Friday, August 17th, 2007...9:14 am
Fare thee well, Vitalist
I was greatly saddened when I learned yesterday that Vitalist has unwisely changed their pricing structure. I had heard about it on another blog (whose name escapes me). So I went to the Vitalist blog, The Net Effect, and read the article detailing the changes.
I was shocked at what I was reading. Basically, the free accounts will let you have 5 contacts/contexts/projects. This is outrageous. You can upgrade to $5/month (Basic) and get 25 + 250MB of storage, and even further to $10/month (Premium) and get unlimited with 1GB of storage. It seems that they have adapted the Nozbe pricing structure, and that was one of the biggest turn off for me earlier this year.
Now, this is NOT about the money. This is about forcing people to pay to keep the exact same system in place that they had been using for months. I am sure that through the wonders of their administrative powers they could see that, probably, no more than 5% of their users had less than 5 contacts or contexts or projects. So that would make 95% of their users have to upgrade…for the same service that they had been getting for free. My situation was that I had 4-5 contacts, 10+ contexts, and 2 projects. Now, I had been planning on brain dumping a lot of work stuff into Vitalist today which would have added more than 10 contacts and 5 projects.
I could either (1) pay the Basic fee and continue on my merry way, or (2) dramatically alter my system that I had been using since February to stay with the free account. I don’t think that it is right to start charging folks to maintain their status quo. I have no problems with charging a fee for more storage, or additional features like SSL, attachments, or even collaboration (though there is no really monetary outlay for Vitalist on this one). But to tell 95% of their users “We are going to start charging you to use the service EXACTLY like you have been using it for the last XX months” is wrong. Based on the comments on the post, it seems like there are a lot of folks wo feel the same way that I do.
For what it is worth, I chose option (3): Cancel my account.
- Michael, Vitalist Member: Feb 2007-Aug 2007
15 Comments
August 17th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Michael, I think that this stems from new services following the 37 Signals pricing model. For instance, the free Backpack gets you five pages and no online storage. 37S takes it a step further though because when you need more features than Backpack offers they want you to upgrade to Basecamp, which is more fully featured and has a corresponding price tag.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Michael - I respect your right to your opinion but I think you’re off-base in your tone. I just posted a rather lengthy comment on the Vitalist blog defending their decision to modify their pricing strategy and to summarize what I said was that they are delivering a nicely done application with responsive support at a very fair price. If that works for you - buy in. If it doesn’t, move along.
There’s no evil plot or bait-and-switch going on here. The developers are building a business and being, in my opinion, very upfront about the decisions they’re making in real time. The ads didn’t work. They need to go to a direct pay model. This is not the first time I’ve sen a web app company make this decision and it won’t be the last I suspect.
In the interests of full disclosure, I don’t use Vitalist. It doesn’t suit my GTD workstyle ( no web-based app does - I prefer a local client integrated with my other desktop applications that syncs to my mobile devices). But if it did, I’d happily pay $5/mo. for an app like Vitalist or Nozbe or Basecamp.
I don’t think this calls for being shocked or outraged.
My $.02 worth…
August 17th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Same thoughts here too, Vitalist was the best system for what I was looking for a the time and it still beats a lot of the others. But after months of allow its users to use the system they decide to start charging for the same level of service, it seems a bit bad. Sure, we cannot expect things like this to be free all the time, but in world where they are so many alternatives and where lots is free, I think we do expect things for free now (for example, gmail).
I have always had a number of systems in my sights, but opted for Vitalist. But now, I’ve choosen to leave and it was a toss up between Thinking Rock (great java app) or Remember The Milk. In the end, I need something online and so Remember the Milk has won.
