I had no idea that WindowsShadeX had free upgrades for life. I always wondered why I never got asked to pay an upgrade price over what four +1.0 revisions (think I registered it at 1.0). Just think of it this way, the functionality of WindowShadeX should be built into the OS so you are providing a community service by releasing it for an extremely reasonable price and offering free upgrades from there forward ;)

Be just like the NON-indies - do what they do - charge for your bugs and call it an upgrade. And you still call yourself an INDY? Ok to THINK different but not BE different?

We have had free upgrades for life for 5 years, and our business is booming. We've rev'd Create over 20 times since then. We are not out of business after all this time. We have happy and loyal customers who tirelessly promote our software...

Anyway, one can find a justification for almost any behavior. But don't bulk apply your justifications to other's good intentions.

http://www.stone.com - home of the Free Upgrades for Life - read about that idea here: http://www.stone.com/Philosophy

I find the biggest problem with companies charging for upgrades is that they'll often withhold significant bug fixes (re:Apple and OS X) or wait to force people to pay for the upgrade for crucial features people need now (re: Apple and Final Cut Studio for the ICBMs and Adobe with Creative Suite for the ICBMs).

Alternatively, I find the risk of companies (Unsanity excluded, of course) that have free upgrades for life will keep creating new products that are not part of that original deal and may let their old projects languish as they are no longer top revenue earners. But all companies do that, regardless of free upgrades or not (re: Apple and .Mac after OS X kind of counts, so does iWork after AppleWorks).

One thing, I hope "Indies" does not misunderstand this suggestion and turn to Multi Billion huge company, Qualcomm way of doing things on Eudora licensing.

http://www.eudora.com/email/subscription_faq.html

" If you download free Eudora and then switch into Paid mode, you have a 12-month subscription from the date you paid for and registered Eudora. You can upgrade to any new versions released during those 12-months and stay in Paid mode."

Yes I think they moved to "software as service" model very early :)

I like Eudora, use it in "sponsored" mode since that "yearly price" including bug fixes is unbeliavable.

That huge (I mean HUGE!) Qualcomm doing it for a software legend like Eudora is sad.

So let me see if I get this.
You are probably so deep in... trying to get the Intel versions out that you feel an upgrade fee is needed? Every time a new version of OS X is out we have to wait months for the updated versions that don't add almost anything except compatibility with the new OSes, and now we have to pay for it as well? A month later from CoreDuos and you have the nerve to say that we need to pay for what? Vapourware?

Right, if you do that Unsanity is closing right after.
Be my guest.

Wow, Dar, you're jumping to some really crazy conclusions there. No where did Slava's post say anything of the sort. In fact, his post specifically mentions the *opposite* of that and decries those that do charge for merely bug fixes.

I would happily pay for an upgrade of Windowshade if there were added features for example if you added windowshaded windows to expose... paying for upgrades for compatibility is a drag...

I bought Windowshade back in the version 1.x days, and I've greatly appreciated the lifetime free upgrades. It's given me warm and fuzzy feelings about Unsanity, which may have contributed to my decision to buy FruitMenu, a product I wasn't fully enthusiastic about.

All that said, at this point, I'm more interested in seeing the product maintained and improved than I am in future free upgrades.

(For example, I have a Tiger bug where MIP windows don't hide themselves during an Expose Show Desktop, even though the pref is set for hiding during Expose.)

Now, while you may not be able to kill the free upgrade for all folks like me, since it was once promised, why not kill the free upgrade for folks who bought after you stopped issuing the guarantee?

If you add functionality and features... and listen to what users want (unlike apple) I would gladly pay an upgrade cost.

Infact, if you added to fruit menu the ability to add stuff like the trash (and other services)
to the apple menu and customize the gather feature (wild cards and that %%% stuff (like in date and time formats) and custom name, I would pay the full price (within reason ;-) )

I don't entirely agree that paid upgrades are necessary to stay alive. If your 1.0 is succesful enough for you to continue development and work on 2.0, focusing on existing users paying to upgrade is a flawed way to increase your sales. If your app cannot rely on new users to sustain sales with a major upgrade (and exponentially increased exposure from the initial launch), then I can't see how you would have enough existing users to rely on for paid upgrades. There are thousands of new Mac users a day. In my opinion, you will never hit the point where you "run out" of potential users, it's just a matter of continuing to get the word out.

