Why Pixelmator Photo is switching to subscription pricing (and a sneak peek at Pixelmator Photo for Mac)

[bobbd2000]

I'm going to jump in here again having read lots of pros and cons. What I don't understand is why companies don't simply charge for upgrades at a reduced price. We've purchased a license to use their software. Now if we don't pay for new features they'll take away everything. Yes, I know that apparently existing customers won't be forced to subscribe. I hear that the App Store doesn't allow upgrade pricing. Easy way around that is to put out a new app which is the old app with new features and increment a version number as part of the name. Charge a reduced price for the first month or so. Synium has been doing that for quite a while now.

I know that this may not affect me since I bought Pixelmator Pro years ago and don't do photo editing on my iPhone or iPad. I am concerned that if a Pixelmator Pro 2 or 3 is released, it will be subscription only. That's when I start looking elsewhere.

[David Haworth]

You pay your favourite “influencers” to have latest content,

Nope

you buy a game and then buy credits to unlock a car or character

Not really

or youtube not to see ads.

Not done that yet either

btw, Luminar just announced their subscription plan as well..

Luminar’s has 2 subs, one for the extra assets, tutorials etc. the brand new sub is for plug-ins to their main product, and that product is a single purchase as things stand.

All that said, the examples you’ve given are where you pay money and get new things, new content from your influencer, new cars or characters for your game. And youtube is an online service, not a bit of software you download… The situation with pixelmator is that when you stop paying the rent, you stop getting the product…

[ddski]

Apple iOS developer here. (Probably should say *very* small!)

I understand the reasons to go with subscription pricing. Not saying I agree, but I understand. "Paid-up-front" pricing is very hard to sustain long term. A few questions - mostly with regard to App Store policies....

(1) The obvious one not really addressed in the blog post is exactly what would I have - as a working app - if my subscription (or free trial) is expired? Apple is very clear. To directly quote Apple's AppStore Guidelines - 3.1.2(a) - in the very first sentence:

If you offer an auto-renewing subscription, you must provide ongoing value to the customer

(2) This brings me to a second question... Free Trials are only allowed for auto-renewable subscriptions. (This is exactly what I'm dealing with.) So let me get this straight - you can offer both a Free Trial with an associated auto-expiring description and
a supposed "lifetime" subscription? Are you mixing and matching an "auto renewable subscription" with a "non-consumable IAP"?

Bottom line for me - details.

Let's say you come out with this iOS/iPadOS change on 1 November this year. And let's say I understand I can get this lifetime purchase for US$54.99. Easy to figure out what I'm getting. But what if I use up the Free Trial (no real mention of how long but I'll assume 7 days) and want to "subscribe to the app for a month (maybe my child's wedding was the reason to use your app big time during that month) for US$4.99. Again, so far I get it. Let jump ahead to 1 January next year....

Apple is **VERY** clear on this. "... ongoing value to the customer..." Meaning I (a) downloaded your app, (b) paid for a month of it, and then... details.

Do I still own the app on the devices I downloaded? YES. Do I still own the images I edited in November. I THINK. Either way, not you problem. (But details would be nice to know.) But now let say in mid-January an event happen that PP would be what I want to use. What then? I get the US$4.99 option to rent your app for another month. But what do I have without such a thing.

Details. Apple policies. Any chance you could answer this?

[Paul Hannell]

I’ve been using PixelMator Pro on my Mac for over a year & it’s a great App - and whilst the workflow is not suitable for working with batches of images, it’s got some really powerful layering tools that are easy to use & are great for improving my photos.
Pixelmator Photo on the iPad is nowhere near as useful, the layering tools are missing so I can’t select an area for isolated editing & do things like brighten a sky. The file handling is horrible (thanks in no small part to Apple’s rubbish approach to file handling on IOS & not everyone uses camera roll)
So, for me, this news makes no sense - instead of bringing a great Mac app to the iPad, your taking a mediocre iPad app to the Mac & charging a monthly fee for it !!
Please please bring the power of photo editing & layering tools into a single app on the IPad & update your file handling to work more easily with Apples file manager.
Many thanks !
Paul

[Wilbert]

Reading through all the comments, I’m puzzled about the level of negative emotions, which drive people to irrational behavior.

