Avelon App

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evgiz@lemm.ee

(Edited to add context) Paywalling features most other apps have for free isn't a great look (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by v3rgl@lemmy.world to c/avelon@lemm.ee

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#EDITED TO ADD CONTEXT:

The developer has responded quite a bit in the comments here, and has made adjustments to the free tier feature set based on my and others' feedback. See more info in this update thread: https://lemm.ee/post/12353243

If you're reading this post after update 1.0.7 I suggest you skim these comments and that update thread before forming an opinion.

#ORIGINAL POST:

I like this app a lot, I can tell there's been a ton of love and hard work put into it.

The strategy for monetization leaves a bit of a sour taste though.

For one, nobody wants another subscription - and $30 lifetime for a brand new app is a huge asking price compared to, say, Apollo, which was $5 or so (with a subscription tier for things that actually made sense to buy due to recurring cost).

But this app is paywalling basic stuff like a comment jump button (everyone else has this for free), content filtering, video scrubbing, and various other things that have no recurring cost to the developer.

My recommendation, take it or leave it, if you want my money make it a reasonable one time purchase for things that don't cost you money (under $10 imo, $5 would've been an easy sell).

If you want to justify a subscription model you are gonna need to build features that justify it - push notifications, stuff like that.

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[–] evgiz@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago (19 children)

Hi, sorry for the late (and long) reply. You're right, $30 is definitely a lot to be asking for an app. I'll try to explain where I'm coming from, and why I've landed on this price & monetization model. If anyone have any suggestions on how I can improve things while considering my points as well I'm definitely open to discuss.

But this app is paywalling basic stuff like a comment jump button (everyone else has this for free), content filtering, video scrubbing

When I was working on this update I spent a lot of time considering which features were "essential" and which features were more convenience/nice-to-have features. Two of the bigger features I've decided should be free are multiple accounts & post creation, both of which have been paid features in other apps. I thought everyone having access to these was way more important than app themes or a smart jump button.

Everything that was free in the last version is still free, and of course there's a bunch of new non-pro stuff too. My intent with this update was not to paywall "basic" features, but to offer more hardcore users some extra niceties that in turn support development. I don't expect the majority of people to upgrade, which is totally fine. I'll still keep improving the app for everyone regardless.

make it a reasonable one time purchase for things that don’t cost you money (under $10 imo, $5 would’ve been an easy sell). If you want to justify a subscription model you are gonna need to build features that justify it

I get that the lifetime price is high, I really do. The #1 reason I'm going for this type of subscription model is that Lemmy is so small. Apps like Apollo easily had tens of thousands of users and could therefore charge way way less. For some context - if every single active Avelon user paid for a $5 upgrade, which I'm sure you'd agree is unreasonable, that'd still be barely enough to finance one month of development. That's it. I'm not saying this justifies the price, but Lemmy is still very niche, and with such a niche market the development cost will naturally be spread among much fewer users. With the slow growth of the Lemmy userbase a one-time purchase is very risky from my perspective, and I want Avelon to make sense over a long period of time. I think the devs of both sync (which is $99) and Bean (which is $50) realized this too.

I do believe Avelon can continue to play a part in lowering the barrier of entry to Lemmy and improving the platform as a whole by pushing for more high quality apps. I hope to see Lemmy continue to become the best link-aggregator platform ever, and as that happens prices will naturally decrease.

[–] danielton@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

With the slow growth of the Lemmy userbase a one-time purchase is very risky from my perspective

From our perspective, dropping $30 on an app is risky because of the number of apps that have come and gone (or stagnated) since the Rexxit of 2023 just four months ago. Memmy, Lemmur, Limbo, and others (even Voyager to an extent) have either stagnated or been discontinued since then. I've joined numerous TestFlights during the Rexxit and am still bouncing between apps. I still don't know which one is going to be the best.

What's also confusing is the choice to put basic features like the jump button and blocking behind the subscription but theming and icons are free.

[–] evgiz@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah for sure, these things cut both ways. While subscription might suck, they do have less risk on both sides. If a dev stopped working on their app, people would just stop paying for it - no need to pay everything up front.

As for themes and app icons, they are also part of the pro upgrade. Blocking is free, but custom filters are not. My impression was that most people were happy with this setup since I didn't get much feedback about it during the ~1 month of testing the update went through. I figured multiple account support and things like that was more important for most people.

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