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Honestly that’s fair. There’s way less of a subscriber base here, development time is expensive, and you need to foresee circumstances for the future (look how many people Apollo dev had to refund). Sync is also such a great app, I’m personally just using the ad version at the moment on my android phone (and this is from Memmy on iOS). Sync is still one of the best apps I’ve ever used and keep an android phone just for it.
How does less of a subscriber base lead to way more expensive price? Unless the dev is greedy and wanting to suck the souls of all the early adopters.
Well, let’s just do the math: the original pro version has over 100,000 downloads over it’s 10 years of life. At $3, that means the dev earn at least $300,000 over 10 years, minus 30% play store fee. Let’s say they earn at least $27,000 per year, which is almost twice the minimum wage at the very least.
Now lets do the math for Lemmy version: some metrics say we have 1 million users. Let’s assume 10% of them are active users (100,000), and among those active users, lets assume 10% of them (10,000) buy Sync for Lemmy at $3 (the original price) one time purchase (a very generous estimate). This means the dev will get $27,000 (after 30% cut from play store) from those users, ever. Even more likely is only less than 1% of active users buy it, which means the dev would earn something like $3000. Even if they sell it for $20 it’s likely they still won’t earn the same amount as the old Reddit version.
So yeah, I don’t think the dev is greedy. In fact, I’m concerned that they won’t get enough money to earn their living and we’ll all have to go back to Jerboa (it’s good though, but not as good as sync).
$3? I paid $40 cdn for Sync lifetime in May 2022. Toss an extra zero on some of your numbers there, it might have been $3 initially but it definitely went up.
3x the price for the lemmy edition is a steep hike.
It was 1$ at the beginning for the pro version.
Can’t estimate how much sales the dev actually got on ultra lifetime because the sales data is not public. This is just an estimate for sync pro.
I think some lines got confused between the calculations being originally done. The person you replied to was referring to the price of Sync Pro (Removed ads) whereas I’m pretty sure you and the original commenter are referring to Sync Ultra (extra features).
Sync Pro was certainly never that high, but Ultra was for the lifetime purchase option.
Explained way better than I hahah. Comparatively, developers of his caliber should be making $200k a year salary (though the market has cooled recently).
I guess best way to put it is imagine Sync Reddit had 10,000 subscribers with each paying $10 lifetime. You’re netting $100,000 for those signups.
Now the dev time hasn’t changed (in fact I’d say it actually increased as he has to research and test with a brand new API), and now his potential subscribers have decreased dramatically. To accommodate for that you need to charge a lot more as the developer is expecting only ~1000 subscribers.
Wow that’s super expensive. Love the app, but this pricing can’t be justified given there are no API costs.
No API costs but Lemmy is still in constant and early development and would not doubt require many changes in the years to come.
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Well I’ve used Sync Pro for reddit for over 11 years with constant updates and I only paid 1.99 for that so I have pretty good faith in the developer this go around…
sync ultra is ongoing costs it’s mainly features that require dedicated servers and subscriptions from LJ like translation requiring paying google cloud setting sync requiring servers to store it there’s a plain ad free only that’s lifetime for $20
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It’s a bit steep for my finances.
I’m definitely interested in the yearly option.
wow isn’t that like 6 years of subscription? so expensive
I mean, I used sync for reddit for like 10 years.
Yeah, but Lemmy’s 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 I’m being honest.
Then buy the monthly or yearly? The lifetime is just a third option.
I used Reddit Is Fun for so long I’m just sort of oblivious to tiny ads in my scroll feed.
But it’s not Sync, is Lemmy…
So?
8 years if you invest the money and get a 10% roi each year. Not that I was going to.
Yea something in the 3ish year sub price would be more reasonable
God damn that’s 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.
He would have had an edge had the released sooner. But now there’s too much free competition.
The free competition sucks though. Liftoff and Thunder are useable but buggy, the rest is rubbish.
I agree, that’s why I paid for ad free. But a lot of other people are very willing to deal with jank, it seems.
Been very happy with Connect.
Connect is my daily driver, too. But it feels very unpolished coming from Joey (for Reddit)
I think he’s actually counting on the fact that people will be using this app daily for the next decade, just like they did with Sync for reddit.
Imagine a city with 5 roads leading into it. A 6th road opens, and the builder puts up a toll booth, charging a high amount. Meanwhile 5 additional roads are currently being built leading into the city.
I mean, sure, some fools will pay the toll, but it really looks like the road builder is hoping to capture a clientele that doesn’t know the other roads exist.
I disagree. I think that is an overly simplistic view of the situation.
Some people buy iPhones and Samsung Ultras and whatever else. Some people use the same basic phone they had ten years ago. Both are valid. It’s no different here, if you’re happy with the free stuff then cool, if you want the very best Lemmy app which has had over a decade of development then also cool.
Saying that people are fools because they want to pay for the software they use and have made a value judgement to do so is absurd.
Sync was a fine Reddit app, but it was never the best. If you want to pay a fortune for mediocrity, enjoy yourself.
Apollo also had years of development but was totally free with donation options. And imo it was better than Sync.
No offense to Sync though, it was/is still an amazing app.
Not providing a lifetime purchase at the initial release, then gradually giving 2 updates that disables ads and then ultra permanently, seems like the dev is greedy. Probably that’s why they didn’t have good terms with Reddit in the first place. Who knows.
I launched the beta and then added two features based on user feedback.
You’re blaming DEVS for reddit’s shitty behaviour now?
Yeah it is a bit too much.
