ForumsQuestionsNew subscription prices - what do you think?
New subscription prices - what do you think?
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wksims86 |
I really do appreciate the developers warning their user-base about the potential price increase, and I'm sure a lot of thought went into making a change as significant as this.
I am a silver user, and although I had migrated to other platforms for my own task tracking, I was actively in the process of convincing three businesses for which I am affiliated to adopt Toodledo for collaborative task management (a nonprofit board, a professional organization, and a law firm). The price changes put Toodledo outside of our budgets and significantly more expensive by comparison to other task/project management solutions that were proposed. We will be using another platform. It's anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt, but the price change has directly resulted in a loss of 63 silver/gold accounts at the original price, plus my own account upon its expiration. I'm not mad about it (quite the opposite, I'm sad that this tool won't be the right solution for us but excited about investigating new alternatives). I understand it's a business strategy for the devs, and price increases are never going to be popular. I also don't happen to think it's going to pan out for them or for other users, but I sincerely hope I'm wrong. As others have mentioned, the cart has been put before the horse. Beyond the shock of a 3x price increase, which is not insignificant, there is not much in the way of additional features to justify that increase. Either Toodledo believes that users were receiving over 3x the value in the product's current iteration for what they are paying, or they are confident that the price increase will directly enable new innovation and development that will allow them to match the benefit to the cost before too many users leave. I don't happen to believe either are likely. And while I really appreciate the developer's honesty and roadmap here in their decision-making process, the logic behind either of those theories doesn't inspire my confidence that they will be able to deliver on their promises/hopes. As such, I'll be letting my account lapse. This message was edited Oct 18, 2018. |
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aleding |
The key aspect missed by many who see no issue with the new pricing is cost over time...
Most other ToDo apps out there will cost anywhere from $30-$50 for the desktop app & maybe another $20 for the mobile app - total investment is sub-$100 and typically at $70...and this is for at least 1 yr. of service but likely much more than 1 yr. if people decide to not upgrade annually. And this is even further extended by the fact that several apps are now offering lifetime licenses for that same cost point. What this means is that at $90\yr., ToodleDo doesn't just need to be better than those apps - it needs to be a whole helluva lot better than those apps - orders of magnitude better...something I personally believe impossible to achieve... Yes TD can get better but not that much better...therefore I'm still not even close to being able to justify the new pricing scheme... This message was edited Oct 19, 2018. |
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Ummagumma |
“I understand it's a business strategy for the devs“
Well I don’t.... unless the strategy is to squeeze the maximum amount of revenue from existing users in a minimum amount of time... but even this is highly unlikely to succeed. They would need to have more than 33% of current paying users renewing at the new rates to make any money. Somehow, I don’t see this happening. In the meantime, it’s practically guaranteed that the number of new users will drop drastically. I really fail to see the logic behind this move. Perhaps I just don’t understand their final goal. |
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pawelkaleta |
"We are adjusting plans on January 1st" - this is what's been announced in the e-mails.
