Package Tracking App 'Deliveries' Switching to Paid Subscription Model Across iPhone, iPad, and Mac

[ersan191]

When they announced this on their blog, I tweeted at them and pointed out that their main competition is Parcel, which costs $2.99/year, and if they priced themselves over that, they needed to be able to show us what they offered which Parcel does not. As far as I'm aware, they're functionally identical, and now cost almost double.

That said, I've been using Deliveries as far back as 2008. I have no idea if I paid for the Mac app, presumably I paid $5 for the iOS app (it's been too long, I have no idea). That works out to $0.50/year, and they are running all this stuff on their own servers which do cost money. They are providing a service app, not a local only one. They have to make money to cover that.

At this point, I don't know if I'll stick with Deliveries or switch to Parcel. Anybody tried both?

They're functionally equivalent - Parcel processes Amazon updates server-side instead of client-side I believe, which means their web interface actually works for Amazon. Because it's client side Deliveries can pull the name of the item in the Amazon order whereas Parcel just shows an order number (or whatever the subject of the e-mail that got forwarded was). Besides the UI, those are the only important differences between the two as far as I know.

Also Parcel is kind of annoying in that you can't manually forward an e-mail to them, you have to use forwarding rules (since they seem to read the To: field in the e-mail which is preserved when using rules). This is just lazy programming, IMO.

 

[Aboo912]

No way, google search is the best tracking app,

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

"Nothing changes" except Junecloud access! The email forwarding is key to how I use their software.

Oh that’s my bad, I didn’t realize that was a current feature right now. I guess I never caught onto it

 

[easy4lif]

This is the one app that’s my #1 next to my banking app and Apollo app. Here I will happily pay 4.99 a year

 

[AlteranX]

The best line:

"Junecloud hopes that switching to a subscription model will attract a wider customer base..."

...because charging someone for something they are currently getting for FREE will attract buyers (renters) 🙄

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Seriously, though. UPS My Choice. FedEx Delivery Manager. USPS Informed Delivery. All free, and they'll notify you when there's a package headed to your address.

I guess if you want three separate, pretty sloppy apps to do something one single app can do.

 

[easy4lif]

I bought their Mac and iOS apps but I primarily use their Dashboard widget. That can only sync to Junecloud, so if that's locked behind a subscription... sigh.

This might actually be the very first software subscription I pay for, though. $5 a year is the right price. I do wish there was a lifetime subscription option though, even if it was much more.

Wasn’t buying the app technically the lifetime sub. I bought this app when it first came out. They’re on version 8, def gonna support this app.

 

[jasonefmonk]

I love this app and have been wondering how Junecloud can keep it up when I haven’t paid them in years. USD$5 per year is a perfectly reasonable price for an app that I use a few times a month.

 

[apollo316]

Just use the free app for whatever shipping company or retailer you used.

Weather radar apps that were once free are going to paid subscriptions too. A few of these I used for years, then they stripped out most of the features and said I had to pay to get them back by purchasing the Pro version. One WX app was already a Pro version which I bought, but then they stripped out some of its features and said I could get them back by purchasing "Extras". Personally I see this as the old bait and switch routine. A totally dishonest business practice. Stripping features out of a paid app then charging extra to get them back is basically theft IMO.

Extortion may be the word you’re seeking. I couldn’t agree more. I’m sure this is no problem for some who actively use the app all the time. But for me in 3 years of owning it I’d say I’m almost there for getting my $5 worth. I use this every few months at most, and look at the app update history. I expect monthly value for a monthly charge. Updates, features. Charging monthly and not delivering (just realized the irony here 😂) monthly is going to lose a lot of customers.
Also is anyone buying their story of making this available to more people with a free option to try out? That’s been an option for years where the app is free with a SINGLE purchase to unlock a full version. I just don’t see a history of value for this app to justify even $5 a year.

 

[edwrap]

App developers would face less blowback selling subscriptions if they were a dollar or two per year and not per month. There are very few non-streaming apps that I would consider worth $12/yr in perpetuity

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Wasn’t buying the app technically the lifetime sub. I bought this app when it first came out. They’re on version 8, def gonna support this app.

I understand the sentiment, but when I spend $5 on an iOS app, I expect that the developer may release a paid upgrade some day. $5 is way too little to expect lifetime support, unless the app description explicitly promises it.

 

[JGIGS]

Its much more convient to use an app if once gets 5-10 packages a week like I do.

at a glance you see what and when things will show up.

Unless you're using it for business and in that case you can at least use the subscription as a write off, I'm not sure why anyone just wouldn't get the email notifications from shipping companies.

 

[compwiz1202]

I love this app and have been wondering how Junecloud can keep it up when I haven’t paid them in years. USD$5 per year is a perfectly reasonable price for an app that I use a few times a month.

This is what I was just thinking about shop.app I can't recall seeing ads, but I will have to look closer the next time. So how are they making any money? Do they have other paid stuff? But they don't reference them that I remember in shop.app I would have to go to the app store and tap the dev name to find it there are any others

 

[itsmilo]

I always find it ironic when people spend $700+ on a new iPhone every 2-3 years, $100+/month for cellular service in the USA, and balk at spending $5/year (in this case) for an app that they find useful.

