Sync Ultra is a very reasonable $17 a YEAR. YouTube Premium is reaching that per MONTH. I have sync downloaded and it was the first thing I did. Thanks lj for the beautiful app.
[EDIT: That was a poor comparison, as pointed out in the comments. Leaving it for discussion sake.
There are many counterpoints and actually good discussion happening down below. Even if you don’t agree, thanks for showing me a different perspective!
If you want to support Sync, make sure to support the Lemmy Devs and your instance holders as well!
*This post was made early in the day before the update added the OTP option.]
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Give me a one-time purchase of like $10-15 and I will, but I don’t do (non-voluntary) subs.
I don’t need any of the push notification services.
Edit: Added within hours. Immediately got it.
I remember going for the largest OTP for Sync quite happily. Might have been £30 or something. Subscription? Nah.
Edit: Looks like the remove ads OTP option has been added so I’ve hopped onto that.
Would you be okay if the one time purchase meant you did not receive any updates to Sync? Or perhaps it only got a few months of updates? That seems fair to me.
No, but I’d be willing to pay years ahead at once for something that I know I’ll be using for longer than that.
Everything has an expiration date anyways, because I don’t live forever. Who knows if we’ll still be using Android 10 years from now. It’s just basically a discount on very long term usage that gives the money ahead of time while taking the gamble that I will actually be using it for longer than the subscription price would be.
Yeah the pro version will do that
Same. More than happy to support development, but I don’t need another automatic subscription. I did OTP in the old app several times (purchased for different accounts, and again just because I use dns ad blockers, but still wanted to support the app). I am happy to do the same here, but not as a subscription.
Lj, please offer an option for OTP that removes ads while still being expensive enough to cover your costs.
It doesn’t need to include push notifications or image preloading, or any other features that require you to maintain or rent infrastructure. I would be willing to pay $20 or $30 for a one time purchase option that doesn’t make me feel like I am a drain to you when I block ads and tracking.
I will never look at ads or consent to tracking or violating my privacy, and I am willing to pay a (non-recurring) fee to enable that. I am sure I am not alone here.
I agree with essentially everything you’ve said. I left Reddit almost entirely because I refused to give up Sync, but I will not pay a subscription for it.
Just wanted to add that an update went out in the play store that allows a one time fee to just remove ads and tracking. I would prefer no google play services, but I am willing to compromise. I just paid $20 for my phone, and another $20 for my wife’s.
Thanks for adding the option, @ljdawson!
Outrageous price for an app. It doesn’t even provide the content. It’s just an app to show it. We have completely free options. That is it’s competition, not youtube. Such a strange thing to compare it to. Youtube provides the framework and code and hosts the videos. It isn’t simply a frontend app.
Sync for Reddit Pro was 2.99€… I was expecting that much or up to 5€ for Sync for Lemmy… But these prices are just ridiculous. As much as I like Sync I just can’t justify this kind of pricing when there are so many free alternatives without ads and tracking.
Right now I’m using Sync and it’s really nice but it’s not that much better than Jerboa for my use case.
If you want something free and open source, Jeroba works great and has no trackers
jeroba is trash
I wouldn’t say trash, but Sync is superior in absolutely every way
Except the things everyone is complaining about*
Everyone? I’m not complaining in the slightest. I’m more than willing to pay for the services I use, especially if they’re miles ahead of anything free
Lots of comments about the subscription. I had pro for years and had no idea the dev had switched to a subscription model. Had been anticipating the release but now… I would gladly pay again but not though a subscription no matter how good the app is. First time I see an ad on the app I’ll just go back to connect.
I’m not a sync user but I feel like the dev may have missed an option - pay what you want. PWYW feels almost like a donation.
Fuck this ad invested, data collecting, closed source piece of shit. Use infinity instead.
My personal limit is one time 10$, those other optons are simply too much.
I moved to Lemmy because Sync was announced that’s where they were going, but I’m not going to pay a monthly subscription for an app. I expected a reasonable one time payment like I had on Sync for Reddit. If that’s not an option then I’ll have to figure something else out
Im still looking which app is for me, but honestly sync seems like the best atm. I am hosting pihole so adds are just blank posts every now and then. It doesnt bother me, but I dont like it. I dont mind supporting devs, but adds and subscription can just stop me tbh. Im not saying it will, 22€ is not much for lifetime sub imo. It just feels like its not in lemmy spirit. If it was without adds I would probably never consider other app after trying sync and more likely donate. But yeah, I understand that donations are not reliable income
Had some Google Play balance, supported the dev. This is already the best Lemmy app by far.
The test of reasonableness is different for everyone.
I have no interest in cloud backup, or any other feature that incurs a cost to the dev. So why would I pay a subscription fee to “cover” those features?
If I like the app after sustained use, I might be willing to pay a one-time $8-$12 fee to remove ads/thank the dev/buy them a coffee
But I have zero interest in an ongoing subscription at this stage. There’s just not enough value for me in spending that sort of money.
First thing I did after opening the app was to look for the Pro (ultra) in-app purchase. But monhtly payments, no thank you.
Yea, I would gladly pay to remove ads. Like I already did for the Sync for Reddit. Twice. But no one likes subscriptions.
Same here. I hate subscriptions but would happily buy a Pro version like I did with Sync for Reddit.
What would you be willing to pay? I paid £4 for Sync in 2018. I can’t imagine a Pro (non-ultra) version would be that cheap this time.
At the minimum I’d think it’d match 1 year of Ultra (£17). Not sure if I’d pay that for Lemmy since I still use Sync for Reddit more.
