WriteMapper 3 - Get from idea to final draft in no time, using mind maps | Produ...

@gx Hmm, I’m a bit confused here. I purchased multiple licenses at the time of the 1.0 release because you specifically advertised them as lifetime licenses. Looking at the ProductHunt release page, you actively promote this as a selling point in your comments. Am I correct in understanding that you’re now charging customers you sold lifetime licenses to for an update?

I’ve actually never used either of my licenses, but liked the concept enough that I thought it was worth supporting just to follow along until the app reached the point where it was mature enough to accommodate an intensive academic research workflow. I only felt comfortable paying for an app I knew I wouldn’t use any time soon because you advertised the licenses as lifetime licenses.

Anyway, I’m a bit disappointed if this is the case. Could you please clarify?

@zvh (pasted from my email reply to you)

Thank you for your email.

Past customers of WriteMapper are free to continue using version 2 of the app, with your existing license codes. We have continued to make WriteMapper 2 available for download from our website, and the License Manager will continue to process WriteMapper 2 license codes as per usual. It is up to the user if they wish to upgrade to WriteMapper 3, and if so, only then would they need to pay for additional licenses.

As mentioned in the original email, this is our first paid update in almost four years of work (during which we published 42 updates, at no additional cost other than the one-time upfront purchase price) - and significant updates require the corresponding amount of resources in order for the app to be sustainable, and hence continue to exist at all.

We hope this email was helpful and clarifies your question. Please also do let us know should you need further help or have more questions. Thank you. :)

@gx as I indicated, that’s not at all what a lifetime license is. Again, you should never have used that term to sell licenses for your app if you had no intention of living up to your commitment.

So a lifetime licenee, then, but only if you have the lifespan of a goldfish or a hamster?

And your updates to V 2.0 seem to have been made very infrequently and included almost no new major features. So, you sold a bunch of people lifetime licenses, made them purchase multiple lifetime licenses because they needed a separate license for each computer, made very few updates, and now want us to buy new lifetime licenses—is that what these still are?—in order to do a pdf export, which is something that should have been a much earlier feature that should certainly have fallen within the “lifetime” of my license.

I think this is all a bit dishonest, and would caution anyone interested to think twice before buying, but best of luck with your app.

@zvh Thank you for sharing your views on the matter.

As I've said, past users of the V2 app (as well as everyone who benefited from having free 1-to-1 upgrades from V1 to V2) can absolutely still use their purchased product, and there is no element of that being abruptly discontinued in order to coerce users to purchase this new version.

To honestly share my viewpoint as an (first-time) app maker of one-time purchase software too, what I've learned over the past few years is that the situation is frankly quite binary — either the app continues to sustainably operate in order to get updated and exist, otherwise it simply ceases to get worked on, falls into disrepair, and then just doesn't work or get updated anymore.

I truly get why, myself being a consumer of apps too, the recurring pricing business model by software companies is disliked very much by consumers. However, there is a reason why they continue to grow in number, with more of them launching (and growing) by the day. PH is a great place to be witness to that.

It's also worth mentioning that I'm not some big tech company like Google or Facebook, or backed by some VC fund, where I can afford to simply give out my work for basically free. Worse yet, there are apps that provide free software but resell private and sensitive information of their users in order to make money — something I absolutely abhor.

So overall I think we're here on PH for open discussion, which is what this is. So I read your writing with an open mind. Moving forward, I will consider how to make it easier for past customers to upgrade; perhaps by extending the 7-day launch pricing window. Thanks again for participating in sharing your thoughts. :)

Edit: a letter

@gx No trouble, I suppose. The funny thing is that I typically choose to pay for upgrades to apps that I have lifetime subscriptions for--apps like Alfred or Arq--because they give me the option, recognizing their commitment to me as a customer, but I also feel that they provide enough value to me that I'm happy to pay for an upgrade even when I don't have to. It's about respecting your customers--particularly the ones that make early (and ostensibly lifetime) investments--and trusting that they'll continue to support you based on the continuous work you do.

But this is literally you, taken from the 1.0 ProductHunt release page, responding to a question about what justifies the relatively high cost of your app: "Besides getting a lifetime license from just a one-time purchase (as opposed to recurring yearly or monthly fees), we are further committed to providing our customers with regular updates of the app with improvements and fixes over time, at no further cost."

Based on claims like this, I purchased two "lifetime" licenses for myself with the intent of tracking your app's development as an early (and I had hoped valued) adopter and supporter.

Also, from what I can tell, you haven't updated WriteMapper 2 since March 28, 2020. So your claims of longterm paid updates are a bit suspect. It seems like you've let the app to languish for current paid subscribers until releasing this new paid major version upgrade. The update before that was on Nov. 27, 2019. And those updates were only bug fixes. Your release notes indicate that you haven't actually added any significant features to the app for over two years.

As I purchased my two "lifetime" licenses in October of 2017, this means that my lifetime licenses only entitled me to about a year and a half of actual active development. In what world could that be considered a lifetime license?

Anyway, there's nothing I can do about this, of course, and you're free to treat existing paying users how you wish. But I wanted to make my grievances public in the hope that others would avoid what I consider to be my mistake.