With that price I feel like the dev has 0 faith in lemmy getting very big and feels like they need to capitalize on the currently few users to make back costs. I mean, not even an early access price considering its in beta still
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
302 points (96.6% liked)
Sync for Lemmy
15088 readers
3 users here now
π
Welcome to Sync for Lemmy!
Welcome to the official Sync for Lemmy community.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Community Rules
1- No advertising or spam.
All types of advertising and spam are restricted in this community.
Community Credits
Artwork and community banner by: @MargotRobbie@lemmy.world
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Yeah this feels like early adopter tax. Get your money off people who don't blink at stuff like $100 for a beta app for a small reddit that's literally just a front end.
Then lower the price slowly. Like I feel like there are more Lemmy apps than Reddit ones. It's pretty gauling to charge so much and essentially take everything from server owners by putting this up front for people trying it from Reddit.
load more comments
(4 replies)
With that price I feel like the dev has 0 faith in lemmy getting very big
It feels kind of the opposite to me.
Going back and checking my Google account history, I paid $1 for Sync Pro. In 2012. And was using it up until last month. In retrospect, that was far too low a price for the utility I got out of the app for literally years.
If anything, it feels like the dev has learned that lesson and has priced the lifetime option where it's actually sustainable for them if Lemmy stays around.
load more comments
(10 replies)
The literal opposite. I'm working on this fulltime and giving it everything I can.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Exactly. Suck the early adopter users dry just in case lemmy doesn't get huge. I mean, yes there was dev time for this app, but of importing your syncreddit press into this app is any indication, it wasn't a rewrite but merely an adaptation of API.
This is most definitely the dev seeing how much he can milk early on. Good for him if it works. I mean the app framework is amazing, don't get me wrong. But not at these prices.
load more comments
(5 replies)
That's very cynical point of view. This is for the Ultra version, which incurs recurring cost to the developer for providing extra features which requires running some servers on their side. I myself spent that much just for running a Lemmy server for two months. They still have one time $20 option that don't include services that require the external servers.
God damn thatβs expensive.
Yeah, this Dev seems to be counting on the idea that everyone in lemmy will forget that there are perfectly good free apps out there, and that all the other 3rd party Reddit devs are working on their own lemmy versions.
load more comments
(13 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
I know I'm cheap and I know this app is great and is a lot of work but fuck, this is expensive. Subscriptions are the worst model capitalism can offer. And the one time payment price is ridiculous, I can't afford that.
Realistically it's the only way he can sustain the development costs with such a small userbase. I've subscribed monthly to show my support. It's not really that much money considering how much I use sync.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(6 replies)
$50 wouldn't have nearly as much of a negative reaction. $100 is awfully steep for a community as small as Lemmy.
But I'm glad the yearly sub is only $17, so I may get that instead.
I personally would never pay a subscription for a 3rd party Lemmy app. That defeats some part of why I moved to Lemmy to begin with.
load more comments
(7 replies)
So I'm not an app developer, so I might be completely off base, but I don't really understand a lot of the arguments against this.
Firstly, there's an ad free one time cost that in my opinion seems very fair. Secondly, as I'm looking through the feature for Ultra, most of the features seem to be things that require an external server. I'm not sure how push notifications work so I can't comment on it, but syncing settings across devices for example doesn't happen at the instance level. That kind of thing could only be done through a server owned by the dev. However, it is very likely that the dev doesn't own a server, and is instead renting on a VPS, which is a subscription for them. So in order to provide these particular services, the dev has to pay a subscription. So would it not make sense that those that enjoy the benefits of this subscription the dev pays, also have to pay a subscription? In my mind that simply seems fair, in order to support a dev that has clearly put a lot of time and effort into making a great app.
The user base for Lemmy is significantly smaller than Reddit. The dev needs a smaller number of people to be able to support the operating costs of the app (as well as the wellbeing of the dev) which means that necessarily a different (and steeper) pricing model would be necessary.
I do not think it's fair to claim that Lemmy API access is free and therefore there are no operating costs, because there's more to the app than API calls. It is indeed correct that API access is free, which seems to me to be the precise reason why there exists a free version of the app that you don't have to pay for in the first place. All API calls within the app are free. There are no paywalled Lemmy API calls, at least from what I can tell. But again if I'm wrong I'll admit it if someone can inform me.
I think you're spot on and it applies in general to why we see a trend of subscriptions. When we all got our first smartphones, most apps were local and it didn't cost the developer more if they had 1M downloads compared to if they had 50 downloads.
load more comments
(2 replies)
at that price you could afford the reddit api.. not that i'd want to
I think the ultra price for reddit was like 30 dollars for lifetime. 100+ bucks just seems like way to much.
load more comments
(5 replies)
My last app, Now for Reddit, charged $4 to unlock all the features of the app, including no ads.
load more comments
(4 replies)
wow isn't that like 6 years of subscription? so expensive
I mean, I used sync for reddit for like 10 years.
Yeah, but Lemmyβs a newer platform and might not stick around for 6 years, IF it takes off like Reddit did. $100 is a bit too steep, if Iβm being honest.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Just use FOSS apps for Lemmy. There are plenty good ones. Thanks to all devs and contributors!
load more comments
(8 replies)
Nope
That's wild. Like man I'm impressed with Sync and think it's great but you'd have to be using it for 7 years for this to be worth it...Lemmy is so new you'd be mad to be making a gamble like this.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I pass
Lifetime wasn't available when I subscribed. :(
I assume that's $100 USD in America?
It's expensive, but Sync is literally the best app on my phone, and has been that way for a long time. I'd consider it.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Or use one of the myriad of other ad-free apps?
I don't get the fanboi-ism, it didn't blow my socks off when I was on Reddit either. I used Slide and RIF.
Sync is polished with an experienced dev. All of the other free Lemmy apps have some kind of compromise. They're fine, but they definitely feel like they are free.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
βΉ9900!!!
I bought 2 smartphones for my friends last month. Combined total cost of those was roughly βΉ10200.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Yikes
Just run your phone through a free private DNS server and never see an ad again. I use dns.adguard.com.
None of my free apps show any ads on my phone.
load more comments
(10 replies)
My favorite lemmy app is firefox :^)
But no really, what kind of shit is this? Pay 110β¬ to browse social media that already has no ads?
Yeah using and loving lemmy is in part due to the solid web UI and because it doesn't nag me like a removed to install some app unlike reddit did. Same reason why I loved libreddit as my preffered frontend. Whatever sync is doing is outrageous, not getting even a "try" download from me.
view more: next βΊ