Switching to closed source

andrasferenczi commented 2 years ago

Hi everyone!

Getting straight to the point, I've decided to switch this app back to closed source.

If you are here, because you are unhappy that I've paywalled the Reddit subreddit count limit, then feel free to downgrade your app to the earlier version. Before giving you the link, you have to know that you will not be able to update your app from the Play Store for a while, so keep that in mind please. Here is the link though.

I am closing all issues here, as most of them have been implemented.

If you have any other feature ideas, let me know about them.

amitkot commented 2 years ago

Thanks for developing this and for providing the last-free-full version!

I do not plan on switching to the subscription-based version, but would purchase if the app has a paid version.

amitkot commented 2 years ago

Oh, and at least for me it seems like the closed version update ignored my minimum-upvotes settings.

andrasferenczi commented 2 years ago

I do not plan on switching to the subscription-based version, but would purchase if the app has a paid version.

I am planning to add lifetime purchase option once I have the features carved out. I have quite a few features in mind, not sure where I'll take Vitrina.

Oh, and at least for me it seems like the closed version update ignored my minimum-upvotes settings.

You are right, it doesn't work. Thanks for letting me know.

patilamits commented 2 years ago

When can I expect the life time purchase option? I have used your plugin along with muzei almost since I've known muzei itself. Almost all of my apps are premium versions or 100% free with no nagging screens/ads/limitations. I really hate limited featured apps. Maybe it's a psychological thing. So, desperately waiting for your premium version.

andrasferenczi commented 2 years ago

I've been thinking about this for quite some time, have a lot of thoughts about the topic of lifetime purchase and I'll try to keep this brief here. (Looks like I couldn't)

So the short version is that not anytime soon and probably not all features will be included in the 'lifetime purchase' option.

These are a couple points I have to consider if I want to switch to 'lifetime purchase option' from a 'subscription based model':

Pro always means Pro

If there are new features added to the app, then users who have bought the 'pro' version earlier should have access to them as well. Alternative is selling some parts of all features in the app (like paying for the 'caching settings' or 'DeviantArt source'), but this would be confusing to the user and hard to maintain.

Maintenance costs

Users still expect to keep the app updated. If there is a new version of Android coming out, there are API changes or something entirely different.

Server costs

I am slowly realizing that there will be server costs involved, which means that developer paying monthly and users paying once is not sustainable. These costs are:

3rd Party API costs: e.g.: loading images from imgur has costs because of commercial use. Currently it is disabled, but I would like to re-add this again soon. Same goes for any potential external providers.
Error reporting: Currently using Firebase Crashlytics for that, but I may want to switch to Sentry, where the cost is on the developer.
Custom server: it is needed for authentication verification (in case of multiple devices) and I am also considering pushing calculations to the server for a more battery-friendly usage

I could (maybe?) create a version where no server is needed, but it would be difficult to explain and maintain. Not to mention that it takes away too much time from adding actual features to the app.

Hope this answers your question @patilamits and thanks for the understanding. I will think about this again later down the road (possibly in 4-5 months).

mountaincastle47 commented 2 years ago

When will the lifetime option come?

andrasferenczi / vitrina-legacy