Realistically, it would need to be higher than 1 year of Ultra, unless it only included some of the perks of Ultra. If it was priced the same for 1 year vs Lifetime, very few users would pay for the yearly sub.
Personally, I’m happy to keep paying the monthly sub to support LJ, if the development stalls or even stops completely, I’ll be stopping my subscription. I’m happy to provide continuous support for apps that I use daily if it means that the development continues.
New update Beta 25 dropped. Ad removal IAP is $12.99 USD.
Edit: increased to $19.99 USD
Edit 2: Ultra lifetime IAP added in Beta 26 for $99.99 USD
I’m seeing 19.99…???
I suspect he may be A/B testing pricing. I could have sworn I saw $12.99 for the Ad Removal IAP earlier, but it’s showing $19.99 now.
Even $12.99 felt high just to remove ads. Especially when compared to previous Sync Pro pricing.
I also suspect there may be some testing of the appetite for higher pricing for early adopters… with the potential to lower pricing later for mass audience appeal.
I think we’re seeing a lot of long-time Sync users (who came from Sync for Reddit), so that audience is probably a bit more amenable to higher pricing to support the developer, but this pricing doesn’t seem competitive with the broader Lemmy community.
Which is in line with my comment, I was simply saying that Ultra Lifetime will most likely cost more than Ultra Yearly.
Yeah, same here. It is a shame :(
I’m really confused why people feel this way. Can’t you just cancel it if you feel like it’s not worth it anymore?
Unless the app offers you cloud functions like email, cloud storage, multi-player gaming, or social media sites(lemmy, kbin, mastodon), etc. I see subscriptions as a no-go.
Sync does have some cloud features (and I suspect push notifications will be one of them soon), but yeah, I understand paying for them isn’t for everyone.
I usually hate subscriptions that try to squeeze you for money.
In the case of sync, I see it as a recurring donation for LJ. 15 bucks is what I make in like 20 minutes as an engineer myself, so ‘paying’ 20 minutes of my salary to a developer of such an awesome app is no problem for me.
I think Christian with Apollo went with a much better approach where he didn’t put in any ads, but limited the app to only being able to use one account and putting a limit to the filter list. But, you could buy the pro version to remove those limits and he put in subscription options too. If subscription is to be pushed his approach felt like the most tasteful way to go.
That’s a very good point. Software as a product should have a different pricing model than software as a service.
I gladly pay subscriptions for services. I see that the Ultra has cloud backup of settings, but how much storage could that possibly use? Certainly not $2/mo worth. For that price I’ll want the equivalent of 100Gb of storage in the cloud.
edit: I’d send $2/mo. to the admins of my instance. They’re running the servers that host all this content.
Good point, I didn’t think about it when I wrote my comment, but I agree that there’s a difference between paying for a software product and paying for a software service.
I just don’t do subscriptions. One of the aspects I hated about my foray into the Apple app store where everything seemed to be subscription or ads. Quickly missed Android and places like f-droid where I knew I could find ad free and subscription free open source alternatives.
I was happy to pay for apps like Procreate and Lumafusion though, so it’s not that I’m against paying for ads. I just don’t do subscriptions.
Completely fair point.
I generally do not do subscriptions either, but I do make some exceptions for specific apps/services. At least for me, Sync is one of those for now.
When I think about it I think it’s mainly been web hosting type services where data is being streamed or stored on the cloud that I’ve been fine with subscriptions for. And then not so much for pure software preferring more pay once and then pay for a new version update down the line type of approach like Office 2021 for example over Office 365. Although, I’ve moved mostly to libreoffice.
Same for games. I’d rather pay Diablo 4 $70 over paying for PS+ or game pass. Chose to forgo online multiplayer than pay for PS+ on my PS4 last Gen. Generally preferred a large one time lump sum than small monthly payments for things, since I suppose I just a distaste for adding more monthly expenses to the already growing list of monthly expenses.
Plus, how many years do you think Diablo 4 will be supported with updates/patches? At $17/year Sync will be just as expensive after a few years and doesn’t exactly have the same development team size or cost as something like Diablo…
Don’t really care about any ultra features. Once one-time-pay ad removal is there, I’m getting it. Just like I had Sync Pro and Sync Ultra (if those aren’t reinstated even). I will not do subscriptions.
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What was Sync Ultra before?
Sync for Reddit - Sync Ultra
Sync for Lemmy - Sync Ultra
Ad removal is here, you have to update the app
Indeed! Just purchased
You can remove ads with sync pro (one time payment) , as well with sync ulta (subscription).
Hmthe one-time IAP is implemented now.
The idea of buying something when I haven’t used it yet is kind of ridiculous, especially when the only option is an auto-renewing subscription service. If I could pay for a single month without having to figure out how and when I can cancel or it was a single purchase, I’d be more likely to give it a shot. Signing up for a subscription without knowing if the product is good just doesn’t make sense to me
Add that to the fact that I have to pay to get the same no ads experience as many other free apps, that kinda rubs me the wrong way
After thinking a little more, I had another frustrating realization. Some of the core tenants of the fediverse are being ad-free and respecting privacy. Sync breaks both of these, inserting ads in an ad free platform and collecting your personal data for the purpose of selling it to ad companies (explicitly stated in privacy policy).
As much as I liked sync for Reddit, I don’t think I’m going to use sync for Lemmy. The paradigm of the platform is different, but sync has not adapted
I think it might be better if sync actually not offering free version at all instead of including ads, given the almost universal hate for data collection among Lemmy users.
If I could pay for a single month without having to figure out how and when I can cancel
You just just subscribe and then immediately cancel the subscription in the play store just like any other play store subscription service.
