Spark email client goes subscription path
sparkmailapp.com
sparkmailapp.com
No one questions whether Dropbox should be a one-off price or a subscription, there's obviously ongoing cost to storing the data. However for apps that don't have this there's always going to be push back.
Developers typically point to customer support and maintenance as reasons, but customer support is not typically part of COGS as it's not part of the product, most users won't use it, so counting the cost per user doesn't really work. Any user can justify why they won't use support. As for maintenance, this wasn't a problem when software got new versions every year or so with upgrade pricing.
Devs looking for ways to build sustainable business is great, but it's also reasonable for users to reject subscriptions where there's no explicit cost to providing that software.
I assume they give each feature a date of availability and compare to the last purchase made via the App Store receipts and make features available or unavailable based on that intersection.
Edit: Edited for URLs, I wish this stupid site would support at least basic markdown... So mind-blowing it doesn't.
But yes, you can't just pay $X upfront in the App Store directly. The app makes you this offer, not the store. I agree it's not ideal.
The long ramp of death for SAAS products is something like 12 to 18 months (if I remember right), without the subscription model I don't see customers paying enough money to sustain the time, energy and risk involved. We're talking thousands of customers paying 100$ licenses just to match a normal software salary and that's not counting the benefits of a normal job, the work-life balance, the stress, the risk factor and so on.
At the start you go for the slice of the market where (size of slice * price the slice will pay) is the maximum. So not the largest slice that will pay 1$ like in an app store, nor the smallest slice that will pay the luxury prices. And then once you've got that middle slice nailed down and product market fit you expend your pricing plans to account for price sensitive customers with lower prices and fewer features, and luxury customers with higher prices and more features.
Going off what I've read and a few talks I've seen, I'm not an expert.
I'd wager the data storage costs for Dropbox are less than 1% of what it charges for subscriptions, though.
I realize Spark is doing a bit more than your run-of-the-mill email client, but I see that as an implementation detail / architectural decision more than I see that as a feature as an end user.
The email client space is mostly commoditizated, and the feature set is mostly standardized. I think that's why putting some of these features behind a subscription tier feels so gross to me.
Syncing my contacts to some cloud service and doing something special with them? Sure, charge me for that. Running my emails through some special spam service? (not that this is necessary if you use a decent provider), sure, charge for that.
Mute Thread and Group by Sender cost $4.99/month? No thank you.
I've been a Spark user for a long time, but I have no intention of paying for "Group by Sender", thank you very much.
However, I cannot seem to get back my side-by-side email view. I prefer to see my list of email headers vertically, and then when clicking one, I see the email to the right. Now they have some full screen nonsense as if my Windows computer is a mobile phone.
If they're going to change the design and try to start charging, of which I fully support, at least don't change the design in a way that hinders they're existing user base.
My fault for not reading how it works, including storing my email credentials (username and password) on their servers, and storing my emails on their servers to send push notifications.
What's worse is that I've got almost 1000 email aliases (company@mydomain.com) set up over the years to filter email and block companies that send spam or get hacked. And I started to receive marketing email from Readdle (company behind Spark) to my main email address (which I would never give out to any company).
Tl;dr: they store your email credentials and send marketing emails to your main address.
A subscription model should enable them to set a lower price as their revenue will be more reliable.
Make it $9.99/year instead and I'm in.
Look at 1Password. I own a lifetime license of their (old) password manager software, but have since switched to their subscription based offering, since it's a service that does the job well and I want to support them, and I trust them to be a good steward of my data.
To fund/incentivize continuing development of new features, they can have reasonable in-app purchases to unlock those new features.
Doesn't mean that I agree with their new pricing system, but they do have said costs.
I don't want my card dinged every month. I don't want to "manage" dozens of different subscriptions across different companies that all have different systems and methods for managing your "relationship" with them.
Unless you’re a paying Gmail customer, you can’t get push, only pull email.
With Spark you now don’t get priority email, whatever that is, so why would I stay? Back to Apple mail it is
Just because someone decides to slap a subscription onto an email client (whose feature set is pretty standardized across the internet), doesn't mean it's worth it.
Then there is Apple Mail if you are on Apple.
These are all good clients. I have never heard of Spark, is it that much better?
Edit: looking through their feature set, the answer is no. It doesn't seem to have a feature Thunderbird doesn't.
But Thuderbird is a superior email client, IMHO
My general experience with subscription based apps is that sooner or later they will introduce features I don't care at all, they remove features I use, they redesign the UI, in some cases they release a fully new version which does not even have feature parity with the previous version. (Looking at you 1password) and I simply cannot justify paying to a team who is obligated to do some feature work on a software I consider complete because I'm paying them money and ending up with something with a different look and feature set.
Charge me enough once to cover you development cost for the current state of the app, even charge me even for the upgrades needed to make your stuff working on a newer OS version.
It is sure a nice thing to get a continuous stream of money for a feature which had a one of cost, but on the consumer side, you will end up with an empty pocket very fast, if you are getting charged for every software/car/TV you use on a monthly basis.
The average earner, especially outside the US, is already overburdened by recurring bills and subscriptions, especially during the energy crisis.
When even Netflix is losing subscribers rapidly, you've got to be offering something pretty special to get a regular low/mid-income person to subscribe.
Puny mortals.