Let us compare notes as to how they react. I totally agree that changing their conditions for new customers is fair game. But removing functionality for existing customers is definitely not.
I’m with you.
The per-device iOS/iPadOS license is clearly not intended to win the hearts and minds of existing subscribers. (Actually, it’s more of a rude hand gesture to existing subscribers, given our reactions here.)
So then maybe some consultant sold SetApp on the per-device model as a ploy to attract new subscribers. To do so, they need to set themselves up in people’s minds as a sort of premier source of the best of the App Store. The math just doesn’t seem to work, as we’ve seen above.
I’ll bet we see this strategy killed off within 12 months or less – if not by SetApp then maybe by Apple, who might also be losing financially by this ploy of encroaching on the App Store.
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Or by Apple finally offering some sort of a la carte plan! But FYI Setapp says they got permission from Apple to do this:
https://twitter.com/Setapp/status/1293234916017213440?s=20
I just took a look at Setapp’s offerings, and while I can’t say that the apps I own that I have in common with Setapp are all regularly used, I do own over 40(!) of the apps SetApp offers (and still they have a good half-dozen apps that I’d love to own too). And looking at the list I realized I owned two apps they offer I didn’t even remember owning: Disk Drill and MovieExplorer.
Nothing in that list could be said to be dogs or junk, which is a testament to the quality of the selection process that SetApp employs. They have people working there who really know their Mac apps.
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Yes, if Apple cloned the Arcade concept to make a “Mall” service that included “productivity” apps, I suspect it would get far more takers than SetApp could dream of.
Or/And Apple buys the SetApp company, but not for strategic reasons.
Opened ulysses on my iPad and got this notification: “You are currently using Ulysses on iOS through your Setapp subscription. This activation ends on August 31. To continue using the app on this device, please sign up for Setapp for iOS.”
Time to switch to ulysses directly.
Also there a lot of apps on Setapp yes, but just some few of them worth the price.
I rather choose quality over quantity.
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Ulysses pulling out full support for their iOS app version of Ulysses was telling when it was announced. That’s why I kept my legacy priced subscription. Since Setapp was primarily for Mac apps, it was surprising that Ulysses allowed their iOS apps included in the sub. Their message that they are looking if its a viable business model to include it on Setapp wasn’t reassuring that it will be forever.
But I do understand the backlash. The only reason I don’t see this as a problem is that I have Ulysses as a separate subscription. The only iOS app that I was happy to get through this new deal was Mindnode. But since I have Mindnode 6, the 7 was free as I was upgraded to the Plus version on my iPad because of the new model.
Most of the Setapp apps installed on my Mac, and I used on a per-project basis. I can just easily unsubscribe and subscribe when needed (as I pay monthly). As a user, I also see if it’s more economic sense to only outright purchase those apps. This also tells developers the value they’re getting from Setapp as we can test their apps thru Setapp and choose to buy them if we deem them something that we’ll use daily.
This is what irritates me. I just checked my emails and I have no mention from SetApp that anything about my current subscription is changing. Had I not seen this thread (and various social media posts) my first knowledge that something was up would have been the notification on my iPad that it would “stop working.”
Really not a good look from SetApp.
I got to thinking about Ulysses. I love the app and I am thinking I’m OK paying their full rate (I was originally on a discounted rate) because the service I have received from them has been top notch, including one occasion when it wasn’t Ulysses at fault but another software package and they recreated my problem with that other package to investigate it and let me know what was happening.
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This is exceptional service from Ulysses and poor customer service from Setapp. They should inform their customers of such a major change in their service.
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As I write this post, my last post shows as 36 minutes ago. In that time I have cancelled SetApp, removed all of the apps (I can technically still use them until Sept 7th), redownloaded Ulysses from the Mac App Store and subscribed — the first year is basically at the old discounted rate I used to have so great bonus there! — and purchased the only other app I a) didn’t already own, and b) kinda rely on, which is Bar Tender and is very reasonably priced.
I feel pretty good about giving money directly to Ulysses again, even at the higher rate a year from now, because I’ve seen real value, and care and attention, from them.
I guess SetApp was always an experiment that I did think several times about, but they would likely have kept me as a subscriber if they hadn’t rocked the boat.
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This is beyond annoying. In two separate emails I received from Setapp support in the past 10 days I was told this would not happen for the foreseeable future.
Obviously, those clowns can only seen a few minutes into the future.
I really hate being lied to by developers, or having a service I’ve been paying for for years suddenly jerked away and put behind an egregious price increase.
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Exactly. I went back and double-checked to be sure I hadn’t inadvertently archived an email without reading it, but no — there was no email.
I found out from this forum. The news was also posted to SetApp’s blog, but that was it. They didn’t bother with directly informing subscribers.
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This is from their Facebook group today (around 10am EST)
Hi, I’m Nik Savin, Product Manager of Setapp.
First of all, I wanted to apologize for the lack of clear communication regarding the launch of Setapp for iOS and pricing policy recently. Our messages did not fully explain how the changes affected all current Setapp users and led to a lot of unintended confusion.
We have spent a lot of time over the last few days reading all of the reactions you have shared in this group, in addition to comments we’ve received by email, through social media, and via our customer success team. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. Please know that we take the feedback very seriously and have shared it with our entire product team and all the way up to our CEO.
As a result of the feedback, we’re currently reviewing the pricing policy, with a view to assuage concerns about decreased value, while continuing to ensure the business model is sustainable. At this moment, we’re not ready to commit to specific changes, but we will communicate them as soon as we are prepared, including via the group here.