Let’s face the facts:
- Understandably (considering its size and product portfolio), the company has difficulty maintaining a profitable business, and is looking for ways to stay in business for the longer term (which is a joint interest with current and future users).
- After (apparently) carefully considering pros and cons they believe a subscription-based model is the best way forward.
- They are grandfathering existing paid users of Photo by not applying the subscription model, as they will get unlimited access for free; so there will be no change to these users.
- Also, there will be no change to users of PP for Mac.
- Current users are free to consider a subscription to Photo for Mac. That’s a product that currently doesn’t exist, so, again, there will be no change for existing users who decide to not buy the new product. If, however, they choose to sign up for Photo for Mac, they will pay $4.99 per month, $23.99 per year, or $54.99 for a lifetime license (which equals to just over 2 years of annual subscription, not a bad deal). A much better price than other companies (like Adobe) charge.

The irrational, emotion-driven behavior that I see, is that some people in this community, who I assume have been happy users up-to-now, want to quit Pixelmator for another product, while there is no change to them.
Even more, by doing so they have to spend money (for this other product) that they shouldn’t have spent in the first place, and secondly that they could/should have spent in supporting this sympathetic company.

As for me, if a subscription for a reasonable price (and I believe this is the case) ensures the continuity of the business and its products, I prefer such over a model that forces me to pay quite some money for upgrades every time. From a cash flow perspective both the company and its users benefit from a fairly priced subscription.

As for the critics, if you want to quit Pixelmator, please sleep it over and reconsider.
Let’s cooperate to make this product even better.

[David Haworth]

- Also, there will be no change to users of PP for Mac.

well, there won't be a charge for subscribers. there will be a charge for grandfathered in users.

If, however, they choose to sign up for Photo for Mac, they will pay $4.99 per month, $23.99 per year, or $54.99 for a lifetime license (which equals to just over 2 years of annual subscription, not a bad deal). A much better price than other companies (like Adobe) charge.

okay, so it's less than adobe yes, but it's also not adobe. This is a program that cost $4.99 as a single up-front cost previously, but will now cost $4.99 per month. okay, I appreciate that it's a different build for the Mac rather than the iPad but still, that's a hell of a difference in price.

Also, if you buy a lifetime licence (which I think can be acceptable compromise if it's reasonably priced) then as you say, the cost is $54.99. however the cost of Pixelmator pro is £$39.99 as a single cost. Hell, I bought it for £17.99. Pixelmator pro is clearly a more advanced program with notable functionality that is missing in photo, but photo is going to be more expensive? What can you do in photo that you can't in pro? I get that photo is probably a bit simpler to use but still...

of course if they think that the experiment with photo has gone well then you've got to imagine they'll be considering the same for pro...

The irrational, emotion-driven behavior that I see, is that some people in this community, who I assume have been happy users up-to-now, want to quit Pixelmator for another product, while there is no change to them.

I don't think it's irrational at all. it's about providing or denying support for an idea. I know that many software companies are enamoured with the subscription/rental model. it provides continuous income which is great. However what feels like the vast majority of home users are very much against it, as am I. I am an existing user so I will be grandfathered in, and I doubt I'll move away as I like the software. to some extent I get the best of both worlds, I bought it cheap as an upfront cost and get to reap the benefits of it being a subscription so should get better updates over time. however I still wish to voice my displeasure.

It feels like all sorts of different useful bits of software are moving to a rental model and it not only increases the costs, but adds a level of stress to the usage of software. If I buy an item of software and don't use it for 6 months, so what. if I'm renting it then I feel like I'm wasting money. It also raises huge questions about what happens when you stop paying. if I'm wanting to cut back on the ever spiralling costs then suddenly I lose access to useful software? if I'd bought it up front then I'd still have it. I might choose not to buy the new version but I still have access to the old one.

Lastly, there's the question of whether a subscription model produce better software. When you've got AcmeSoft Spreadsheet v2 and they make V3, you get to look at the features of V3 and V2 and ask yourself "is this new software worth it? have the developers provided sufficient new stuff to warrant me spending the extra money? If they have and you can afford it then great. If not then you just use the one you've got. With a subscription then there's guaranteed income so there's the question of whether the developers have the same incentive to create great new features as you've got to keep paying just to keep the features that you already have...