Nothing in life is free. A free upgrade means the Developer is paying for it. I have always advocated that Unsanity should be charging for upgrades. Since my first Mac was purchased in 1984, I have seen many a good Developer and software come and go. You must support those Developers that you like or they will disappear. Since I've seen and used so many different Mac software applications for eons I can say without equivocation that Unsanity provides the Mac community very comprehensive applications, especially in their niche market. Comprehensive in the their implementation, execution, and wonderful , wonderful GUIs. All of life is negotiable and through life you will be constantly renegotiating. Unsanity has been maturing and now must consider their business ramifications--this entails upgrade fees. So be it. In the beginning (some of you were probably not even born yet), the Mac communities exhibited the very essence that the Unsanity team being to the current generation of Mac users. To see them disappear would truly be a loss to all of us who both understand and appreciate what Unsanity means--don't wait until it's too late to reach this understanding if you are an end user. Support those who make for a better Mac community. Unsanity gets my support and will also get my upgrade fees. Life without Unsanity would be insane...

P.S. Andrew Stone...bite me. You are comparing apples to oranges.

CREB: If you'll notice, Slava linked to Andrew Stone's site in his post... so his response is justified. What's with all the anger around here lately?

I'm a registered user of WSX, FruitMenu, Labels X, Xounds, CTM, and even Mint Audio (when it was still for sale), and honestly, the thing I care about the least in each of these programs is the free upgrades for life thing. It's been a really awesome bonus to incredibly functional and useful software. So hey, if you need to charge for a full version upgrade, that's your prerogative. It wouldn't bother me either way, and I'd continue registering as long as the programs continue to improve (and do what I need). But for the record, reneging on an offer that most likely got you a lot of customers and word-of-mouth praise when you needed them is a little shady. iTools immediately comes to mind.

There is nothing ignoble about instituting a cut-off date for the free upgrades policy. People who registered before the cut-off keep it, new registers pay for it. Think of it as an early-adopter bonus.

You know what? I'd be perfectly happy paying to upgrade to the next version of WSX and FruitMenu as soon as they are released in universal binary form. I've been using them since 10.2 and I don't think ANYONE who actually paid for your software at all would mind either. If the tool is actually worth it to them (which both WSX and FruitMenu definately are for me). As for sacking a program that got you alot of customers i highly doubt that free upgrades was the big pull in. It is more likely that A.) they are excellent hacks for features that should have been in the os a long time ago. and B.) because you have excellent built in copy protection thus I'm sure alot of people you were able to get to register were people who were using Serial Seeker or the like and to their dismay it would always break on them.

Many thanks for the great haxies and feature enhancements, keep up the good work!

Volt,

"Think of it as an early-adopter bonus."

I am truly a Mac early adopter and I do not see Apple offering me free upgrades for anything other than iTunes (so they can sell me media).

This is about price points, and Unsanity's apps are priced so low, it is not even reasonable to have them as free for life. You will see a huge shift in application price structuring, and I am starting to see Developers do it now whereby you will be paying by the term (that term being one, two years or any other calendar based pricing). The internet will be shifting too and any site with good content worth using will not be free at all. Yes, you will have free internet, but most of it will be frivolous.

Now that I own a credit card, I'll happily pay for upgrades, but a developer has to be careful when to ask for an upgrade fee. For instance, I would readily pay an upgrade fee to go from Shapeshifter 1.x to 2.x, because that was (to me) a massive upgrade. But I wouldn't pay an upgrade fee to go from Pixadex 1.x to 2.x because... what's different? Nothing special, that I can see.

I'm still waiting for Windowshade's single pixel borders to work with Shapeshifter. Very frustrating. :( I'll pay an upgrade fee, just bring back our shadow borders.

CREB: But see, here's the thing. Apple never made you a deal where you got OS upgrades free for life. Not once. Nor should they be expected to do such a thing, even if lately their OS upgrades have been slim on the new features. So really, this comparison is irrelevant.

