Mac and iOS Writing App 'Ulysses' Transitions to Subscription Model

[Cinder6]

An alternative might be to keep using the version that you have and stick with it until you find an alternative or new features are added that would justify the recurring price.

If I'm going to switch, I want to switch now. I'm in the process of revising one novel, and I'm going to start a new one before year's end. I'd rather avoid having to move everything over if I can.

I'm not entirely sure how frequent Ulysses' major, paid releases have been, but if I had been a customer for 18 months and thus not received any free months, I would have figured that I got plenty use out of my previous payment and paying for that annual subscription now was just fine. Assuming the software was still useful and valuable to me, of course (ie. I was still using it).

To my recollection, the headlining features since I purchased in 2014 have been Wordpress, Medium, and Dropbox support. (That was also around the time of a major UI refresh. I forget if that was free—I beta tested the update, and I was also using a 30-day trial at the time, so I don't remember if I purchased before or after.)

There have been some minor updates, as well. Both platforms got a group/global search function, the iOS app got iPhone and iPad Pro (12.9") support, the iPad got multitasking, and I'm pretty sure there was one other, smaller thing.

There were also bug fixes, but I believe bug fixes should be free.

The major updates hold no appeal to me. The minor updates have been universally good things for me. Whether you think those are worth a paid update is up to you. I'm fairly ambivalent. The iPad app came out long after Apple started telling devs to use size classes and autolayout (or whatever those things are called), so I think it's kind of on the devs that it didn't support the iPad Pro or multitasking. The search feature is nice, though.

I can see an argument for those collected updates to be worth $30, even though I couldn't care less about the major additions. I do not see the argument that they're worth $90. Since the original app was $45, $30/year suggests to me that the app is going to grow/improve by 2/3 every year.

As for a replacement app, I am very interested. As I said, Scrivener is good. Great, even. I can totally see why others prefer it. But I moved from Scrivener to Ulysses three years ago, and the reasons I moved all still exist—and are in fact magnified because I like to use iOS for writing, these days, and Scrivener on iOS has that terrible sync function. The problem is I don't know of anything else, and I'm pretty sure nothing exists that ticks all my boxes.

Every time I launch the app, there's a 10 second dialogue box that I have to wait to clear. Remind me later only works until the next time I open the application.

Supposedly that message is only supposed to appear twice, but it appears twice per device. They've stated on Twitter that this is a bug. I agree it's annoying, but if you click the "close" button, it should eventually go away for good. "Remind me later" will, of course, bring it back up the next time you launch.

Hope that helps.

 

[umbilical]

SUBSCRIPTION MODELS SUCKS! great app but I refuse to pay month by month!
let me know when they sell at one time pay!

 

[macintoshmac]

SUBSCRIPTION MODELS SUCKS! great app but I refuse to pay month by month!
let me know when they sell at one time pay!

We might want to charge you a small monthly fee for that service, up until the time we notify you. Cheers.

 

[MacGizmo]

SUBSCRIPTION MODELS SUCKS! great app but I refuse to pay month by month! let me know when they sell at one time pay!

I think you're going to find that your software options moving forward are going to be fairly slim...

 

[macintoshmac]

I think you're going to find that your software options moving forward are going to be fairly slim...

True for the near future, although we might then begin seeing a resurgence of developers who would charge a flat fee and project it as a USP, and lambast the "then prevalent" subscription model.

 

[MacGizmo]

True for the near future, although we might then begin seeing a resurgence of developers who would charge a flat fee and project it as a USP, and lambast the "then prevalent" subscription model.

The only way you're going to see a resurgence in the perpetual license fee structure is if Apple allows upgrade pricing capability in the iOS and Mac App Stores. It's the only way devs can make recurring income from their investment. Without upgrade pricing, there simply no motivation for devs to put the time, money and effort into something that allows for a single (usually) small payout.

 

[macintoshmac]

The only way you're going to see a resurgence in the perpetual license fee structure is if Apple allows upgrade pricing capability in the iOS and Mac App Stores. It's the only way devs can make recurring income from their investment. Without upgrade pricing, there simply no motivation for devs to put the time, money and effort into something that allows for a single (usually) small payout.

There still are developers bringing out flat fee software. Also, it's about the price of subscription and the stupid, greedy locking that they do wherein when you stop paying, you aren't left with the last version you paid for, but you can't use the software anymore!

Subscription should be for a future roadmap - a continuous development. One time fee should be for perpetual use of "what you paid for". This means that if say version 1 of something is designed to work with 10.13, it doesn't have to work with 10.13.1 if it doesn't. If it does, fine. If it breaks, this means that some development effort is needed and therefore, may require payment.