a desktop version.
I didn't even flinch paying the money. Sync for Reddit was my most used app over the last decade and glad to have it back (I didn't do the work around). I've already gotten more engaged in Lemmy and plan to be way more active.
I get that developer needs to eat and I kinda fully support it but I think it would be good to have a region based pricing. I think $20 would not be much to a person in US or other first world countries while it would be kinda bit much for people in 3rd world countries (where their currency isn't strong) like India.
Honestly I think 20 usd is reasonable. I think people here are being weird. That's like the price of a book or indie game on steam - surely an app that you read on every day is worth that?
Also Lemmy will continue to grow so the value will just increase.
I'm very happy to support a $20 ad free purchase. Did it immediately. Google Play credits paid for all of it, but even if it didn't id do it anyways. This is all great and jldawson is great. $20 come on guys. It's so worth it.
p.s. Download the Google Rewards app which occasionally will give you a 2-5 question survey and it will pay you between .10-.90 per survey. I get the surveys all the time.