The point is that Unsanity DID make the offer. They didn't have to, but they did, because it seemed like a good marketing move at the time. It was a (not "the") selling point for the products, which is why the developers are annoyed at the dilemma.

I'm playing devil's advocate, here. I have no problem paying for the next upgrade to any of these products, assuming that the upgrade is significant to me. If the upgrades have new features and functionality that I find useful, I'll continue to support them. I believe that most of their customers probably feel the same way. Panic has been extremely savvy in this regard, which is why each time Transmit gets a major version upgrade, I reregister.

Or rather, Apple didn't make the "free for life" offer with any of their software, except for iTools. But hey, OS upgrades are included in there.

Volt,

All points well taken and respected, but like marriage occasionally matters do not workout, and a divorce ensues. Both parties are typically better off afterwards. Unsanity's "lifetime" divorce papers need to be served so they can get on with life and deal with upgrades in a manner commensurate with the today's economy and in the future.

I am always amazed at how people feel so entitled to the dumbest things. I guess it is because they can never get handle on the more complicated matters in life so they focus on the little things, of little consequence, as their chosen their battles. Rarely, do these people ever win the war.

Let me preface this by saying I own just about everything Unsanity has put out and I think all of their products are top notch. The "free updates for life" and the low prices were the big reasons why I purchased a couple of the haxies. I wasn't really sure I would use LabelsX or Mighty Mouse, but the price was so low and I figured added functionality may change my mind later. Unfortunately, I never really used both but I am not upset about my purchase because a later update may change my mind.

I think one of the reasons slava is complaining (and I don't mean that in a bad way) is that it seems unsanity's huge creative streak has hit a brick wall. Their latest app is CTM, hardly a earth shattering idea and it doesn't look as if any new products are being released any time soon or any insanely great features are to be added to their existing products.

The good news is that the Mac market is booming and Apple's market share is increasing to close to 5% and still growing. This means that more and more people should be purchasing Unsanity's wonderful products.

If Unsanity wants to change their "free upgrades" policy then do it. But keep the policy in effect for the people who purchased those products during the policy.

And please, come up with another earth-shattering must have product.

or two. :)

I think what you're seeing here is the frustration of simply keeping 10 ‘paid-for’ and 5 ‘free’ products Mac OS X compatible... Tiger compatibility, now Intel compatibility - and that's not to mention the regular flow of system updates. You will see comments related to this in the Rogue Amoeba blogs around their Universal Binary betas - lots of work for what is currently "1% of Mac customers".

I think this is why David is also seeing the lack of creativity in product enhancements/new products.

On the original pricing issue - tough call. I simply don't think its possible to have a general policy; it depends on the application, its development path, its target customers – and the competition. I own 3 Unsanity haxies – would I pay for regular for regular updates? Perhaps for FruitMenu... Everything else is just ‘nice to have’.

As a professional web developer... I too have learned never to promise free upgrades forever (see also: the browser wars). For some things, it's not a big deal (an example would be the kind of software Stone produces... recompile and release... not rewrite due to major architecture changes in the OS)... but for many, it is.

Through dealing with many clients over the years, I learned a good trick from an old designer that everyone in my company applies regularly:

You can have it fast... you can have it cheap... you can have it done right... but you can only pick two, not all three.

It seems to me that Unsanity has been struggling with trying to provide all three for years. You promised us software one the cheap, you need to do it right because we're dealing with hooks into the OS, and everyone gripes when it isn't done the day of an OS release.

Honestly, I find it amazing you've gone on this long.

It might be worthwhile to poll your existing users in a more formal manner and ask them what matters most to them.

Some people probably aren't going to care about new features... they're mostly just going to want to keep using the haxies they have... and probably want to do so with upcoming OSes too. But they're probably not the bleeding edge users likely to stand in line at the Apple Store for the new OS... so they'd probably be able to wait a bit longer for upgrades to existing haxies they own.

Others are going to want things done "right" more than "right now"... they'll probably wait it out too. If they can't... explain the word "free" to them again, and how they're more than welcome to continue using the version they have until the upgrade is out. Just because it says "free upgrades"... doesn't mean "free upgrades right away". I know it's a symantic argument, and kinda crass... but oh well.

