Setapp available on iOS… but requiring additional seats to use, which defeats the whole idea

Setapp apps are now available on iOS. Yay !

They require additional device seats (4.99 / month) to use. Nooooo

What are they thinking?
Many people own an iPhone and an iPad; that means adding 100$ of Setapp subscription to use your apps on iOS! :scream: For that kind of money, you can amply subscribe to the apps you want individually and that still makes it a better deal…

If that’s the way they’re moving forward, I’m done with the service.

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I would rather they develop an entirely separate service for iOS. There could be some crossover apps, where they are available, but I’d like to see what they can come up with in the way of unique iOS apps. However, my guess is that they might have a bit of a problem pulling this off due to the AppStore structure.

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Unless/until Apple gets hit with new anti trust regulation, I can’t see this being a thing. Apple literally revoked certificates for this type of thing last year. It’s basically a side loading App Store using a enterprise certificate. I imagine once it gets on their radar they will revoke it.

On the Mac, they can’t do anything about.

That’s not how this works. Your Setapp subscription provides a QR code on your Mac that’s used to unlock the iOS companion app. Which is allowed as per the App Store rules.

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Oh interesting! That wasn’t obvious from my skimming :man_shrugging::grin:

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If you only have one Mac you’d only have to add one seat, as Setapp comes with two seats by default.

Yes, on iOS device is one seat.
But asking for that when iOS counterparts used to be activated via the Mac subscription, AND the fact that there’s only a handful of apps available on iOS – that’s a very perplexing commercial strategy (euphemism).

This makes me sad. I love the Setapp service and occasionally used a couple of the apps that were activated on my iPad. However, now it appears these won’t work and because I have an educator account I only have one seat. For me that means this change has taken away some of the usefulness of the service. Still love Setapp but I feel like it is a bit less valuable now.

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I feel like the concept of the iOS device being an extra seat is ok, but in the “launch” there only appears to be 6 apps and that does make it a very perplexing start. It’s not a good look.

I suppose for people with 1 Mac, they get this for free essentially, so it’s good for them.

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I have a desktop and laptop so both seats included with my Setapp subscription are in use. I currently lightly use Ulysses and MindNode on mobile devices which up to now were included with the macOS Setapp subscription. I am not going to pay for more seats just to add these two apps. I also don’t think it’s worth a seat just for 6 apps. Time to find alternatives.

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You guys are getting two seats for 10$ a month? I’m paying 15 for two Macs, and have for months!

When I signed up, the regular (not educational discount) Setapp subscription was for 2 Macs. Extra seats were available for $5/month.

Looking at the pricing info now shows that only 1 Mac is included. I cannot find when this was announced nor any reviews covering the change but I haven’t spent a ton of time searching.

I pay yearly so either I am grandfathered in or will get hit with the extra charge at renewal time.

I wonder if this makes pushback possible: question about price changes for existing customers.

It seems to suggest that this change shouldn’t be forced on those with existing subscriptions.

That’s exactly what I have understood (and what the linked article says: uses on iOS needs one seat – try installing an iOS app from Setapp on your Mac, that’s what it will tell you), and exactly why I’m flabbergasted, angry and leaving them once my subscription ends.

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Crazy. Ulysses + MindNode subscriptions purchased from their respective owners is $60/year, total, and usable across all devices.

Oh well, the beauty of a subscription is that it can be cancelled! LOL

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I don’t think the number of mobile apps factors into price. Wouldn’t it be $9.99 plus $4.99 for each device beyond what is included in the base subscription? That would still be about $300 annually for 3 additional devices if paid monthly. Not sure what an annual payment discount would be but likely not too much cheaper.

OK. So that halves my calculation. I’m already paying $9.99 for the base subscription, which is my sunk cost at this point. The increment to use Ulysses & MindNode on the mobile devices would then be $4.99 * 3 * 12 or $180 (rounded). Still 3 times the cost of just buying a subscription from their developers.

(I am totally discounting the other four mobile app on offer through SetApp, as they have no value to me. If I didn’t ignore them, then perhaps this equation would begin to come into equilibrium.)

Agreed. I’m thinking similarly. If I need to use a seat for each mobile device just for these two apps, I’ll either subscribe directly or find alternatives.

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Setapp supporting iOS apps isn’t anything new. They have always had a very small number of apps that supported their iOS counter parts. The most popular being Ulysses.

The only change I see now is that they want $5 more a month. I am not happy with this considering the apps are the same. Now if they launched this with a sizeable increase in iOS apps than previously available, I would feel that this is progress and happy to give them additional $5.

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So far MindNode, Ulysses, and Paste are all still working fine on my iPad. I have the .edu subscription, so I only have one “seat.” But all’s well so far.

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