Yikes, that’s really steep and puts a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, tbh. :(
This is just for ultra. Ad free is a one time payment
Got it, thanks!
My last app, Now for Reddit, charged $4 to unlock all the features of the app, including no ads.
Lemmy is still small. The dev can’t rely on tens of thousands of people on lemmy to buy Sync for $1-2 each like he could on reddit. The cost must be spread out on fewer users.
Well. I think it kinda works the other way around, I don’t think many people are going to spend a whopping $20 for an app to use a social media platform that’s not really taking off yet
I haven’t seen an ad yet. I think. So. Free until o can compare this to the competition ain’t gonna be the biggest sacrifice.
You don’t have to spend $20. You can use it for free without limitations. Or you can choose to spend $20 to remove ads if you like the app and don’t like ads.
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I don’t think it can display upvote and downvote counts separately. For me I consider that useful information. Also, my comments written while using it don’t show in my profile, so it seems a little glitchy still. And it can’t create posts yet. I’ll stick with the kbin PWA for now.
So just consider buying the ad free version for 20 bucks then?
Is the restore previous purchases function working for anyone? Which purchases will be honored? I was a sync Pro user
If you reinstall Sync for Lemmy, you can restore your previous purchase. Unfortunately it’s not for transferring your Sync for Reddit purchase, but I can understand this decision.
Bummer. Then it really should be worded better I think. Why write 'restore previous purchases in sync", not “restore previous purchases in sync for lemmy”.
Isn’t it obvious though? Sync for reddit and sync for Lemmy are two very different apps.
If it had been obvious to me, then I wouldn’t have asked the question. Also, this wouldn’t be the first time this happened. Sync Pro used to be a separate app too, but when it was integrated into one app, the purchase could be transferred.
But both of those apps are for a single product which is for reddit. Sync for Lemmy is a different product altogether.
Probably not at first glance for every user. I still have Sync for Reddit installed and both Sync for Reddit and Sync for Lemmy show up as “Sync” in my app drawer, the only difference being that the latter doesn’t have an icon pack theme applied (though I think the difference is SR = white and SL = dark).
There’s probably an extremely tiny minority that doesn’t know that SR died, had purchased Pro or Ultra, downloaded SL without knowing that SL is a “reboot” for Sync, hadn’t noticed that Lemmy isn’t Reddit, and then tried to restore their purchase expecting it to work. But I don’t think it would be inherently obvious how it isn’t the same app once it is installed on your phone, since it appears to work identical to the original Sync
So your saying that an app called “sync for Lemmy” in the play store is not obvious that it’s for Lemmy?
That might even be an app store requirement.
God damn that’s expensive.
Way too expensive.
Yeah it is a bit too much.
Yeah, this Dev seems to be counting on the idea that everyone in lemmy will forget that there are perfectly good free apps out there, and that all the other 3rd party Reddit devs are working on their own lemmy versions.
He would have had an edge had the released sooner. But now there’s too much free competition.
I agree, that’s why I paid for ad free. But a lot of other people are very willing to deal with jank, it seems.
Been very happy with Connect.
Connect is my daily driver, too. But it feels very unpolished coming from Joey (for Reddit)
Not providing a lifetime purchase at the initial release, then gradually giving 2 updates that disables ads and then ultra permanently, seems like the dev is greedy. Probably that’s why they didn’t have good terms with Reddit in the first place. Who knows.
I launched the beta and then added two features based on user feedback.
You’re blaming DEVS for reddit’s shitty behaviour now?
I think he’s actually counting on the fact that people will be using this app daily for the next decade, just like they did with Sync for reddit.
Imagine a city with 5 roads leading into it. A 6th road opens, and the builder puts up a toll booth, charging a high amount. Meanwhile 5 additional roads are currently being built leading into the city.
I mean, sure, some fools will pay the toll, but it really looks like the road builder is hoping to capture a clientele that doesn’t know the other roads exist.
I disagree. I think that is an overly simplistic view of the situation.
Some people buy iPhones and Samsung Ultras and whatever else. Some people use the same basic phone they had ten years ago. Both are valid. It’s no different here, if you’re happy with the free stuff then cool, if you want the very best Lemmy app which has had over a decade of development then also cool.
Saying that people are fools because they want to pay for the software they use and have made a value judgement to do so is absurd.
Apollo also had years of development but was totally free with donation options. And imo it was better than Sync.
No offense to Sync though, it was/is still an amazing app.
Sync was a fine Reddit app, but it was never the best. If you want to pay a fortune for mediocrity, enjoy yourself.
Lifetime wasn’t available when I subscribed. :(
I assume that’s $100 USD in America?
It’s expensive, but Sync is literally the best app on my phone, and has been that way for a long time. I’d consider it.
Message LJ on Discord and he’ll refund you so you can switch to Lifetime.
