Maybe there’s something wrong with my account, but today I noticed that the price of Pocket Casts subscription has more than doubled again and now costs about $42 in a year. My currency is not dollars and very unpopular, so I’m curious to know what your price for Pocket Casts is?
Looking in my app store it’s £39.99 which is ~ $50
Very interesting move, that a lot, especially in comparison with old price, which is was about $15 as I remember and it was a month ago
I’m already afraid to use apps with subscriptions, because the price can triple overnight easily
Mine is AUD67. Might be time to look elsewhere. I need to pay for my coffee! 
2 Likes
I just found out that I am a lifetime member, not sure what that means… no ongoing subscription fee ? I cannot find my payment history from the web site, may be I am paying via Apple or Google
Any other lifetime member know the answer?
1 Like
I’m not affected personally, but that price seems way out of line with the market. You can get Apple Podcasts for free, Overcast for $10 and Castro for $19 a year (and there are free versions of each). Pocketcasts seems to want 2 or 4 times the going rate and at the end of the day, whatever the pluses and minuses for each app, it’s about listening to podcasts.
4 Likes
Funny, podcast app prices came up on ATP last week:
C: I’m assuming Marco you think you should be charging more.
M: Yeah definitely I agree. you know when I launched Overcast premium god knows how many years ago, […]subscriptions for regular app functionality, that was not that common still back then. And $10 a year felt like a bit of a reach, but a doable reach, so I did it.
Now, I mean, look, […]I was launching today I would not charge ten dollars a year. I would probably, I mean, look even my competitors. If you look at other podcast apps that charge money for anything at all, I’m cheaper than all of them for the premium feature set. I think all of us are free up front now, but the premium feature set, I’m by far the cheapest, I think, by half or more. And so if I were doing this today, I would probably go to 20 a year maybe, or maybe I’d have some kind of monthly, I don’t know, maybe I’d have to do a free trial, which I still have not done, you know, so I don’t know necessarily what I would do, but it wouldn’t be $10 a year. It would be substantially more in some way.
1 Like
I, too, am a lifetime member. Apparently we paid for the app before they went to a subscription model. We became lifetime members after there was backlash from people who paid for the app but were then supposed to also pay for a subscription. I found this 2019 article in “the Verge” that describes what transpired. Pocket Casts changes subscription plans after user backlash - The Verge
2 Likes
Although I do understand apps charging for subscriptions, still every app should be offering one-time payment (along with upgrade payment), like Keyboard Maestro/BetterTouchTool/Hazel. Alfred is a lifetime price lol!
I mean I don’t want any new features. If I’m happy with the existing features, why do I keep paying for extra features? So many apps moving to this model and justifying the price increase.
With every passing day, I have more and more respect for devs of KM/BTT/Hazel/Alfred. They make top-notch products in their categories.
In a few years, I can see the Apple default apps being the most used apps across most categories.
My latest bill was for $1.50. If my next bill is $3.99, it will be my last one.
Flexibits has entered the chat
(Can we say that since they are a sometimes sponsor?)
5 Likes
I’m not justifying the actual price (I use PocketCasts, but not the paid-for services), but PocketCasts is different to the examples you cite in that the subscription includes cloud storage which has an ongoing cost to the company.
I’m suspicious of apps which offer lifetime options AND have ongoing costs in simply providing the service. For example, Upnote has to pay Google for data storage for whatever I throw up there. It may bring in some upfront cash, but is unsustainable.
I missed that ATP segment for some reason. Thanks.
Pricing is hard. If you are not getting enough income compared with your costs, you are not going to be there very long, but increasing prices may lose you customers. People will pay premiums for premium products or services, but that raises customer expectations and you have to meet them. No one is obliged to buy.
And in the case of podcasts, content is king. If I can listen to the podcasts I want, the app I use to listen to them is secondary. I’d bear a reasonable overcast price increase for the privacy, reliability and audio quality but what Marco might like to charge and what I am willing to pay might not be the same thing. I would live with the Apple app without too much difficulty.
3 Likes
Regarding Overcast pricing, I have used Overcast for at least 90 minutes every single day, with just a few exceptions, since the day Marco released it.
I would gladly pay more for the app. I’ve gotten waaaaayyyyyy more than I paid for with that one-time unlock fee.
I’d feel the same if I’d been using Pocket Casts for as long as they’ve been around.
We sneer at companies that don’t have a business model, then get mad when companies with a business model make adjustments for continued viability. Of course, it’s our call whether to pay or not, but we have to understand the potential existential consequences of opting out of the revenue stream.
Related: This is why I rarely use a coupon code or a sale when I am paying for a product that I know well and use a lot. I’d rather the developer or podcaster or author get their full due.
3 Likes
Does this mean that for once in my life I’m leading the pack? 
6 Likes
I did ask the same question to UpNote Reddit forum lol.
I agree ongoing costs like cloud storage aren’t sustainable. But a lot of apps these days charge subs without offering any cloud storage. Like Bear notes (I like this app).
One-time paid apps (upgrade price) FTW!
Just noting that if we’re talking about the same app on the same platform, I agree. I.e. if you bought an app on Mojave, and you want to continue to run it on Mojave for several years, yeah - that makes a ton of sense.
If you want it to continue to work on all the new Apple OSs as Apple rejiggers stuff under the hood, that’s a slightly different critter as “works after Apple changes how everything functions” is very much a “feature”. 
1 Like
Just saw that - in the UK now £39.99. I think it was £15 the other day!
I just cant afford all these subs - drip, drip, drip every month. Individually some are worth it, but together, every month they just become prohibitively expensive.So it is back to the old days when app cost a lot more, I have to make choices, and PocketsCasts plus will not be one of them.
Nick.
4 Likes