Sync Ultra is a very reasonable $17 a YEAR. YouTube Premium is reaching that per MONTH. I have sync downloaded and it was the first thing I did. Thanks lj for the beautiful app.
[EDIT: That was a poor comparison, as pointed out in the comments. Leaving it for discussion sake.
There are many counterpoints and actually good discussion happening down below. Even if you don’t agree, thanks for showing me a different perspective!
If you want to support Sync, make sure to support the Lemmy Devs and your instance holders as well!
*This post was made early in the day before the update added the OTP option.]
What’s more infuriating is that Lemmy itself doesn’t have ads but Sync has, sadly.
I understand, but the dev works on this app full time so he has to earn a living somehow. Even the core Lemmy devs are able to work on Lemmy full time because they got some funding from a grant.
In my recollection sync for reddit had multiple long gaps in communication from the dev, including pretty shortly after subscriptions were first announced. I appreciate the desire to be paid, but I didn’t find it clear that there were ongoing development or support efforts.
I mean i agree the dev should be paid for the work. But it just seems a bit odd to require a subscription to remove ads using a service that does not have ads or backend cost from a api. I think there should be no ads or at the very least a one time purchase to remove just ads. Like I understand a subscription for like power user features. And i am not some cheap ass complaining I have probably given the dev 100+ dollars in support between patreon, ultra subscription, ultra lifetime purchases.
I’ll admit to being a bit confused because I’ve been using sync for a couple of hours now and have yet to see an ad myself.
I’ve noticed that no ads are shown when you disable all tracking and reject cookies. Might be EU only though.
Yeah, I’m not too happy about that. I’ll give this a few days, at least, but I can’t stand ads. It never occurred to me that they would be brought in for a platform that otherwise has none. I paid for a lifetime subscription on Sync for Reddit. For Lemmy, Connect is close enough to the Sync experience that I’m about to say fuck this and go back to it.
https://lemm.ee/comment/1774742
Guys, chill. It’s just the first public beta. At least give a man a few weeks to iron things out. Geez.
Sorry but ads and only a subscription model to get rid of them is an absolute no-go for me and lots of other people. This should’ve been a priority. In this state the app is useless for me. And I don’t know if it needs to be said but I was a sync for Reddit supporter with buying pro and lifetime ultra and I would’ve no problem buying it again but a subscription model is not the way for me personally.
It still takes dev time, and that’s expensive, and this is the beta implementation. Lj said he plans to add the lifetime option, but for this first release, he did not include it as he wanted to see how lemmy held up first. If this all died out in a couple weeks after the api changes from reddit, it would have been pointless. This allows for those of us who want to support the development now to enable him to focus full time. With thousands of users vs. the millions reddit had having a dollar purchase to remove ads, it just wouldn’t scale right now to make this a feasible full-time project.
The problem is how apps are bought on mobile now.
With PC applications, you’d buy a specific version and you would maybe get updates for a year. Then the developer would release an update and you would decide whether it was worth buying the update for the new enhancements. If it wasn’t then you’d stick with the old version until the next new version and make the choice again. This way the developer gets paid regularly by new and existing users if they produce a good app.
On mobile, you buy an app and expect to get updates for the life of the app. The developer is expected to keep producing updates whether the app is complete or not otherwise their app is labelled as dead. They only get paid by new users.
That second model is simply not sustainable from the developer’s point of view for any reasonably sized app so they need to think of ways to make it work. There are only two options which are ads and subscriptions and people don’t like either.
Of course, PC apps are also moving to subscriptions to remove the option that you used to have to not pay them for a year or two if they’re not providing good enough updates.
Everything is a subscription because users demand their software be updated on a consistent basis. That’s the nature of software development.
First thing I did after opening the app was to look for the Pro (ultra) in-app purchase. But monhtly payments, no thank you.
Same here. I hate subscriptions but would happily buy a Pro version like I did with Sync for Reddit.
What would you be willing to pay? I paid £4 for Sync in 2018. I can’t imagine a Pro (non-ultra) version would be that cheap this time.
At the minimum I’d think it’d match 1 year of Ultra (£17). Not sure if I’d pay that for Lemmy since I still use Sync for Reddit more.
Realistically, it would need to be higher than 1 year of Ultra, unless it only included some of the perks of Ultra. If it was priced the same for 1 year vs Lifetime, very few users would pay for the yearly sub.
