Get All Features

Unfortunately an upfront price in an app-store world is a very hard sell I’m afraid.

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Enjoying this discussion. Plenty of good opinions here, and it should be obvious this is a somewhat experimental sales model, so we don’t have all the answers.

I am not really worried about it not working out. Every sales model has weaknesses. We think this one nicely balances the motivations of the customer with those of the developer. The customer pays for concrete features, and ‘owns’ them permanently when they purchase. The developer is motivated to keep the product moving to keep the customer purchasing.

I’m not worried that we will run out of things to improve and features to add. We’ve been in this business for probably 15 years, and I’ve never really seen a piece of software run up against that. I’ve never seen a developer say “we’re done!”

And I’m also not really concerned about the argument that new users get too much. Consider the existing sales models: If I purchase version 1.0 of an app, and then pay an upgrade to version 2.0, I have paid more than my friend who just purchases version 2.0 later. And yet my friend has exactly the same app I have. Is that fair?

And if I subscribe to an app for 5 years, and then my friend joins too, he/she gets the same app for a fifth the price I have paid. Is that fair?

In other words, you can’t really value an app like you value a piece of cake. If I buy a piece of cake, I can only eat it once. The moment that I eat it plays no role. In the app store terminology, cake is a “consumable”.

Software is not a consumable. You can use it as much as you like. I could buy an app once, and use it for 20 years. So the argument that the new customer gets the same app, even though over time they have paid less, doesn’t really fly. They may get the same app, but they don’t have the years of usage you have. That is what you are really paying for — the app itself is not very useful; the usage of the app is what is useful.

Anyway, it’s all largely theoretical at this point, and time will tell. The first hurdle is crossed, namely that it seems people are willing to pay for the premium features even when that is not a requirement to use the app. The other hurdles, eg, keeping them paying, are yet to be encountered.

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It is the last point which is most interesting. The app in its current, and promised format, will obviously sell itself. The fact that people keep the features whatever stage they invest to is, again, obviously a strong selling point that should shape other pricing models.

Personally, I see a shift in consumer expectations. To date consumers have purchased all the features created by developers - and therfore getting features superfluous to their needs. I think a future models accross the board will focus more on the bespoke option. Buying only the features the consumer needs. A few exist but non, on my radar, that really inspire.

Your product has achieved the hardest hurdel. It found a much neglacted niche. Most other new creations do what every other creation does, just in a different way.

I sincerely wish you the best, but hard conversations, and challenging ones, must be made to ensure all angles are considered.

I appreciate this approach. I am investing in Premium because I believe you will continue to deliver things I will want, or which provided added value.

I do NOT appreciate a subscription model which mostly serves to provide a cosnsistent revenue stream more than it supports the same value-added approach (hear me Adobe?).

I buy software that I expect to last me 3-5 years or more. If I wanted to lease software, then that means it has to be a must-have with a cost too high to pay for, other than “over time”.

Subscription makes the bean-counters and folks who follow stock prices happy. Outright purchase makes those of us that don’t have a lot to spend think more about what we need and what we get — and for us (me at least) the immediate value is more important than some feature I may never see or even think is needed for years.

Kudos for this model, and I hope it catches on. However, as long as people believe in leasing their cars and software, there will be people out there making sure that’s possible. At some point however, people will say enough is enough.

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Tell you what, I’ll go premium if you tell me what happened to Tom in the next release. :wink:

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This could be the most entertaining USP ever :joy::joy::joy::joy:

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Why not charge monthly subscription? Then if user stops paying, they keep what they’ve paid for this far. That seems more like a magazine subscription than your current model.

Your current model creates the following problems.

  1. Whats stopping you from delaying certain updates? Moving it up to following year. To make keep users on the hook. Or limiting updates released?
  2. You will run out of features to add. Resulting in then charging for bug corrections later on. Or does your current model have a way to compensate for bugs corrections for those with older updates?

Overall seems like your pricing model will delay updates from being released. Which is exactly what’s happening. After all, you certainly don’t work for free.

If we had a monthly subscription like other apps, as soon as you stopped paying, you would not receive updates, and the app could stop working. Many apps also simply take away a lot of functionality when you stop paying, so the app becomes just a reader or something like that.

What makes our system unique is that you keep the features you paid for, and you always get the latest version for free, bug fixes and all. It should never stop working.

As for holding features back, why would we do that? You are thinking only in terms of renewals, but we also earn from new customers. It is in our interest to have features in there to tempt new customers to purchase, so holding things back wouldn’t make sense.

In fact, holding things back is something that exists in the standard sales model much more. It is common to “save” features for a big upgrade. Eg. version 2.0. You don’t release the features when you make them, you save them all up for 6 months to a year, and then release them in one hit.

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That’s my point. Make it so that if you stopped paying for subscription. You keep what you’ve paid for thus far. Then Like a car, after you upgrade a portion, you keep what you’ve upgraded. Keeping in mind there are only so many features you can add.

I do like the app, it reminds me of red notebook. My only suggestion is to make smaller calendar visible. In the right pane at all times, while pane is showing. Then if clicked, it opens the larger version. It’s nice to see in general when planning.

Thanks

A subscription where you keep what you already have is really what we already have, with the exception that it doesn’t automatically repeat — you have to purchase yourself again after a period of time. But the idea is similar, and even better really, because you not only keep what you have already, you also get any future updates with bug fixes even if you don’t pay again.

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You know, I really like Agenda and I really hope it get put into WorkFlow or whatever Apple decided to rename it.

I upgraded, and to be honest I prefer a yearly subscription.

I’m all about keeping the software and tools around that I are daily drivers in my business.

If that means I have to pay a few extra bucks a year ever year, I’m cool with it- I don’t have to worry about them not updating the app like they should.

What I don’t get is why people think you suppose to pay for a software one time and own it?

Plus, with any real software you still have to pay for upgrades when it change to 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc…

I would like to see Agenda keep moving forward with new features without losing the simplicity of the tool and if I can pay few bucks a year for that I think it’s worth the investment.

Thanks.

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If I purchase the iOS version now, and decide to upgrade to the MacOS version later, am I charged the difference? How does this work?

We don’t have a formal upgrade. What you can do is contact us when you’re ready through support and we’ll give you a coupon that gives $10 off the price from the Mac+iOS bundle.

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Can you offer a special offer for students?

See this topic:

I need to talk with someone of the support
can I talk to you?

We don’t have phone support (we have a small team), but if you email the problem to support@agenda.com, or post it here as a support request, we can help.