That said, there are a number of us who ARE the "wait in line for 10.5" crew... we want bleeding edge... and we want it now. I'm one of those people. But being an adult and having seen the way the world works, I also understand that this never (or as close to never as to be uncountable) is free, at least not from non-open-source outfits (see also: has another day job).

For people like myself, I wouldn't mind seeing the path of some products divert into "pro" versions that end up with upgrade fees. The development of these versions could possibly help the release of the non-pro versions as well, but they'd still have the features people bought them for.

Of course, the prices would still have to be right... and pro versions would have to offer interesting and useful features and improvements with each major release.

I, personally, have several haxies that I wouldn't buy a pro version of (like Silk or Labels X)... but there are a few that I'd LOVE to see get bigger and better than a free upgrade path is likely to allow (like FruitMenu, FontCard, Menu Master, WindowShade X). Anything that can improve my workflow... I'd buy a pro version. Anything that's just icing, I probably wouldn't (like Mighty Mouse).

I'd like to think that Unsanity has enough talent and vision to be able to make some amazing upgrades for software like WindowShade, FruitMenu, and a few others... and I, personally, would rather see hot new versions with lots of cool new gadgets to play with than run the risk of never seeing new features again.

Whatever you decide... you've done a bang-up job to date... and I, personally, feel that I've utilized all my "free upgrades" beyond what I'd initially expected anyway.

Until this weblog, I had not noticed that WindowShade and FruitMenu were free for life - I kept expecting to have to pay for upgrades. The quality and value of Unsanity products has made me buy some early on only for them to be turned off when I realised they were not much use for me in practice - MenuMaster, Shapeshifter. I am much more circumspect with other companies and their products. However, I couldn't live without WindowShade, FruitMenu or Silk and when I move over to Intel, I would expect to have to pay - you may have to wait a bit, though, because I still use one Classic app.

I am happy to continue to pay for Unsanity products being upgraded. So far, the attitude of Unsanity suggests to me that they won't do the upgrade price in an evil way. Developers that have disdain for their users and seek to milk us will also disappear, not just the free upgrades for ever ones. I could name a few...but I'll describe what they do:

*charge too often and in an arbitrary way - like doing something little and changing the version number a lot

*have complicated registration systems that involve 'phoning home' - I should not have to contact a developer and ask them to reset their server just because I got a new computer. If you have a lot of piracy problems, you need to find a solution that doesn't get your paying users off-side by assuming that we are all criminals

*have complicated upgrade codes plus original code IN THE APP itself, instead of when you purchase at the website

*launch completely new products when they have not delivered on promises made about existing product bug-fixes

*doing sneaky stuff like posting updates that you install only to find out that the fineprint said it was a paid update..and now you've got a crippled app...

*having a 'free upgrades' for a price for a set period. I've tried this one, and all that happens is you get a few little bugfixes, your time expires, then a new version comes out for a lot more of your money. It doesn't commit the developer to delivering anything at all.

*having codes that time-out. That's pretty evil. If I buy something, I buy it for keeps. Let me keep crappy old version 1.0 if I like it. Compel me to upgrade through your excellence!

*moving features from a cheaper product to an expensive product so that you have to upgrade to get what you already had

*start free, then do one of the above sneaky tactics whereby the product becomes shareware without you being really notified, because that was the whole idea - to bait and switch

etc!

As far as I know, Unsanity doesn't do any of this.

By the way, MightyMouse has pretty much never worked properly for me. It's had moments of good behaviour. Yes I did contact for support, and yes it was given in good cheer, but in the end I just didn't have the time for every little 'try this'. Sorry Jason!

I don't have a lot of money, but I've paid for maybe five unsanity haxies. My way of supporting further has been to actually give feedback on betas.

Can I say also that there's no substitute for a significantly better new version or a great new product.

What about a "donation for free upgrade" type of stuff, so if people really wants to see some "cool new stuff", they can donate if they wish?

I don't know the "legal" etc side of it of course.