With that price I feel like the dev has 0 faith in lemmy getting very big and feels like they need to capitalize on the currently few users to make back costs. I mean, not even an early access price considering its in beta still
With that price I feel like the dev has 0 faith in lemmy getting very big
It feels kind of the opposite to me.
Going back and checking my Google account history, I paid $1 for Sync Pro. In 2012. And was using it up until last month. In retrospect, that was far too low a price for the utility I got out of the app for literally years.
If anything, it feels like the dev has learned that lesson and has priced the lifetime option where it’s actually sustainable for them if Lemmy stays around.
I agree. The original price for a lifetime use is maybe a bit too low. The original sync pro prices, but yearly instead, might be a solution. Not monthly. That is so messed up.
Well why not 1usd per month subscription. If 10,20,30 thousand of us subscribed, then he’d have a stable scaling income as the app grows in usage.
Edit. Thousand
I mean, there IS a monthly subscription for $2, so I’m not sure what your point is
The point is, I want a discount. Poor people also want to use Sync.
And before you ask, I’m in a third world country.
Ah. I agree that regional pricing needs to become more of a thing in general. That said, considering there’s a free option in this case it’s not too egregious. Just set up adblocking at the dns level?
There’s also a dozen very good free apps.
you can though for free.
But you can use sync for free. That’s why the dev has put options for you. If you cannot pay the ad removal, you can still support the developer by using the app but with ads
Yes but I do not want ads, and I also want to support the dev, yet due to my financial standing am unable to.
Anyways I’ll just have to save up and get the 20% lifetime payment. That way I solve all of these with just one stroke.
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$20 to remove ads on an app I’ll probably use daily seems to be fair price, from my perspective. But the subscription rubs me the wrong way.
For a lifetime price of 40 or 50 I’d probably have just bought it and hoped the dev eventually adds /KBin support. For 110 it’s off the table for me altogether and I’m not a fan of subscriptions.
With that said, I’ve never used this app that I remember on Reddit, so, maybe it is worth it??? I’d probably happily consider a lifetime price of that much if Relay got ported (and basically consider it back pay for getting like 6 or 7 years out of it for like 4 bucks).
It seems like either the dev is planning on the app running forever and wanting to not make the mistake of charging a couple bucks for a forever license OR they don’t expect it to last and need to get as much $ as they can up front. Either way, I wish them the best of luck. Since I’m not a Lemmy user, I won’t be buying, at that price.
Exactly. Suck the early adopter users dry just in case lemmy doesn’t get huge. I mean, yes there was dev time for this app, but of importing your syncreddit press into this app is any indication, it wasn’t a rewrite but merely an adaptation of API.
This is most definitely the dev seeing how much he can milk early on. Good for him if it works. I mean the app framework is amazing, don’t get me wrong. But not at these prices.
You can import your settings over from the old sync for reddit to the new sync for lemmy.
Not milking anything. I want to work on this long term
Okay, well, thanks but it’s too expensive for me. I want to support you but I can’t afford that. I would have paid up immediately if it was closer to the old costs, and have been really happy to do so. I’ve literally been waiting to do that.
That’s very cynical point of view. This is for the Ultra version, which incurs recurring cost to the developer for providing extra features which requires running some servers on their side. I myself spent that much just for running a Lemmy server for two months. They still have one time $20 option that don’t include services that require the external servers.
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Come on man, no need to make assumption when the ultra feature are listed there in the app setting. At a glance you can see the ones that are potential money sink are push notifications (money goes to firebase/Google), Google translate (money goes to Google), OCR (money goes to GPU vps providers). The original sync ultra even have restore deleted comments option, which mean they was practically mirror Reddit public dataset. At $17 per year or ~$100 lifetime, it’s very reasonable, which includes paying the dev as well.
Push notifications, I guess
Yeah this feels like early adopter tax. Get your money off people who don’t blink at stuff like $100 for a beta app for a small reddit that’s literally just a front end.
Then lower the price slowly. Like I feel like there are more Lemmy apps than Reddit ones. It’s pretty gauling to charge so much and essentially take everything from server owners by putting this up front for people trying it from Reddit.
Server owners aren’t the only people who are working for free.
There are people that have made skins for Lemmy, do they get paid? Mods as well, not to mention the Lemmy devs and admins. And all of this is nothing without people posting content, are you going to pay them too?
If all one has to do to try and diminish someone asking for a price for their services here is to point out someone else on Lemmy that wants the money too, then everyone looks like a jerk.
Don’t forget, the whole reason Lemmy is so successful these past few months is because the work these devs do wasn’t appreciated on Reddit, and we all came here instead. Are you saying all these redfugees should leave and take their money to X instead?
Server owners aren’t doing this for free. They are doing it at cost. Some of them quite a bit. I genuinely can’t see how you can sincerely equate someone paying thousands of dollars a month to host the infrastructure of Lemmy itself as someone designing a CSS theme in their free time for something that wouldn’t exist without the mentioned instance owners. These aren’t the same. And this is the first form of mainstream monetization to hit Lemmy at any level past donations and it’s aggressive. Childish reply. Someone posting content is not spending a dime but them posting that cost the server hosters one.