So many people speak up because they want to discourage this model. They may also be looking at using other software to support their model, just as they supported Pixelmator in the past.

[Grégory]

Hello everyone,

I completely understand the move, from a business point of view. Adobe is not the only one : ON1 moved to a subcription model, Luminar did recently too (kind of).

However, it brings some questions to light, essentially : what do we get for the price of the subscription ?

I dit move away from Lightroom when Adobe chose the subscription model, but not because of that kind of economic model. I moved away for three mains reasons :

- the price too steep for someone using occasionnaly the app
- the inclusion of Photoshop, which has two drawbacks : a) I don't need it so it's like forcing me into purchasing the app b) some features remains exclusive to Photoshop, whereas the whole idea behind Lightroom at first was precisely to be a complete standalone app, different from Photoshop
- the risk of lack of development of Lightroom : you pay for an app that doesn't change that much. It didn't miss. Lightroom 6 was already a grown up app, so Lightroom Classic didn't evolve a lot. The ergonomics are quite the same. They put the money into developing features for Photoshop and Lightroom (note Lightroom Classic), if you don't use either app, you're screwed.

In a nutshell : I didn't want to pay for apps I didn't want, as well as paying more to use the same app I already purchased.

I'm not against the subscription model, but it has to deliver : if I pay a monthly or annual fee, I need to get a real service.

If we all think Pixelmator Photo is an app made to photo retouching and raw development, we need to be sure that it will evolve in this way.

It means we need a ROADMAP : if I pay now five times the ancient price of the actual app, what will I get in the year ? If nothing, it would be nothing short a scam. If something, then what ? A real RAW development sofware ? New features (if so, which one ? Portrait enhancement ? Local retouching ? Dodge and Burn ?) ? A kind of catalog ?

I don't think Pixelmator team can hope to be successful in this transition without some clues, except if they want us to perform a leap of faith...

Thanks for reading

Greg

[Andrius]

Hey guys, this topic has, very understandably, generated a huge amount of discussion! In a way, it's kind of fun to see because it shows how many passionate users we have and that's always a good thing. Obviously, opinions are pretty split whether this is a good decision or not, but that's also understandable. It would take me at least a week to provide sufficient answers to everyone's questions, so I'll try to address a few key points as best I can.

One of the main questions is – why don't we just release regular paid upgrades. This is partly covered in the blog post, but I'll expand on what would happen if we did choose this approach:

1. You lose your App Store ratings (i.e. reputation) with each new app release
2. There isn't a way to provide upgrade discounts on the App Store for paid upfront apps
3. With regular paid major upgrades, most people would want to know when these updates are coming and at which point of the development cycle they're buying an app so the releases need to happen at regular intervals – otherwise you need to provide a set amount of updates for each user, but that's impossible with a paid upfront app
4. At this point, you've basically got a subscription with extra steps

So basically, you end up with a quasi-subscription but with a much worse user experience…

What's more, with each new OS release, apps are almost guaranteed to be broken in some way because of API changes, system bugs, etc., that make the app difficult to use for a portion of users. So the idea that you can just hold off on a paid upgrade is only partly true – at some point, you're kind of forced into it because the bugs pile up. With a paid upfront app, the upgrade fee is going to be more expensive than the annual subscription fee, so it's up for debate whether regular paid upgrades are even cheaper for users.

The next common theme is – why is the lifetime license more expensive than the paid upfront price was? The main reason was covered in the blog – the price was lower because part of the target audience was people who would use the app only very occasionally. People who use Pixelmator Photo regularly, understandably, see a lot more value in it than those who use it once or twice every few months. With a higher price, your target audience becomes smaller and more focused. While it may seem like you could set a very low annual fee, it doesn't look like this works because a regular fee would still probably discourage very occasional users from subscribing. Another reason is that the initial price was created with the idea that there would be (semi)regular major upgrades that users would have to pay for. Now, that's no longer the case – major new features will be added to the current App Store release.