There is also (evil him!) a gift option. Excellent "Earthbrowser" has it. Thanks to it being win32 compatible, I bought it to 2 friends as birthday gift. The thing was, it is a great software and by buying it as a gift, I also help continueing development/features of it.

Better than buying a meaningless perfume of bottle which he/she may like or not.

If I couldn't express myself, that page will explain
https://www.earthbrowser.com/gift_enter.php

Well,

I understand Unsanity's woes with having committed to lifetime updates. Not sure about the rest of you but I've tried numerous times to contact Unsanity to retrieve my password information as it was all lost in a Hotmail failure and I've never gotten thru to anyone.

I purchased two of Unsanity's products but have never been able to take them up on updates as I haven't ever been able reinstall the items I purchased. I'm sure I fall into the category of the type customer that's bringing them down. That's unfortunate for both side I suppose.

I was all prepared to jump into Font Card as I've been wanting an app exactly like that but may now hold off. I've never asked for even a sliver of support over a span of three years but NO support at all isn't worthy of further purchases.

That surprises me a lot, Hobbsie -- one of my clients was having a problem with Font Card a few months back, and I emailed Unsanity's support address and met with possibly the greatest support experience I've ever had. Rosyna traded e-mails and betas with me over the span of a few days to nail down the problem and ever since myself and my clients have enjoyed the features FontCard brings to us. I own almost all of the Unsanity haxies and I absolutely love them.

I think slava's post hits things right on the head. Setting up the expectation that ALL future upgrades will be free is wrong, because it doesn't allow the product to evolve without tremendous expense tot he company, and then perhaps features which might be considered to be part of, for example, Windowshade X might have to be released as a separate haxie simply due to corporate need for revenue. It's better to simply have reasonable upgrade prices and be very discerning about when to charge for a paid upgrade to allow a product to evolve properly without causing too much long-term expense. I think Unsanity has a great outlook on things, their prices are fair, and their products are awesome. Rock on, guys.

The funny thing about this whole discussion to me is this. WindowshadeX and FruitMenu are "self-contained" applications/utilities. I buy it, they work, and that's the end of it. I would happily pay an upgrade fee when new features are added, yet those apps are free.

On the other hand, ShapeShifter is NOT "self-contained." You buy the app and it is absolutely useless unless someone else creates a theme you can use with it.

So we're paying upgrades for software that will only work if some other poor slob puts just as much time into creating a theme as it probably took to update SS.

With the barely-existant theming community for Mac OSX, this is the one haxie I feel SHOULD have free upgrades for life. Because I paid for SS already, and I haven't seen an even remotely decent new theme in over a year, it's highly unlikely I'll be paying an upgrade fee for it anytime soon.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't really Unsanity's fault, they don't make the themes. Perhaps the folks who make the themes should charge a small amount for their themes, which I would assume would encourage them to continue to make great themes, and encourage others to start making great themes.

It dawned on me a little while ago that all the themes I was using were so much alike Aqua that I could probably just get used to Aqua -- and I have. Otherwise, I'm a big fan of Max's Aluminum Alloy themes.

Interesting article - by the authors of SubEthaEdit - in the context of this debate...

As an independent developer, I can say that free upgrades can be very expensive, not just in development time but also in tech support and other associated costs.

IFD has never charged for an upgrade, but we made the decision early on to never promise not to charge. We hope we never have to or need to, but if we feel that an upgrade fee is justified in the future we want to be able to exercise that option.

Good, sound advice, in my opinion. I would follow it with "Only charge an upgrade fee if you would be willing yourself to pay it to upgrade".

What about Apple breaking your (developers) chances to support older OS X?

I won't name it but a software costing around $10 (not exact price,a bit lower) has rude people on its "user to user" mailing list threatening to ask their money back since it stopped working on 10.2.8.

Developer tries to explain that he/she is single and at this stage of SDK/OS X architecture, he/she has to rewrite a dedicated version for 10.2.8 since IT WON'T WORK ON 10.3.9/10.4.x if it can run happily on 10.2.8. Guy/Gal does not have time to spare keeping up 2 seperate versions.

I really feel sad for indie developers on situations like this.