How is it possible then that we can already see new prices on official page for new users?? If I'm not lost, today is October 19th. Just open Toodledo page in Private Browsing mode and go to Pricing section to see that new prices are there or click here. Only the names of plans are old but clearly Silver corresponds to new Individual and Gold corresponds to new Business. There is one important difference however - Outlines, Habits, Lists, Notes are still there - which is not the case in the pricing plan delivered by e-mail. So no clue what is going to happen with those sections. But important thing is that any new user who would subscribe today (assuming he accepts new prices as they are in place already), then there is a chance he may loose those sections in near future according to recent communication or at least it's not clear at all. Again - highly misleading communication coming from new owners, they continue to play some weird game. I'm not sure who are they trying to fool... This message was edited Oct 19, 2018. |
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Kat_2 |
Posted by Chardar Fuxus:
I'm sorry. My previous comment was immature and nonproductive. My apologies. Thank you :-) I think many, if not most, of us are willing to pay for Toodledo. Many of us pay already, in fact. Just not this MUCH. The developers have a userbase here who are willing to put their hands in their pockets. It's only a question of getting the amounts right. I don't drink in Starbucks (not many around here). But if I DID, and then they said, okay, we're going to change our pricing structure so that you pay £40 a month, every month, but you can have as much coffee as you like, I would opt out. Because I don't spend anything like £480 a year on coffee, and I could go to alternative shop and get the few cups that I do want for much less. Even if I totally loved Starbucks coffee, I would probably make the decision that it wasn't worth it. A heavy coffee-buyer, who goes in every day, might decide differently - but the question for Starbucks would have to be, 'do we have enough people in that category to sustain the business model?' I'll admit I'm stretching the analogy painfully here, but I strongly suspect that Toodledo WON'T get enough people to sustain the business model. I may be wrong, but I've seen no evidence of customer research. No one has asked me how much I'd be willing to pay, for example. I can get the features I like in Toodledo somewhere else, without having to sign up for an expensive, monthly fee. Toodledo take note: I am literally about to pay another company money for a product I would PREFER to buy from you - but you've priced me out of your business. |
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dmos01 |
Posted by pawelkaleta:
"Only the names of plans are old but clearly Silver corresponds to new Individual and Gold corresponds to new Business. I'm afraid that is incorrect. Those are the old subscriptions, just with the new prices (note the 2-year history and no file uploads). I guess that the prices have been updated now to prevent renewals in anticipation of the price hike. This message was edited Oct 19, 2018. |
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Kat_2 |
Posted by Ummagumma:
Posted by Kat_2: Posted by Ummagumma: Check out GoodTask, too. It works with Outlook (via Reminders) and syncs more fields than 2Do, which is a huge thing if you’re at an organization that runs on Exchange and Office. 2Do is an exceptional app but it is largely a thing in itself. Does GoodTask sync or import tasks from Toodledo? To be honest at this point I just want the quickest solution! I don’t use Outlook. No, GoodTask doesn’t sync with Toodledo. I think I am done with the service, sadly. There was a guy on this forum who marketed his own task app which did sync with Toodledo, I think it was called TaskAngel. It would probably be your best bet if you want to preserve all fields. If you’re not using Context or Goal or Status fields, look into 2Do, it’s amazing. I use the context field, but could probably cope without it. The thing that's slightly putting me off 2Do is the lack of a web interface. My other option is then Todoist, but that's more expensive. I do like being able to enter tasks on my computer without having to constantly pick up my phone. This message was edited Oct 19, 2018. |
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dmos01 |
Has anyone noticed how Individual allows file uploads but has a decreased history limit? This seems odd. Surely storing an extra year of tasks would take less storage than "file uploads". It also means that Individual is both more and less than Silver.
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pawelkaleta |
Posted by dmos01:
Posted by pawelkaleta: "Only the names of plans are old but clearly Silver corresponds to new Individual and Gold corresponds to new Business. I'm afraid that is incorrect. Those are the old subscriptions, just with the new prices (note the 2-year history and no file uploads). I guess that the prices have been updated now to prevent renewals in anticipation of the price hike. That's not the point, I know there are old plans with new prices. The main issue here is that those prices have been already introduced (not starting from January 1st as stated in emails - but it's not the first time they change their mind) and that when they will switch Silver and Gold to Individual and Business, new users will loose lot of features they currently have included. They have a right to increase prices, but they should clearly inform everybody on the page, especially new users, that the plan is to limit functionality of their purchase soon. This message was edited Oct 19, 2018. |
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Purveyor |
I think that they're just bumbling around and they don't really know what they're doing.