Finally, a roadmap. I think that's a cool idea! As far as software development goes, it's difficult to make concrete promises with timelines and I don't think we'd feel particularly comfortable saying "subscribe now so you get something nice later" because while we feel we always deliver and Pixelmator Photo is already pretty fantastic, paying for future promises is not a particular healthy dynamic. If you use Pixelmator Photo regularly now and enjoy it, pay for it, if not, you probably shouldn't. As for a rough roadmap, here are a few things we'd like to add – more retouching tools, local adjustments, photo management improvements, batch editing improvements, and more.

[MATTEMOTTO]

Andrius, thanks for popping in,

First, I think nobody here is against your arguments, is the implementation, and the:

If you use Pixelmator Photo regularly now and enjoy it, pay for it, if not, you probably shouldn't.

Woa! "If you don't like this place, then leave…" this kind of vibe has never ended well, never.

What's more, with each new OS release, apps are almost guaranteed to be broken in some way because of API changes, system bugs, etc.

Working Copy (and Nova) got this perfect, everyone gets to keep their app fully functional and patched, only regular and hardcore users pay for new things, and the developer has to justify why the new feature is worthy.

What bothers people is losing their investment, and what terrifies them is not having tools to work when the curve is against them.

[Andrius]

Woa! "If you don't like this place, then leave…" this kind of vibe has never ended well, never.

That's not at all what I meant. My point was that if, at this point in time, you don't use Pixelmator Photo regularly and you're contemplating whether to subscribe to it based on the promise of future feature additions, that's probably not a good decision. I mean, of course we'll be adding stuff and that stuff is going to be very cool! But who can say whether the thing person X wants is going to come first, second, third, or at some other point down the line.

Working Copy (and Nova) got this perfect, everyone gets to keep their app fully functional and patched, only regular and hardcore users pay for new things, and the developer has to justify why the new feature is worthy.

With Nova, as far as I can see, $99 gets you one year of updates, after which it doesn't stay fully functional and patched. So that's the quasi-subscription model that I mentioned. Plus, it's not available on the App Store, so this kind of approach wouldn't even really work for us as we're App Store-only. I can't quite see how upgrade pricing works with Working Copy – I think there's just an IAP option as far as I can tell with certain features locked away.

[MATTEMOTTO]

after which it doesn't stay fully functional and patched

Hence the parentheses, which implies, to a certain extent.
From Nova’s: "Cancel anytime and keep what you have, forever. Easily resume later. "

I think there's just an IAP option as far as I can tell with certain features locked away.

Is not a "just", thats exactly what it is, an IAP, is not just an inferior model; you buy a camera, later on you can buy a 50mm prime from the same brand, if it that makes sense to the customer — but I don’t have to in order to keep the body. You buy an iPhone, you get X amount of years of updates and security patches, untill the hardware can no longer support them. That’s up to the vendors choice, if you, The Pixelmator Team, where to to leave critical updates unpatched (if an IAP model was the route), that‘s on you.

This is the Amaricana model, if you have insurance you get to live.

Anyhow, I really don’t wanna pick an endless argument here, you’ve clearly made up your mind, and your decision is impermeable, you made it without considering what your tribe might have to say, and you have all the right to do so.

Just felt it was important to chime in the "you are not a service" bell, and we do not agree. Figma, Webflow, Spline ... and Adobe, they are services that happen to have apps to acompany the paid plans.

I’m not — fortunately — in a postion in which I have to stop supporting you, so yeah, keep up the great work I guess.

[David Haworth]

1. You lose your App Store ratings (i.e. reputation) with each new app release
2. There isn't a way to provide upgrade discounts on the App Store for paid upfront apps
3. With regular paid major upgrades, most people would want to know when these updates are coming and at which point of the development cycle they're buying an app so the releases need to happen at regular intervals – otherwise you need to provide a set amount of updates for each user, but that's impossible with a paid upfront app
4. At this point, you've basically got a subscription with extra steps

So basically, you end up with a quasi-subscription but with a much worse user experience…

well, 1 frankly is your problem, not ours but you're also one of the most well known photo apps on the App Store I'd suggest so I don't know how much of a problem it is
2 is fair, and I'd like to see apple address it.
3 surely applies even more to a subscription model than it does to a traditional model. if people are throwing money at you regardless then they want to know what they're getting for the money. If you're getting a regular income then your users need a regular set of quality updates. a subscription implies that you're getting new stuff. otherwise it's just rent.
4. err no. not at all.