Way too expensive.
then just pay the onetime $20 to remove ads instead
PiHole ftw
how do
Install a PiHole ob a Raspberry Pi and Connect it to your Internet. There are many Guides in YouTube. Heres one of Them https://youtu.be/cE21YjuaB6o
Can I do this with an old netbook? Would have to figure out how to keep it running while shut/with the screen off.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/cE21YjuaB6o
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
There are ads? 🤔 Laughs in Adguard
Imagine using Adguard laughs in Control D with RAM Servers
I pass
Lol. I uh. Guess I didn’t want a one time payment option after all.
There’s still a one-time remove ads/tracking price which is €23 for me, varies by region. The lifetime Sync Ultra is for cloud back-up features, can be ignored.
I’m pretty sure there’s still going to be an ad free one time payment though, Sync ultra has more than just ad free browsing. Personally I only want to remove the ads so if it’s priced like the pro version was then I’ll be happy
It’s $20 USD to just remove ads permanently.
Oof yeah I just saw, that’s a bit pricey for me honestly especially because Lemmy doesn’t really have enough content at the moment to spend a lot of time on…
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There’s an option to remove only ads as well in the profile picker menu. Costs about $25 if my conversion is right, lifetime.
The ad-free version is already available für 21,99 €. Not going to lie, I expected the old reddit prices and was going to buy Ultra lifetime for 33 €…
Where do you find that?
Tap the account switcher in the top left corner, then “remove ads”.
Hmm, not there for me. I subscribed for a month already so maybe that’s why.
£18.99 is pretty steep.
Wished he’d give us an option to choose some option prices. Feels like a bit of a land grab at that price.
I paid £12.99
How’d you manage that!
That was the price it was when I tried to remove the ads
Bargain!
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Sync for Reddit’s Lifetime Ultra was $30. I paid that without thinking. $100 is a big increase.
Plus, I got one year out of the Ultra lifetime for Reddit. This is an even bigger gamble.
I feel the same way. $46 (Canadian) a year ago (August 1) for Sync Ultra. Got less than a year out of it…
Hurts even more that the new ultra has the same name as the old one. It gave me false hope that my old subscription would still be valid.
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Just run your phone through a free private DNS server and never see an ad again. I use dns.adguard.com.
None of my free apps show any ads on my phone.
I do this. But I would still like to pay the dev. Just not those prices,
There’s also the ad removal option for 20$ one time. If you don’t need the other features of ultra.
I mean sure, but that doesn’t support the hard work the developer or into this… So…
Just donate whatever amount you want directly to them then.
Those donation buttons, rarely ever get used. Because everyone would rather just think that everyone else donated so it’s fine if they don’t. And sure, some do donate (I’ve donated before) but that’s the actions of the very few.
I just can’t get myself to trust an ex Russian, offshore company with my dns traffic
Nextdns.io works well, and lets you customize tons of features. Alternatively, you can run a pihole on pretty much any spare computer to work as an home adblocker. You can also route up to an adblocking dns with it to double up.
You want to get extra wild, setup a wireguard vpn server at home after that, and have your phone auto connect to it when you leave your home wifi.
No more ads ever.
I do that too on my Samsung phone. Do you know a way to do it on iPhone?
Check out their instructions. You’ve got a couple options:
You either need to set the DNS in your phone settings somewhere or route all traffic through a VPN (should be a setting somewhere too). You can then use a VPN where you can set the DNS. I use tailscale for this
at that price you could afford the reddit api… not that i’d want to
I ues connect it looks almost the same and feels better and it is free
Sync is also free
I think the ultra price for reddit was like 30 dollars for lifetime. 100+ bucks just seems like way to much.
Its $179 Australian. Absolutely not worth it to me.
Eh.
People have been spoiled by the app store. Like I agree its a lot of money, but it also takes a lot of money to live, and if someone is a solo developer for a living then they depend on software sales. Lifetime purchases are tough. Once you get that money, the potential for more money from that customer is gone. Unless you follow a traditional software licensing model where you buy a version and upgrading past a major release requires another purvhase.
Im pretty sure he LJ has taken into account the heavily decreased sales potential of the lemmy market. Hes going to make substantially less sales, so he needs those sales to be worth it, especially if its a lifetime purchase. Its hard to strike a balance between worth it for the customer and worth it for the dev. Ideally the lifetime cost pushes would be purchasers towards an ongoing subscription while still providing value for both parties.
I agree $179aud us too much, and I wont be paying that myself, but I feel for LJ at the same time. Its not going to be easy making the money he may need to continue developing at the same rate.
Spoiled by the app store?
This is the same price as a windows 11 licence.
What is so app store about that?
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Because people want to pay $1 or $2 for a full version of an app, and that may not be enough to justify development.
A windows license is still legacy software model. You dont buy a lifetime windows key, you buy a version key and have to pay again after a major update, although this looks like its currently evolving to a more free to play model. Microsoft has an exponentially wider audience who are mostly captive though, as opposed to LJ who has just had his audience dramatically reduced.
At the end of the day development takes time. Time is money. If LJ cant make a sustainable wage from sync they will have to work elsewhere and sync and its users are the ones who suffer.
For an app that you can’t even make a post from yet. I don’t care who you are, $180 for an app still missing basic functionality is always going to be a hard sell.
I think Sync might end up hosting a Lemmy instance for ultra users. It could help user experience quite a bit
That wouls be a fine value add, especially if it integrated features into the server code that were open sourced and down streamed. That would add some real weight to that purchase price.
What would happen if you stop your subscription then? Lose your account?
There is no subscription though? It’s even written in the picture
Read again
