Announcement:The annual subscription rate for Drafts Pro is now only $19.99 (USD).
This change is a return to the original annual pricing available before January 2021. Many of you who have annual subscriptions started before January already receive this pricing. The change will affect any new annual subscriptions and will be reduced at renewal time automatically for anyone who subscribed this year.
The original intent of the January price increase was to create breathing room, enabling me to work with promotional and introductory offers to create incentives to entice new subscribers, ultimately creating a space where most people were still paying $19.99. This move seemed like, and probably is, the “smart business” thing to do.
In practice, I found I’m much more interested in improving quality and delivering new functionality than I am in optimizing the growth path of Drafts with marketing incentives. Due to this lack of motivation, I have not delivered on providing such offers and discounts.
Rather than refocus my marketing efforts, I have deciding to return to the original price and focus on delivering value in the app. I hope people will be willing to recognize and support this approach.
Note that the monthly rate of $2.99 (USD) will remain in place. I hope that having a greater relative discount for investing in the annual subsription will encourage more people to take a leap and give Drafts a chance to become a crucial, valuable tool in their productivity workflow.
Well I’d pay double what I pay! Invaluable app that I use daily for every part of my life. Always thankful for the consistent updates and communication. Thanks Greg!
Thanks for the transparency. FWIW I think it’s a good call — the fewer the options, the easier the decision. And it’s rare to see a price reduction, so thank you for that!
I think this is a smart move. Especially since you are developing on your own and don’t have someone only doing marketing.
Discounts have their problems too. Frequent discounts train people to wait for a discount. Anyone who has paid full price, when most others got some discount, feels like they lost or got suckered. That might work for one time payments, but with a subscription, it means the negative feeling returns at renewal time.
Many who paid more will cancel before renewal and wait for a discount. But for some the negative feeling of previously “overpaying” (in relation to most other people) might be too strong to renew at all. I think having the monthly subscription a little higher than the annual is the smarter move.
It’s tricky, but psychologically interesting. A subscription to a product one uses frequently is very different to a one-time purchase of something rarely used.
What country are you in? I’ve seen a couple of reports of the wrong price appearing in renewal emails, and/or your account. So far none of these reports has resulted in the charge coming through wrong - and the reports I’ve seen so far seem to have been limited to the UK store.
The Drafts product page in the German App Store says 20,49 € (which is the equivalent to $ 19,99). So even if you were charged more you could contact Apple to get a refund of the difference.
Great call. Great app. Thank you for your caring and stewardship.
And it’s rare to see a price reduction, so thank you for that!