A big part of this comes down to the question of "what happens when I stop paying?". if the answer is that you can't use the software anymore then you've just highlighted why customers tend to like single purchase software and why most of us hate subscription based software with a passion.

when I see apps in the app-store, the indicator marking something as having IAPs is actually a turn-off and likely to make me not even bother to click on it. sometimes especially to the app's detriment when the IAP's are simply a tip for the dev and nothing more.

What's more, with each new OS release, apps are almost guaranteed to be broken in some way because of API changes, system bugs, etc., that make the app difficult to use for a portion of users. So the idea that you can just hold off on a paid upgrade is only partly true – at some point, you're kind of forced into it because the bugs pile up.

maybe, but that doesn't mean I have to buy every years update, I could skip a few.

With a paid upfront app, the upgrade fee is going to be more expensive than the annual subscription fee, so it's up for debate whether regular paid upgrades are even cheaper for users.

except there's no debate here at all. the app is going from a £4.99 price to a £4.99 monthly fee isn't it? if you released Pixelmator photo 2 at any price less than £60 then the sub will be more expensive... and I know you're adding the Mac version but that's of no use to users who don't have a Mac. many users only have an iPad so they would be facing a 10x increase in costs to subsidise a version of the program they can't use. I thought that's why you had Pixelmator pro...

The next common theme is – why is the lifetime license more expensive than the paid upfront price was? The main reason was covered in the blog – the price was lower because part of the target audience was people who would use the app only very occasionally. People who use Pixelmator Photo regularly, understandably, see a lot more value in it than those who use it once or twice every few months. With a higher price, your target audience becomes smaller and more focused.

this just doesn't make any sense to me..

to begin with, the lifetime licence isn't just a little more expensive. it's not 10% more or 25% more. it's over 1000% more than the current upfront price. that's a huge increase! I just don't see how it is justified... if you used a tradition version model at the current price with yearly updates that's more than a decade of updates.. if anything, it looks aimed at encouraging people away from the lifetime licence and into the monthly sub...

and your justification for putting the price up is that it's more popular than you thought...?

I don't think we'd feel particularly comfortable saying "subscribe now so you get something nice later" because while we feel we always deliver and Pixelmator Photo is already pretty fantastic, paying for future promises is not a particular healthy dynamic.

if we're not subscribing to get something nice later then what on earth are we subscribing for? isn't the whole point to fund getting nice stuff later?

[David Haworth]

Is not a "just", thats exactly what it is, an IAP,

it's a small point, but one reason I tend to dislike IAP's to enable full use of an app is that it doesn't pass onto family members, whereas an upfront purchase does.

Just felt it was important to chime in the "you are not a service" bell, and we do not agree. Figma, Webflow, Spline ... and Adobe, they are services that happen to have apps to acompany the paid plans.

yes, I agree. I think that people don;'t mind so much when they can see an ongoing value, especially when there is a thing being continually provided outside the app itself. then we feel that we're getting something for our money. an app just charging a sub looks like rent.

I’m not — fortunately — in a postion in which I have to stop supporting you, so yeah, keep up the great work I guess.

the sad thing is that while I support Pixelmator in general, I can't help hoping that this particular initiative fails and I'm sorry about that If it does fail, I hope that it doesn't take down the company and that it's a reflection of this model, not your software.

Of course the worse situation is that it succeeds and you want to apply it to everything...

[MATTEMOTTO]

it's a small point, but one reason I tend to dislike IAP's to enable full use of an app is that it doesn't pass onto family members, whereas an upfront purchase does.

Not small at all — but that’s gladly not true anymore, is up to the dev to enable it:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/4/2215 ... -purchases

I guess the PM team thought of all the benefits of a subscription, and — I assume subconsciously biased — the downsides they came up are easily dismissed under a certain rhetoric.

They want to be treated and paid as a big corp, when what made them special is, in fact, that they are an artisanal shop. Artisanal does not equal cheap, or unsustainable.

I go to my local store because the owner knows my name, cares about me, and that goes both ways.