See how I have set it all at @ http://www.moleville.co.uk/2007/08/17/remember-the-milk-instead/
Of course, like all good GTD systems, I look forward to tweaking my ideas here.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:35 am
This is a silly post. I don’t use Vitalist, but read this blog. These folks have written a nice piece of software which by your own admission, is an important part of your workflow. Pony up $5 dollars a month and reward them for their hardwork instead of mooching. This is nothing new and 37signals has perfected this model - free to start with tiered monthly pricing structures.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:53 am
@Matt
I really would not call this mooching. It is not mooching when you use a product that is FREE to the fullest extent, then after you have gotten set in your ways the company says “OK, we are going to charge you for your regular use from now on.”
I have no problem paying for extras. I don’t define the 10 contexts that I had been using since February as extras. Storage, file attachments, & SSL logins are all extra features that are not needed for my workflow. 10+ contexts are necessary for my workflow, and not ‘extras’.
As a friend and I were talking today, “it really isn’t about the money. It’s about being transparent with business practices.”
I commented on the Vitalist blog that this would have been so much better if they would have come to the users and said “Hey, the ads are not working, we are going to a tiered pricing structure. What do you think about XXXX?” There would be more of a sense of buy in had the users been able to engage Vitalist about the pricing changes.
But Vitalist didn’t ask, we didn’t get to engage, and now I don’t use it anymore.
August 18th, 2007 at 5:44 am
I’ve never used vitalist so have no idea how much value it represents and what a fair price would be - so no comment about pricing structures. If something is offered for free and then suddenly changes into a subscription service my faith in that provider is gone. What other changes will be sprung on you? Infact I’ve steered clear of web based apps precisely because of fears of changes in pricing structures etc. It’s my data - I’ve spent a long time collecting and organising it and I don’t want to find that x months down the line I’ll have to start paying for something that was offered as free and go through the hassle of exporting it and then restarting with another app.
August 19th, 2007 at 10:21 am
I totally agree with you. If you’re one of us who is actually using (!) Vitalist and has tons of info entered in, this is a rude awakening. I thought they would have let those of us who, you know, beta tested the new version of vitalist be grandfathered in w/o a payment system and only required new users to apply via subscription. I’m moving my info out of Vitalist to a different service. It’s more out of principle than being worth the money.
August 20th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Nozbe vs Vitalist approach… in the end you charge but it’s the way you transmit it to your users…
1. I totally understand people at Vitalist charging for their web application as this is a business model I’ve been following with my Nozbe - Simply Get Things done web application (we are direct competitors) . Paying for a web application is not all that bad.
Having said that…
2. I believe you should be sincere with your users and up-front tell them about your business model. Even in beta times when Nozbe was completely free, I have put a pricing table to indicate that yes - I will be charging for some additional features. Vitalist gave everything for free to their users in the beginning and now they are taking it away from them. Not nice. People feel deceived and tricked and I can totally understand that.
The last thing you want is to deceive users.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:32 am
I think, ultimately, all web based apps will be hoping to move towards such a model, unless they’re in the league of Google.
From the developer’s point of view, this is one of the advantages of a web based app.: you can always pull the plug! Developers of “standalone” apps don’t have this option.
I don’t have the luxury of continuous, cheap and fast internet access on my cellphone or laptop. But, I still don’t understand the need for a web based app vis-a-vis a standalone app.
August 26th, 2007 at 11:20 am
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September 5th, 2007 at 3:37 am
Jason and Michael
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Take care…
JWM
September 5th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
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September 7th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
This boils down to determining what the fair price for a service of this nature offers. And fair price is often decided by the buyers. I agree that there are many services out that charge upto $5/month. But then there are others that do all this for free (RememberTheMilk, plaxo).
I am happy with the free model
September 15th, 2007 at 8:41 am
i know exactly what you mean. i too abandoned vitalist. i’d rather use todoist.com system for free !
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I guess this is a true market valuation of the service. A nice to have, not a need to have. I think that group collaboration systems like BC or Pelotonics can get away with a monthly fee because they are focused on a group of users using the same system together. This situation is geared to more of a business expense, not a personal one.
I personally liked and still use the GTD Outlook add in.
Troy Malone
Chief Evangelist
http://www.pelotonics.com
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