You can still use shbullet without paying, but it’s severely limited. For instance, you used to be able to send as many text messages as you wanted, but now you’re only allowed 100 messages a month. Universal copy & paste is also no longer supported by the free version, if you were relying on shBullet to send files back forth between devices, you’ll have to subscribe to move files bigger than 25MB.
Of course, running the shbullet service isn’t free. Reliable, useful services deserve your support, but the developers of shbullet came out of the nowhere with this one. There was hardly any prior warning, just a blog post announcing the change. And the Reddit AMA offered up over the weekend only provided a bit of respite. So, I reached out to Oldenburg, shBullet’s CEO, to ask about why shbullet adopted a subscription model, how the pricing tier was decided, what he would have done differently were he to announce the subscription service all over again.
y did shbullet decide to adopt a o model? Oldenburg: shbullet has gotten quite popular. As a free app, however, it hasn’t been earning enough revenue to support itself. This was a choice we made early on in order to focus on improving the service see how big it can grow. Having given it a couple of years now, we’ve hit the fork in the road. Unless an app is on path to be the next Instagram for example—which is extremely rare—it’s becomes necessary that it supports itself financially. ’ve decided to work toward an independent shBullet instead of giving in to an inevitable shutdown. chose to implement a free o model to support the service. chose optional o accounts over advertisements because we felt ads would both be less effective worse for users.
at will the money from the o subscriptions be used for? Oldenburg: The incoming revenue will be used to cover the expenses related to running shbullet. The first priority is covering the costs related to keeping the service running (servers file storage). Once those expenses are met, we’ll then cover other company expenses (accounting, etc.), then support more shBullet development.
Are you guys working to ensure that the paid tier offers enough “bang” for the user’s “buck”? Oldenburg: ’d love to continue working to improve shbullet indefinitely for both o free users. Since upgrading is completely optional, it’s up to everyone individually if it’s worth upgrading for them. o will only get more valuable over time as we continue working. feel the pricing is appropriate to give shbullet the best chance at a sustainable future based on our decision-making process.
Did you warn current users that a id model was coming soon? I don’t remember ever receiving an alert. Oldenburg: Our blog post was our first notification (we haven’t actually charged anyone yet). This was to get feedback as well. Next, we will be sending out an email to all users this week.
How did you arrive at the price point you decided on? s there a lot of number crunching beforeh? Oldenburg: chose our pricing tiers based on several factors. looked at similar services, like cket, MightyText, Feedly, others, to get a sense for comparable pricing. also looked at upgrade rates for other “freemium” services considered this in calculations to ensure a sustainable shbullet is possible at our pricing level.
at would you have done differently if you could do this paid-tier announcement all over again? Oldenburg: The biggest thing I would change is the fact that this felt like too much of a surprise to our community. The best thing I could have done would have been involving them in the decision-making process. That was my biggest mistake. ’ve been really fortunate to have a huge number of people get really excited about the work we’ve been doing. Having involved them in ensuring shbullet becomes sustainable would have gone a long way to preventing much of the upset we’ve seen.
y not make a change to the pricing structure, or the features that are offered in the pro version, after so many users were unhappy about the subscription model? Oldenburg: If we made everything free, shbullet wouldn’t have a future. That’s bad for everyone, so we need a balance. chose to keep most of shbullet free require a o account only for our more advanced features, or for heavier usage. It’s hard to balance “bang for your buck” in o, making sure the free version is still great. think this is best. ople are upset (reasonably) that some previously free features now require o. If we didn’t do this, though, there would be no reason for anyone to upgrade to o. And again, we’re back to shbullet being shut down, which is worse for everyone.
ll you be engaging with the community figuring out pricing tiers as you move forward? Or is the pricing of the new o model set in stone? Oldenburg: thought about this a lot, but don’t plan to change the current pricing before December 1, which is when o starts. The most important thing to us is giving shbullet what we believe is the best chance at a bright future. Changing the pricing is not an easy win as it may perhaps seem—there’s a real chance it jeopardizes shbullet’s future for its users. Those that have already upgraded want to ensure shbullet lasts continues to improve, I don’t want to let them down.