So many right ways of doing this: IAPs; more products that piggyback from PM's engine, like what Flying Meat did with Acorn and Retrobatch (and no, PMP + Shortcuts is not the same, Retrobatch is multithreaded and stupid fast); a Tip Jar, all of us that can, would have thrown money at you, if you had asked, but not anymore, now people will, justifiably, demand new stuff; add a separate version outside the App Store; Settapp. The list goes on and on.

Also, what’s expected as a part of the initial purchase and what's a service? Let’s take Apple, an iPhone has a warranty that can be extended with AppleCare, that is a service; but iOS security patches are excepted regardless, they are not part of an iCloud subscription.

And the uncertainty, what does Lifetime mean in this context, if Darkroom and Halide thought us something, is that it means nothing. They don’t have immediate plans for Pixelmator Pro, which in my head translates to “Once Pixelmator Pro is ready for iOS, that’s when the plans will be immeadiate” and that, will be a very sad day.

[Wilbert]

I'd love to see a road map, and sharing a road map might help people deciding for a subscription, however,
- a road map is confidential to a software company, for competitive reasons;
- a road map is never firm and committed, future features and timelines can always shift, so uncertainty is a fact of life, and there's no such thing as a money-back guarantee.

Therefore, what it boils down to is that we have to keep on trusting the company that it will deliver, as we did up to now.

As for the subscription price, this is very steep compared to the initial price, indeed, but for a one-time price of €4.99 one cannot reasonably expect any company to sustain serious development efforts.

[mazerfaka]

Sure, have a subscription but PLEASE let me buy the whole thing. I will CRY if Pixelmator pro goes subscription based

[Teelar]

The bottom line is that this was the company to which people came to avoid the others’ subscriptions. And now it ain’t.

[jishu]

Final Cut Pro/Motion/Compressor/Logic/MainStage/Numbers/Pages/Keynote/Pixelmator Pro/Affinity Designer/Affinity Photo/Affinity Photo/DaVinci Resolve
These software that matches the operating logic of the Mac and has a reasonable pricing model are a big reason why I choose the Mac and choose these software. If many of these softwares like Notability, Parallels Desktop, and Shapr3D turn to subscriptions, considering cost and usage, I may switch to subscriptions for Adobe Creative Cloud and some other software, which may cost less.
At this stage, these software can be bought out, which allows me to get at least 80% of the functions of Adobe software I need at a much lower price than buying Adobe products, but if turn to a subscription, then Adobe Creative Cloud may be better cost-effective.
So hopefully Pixelmator Pro doesn't move to subscriptions.
I hope that donation channels can be opened so that we can make financial support beyond purchasing software if we can.

[Peter Bendheim]

I hate subscription models.

I also don’t believe the long-winded justification you made for having them.
Years ago, I had a friend who explained to me that you could get very rich by getting lots of people to pay a fixed amount every month for something and watch the cash roll in. He was right and he was very rich.

I also don’t believe the promise you made about giving previous purchasers ongoing access with a subscription. Simply because that is what you said in your post and then later when someone asked if this would be confined to a given period, you gave a duck and dive answer and would not commit.

I bought your app exactly because of the Adobe model.
Subscriptions are a form of price gouging and extortion just to get the app to work.

I very am happy to pay for upgrades but there is no way I will support a subscription model. I also don’t live in the US but in a developing country where the amount in dollars for subscriptions translates into quite a bit of local money.

There are a number of ways to get revenue without resorting to the subscription model. Such as charging for extra features in the form of modules to enable the consumer to have freedom of choice to buy the bits they use the most.

I think I will just rather buy Affinity Photo as for now their user support is amazing and they have resisted the get rich quick subscription scheme.

No matter what nice Public Relations coating you put on this…the facts remain the same. It sucks.

[Wilbert]

When will existing customers receive an offer for a subscription or lifetime license?

[David Haworth]

I get the feeling that Pixelmator aren't too interested in our opinions on this decision...

[Andrius]

When will existing customers receive an offer for a subscription or lifetime license?

Existing customers already have full access to Pixelmator Photo, so there's no need to pay again, so a discount isn't applicable here. Unless I'm missing something and your question is about something else?

I get the feeling that Pixelmator aren't too interested in our opinions on this decision...

