Pushbullet does AMA to answer Pro paywall change

They say the best things in life are free, but when you're paying for server storage, bandwidth, or overhead, that just isn't true. But not everyone is willing to dish out dozens of dollars for a service, though some are definitely OK with it as long as the service is good. That is why the freemium model began to find something of a middle ground between the two extremes. Pushbullet lately switched to such a model, which garnered no small amount of noise on the Web. Now developers have gone to Reddit to answer some of the most pressing questions and criticisms about the unexpected move.

If you haven't heard of if yet, Pushbullet is an app and a service that lets you push things from one device to another. "Things" here started out as files but soon grew to embrace notifications and even messages. For example, it allowed you to send an SMS on your desktop via your smartphone. It's one of those handy small utilities that you can grow dependent on, almost like an addiction.

For years, all of Pushbullet's features were offered for free, no strings attached. Over time, however, it became apparent to the developers that they needed to start making money out of Pushbullet or shut it down. As no one, not even complaining users, want that, they decided to go what they thought would have been the path of least resistance, a $5 monthly fee for many of those previously free features. And so the storm of complaints began.

It becomes apparent in the AMA threads that Pushbullet users aren't exactly averse to ponying up some cash for the continued use of the service. Most of them, however, have taken issue with what they consider the steep price. A lot of them say they are willing to pay $1 a month but not $5. Developer guzba says that they based their pricing scheme on similar services like Pocket or MighyText. Some have complained that the pay wall was dropped so suddenly and so high, without a chance for users to prepare or without offering some temporary discount.

guzba admits that they could have done some things differently that might have eased the transition period. One thing's clear is that freemium is the only future possible aside from bankruptcy. It isn't clear yet if Pushbullet's pricing scheme will go down for a while, though there are promises of new Pro features that would make paying for the service a bit more worthwhile.

SOURCE: Reddit