I guess my question is do people think these developers are working for free? I really don’t understand the mindset. I personally don’t use this app, but would gladly spend a fair amount of money to keep developers developing great apps.

maybe it’s the German in me talking but give me an option to pay for something outright and I will. All these subscriptions add up and it would start to get confusing especially since they don’t all charge you at the same time in a month. It’s like paying an iPhone in installments. I rather pay something outright and have no outstanding payments to worry about

 

[snebes]

Seriously, though. UPS My Choice. FedEx Delivery Manager. USPS Informed Delivery. All free, and they'll notify you when there's a package headed to your address.

As someone who sells things regularly, I also track outbound shipments. UPS Quantumview and FedEx have something for this - problem is, I ship mostly through USPS and FedEx via Ebay (as in, not my account). And the UPS and Fedex things don't give me a good overview of all shipments at once.

Everyone's use case is different.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Just get Parcel, I think the sub is like £2.99 a year? Lol.

 

[outdevo]

I absolutely agree that the price is right in this case.

I just find subscriptions difficult to manage, from a mental perspective. If there was a $30 lifetime subscription option, I would pay that, no question!

Sure developers need money

You you might have a leg to stand on if the app was free. No it was paid for. You want to milk new customers for a subscription? Go for it. Grandfather your customers. Don't tell them sorry the app will slowly lose features until you start paying us more.

I am grandfathered into a handful off apps that are no longer one time buy. I will always support and recommend them to others. Apps that do this? I'll make sure anytime they come up that they should be avoided.

Thanks for making us what we are today and supporting us now we want more.

to be fair, developers need money... but customers need value...I get that subscriptions make it possible for developers to be paid better and more consistently, but where is the incentive to innovate? Why not just make Deliveries 2 with the new features and make everyone pay who likes the features?? Free download and pay for the features or remove ads...

I love and respect quality software but I have way too many apps to have subscriptions for all of them... Customers have to draw the line somewhere... subscription fatigue is real...

thankfully we are given the option to just use iCloud sync in this case... that’s the right way to do it. Don’t force customers into paying your rent all of a sudden without giving them the option to just use it the way they have been for many years...

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Unless you're using it for business and in that case you can at least use the subscription as a write off, I'm not sure why anyone just wouldn't get the email notifications from shipping companies.

Because I don't want these notifications in my email inbox, which is already cluttered enough as it is. I need them in a separate place.

 

[MacStreamer]

I love that some of you are drawing a line in the sand over $5 PER YEAR.

 

[apollo316]

I always find it ironic when people spend $700+ on a new iPhone every 2-3 years, $100+/month for cellular service in the USA, and balk at spending $5/year (in this case) for an app that they find useful.

I guess my question is do people think these developers are working for free? I really don’t understand the mindset. I personally don’t use this app, but would gladly spend a fair amount of money to keep developers developing great apps.

I completely agree for some apps out there. But go check out the update history for this app. It’s not frequent by a long shot. I’m sure there’s value to some regardless. But they’re not delivering a frequent value to be able to justify a monthly charge even if it was useful to me. Whereas buying a new phone has tangible value. Phone service is a necessary evil just to have a job these days. But delivery tracking and App/feature updates every 4-6 months for something $5 single purchase was perfectly fine? Hell dark mode is a part of this subscription. Dark mode came out almost a year ago. This just doesn’t feel valuable to me, but again I’m sure it still is for some.

 

[diego.caraballo]

At this point, I don't know if I'll stick with Deliveries or switch to Parcel. Anybody tried both?

Do Deliveries offer real time notifications (even with the app closed)? Back in time that was the reason to switch to Parcel.

On the topic of subscriptions, problem here is price. Sometime ago the developer was happy providing lifetime service for $5 and now it needs that amount yearly. No logic behind that.

Disclaimer: I don’t pay Parcel since when the app switched to subscriptions, the developer upgraded the accounts of early adopters to lifetime for free. Which is a noble gesture and the way to go for developers changing the game rules midtime.

 

[outdevo]

Because I don't want these notifications in my email inbox, which is already cluttered enough as it is. I need them in a separate place.

I messed up my quoting.. read the whole thread! Sorry!

 

[DogHouseDub]

Just use Shop.app

How does shop.app by their bills? If you're not paying with $$$, then you're paying with your data.

 

[BoyRacer]

Perhaps, anyone who's going to be ordering a new iPhone should be downloading this app. Does anyone know how accurate it is?

It's excellent for UPS, Purolator, CanadaPost and FedEx in eastern Canada. Less so for US Postal Service and UK Royal Mail.

 

[ersan191]

I LOVE THIS APP!

I have all the versions and its worth every penny IMO.

(except the last time the apple watch app kinda sucked since it would have to resync all the deliveries from the last time you used the watch app. and if you had a lot of deliveries it took too long) I hope they fix that soon. if not already.

The iOS app does a lot of heavy lifting that watchOS wouldn't be able to do, unfortunately. Most of what Deliveries does is client side, like logging into Amazon and downloading order info - there's just no way to login to Amazon on the watch and there's no real way to get around that without making a bunch of compromises.