We most certainly are, it's just that we're now seeing duplicate questions that have already been covered earlier in the thread and comments that are essentially "I am against subscriptions as a business model", which is a perfectly valid opinion, but there's not much we can say to that that we didn't cover in the blog post and the replies to this thread.

[Cantisani]

Soooo… wow.

As an existing paid user of Pixelmator Photo, I must say I don’t feel relieved.

There’s this question on my mind that even if answered by Andrius, I’m not so sure if the answer I’d like to get will hold, and that is.. will I be getting updates FOREVER?

It’s a crying shame I truly feel sad. I mean, I understand the company’s need to find ways to stay profitable.

You can tell me all the reasons you have for going subscription, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll stay away from any app that goes that route. I can’t afford to be paying subscriptions for every thing I’d like to do with my iPad. I just can’t.

If enough apps go subscription (you, Affinity, LumaFusion, etc) I will just pay Adobe subscription for their whole suite. I mean, if I have to pay a rent to Pixelmator, and Affinity, and Lumatouch, LuckyClan, Procreate, etc.. it just makes sense to just pay Adobe, who is industry standard on practically every creative field.

I rather pay one rent to use Lightroom, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere, etc, than pay many small rents that will end up costing me more for software that is NOT industry standard.

I’m glad that Pixelmator Photo on the iPad will be free for me, although it doesn’t feel right either. I paid what I consider very little money for it and I would gladly pay an upgrade fee with every major update. I would happily pay $7.99 each time, no need for a discount. Wait, no. I would pay more. I would pay, say, $20 for local adjustments. But I wouldn’t upgrade if the “major update” doesn’t include that feature. I’ll skip it waiting for it to arrive later. Or who knows, perhaps other features might be tempting and I will still upgrade, but the thing is… it will be my choice. A rent is not my choice if I can’t use the app if at any given moment I can’t pay.

I’m glad I get PP for free, but I’m also concerned. I don’t think this “free for existing users” will last forever. It will come a time when you’ll say, we can’t afford to keep on giving you free updates, so subscribe. At that moment I will have to let Pixelmator Photo go. I don’t care for any reasons, I can’t afford to pay for subscriptions. That’s why I let go Forger (an awesome 3D modeling app for the iPad), as an existing user I have the right to use it for one year for free, but I won’t take it. I went with Nomad Sculpt and won’t look back.

Please consider adding a one time fee for the mac version. I won’t subscribe for it.

—-
PS:
I come to these forums every now and then just to find out if you announce new features for Pixelmator Photo. As you know, many of us have been waiting for a long time for local adjustments and a few other things.

To come here and find out that the only news is that you’re going subscription (along the mac version which is also subscription).. is disheartening.

[MATTEMOTTO]

but there's not much we can say to that that we didn't cover in the blog post and the replies to this thread.

I guess there are, actually.

1. Existing customers have full access to Pixelmator Photo, is this equivalent to a Lifetime subscription for iOS and iPadOS?
2. What specifically Lifetime means, all the features that will ever be added throughout the lifetime of the product, or you might decide that some features might be exclusive to subscribers sometime in the unknown future? It's important to know what guarantees do we have because yes, I'm an existing customer, but in my company I have to buy new licenses for each designer, photographer, editor, times how many devices each uses, and cashing out hundreds/thousands of dollars is a different story with this kind of uncertainty. I guess this is when a subscription makes more sense, but also when Adobe makes more sense
3. Will Pixelmator Pro also become subscription? If so, how will it work?

Please Andrius, buddy, don’t be vague on the answer.

[Wilbert]

Existing customers already have full access to Pixelmator Photo, so there's no need to pay again, so a discount isn't applicable here. Unless I'm missing something and your question is about something else?

Apologies for being unclear. I refer to Pixelmator Photo for Mac. In your initial announcement you wrote:
“Pixelmator Photo will now cost $4.99 per month, $23.99 per year, but existing paid users get unlimited access for free. Also, Pixelmator Photo for Mac is coming! What’s more early subscribers will get access to it for the same monthly price, which will go up when the Mac version is out.”
Also, there’s supposed to be a lifetime fee of €54.99.
So again, assuming existing subscribers will get an offer for Photo (incl. Mac) prior to the Mac version release, when will that be?