Personally, I’m happy to keep paying the monthly sub to support LJ, if the development stalls or even stops completely, I’ll be stopping my subscription. I’m happy to provide continuous support for apps that I use daily if it means that the development continues.
I’m really confused why people feel this way. Can’t you just cancel it if you feel like it’s not worth it anymore?
I just don’t do subscriptions. One of the aspects I hated about my foray into the Apple app store where everything seemed to be subscription or ads. Quickly missed Android and places like f-droid where I knew I could find ad free and subscription free open source alternatives.
I was happy to pay for apps like Procreate and Lumafusion though, so it’s not that I’m against paying for ads. I just don’t do subscriptions.
I generally do not do subscriptions either, but I do make some exceptions for specific apps/services. At least for me, Sync is one of those for now.
Unless the app offers you cloud functions like email, cloud storage, multi-player gaming, or social media sites(lemmy, kbin, mastodon), etc. I see subscriptions as a no-go.
I usually hate subscriptions that try to squeeze you for money.
In the case of sync, I see it as a recurring donation for LJ. 15 bucks is what I make in like 20 minutes as an engineer myself, so ‘paying’ 20 minutes of my salary to a developer of such an awesome app is no problem for me.
I gladly pay subscriptions for services. I see that the Ultra has cloud backup of settings, but how much storage could that possibly use? Certainly not $2/mo worth. For that price I’ll want the equivalent of 100Gb of storage in the cloud.
edit: I’d send $2/mo. to the admins of my instance. They’re running the servers that host all this content.
From what I’ve heard, you pay by viewing ads. Those can be blocked at the DNS level, though.
I just downloaded sync and don’t see ads. I do run dns66 though so that must be it.
As someone from a third world country, fuck no. That shit is too expensive for me. Maybe to you privileged folk it’s reasonable. To me it’s nonsense.
I feel shitty about it too since I was a long time sync pro user, I thought sync for lemmy would also have an affordable pro version but fuck me I guess
Ultra =! Pro
Adfree is available as a separate lifetime purchase for 10 USD.
You have countries where people don’t earn $1 a day. Once they cover their basic needs, $10 is like wining the lottery.
It’s where Youtube does better. The price of premium is adapted to the local situation.
Wait a couple days, regional pricing is not working yet. That’s a Google problem.
Living in a first world country is not “privilege” there are people who didn’t choose where to be born.
Just use the free app like I did when I lived in Venezuela (I was born there)
Privilege is not something necessarily gained on purpose. Being born to a wealthy family is privilege and not a choice either, but there is undeniable privilege. It’s not a negative thing, it’s something one should be aware of where they may have it and recognize it. It’s not something to feel guilty over, it just… is.
Give me a one-time purchase of like $10-15 and I will, but I don’t do (non-voluntary) subs.
I don’t need any of the push notification services.
Edit: Added within hours. Immediately got it.
Same. More than happy to support development, but I don’t need another automatic subscription. I did OTP in the old app several times (purchased for different accounts, and again just because I use dns ad blockers, but still wanted to support the app). I am happy to do the same here, but not as a subscription.
Lj, please offer an option for OTP that removes ads while still being expensive enough to cover your costs.
It doesn’t need to include push notifications or image preloading, or any other features that require you to maintain or rent infrastructure. I would be willing to pay $20 or $30 for a one time purchase option that doesn’t make me feel like I am a drain to you when I block ads and tracking.
I will never look at ads or consent to tracking or violating my privacy, and I am willing to pay a (non-recurring) fee to enable that. I am sure I am not alone here.
I agree with essentially everything you’ve said. I left Reddit almost entirely because I refused to give up Sync, but I will not pay a subscription for it.
Just wanted to add that an update went out in the play store that allows a one time fee to just remove ads and tracking. I would prefer no google play services, but I am willing to compromise. I just paid $20 for my phone, and another $20 for my wife’s.
Thanks for adding the option, @ljdawson!
Would you be okay if the one time purchase meant you did not receive any updates to Sync? Or perhaps it only got a few months of updates? That seems fair to me.
No, but I’d be willing to pay years ahead at once for something that I know I’ll be using for longer than that.
Everything has an expiration date anyways, because I don’t live forever. Who knows if we’ll still be using Android 10 years from now. It’s just basically a discount on very long term usage that gives the money ahead of time while taking the gamble that I will actually be using it for longer than the subscription price would be.
