Straight to the details: on August 20th, the price of Bundled Notes Pro will increase from $1.89 USD/month to $2.79 USD/month, with an equivalent annual rise.
This is the first price rise since launch, and will only apply to new subscribers. There are currently no plans to increase the price for existing subscribers.
Why?
The hate for subscriptions is well known and I'm aware that regular price rises contribute to that sentiment: it’s far too common for good services to reel users in until they are reliant, only then to raise prices dramatically.
I do believe, however, that subscriptions make sense for services with ongoing costs, and that it is still possible to make fair pricing decisions despite following this model.
I want to be very clear about the steps I've taken to make this price rise fairer:
- Firstly, giving advance warning, so there’s a chance to lock in the cheaper, current price
- Increasing the Pro storage tier from 25GB to 50GB and doubling the max Pro file size.
- Only applying the increased price to new and returning subscribers, avoiding surprises for existing users.
- Planning a sale for the iOS launch to give new users another chance to subscribe closer to the current price.
- Restating my promise not to erode the current free tier features, or introduce ads that repel users to upgrade
- Remaining committed to "less than a cup of coffee" level monthly pricing for Pro features
- Introducing a student pricing approach alongside the price rise
- Remaining committed to fair regional pricing - I have made an effort to ensure that the price rise accounts for regional pricing norms and purchasing power parity. If you think the price is not quite right in your region relative to other apps, please let me know
- Remaining committed to avoiding regular price rises - this will be the price for at least 2 years.
The timing of iOS
A question I anticipate in response to this news is “Are you just raising the price now that Bundled is coming to iOS?”. The answer to that is essentially no - but there is a connection, and I'm happy to be honest about it.
For context: Bundled is profitable enough to justify development in my spare time, but even without accounting for operational costs and tax, I earn less from it than the annual minimum wage here in Australia.
So despite wanting to increase revenue for some time, I’ve resolved not to raise the price until I developed a reliable cadence for building new features. In practice, this meant over two years of completing the Jetpack Compose Android rewrite, refining the web app, releasing the entry editor uplift, supporting import from other apps, releasing global tags, and even building this new marking website and blog.
I’ve maintained the same principle towards the iOS launch: I simply couldn’t justify releasing it unless the Android and web apps were in great shape.
And so, having finally achieved these goals, and working on Bundled more than ever, I believe it’s finally the right time to raise the price. I want Bundled to be successful, and I want to be able to dedicate more time to developing it. This price increase will help enable that.
Student pricing
I have developed a system that makes it possible to give Pro for a period of time, and I plan to use this to give Pro to students for free.
The new process is simple: email support@bundlednotes.com from a student/education email address, and let me know your Bundled Notes account email address and how long your planned study is for (up to 2 years). I will apply Pro to your account within a week!
The rest
- 4.2 is out now for Andrpid, with global tags, share, reminder and other QoL improvements!
- Since releasing 4.1, the Play Store review rating has increased from 3.77 to almost 4.3 - and it's still climbing. I'm so happy about this - it's great to feel the momentum return 😀
- I'll be focused on getting the iOS app launched on the App Store for a couple of weeks.
- I have a few improvements planned for the web app that will be delivered in over the next month.
- I am planning update 4.3 which will bring the single most requested feature: nested/grouped bundles. Sneak peeks will be shared soon 👀
That's all! Thanks as always for the continued support 💙
