Feedback: Retype Pro #224
Replies: 7 comments 11 replies
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First of all, congratulations on the project anniversary, and for reaching the Pro era. My initial thoughts are these:
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Thanks for the feedback.
Agreed. We took a lot of inspiration from the Sublime Text licensing model, although wanted to be even more generous with our offerings. Hence why Retype will always work and is not a trial or time limited product, unlimited users for Retype Pro vs per seat with Sublime, etc. The subscription model for Retype was avoided, just like Sublime, although I guess the primary difference I see is 3 years of free upgrades for Sublime vs 1 year of free upgrades for Retype. You can also get three years of upgrades with Retype if required. Both Sublime and the Retype Pro would continue to work "as is" after that initial upgrade period. If beyond, then a renewal is required. There will be a difference between Sublime and Retype once the new Retype Pro services are available. Those services will have a hosting cost for us. They will just be included and magically appear for Retype Pro builds, but for us, they will have infrastructure costs. Full-text search, comments, and likes are all in the planning stages. They are not a feature of Retype Pro right now, so any purchase should be made with the understanding that those features may never be available. If/when they do become available, they will be included in the free upgrades of Retype Pro. Sublime does not offer additional services (that I am aware of), so their installed product is their product and has no runtime cost to Sublime. Just to clarify and to reiterate from the proposal above, you are not subscribing to Retype. You are purchasing rights to use the software (and services) and will receive free upgrades for at least one year. At the end of the term if you do not wish to upgrade, you stay on the latest version of Retype released at that time, just like Sublime. Your project can stay on that release forever. If you do not require any further upgrades, you just seamlessly continue with your current setup. Hope this helps clarify. |
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So yes, this wasn't clear to me. So it means that if someone is purchasing because they just have 101 pages, they will still be able to show all 101 pages after their license has expired. Right? If so, this is better indeed. Now that you are talking about services (i.e. things that do incur ongoing cost on Retype the company), I feel that there will be no choice in the future to provide different payment tiers, for different use cases. Since page limit and hosted search are two very different needs. |
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Exactly. Nothing will change with their build process or their version of Retype. Everything will continue to function as normal. Even adding more pages (up to 1000) would be just fine. The only difference being the project will not be able to upgrade to the next Retype release. Or, they just move to the non-pro feature set of Retype.
The goal is to not scale pricing. There are still some questions still to be answered, but we're going to try and make it work. The system we are planning will be extremely efficient, so that will help optimize the server resources and keep our operational cost down to a minimum. Maybe some well documented upper limits would be required, but I feel a site would need to be at least a couple stdev away on the high side to hit those. |
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Congrats on the anniversary. One gap I see is how you will cover the cost of continuing hosted services for a Pro account that is not renewed. The rest of the deal seems well considered. |
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Yes, agreed. We have some solid ideas on how to manage. No matter what, if you choose to not renew/extend a Retype Pro key, your website(s) and features such as full-index search will still continue to work. |
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Here is one compromise we may have to settle on for Retype Pro projects that do not renew but are still consuming Retype Pro Services. The option to remove the The current plan is still to keep everything else running the same. Seems like a fair compromise. |
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I feel this is more than fair, it is generous. |
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Rendering the Retype branding again upon paid plan cancellation is totally reasonable, I would say even expected. I even think it is reasonable to cancel the other paid features. Otherwise, you are motivating customers to game you for free extra services, while customers who continue to pay are not rewarded for not gaming you. I plan to pay you. I plan to not take advantage of paying then cancelling. What do I get for my honesty (other than the removal of your branding, which ain't much)? |
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You get to upgrade and enjoy all the wonderful new features and bug fixes. New features and fixes that will not be available to non-pro sites. It will be up to Retype to deliver continuous value. If you see no new value, then you have the option to full stop or at least delay upgrading for a while. The cost to Retype of delivering those services is an excellent motivator for us to build and operate those services as efficiently as possible, which in turn benefits Pro sites. The |
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What's the latest on Pro? When can I pay? ;-) |
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Just saw this post. Some questions include:
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Suggestions:
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I love the idea of a Pro account for companies, but I would also like to propose a one-time open source "I need more than the free tier" option if @ddnexus' suggestion of a general "open source gets pro for free" idea is too much. As an example, the project that I'm currently deploying Retype for is pretty large and could easily balloon over 100 pages, but I can't afford to put $100 a year just into documentation. I'd be happy to give you $50 or $100 as a one-time "we're complicated but also thanks for cutting us a break since we're open source" fee. |
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I don't think it's too much. For example JetBrains gives you the OS License for ALL their softwares together (and they cover really more than you will ever need) if you have a decent OS project. Their limits are pretty generous, and commercially it's a good move for their business. The "open source gets pro for free" principle is very ethical and should be the default for all commercial projects that use themselves OS software for making money! |
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Just to clarify, the $99 renewal as made in the proposal is 100% optional. If you did not renew, your project would still be able to happily use the last release available before the expiry of the license. |
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Purchasing Retype Pro is now available at https://retype.com/pro. We moved to include three URLs instead of the proposed five, but also included any projects using your We are working on a new system to enable self-management of license keys. New form for creating a trial key is online too: Hope this helps. |
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Hello Retypers,
As of Retype
v1.11.0, we now have all the pieces in the app in place to officially start offering a Retype Pro option. Before we commit to anything, we would appreciate your feedback.I will attempt to lay everything out here. I'm sure I'll miss some details, so if you have any questions, just let me know and I'll do my best to answer.
