I don’t see app subscriptions as a “large price increase”, I see it as “getting software back to a susatainable and sane pricing structure”.

Also, unpopular opinion, if people would have not complained and whined so much about paying $10 for an app this wouldn’t have happened.

@Burk What I hate about it the most is that I’m renting the app. I can’t decide to stop upgrading the app and let it ‘degrade’ slowly. I stop paying and in some cases completely lose access to apps.

@Burk Those both seem like very reasonable opinions to me.

@Burk I think there are more nuances than this. I am very happy when a developer has a biz model that looks sustainable if it is an app I see using for a long term (>1 year). Taking DayOne as an example, I started using this app long ago, before subscriptions, and the excuses they used for moving to subscription, starting their own cloud so the price was high, and so on upset me. So I am using the last non-sub version of DayOne until it dies. I don’t need any of the features of the subscription account and wish the data synced to iCloud instead. I would subscribe at some price but the price is too high since I don’t want the features and don’t their private cloud. And their customer support stinks. I’m not the only one doing this so IMO it is hurting their business.

An opposite situation is the Drafts app. The price is lower than DayOne and the development is thriving and on all the Apple platforms. It is a powerful tool and delivering value and support is fantastic. It’s a great value IMO.

A different situation is the CARROT weather app. I am a paid subscriber because I’m a weather geek and I know the cost involved in getting access to reliable weather data and updating it constantly. Also the app is great and always improving and again has great support.

So I make a decision based on value (financial and responsible behavior by the developer).

@tgray Very good point. The lack of graceful degredation is not great.

@ronguest I haven't used DayOne in quite some time, but your thoughts don't seem to be outside the norm for most users. It seems like a lot of people like the service and it wouldn't take a ton to make people happy again

@ronguest I'm in exact same with Day One. I keep using the features that I have without paying subscription, having had the app for a long time before they were introduced.

@ronguest 🙂 I’m exactly in opposite situation. I owned v4 of Drafts but I haven’t gone subscription but did on DayOne

@jemostrom Yes, it is a personal value prop decision

@Burk What I don’t understand is why any developer would force people into subscriptions. Why not offer both subscriptions and version-based sales? If you have customers willing to pay for your work, why dictate how they pay? Let people choose for themselves.