Journler 2.6 and the new Journler license
January 18th, 2008“Journler is provided free of charge and always will be. No matter how often Journler is updated or what additions are made, you will have free access to all of its features for an unlimited time.” — Philip Dow, August 2006
When Journler 2.5 was released I introduced a distinction that I hoped would allow me to remain as close as possible to this promise. I wrote at the time that, as an indie developer I was doing my best to stay true to my original intentions but it was becoming more and more difficult.
It has continued this way. Generally speaking, downloads do not lead to donations, and when they do it is often the minimum. In the past few months, Journler has become more and more popular but I have earned less and less money. I have come to accept the inevitable fact that an approach to software development which sustains itself primarily by gift is difficult if not impossible to maintain.
The problems are frustrating and circular. As Journler became more popular, the support requirements became greater. I ended up spending more time supporting users than releasing updates. With fewer updates, less income came in. The result is that, paradoxically, Journler’s recent popularity has led to fewer earnings.
It has been suggested that I solve my problems by hiring additional help. But in order to hire help I need Journler to produce more income. In order to increase my income I must release updates. In order to release those updates I need to hire help, which of course costs money. Quite the bind.
I remain committed to producing a great product with steady updates supported by timely customer service. Thousands of users from across the world have found in Journler a useful and dependable application. I aim to keep it that way. Not to mention the great improvements that I’m just itching to work on if I can only find the time. I want to see Journler grow just as much as you do.
To make sure this happens I have settled on the difficult decision of transforming Journler into a shareware application. Beginning with 2.6, the unenforced distinction between personal and non-personal licenses will be eliminated. Instead, a single license will cost $34.95 with an evaluation period of 60 days. Student and bulk discounts will be offered.
If you have already purchased a license or donated, the cost of the 2.6 upgrade will vary depending upon the circumstances of your contribution. For anyone with a non-personal license, the 2.6 upgrade will be free. Users who donated for a personal use license will be required to make up the difference between their contribution and the current price of $24.95. For example, if you donated $10 then the 2.6 upgrade will cost $14.95.
On Wednesday, January 23rd I will effect the price change while leaving the fee noncompulsory until 2.6 is actually released. That is, beginning Wednesday I will still be requesting donations for personal use and requiring licenses for non-personal use, but at the single price of $34.95. As in the past, you may choose whether you will abide by those terms. However, once 2.6 is released there will be an evaluation period of 60 days at which time the purchase of a license will be required.
You may purchase a license at any point between now and Wednesday. Doing so ensures a savings of $10 on the price of v2.6, whether you make a partial or full purchase. Individuals who purchase a license for $34.95 after January 23rd will not be required to pay any upgrade fee for v2.6.
This has been a difficult decision, but it is the right one. Software has become my business, and the only way I am able to continue offering quality products with regular updates and timely customer service is if I treat these products as any business does. Thanks for your support and understanding.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Right on, Phil.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I’m sure it’s not an easy decision, and I’ll happily pay the fee for 2.6.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Thank you for your hard work on the app! I have enjoyed using Journler on my WP site.
Do you foresee 2.6 having the capability to utilize the blog function where you can choose the category? I am still able to use the blog function, but since the API function went away, I manually choose the category. Will his remain the same? I hope to have more blogging access, especially for the WP users!
Thanks again for your great App!!
Cheers!
January 18th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
It’s a great program, and you deserve to be paid for it. Thanks for all your hard work!
January 18th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Phil, do it to it. Think that’s a fair price. I sent in a $25 donation a fair ways back, and I’ll be happy to send the difference, especially to keep Journler and yourself alive and well.
January 18th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I love journler and it helped me a lot with organizing lots of different information. i will happily pay the difference to my donation! i hope this decision will will work out for you! best of luck!
January 18th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I’m with you 100% on that. Congratulations on a great product, and for moving forward toward making it even better (and more profitable!). This is terrific news for everyone.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Thanks for the update Phil. U DA MAN!! Journler is a great app. I’ll gladly pay the difference between my donation and the license fee. You made the right decision. The way I see it, my donation was a down payment to try out Journler for an extended period of time. Time for me to pay up!!