So then donate to your server. But denigrating other people on Lemmy for offering highly anticipated services is appalling. Ask for donations in a more appropriate place. My server was swimming in donations and told us to stop donating. Devs adding to the tapestry of options on Lemmy, whether foss or not, don’t deserve to be harassed because you think people’s money should go elsewhere.
He is doing this full time so its hes monthly income.
The literal opposite. I’m working on this fulltime and giving it everything I can.
Hey I just want to say thanks for the app. Used sync regularly back when I used to browse Reddit and it must’ve been the most used app on my phone for years. Sync for Lemmy feels just as good I’ll probably switch to the iap for ad free but for now I took the yearly sub just to throw you some money.
Had been waiting for this since you announced it haha.
And this is why I don’t mind the cost increase from old Sync.
I bought Sync Pro all the way back in 2014, and considering how long it’s been since then, plus the sub-2 month delivery time for Sync for Lemmy, I think you’ve more than earned an ultra sub from me!
Thanks for the hard work.
Lol. I uh. Guess I didn’t want a one time payment option after all.
There’s still a one-time remove ads/tracking price which is €23 for me, varies by region. The lifetime Sync Ultra is for cloud back-up features, can be ignored.
Did you get that that is the ultra one time payment, and the basic ad free lifetime payment is $20?
Sync for Reddit’s Lifetime Ultra was $30. I paid that without thinking. $100 is a big increase.
Plus, I got one year out of the Ultra lifetime for Reddit. This is an even bigger gamble.
I feel the same way. $46 (Canadian) a year ago (August 1) for Sync Ultra. Got less than a year out of it…
Hurts even more that the new ultra has the same name as the old one. It gave me false hope that my old subscription would still be valid.
Then don’t do it. I wouldn’t spend that much for Ultra lifetime either, I never had ultra lifetime in reddit anyway. I’ve done the year sub now, and I would do the lifetime no ad for $20 also.
I’m pretty sure there’s still going to be an ad free one time payment though, Sync ultra has more than just ad free browsing. Personally I only want to remove the ads so if it’s priced like the pro version was then I’ll be happy
It’s $20 USD to just remove ads permanently.
Oof yeah I just saw, that’s a bit pricey for me honestly especially because Lemmy doesn’t really have enough content at the moment to spend a lot of time on…
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The ad-free version is already available für 21,99 €. Not going to lie, I expected the old reddit prices and was going to buy Ultra lifetime for 33 €…
Where do you find that?
Tap the account switcher in the top left corner, then “remove ads”.
Hmm, not there for me. I subscribed for a month already so maybe that’s why.
£18.99 is pretty steep.
Wished he’d give us an option to choose some option prices. Feels like a bit of a land grab at that price.
I paid £12.99
How’d you manage that!
That was the price it was when I tried to remove the ads
Bargain!
There’s an option to remove only ads as well in the profile picker menu. Costs about $25 if my conversion is right, lifetime.
Honestly I’d pay 60usd (price of a new video game). I’d probably end up getting the ad free version for 22usd though I’m still evaluating the app and seeing whether my favorite app Boost makes progress.
I think a good reader like sync, boost etc. Is still a good value if you spend a lot of time using it.
It feels expensive, but I’m considering the annual. If I compare it to Netflix or Spotify. I spent way more time on this app
Why is everyone comparing it so a service that has a ton of overhead like having to pay artists, tons of servers and storage, etc…
I think they are comparing it to the value they get from the service as an individual. As a consumer, I don’t care about the company’s overhead. I would only care if I get my money’s worth with the service I’m paying for.
I just look at it in time spent. I spent more time in de fediverse because of this app. I don’t want ads, I feel like it’s worth it. Especially the pine Time, 20-25 euro no ads option.
I’m considering annual too, but I’m waiting for two things before pulling the trigger. First is push notifications, second is the release of Boost for Lemmy. I want to compare features and prices before making a decision.
Right now there is no other app that feels as nice as Sync, and I don’t mind supporting that, but Boost is a worthy challenger. And I could only really justify paying for one.
wow isn’t that like 6 years of subscription? so expensive
8 years if you invest the money and get a 10% roi each year. Not that I was going to.
I mean, I used sync for reddit for like 10 years.
Yeah, but Lemmy’s a newer platform and might not stick around for 6 years, IF it takes off like Reddit did. $100 is a bit too steep, if I’m being honest.
Then buy the monthly or yearly? The lifetime is just a third option.
I used Reddit Is Fun for so long I’m just sort of oblivious to tiny ads in my scroll feed.
But it’s not Sync, is Lemmy…
at that price you could afford the reddit api… not that i’d want to