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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/from-cheap-tool-to-premium-subscription-when-a-beloved-apps-price-skyrockets/ [arstechnica.com]

How much are you willing to pay to keep using your favorite app?

Maybe you’ve used it for years. Perhaps it performs a function so essential and specific that you couldn’t imagine what you’d do without it.
[...]
Earlier this year, Evernote, a note-taking app, changed its subscription tiers, forcing some users to go from paying $130 per year to $250.
[...]
10 times more than what Evernote charged for annual subscriptions from its 2008 launch until 2016 [arstechnica.com].
[...]
When Bending Spoons bought Evernote in 2023, the app had a sizable customer base. In a June SEC filing, Bending Spoons explained that it was attracted to Evernote’s 200 million accounts and high user engagement.
[...]
Although price hikes risk eroding customer loyalty, Bending Spoons investigated how much change in pricing and subscription tiers Evernote users would tolerate.
[...]
Shortly after the acquisition, Evernote prices increased (from $8 per month to $15/month, or from $70/year to $130/year). The new prices aimed to better align “with how different customer segments… engage with” Evernote, and, in combination with product improvements, led to “average revenue per monthly active user being 2.5 times as high in 2025 as in 2022,” Bending Spoons said.
[...]
Evernote released over 150 product updates in 2025, the filing says. Evernote v11, a huge update [engadget.com], came out in 2026.

While issuing layoffs [arstechnica.com] in July 2023, Bending Spoons said Evernote had been “unprofitable for years.” By November 2024, the app had reportedly reached [bailliegifford.com] record levels of profitability.
[...]
Comments from Inkdrop’s developer also help explain steep price hikes imposed on longtime app users.

In 2024, the Markdown note-taking app’s price doubled from $5/month to $10/month or $50/year to $100/year. At the time, Inkdrop’s creator, Takuya Matsuyama, wrote a blog post [inkdrop.app]
[...]
Inkdrop’s developer was less concerned about growing its customer base and more interested in extracting additional revenue from current users.
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Mature apps with longtime subscribers, initially drawn in through low prices and reliable features, face a predicament. Those loyal users are good for business, but they’re often content with software that functions as it always has—and don’t expect to pay more for it.

But stagnant growth doesn’t mix well with inflation or stockholder expectations.
[...]
prices apps launch with aren’t sustainable in the long term, as Plex has said [arstechnica.com] about its lifetime pass, which has seen its price increase by 525 percent over two price hikes since March 2024. We’ve seen a similar pattern with streaming apps [arstechnica.com].
[...]
when price hikes are unavoidable, giving customers advance warning [arstechnica.com] can go a long way toward showing loyal users they’re valued.

Another option is to offer more subscription tiers [arstechnica.com] in general. Developers often cite new features to justify higher subscription prices, but not all users want those features.
[...]
Sometimes, various internal and external factors make higher prices inevitable. When that happens, users would be wise to reexamine whether that beloved app is still the best option after all these years.

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