January 18th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
You have built an amazing piece of software that is worth much more than your asking price. I hope this will be for the better and that we’ll be able to enjoy a long future of wonderful updates to an amazing piece of software!
I support your decision and look forward to Journler 2.6!
January 19th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Phil, it’s the best solution to take real money. People will pay, why not? It’s a great sw!
January 19th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I agree–Journler is a great application. I use it in my professional life (I paid for a license!) and I’m glad to see that you’re taking a path that will ensure that you continue to develop it. $34.95 is a great price for such a useful piece of software.
January 21st, 2008 at 2:59 am
Is it safe to assume that users who don’t pay the full price will still be able to use Journal but not be able to upgrade to 2.6? I’ll probably buy the upgrade anyway, because it’s totally worth it, but it wouldn’t seem fair to not have the option of continuing to use the old version for free / whatever the old donation was.
January 21st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
@whitey
Yes. Journler 2.5 will remain donationware so that folks can forego the 2.6 upgrade and continue using the program if they can’t pay.
I am intentionally releasing the 2.5.4 Leopard compatibility update under the 2.5 series so that folks aren’t forced to pay for said compatibility. You’d be surprised how many people recommended against doing that.
Of course, all the Leopard specific features will be reserved for 2.6 and higher. And eventually I will stop supporting versions prior to 2.6.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Journler was fantastic but it didn’t allow me to sync via .Mac, so I bought Yojimbo. If Journler can sync in the new version I will gladly upgrade my previous ‘donation’ to purchase it. I wish I’d known things were cooking again with Journler before the 1/23 cutoff. In any case, I’ll gladly take another look.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I work for a software company and my salary is paid by people who pay for the software. I think this is just the way the world works. It’s a Utopian dream that somehow a software developer will get money out of the goodness of people’s hearts. I say you’re making the right decision. I haven’t paid yet, but I will if it means I can’t use the software!
My only question/recommendation: Why $34.95? Why not just charge $35?
January 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am
@emgee
Aside from all the marketing-psychological reasons for charging .01 or .05 less — which aren’t my reasons for doing so — folks actually expect prices to end in those odd numbers. I decided from a business perspective that it would be better to go with the flow on pricing than to try something different.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:17 pm
[…] Read more about the changes to Journler’s license […]
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
[…] the program. To allow him to continue developing Journler, with the forthcoming 2.6 release, the app is moving to a paid-only license: a single use license will be $34.95, with no more free rides (but a generous 60-day evaluation […]
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
[…] the program. To allow him to continue developing Journler, with the forthcoming 2.6 release, the app is moving to a paid-only license: a single use license will be $34.95, with no more free rides (but a generous 60-day evaluation […]
February 2nd, 2008 at 1:43 pm
[…] the program. To allow him to continue developing Journler, with the forthcoming 2.6 release, the app is moving to a paid-only license: a individual use license will be $34.95, with no more free rides (but a generous 60-day evaluation […]
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Don’t blame you for a second
I send people my plays all t he time — with the understanding the users make a donation to a non-profit. It’s almost guarantee that I will not hear anything from the people after that
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:30 am
[…] People have a hard time realizing what really goes into software development. They have the perception that it costs nothing to develop, distribute and support. To get a better understanding on his decision read his blog post. […]
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:24 am
[…] the program. To allow him to continue developing Journler, with the forthcoming 2.6 release, the app is moving to a paid-only license: a single use license will be $34.95, with no more free rides (but a generous 60-day evaluation […]
February 9th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
[…] von Journler wird seine Software ab Version 2.6, die demnächst erscheinen soll, nicht mehr als Donationware, sonder für den Preis von 34,95 Dollar anbieten. Scheinbar spenden auf freiwilliger Basis zu wenig […]
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:35 am
[…] werden zu einer Version zusammen geführt und für 34,95 USD angeboten. Seine Begründung ist hier […]
February 27th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I love Journler, and if I wasn’t flat broke I would’ve donated by now. However what I loved about journler—besides its elegant interface—was that it gave me the only two features (journaling locally and selectively posting to LiveJournal) that I cared about from MacJournal. MacJournal sells for $34.95. And now blogging has been dropped from Journler.