The old prices are still available if I go to My Subscription but, if I'm not logged in (using another browser), the subscription page shows the new prices for the current plans. This message was edited Oct 19, 2018. |
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J.O.D. |
Indeed, every day I keep loosing any rest of faith there actually is some hope Toodledo will continue till 2020...:-(
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Ummagumma |
Posted by Kat_2:
Posted by Ummagumma: Posted by Kat_2: Posted by Ummagumma: Check out GoodTask, too. It works with Outlook (via Reminders) and syncs more fields than 2Do, which is a huge thing if you’re at an organization that runs on Exchange and Office. 2Do is an exceptional app but it is largely a thing in itself. Does GoodTask sync or import tasks from Toodledo? To be honest at this point I just want the quickest solution! I don’t use Outlook. No, GoodTask doesn’t sync with Toodledo. I think I am done with the service, sadly. There was a guy on this forum who marketed his own task app which did sync with Toodledo, I think it was called TaskAngel. It would probably be your best bet if you want to preserve all fields. If you’re not using Context or Goal or Status fields, look into 2Do, it’s amazing. I use the context field, but could probably cope without it. The thing that's slightly putting me off 2Do is the lack of a web interface. My other option is then Todoist, but that's more expensive. I do like being able to enter tasks on my computer without having to constantly pick up my phone. What features do you use ? And what OS ? (by your posts I assume iOS for mobile) ? There’s a number of services and I think I’ve tried most of them, but finding the right one is really dependent on what is it you want from it. |
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Charlie5 |
Well, hopefully they can get it all figured out and come to some acceptable figure.
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pawelkaleta |
Posted by Purveyor:
The old prices are still available if I go to My Subscription but, if I'm not logged in (using another browser), the subscription page shows the new prices for the current plans. The same in my case, but I can't see possibility to renew at old prices even being logged in and even assuming that I would actually like to do it. So in fact prices have already been changed to new ones for all users if I'm not mistaken. |
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J.O.D. |
I have canceled my monthly Gold, then tried to renew and I was offered yearly Gold for 29.99/year, so that worked. (No, I didn't accept it, too much salt in my wounds).
Posted by pawelkaleta: Posted by Purveyor:
The old prices are still available if I go to My Subscription but, if I'm not logged in (using another browser), the subscription page shows the new prices for the current plans. The same in my case, but I can't see possibility to renew at old prices even being logged in and even assuming that I would actually like to do it. So in fact prices have already been changed to new ones for all users if I'm not mistaken. |
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pawelkaleta |
Posted by J.O.D.:
I have canceled my monthly Gold, then tried to renew and I was offered yearly Gold for 29.99/year, so that worked. (No, I didn't accept it, too much salt in my wounds). Ok, so there is still a chance for some users. I don't have 'Cancel' button so I'm kind of "trapped". |
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J.O.D. |
Yes, it seems the trap is with yearly subscription, as previously it was always a one-time payment and there was never auto-renewal for that. And therefore no Cancel button. The refund request had to be done by contacting the owners anyway.
Posted by pawelkaleta: Posted by J.O.D.:
I have canceled my monthly Gold, then tried to renew and I was offered yearly Gold for 29.99/year, so that worked. (No, I didn't accept it, too much salt in my wounds). Ok, so there is still a chance for some users. I don't have 'Cancel' button so I'm kind of "trapped". This message was edited Oct 19, 2018. |
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sknipfing |
After reading thru a lot of the posts and their replies, here is my suggestion to Toodledo. Go ahead and play around with the right feature mix on the free plan. Scale it back if need be.
But you need to maintain your current pricing structure for current customers for the foreseeable future. Take a page out of what Amazon does with their Prime service which had a price increase this earlier this year. They continually add new features to the service, then ask for a price increase from their customers. Not the other way around. A year from now, you can point to n number of new features and app rewrites and say "we've kept up with our part of the bargain." A lot of the push back you are receiving is because of the lack of investment and the potential for the product overall. My current subscription runs out in about 535 days from today, so I am committed. If you can provide new iPhone app, clean up the UI, provide new features, I will reup. If not, in Jan 2020, I will start looking for something new. I am rooting for you! |
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matanln |
Another old user here (joined 2010).
I dig the price hike, to an extent. The service is about to enter an intense, costly development phase. I would have been happy to pay double for my gold subscription. But 3x is just too much. |
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J.O.D. |
Alright, I may found a solution for the time being. I will re-enable my monthly Gold subscription and at the same time I will closely examine TickTick, because it looks both very interesting and has a monthly subscription for $2.79. Smart lists, reminders independent on due date and for subtasks... That could work. And I will still have time to upgrade Toodledo to yearly Gold with old price (fingers crossed), should I decide to drop TickTick. BTW: Two-way Google Calendar sync has been changed to Planned.
This message was edited Oct 19, 2018. |
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