This post
maywill get revised as we proceed through this discussion. If details change, I will keep this first post updated to stay in sync with our current plan and feedback from you.History
The first commit to our Retype App repo was on November 25th, 2020.
So, today we celebrate the exact one-year anniversary of Retype. Let's dance!
We started Retype because we needed the tool. We wanted something like Retype, although there were just no other tools, projects, or services available that met our requirements.
We were also more than happy to pay for something if it checked at least most of the boxes. A couple of products and projects came close but there were always compromises and ultimately deal breakers.
The most ideal number of software projects available is always
n + 1🙃 , so of course like any foolhardy software developer we said "Let's just build it".Writing software and the expenses of a small team do not come cheap. To date, the equivalent of at least three [kick ass] engineers have worked full time on Retype for one year. You do the math on what that might cost.
The project has made $0 in sales and has taken $0 in investment. Retype has been 100% bootstrapped and our preference is to keep it that way.
Our goal is to build something useful, challenge ourselves, have fun, and maybe MAYBE we could earn enough revenue to pay our ongoing costs. Even better, grow a little. We could, and should, hire 2-4 people today to have a fighting chance of building the current vision within a reasonable amount of time.
There's sooo much more we could be doing, but this shit takes time and money.
Here's our proposal...
The Proposal
Offer a Retype Pro build option with additional features and services that some users may find value in.
Current Retype vs Retype Pro comparison matrix:
$149$99 USD/yr for Early AdoptersQuestions & Answers
Q. Does this mean the free Retype is going away?
The free version of Retype is here to stay and is being constantly updated with new features and fixes.
Retype Pro just unlocks additional or extended functionality, such as building a project with more than 100
.mdpages and a config to remove the Powered by Retype branding.Q. Will Retype Pro be a separate product that I need to install?
No. The key will unlock functionality within the same
retypeappthat you have already installed. No separate installer or product installation is required.Just add the key to your project and you are good to go.
Q. If I do not renew, does my website stop working?
Your website will continue to work as it has always worked.
The only thing that changes is that your project will not be able to upgrade to the next Retype release.
Q. What is considered a website?
We consider a website a unique URL.
Sub-domains each count as one unique URL.
Each key will unlock up to 5 unique URLs.
As an example, with a valid key, projects with the following URLs will be possible to build as Retype Pro:
example.comdocs.example.comstaging.example.comdocs.projectx.comgithub.com/user123/my-projectmy-next-project.ioThe URL is baked right into the key. You can have any number of projects running on any number of developer machines using the same key, but the key will be limited to building only those Retype Pro projects with a
retype.ymlfile where theurlis set with one of your defined website URLs.Q. Can we purchase a multi-year key and is a discount available?
Purchase for one year, or for as long as you want.
If you purchase 2 or more years, take an additional 10% off the total.
For instance, purchasing 2 years would be
($149 + $99) - 10% = $232.20 USD, although discounted pricing for Early Adopters would be($99 + $99) - 10% = $178.20. USD.Think you will be using Retype for 5 years? Pricing as an Early Adopter would be
($99 * 5) - 10% = $445.50 USD.You are running 8 websites with Retype and have a 4-year time frame. Pricing today would be
($99 * 2 * 4) - 10% = $712.80 USD.Q. What if I have more than 5 projects?
No problem. Just purchase another Retype Pro instance. Need keys for up to 10 websites? Purchase two instances of Retype Pro.
We are building a portal where you will be able to self-manage your keys. Purchase, renew, add, remove, etc.
Q. We have 3 people on our team writing content and using Retype. Do we require 3 licenses?
No. Retype is licensed per website, not per person. One Retype Pro instance will cover an unlimited number of content authors or developers using Retype to build up to 5 unique websites.
Q. What happens when the key expires?
If you do not renew for another term, your project stays on the last release available as of your expiry date. You will not be able to upgrade your project to the next release of Retype.
Let's run through two scenarios based on purchasing Retype Pro today (2021-11-25) using the following details:
v1.11.0v1.20.0is the current releaseScenario 1: Renew
You like Retype. It is bringing you value and happiness. 🥰 You want to renew. After purchasing a renewal, you will get another key with a new expiry date. Add that new key to your project and you are unlocked until that key expires. All upgrades are included while the key is valid.
Scenario 2: No renew
You decide NOT to renew your Retype key. No worries. Your project will continue to build forever, except you cannot upgrade to the next Retype release. You would stay on the current release.
You would be able to upgrade Retype up until
v1.20.0.Once
v1.21.0is released, your project would fail to build if you upgraded. You would have to downgrade back to thev1.20.0release.You would still be able to build up to 1000 pages too and remove the Powered by Retype branding. Again, you just would not be able to upgrade to any future releases.
If at some point you would like to upgrade to the latest release, just purchase a new Retype Pro key at that time.
At the moment, we do not have an option to purchase Retype Pro. The above is a proposal. If the general consensus from the community is to go ahead, then we will open up an online purchase option based on the approved pricing and plan at that time.
If you want to use Retype Pro today and are generally happy with the proposal, please send me email (hello@retype.com) and I will send back a temporary 30-day key to unlock the Retype Pro build options.
We would like to leave this proposal open for feedback and modification for up to one week. Decisions need to be made by December 1, 2021.
The above details are not chiseled in stone. Details are subject to change. If you have questions, comments, or feedback, please let us know down below.
Thoughts?
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