All I want is a journal app with decent word processing features so I can make it look nice (like a real dead tree journal) while optionally—but seamlessly—posting those entries I feel like sharing to a blog. Where am I supposed to go?
I really need to learn how to dev.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
@sheepguy42 Journler now offers seamless integration with the blogging applications that are already available for the Mac and do a much better of managing a blog that Jounler can. It means you’ll need to use two applications, and you’ll have to pay for both, but that’s the nature of the thing.
I understand the desire for built-in blogging support and if I have the time and resources it’s something I’d like to re-introduce in the future. In the meantime I felt my efforts were better spent on unique features.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
[…] the program. To allow him to continue developing Journler, with the forthcoming 2.6 release, the app is moving to a paid-only license: a single use license will be $34.95, with no more free rides (but a generous 60-day evaluation […]
March 19th, 2008 at 11:37 am
@Phil
I understand what you’re saying, but I think you missed my point. I agree that charging a fixed amount for the software is necessary, and I encourage you to do what’s needed to pay the bills. All I’m suggesting is that $34.95 is a bit much: MacJournal is a journal app with full blogging support. Why would I pay the same amount for a journaling app that has fewer features?
I’m all about independent developers paying bills, but I have bills too—and they require me to get the most ‘bang’ out of my ‘buck.’
March 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
@sheepguy42
I would suggest that Journler has many more features than MacJournal and offers a better user experience even if it does not have blogging. It’s a matter of priorities. If you feel Journler is too expensive and lament the absence of blogging, use MacJournal. If you nevertheless continue to use Journler despite the price and blogging, then it only proves that Journler is in fact the better deal. =)
I don’t have a problem with folks requesting features or using other applications. I would prefer to have blogging as well and I’ve seen and used some amazing journaling and PIM apps out there. But I strongly disagree that $34.95 is too expensive.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
[…] Read more about this decision. […]
March 21st, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Phil, I am with you 100%. Don’ you feel *any* bad about charging people to use your work! You’ve being incredibly generous offering Journler for free to individuals all this time. I can’t think of an application that would be offering more for free. Further, $35 is by now means too expensive - in fact, I can see how this must be deliberately set a little less than the typical $40 for many Mac PIM sharewares around.
I think I will definitely buy the 2.6 once it comes out. Others please don’t hate me for suggesting, but I really believe Phil wouldn’t lose much business at all if he priced the product a little higher - as long as it is under $50. Anything over $50, I’d think harder..
Did you notice how I’m saying “I’ll pay for the 2.6″, not “I am paying right now”? - Another proof that your are right to enforce the fee Phil! We are all good people but generally won’t pay whenever we can avoid it - psychology, frugality, whatever you may call it. In fact, I just recently forced myself to pay the suggested “donation” to Yasu’s Jim Mitchel - was just sitting there one evening, running Yasu, staring at the nagging message, and then thought: “Is it really that I can’t afford the $3.50 the guy is asking for?!. Come on…” Ashamed, I paid right then. A good illustration.
Well, good luck, I’ll be looking for more improvements and hoping you’ll avoid feature bloat…
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Good for you. You certainly deserve the money.
Great price too.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
I understand it’s hard to pay the bandwidth bills, but I’m a brokeass college student. I was using WriteRoom until it stopped being freeware, and switched over to Journler. I may end up buying a license, but for the time being, I’m going to stick with either the free version, or something else.
I just want something simple and cheap for taking notes in class with. I’d use OneNote since I have an evaluation license, but I’m running a Mac. I just want a workalike - can anyone help?
April 13th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
[…] Journler’s pricing structure has evolved over the years. It started as freeware, then moved to freeware for personal use and shareware for non-personal use. Today, Journler is fully shareware with a price tag of $34.95. (Dow struggled with this decision, which you can read about here.) […]