Let me please explain some of the reasoning behind how we got here, because we have always strived to satisfy our subscribers on one hand by providing unparalleled value for being with Setapp, and our developers on the other hand by providing a growing audience of loyal fans and a convenient channel to help sustain their businesses.
On the “per device” pricing policy: Setapp has operated on a “per seat” or “per device” basis, rather than “per user”, from the beginning. This is different from how many other subscription services work and the recent trend of “universal purchases.” The reason why that was done was actually so subscriptions weren’t tied to a specific AppleID and there was more flexibility to use the service from different accounts, by different family members, etc., which we know is quite common for many subscribers. It was also done to prevent blatant abuse of the service, i.e. unlimited sharing of access to apps within Setapp to hundreds of devices.
On some users losing access to certain iOS apps: Since Setapp started, some developers have allowed access to their iOS companion apps themselves (i.e. Diarly, MoneyWiz, Paste, Remote Mouse, SQLPro Studio, Step Two and Ulysses). This was never communicated as an official benefit of Setapp subscription plans, an inconsistent practice across our partner developers, and essentially a workaround until official support was available. The new process announced this week was designed to make the entire process more transparent, structured across all of our partner developer apps, and, importantly, to compensate developers for this access, for the first time. We believe this will incentivize more developers to come to Setapp for iOS and make the service scalable. Keep in mind, when Setapp first officially launched, we had 61 apps, today there are 195. We hope for similar growth in our iOS collection over time with the right pricing approach.
We have heard about many cases about users losing the ability to use iOS companion apps (namely Ulysses, but we are aware of others) that they previously enjoyed as part of their subscription, without purchasing an additional seat. Please know that this disruption was not intended and we are actively looking for a solution to this specific issue.
Part of Setapp’s mission has been to support independent developers of great apps, giving them more options to reach new users who would discover their products and enjoy them. At the same time, they should get fair compensation for their efforts and be able to invest those resources in improvements and providing better experiences. We’ve done that on the Mac and there’s an undisputable value there now. Opening Setapp up to iOS apps is the next frontier where we want to make that happen for both users and developers.
We will make every effort to come out with a permanent solution to address as many concerns as possible within a few days. In the meantime, I encourage you to please continue sending us your thoughts, feedback and criticism. We thank you and the Setapp community for your support over the years. We realize we’ve let you down, and will take steps to try to make things right as best we can.
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Saw that, as I was just directed to this post by support answering my refund request.
It’s all very nice to say that the disruption was not intended, but it happened, there still isn’t any solution offered anywhere and the apps will stop working in 18 days. So… I maintain my stance. This is a totally illegal move as per a dozen countries’ customer laws – at least.
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Thanks for posting this.
I wanted a big apologetic u-turn, and this is a fairly big apology.
I’m interested to see what they come up with next week, and the tone of that message makes me mildly optimistic. Like most of us here I’m more than willing to pay a fair price for good apps, so we’ll see.
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I differ. On more than one occasion I asked Setapp Support, before I committed to a subscription, if I could use Ulysses on iPads and iPhones if I signed up for a Setapp subscription. Unequivocally the answer was “yes, that’s the way it works”. Of course buyer beware, but I made it clear that was the basis of my decision to be a customer and was never told I was depending on a “workaround”.
It was never intended to cause a warning that access ends on August 31 unless one bought a per-device subscription? Wow. That’s a pretty specific and detailed failure to understand one’s intent.
I really appreciate that the company is trying to reach out and rectify matters, but on the other hand the hole might be getting deeper.
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I totally agree with @anon41602260 here. This apology says nothing and offers no solution. It basically says « you understood us wrong, here is why we do things ». Which is not what an apology is about. And it’s not what the consumers are asking.
We’ll see how this goes but I am ready to bet existing consumers are and will stay screwed by Setapp.
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As I said, I own over 40 of the Setapp apps, and I covet another half-dozen more. I’m actually amazed that Setapp offers such a large quantity of high quality apps. For me at least it’d be an incredible bargain for apps I constantly use, like Mindnode, CleanMyMac, Elmedia Player, WiFi Explorer, BetterZip (and it’s QuickLook functionality to look inside .zip files), TextSoap, MacPilot, Yoink, ShortMenu, and DefaultFolderX. All those except for CleanMyMac are must-have apps. And the rest of the collection contains enough gems that it’s the rare app a typical user needs to buy separately.
That was generally a good response, but what struck me here was that if this is really a planned ‘new frontier’ they did a bad job not (merely) in articulating it to customers, but in creating an offering worth the supplementary $60/yr/seat. (Especially if you own an iPhone and an iPad, bringing the individual cost to $220/yr.) Simply making existing product capabilities cost more is a bad way to introduce the new program. There should have been at least a doubling of available cross-platform apps available at launch.
Cloud Outliner is already in Setapp and has an iOS app but was never available cross-platform in Setapp - I’m sure there are other examples of devs they’re already working with with whom they should have made deals. Aside from that they ought to have reached out to other devs with cross-platform apps (eg OmniOutliner just started offering a Mac/iOS subscription).
I still think Setapp is an incredible bargain with an unusually well-curated selection of Mac apps, but this new iOS program seems somewhat deficient for the price.
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I think it is, and generally the support has been excellent and attentive.
I’ve done the maths for my personal situation and decided the best solution is to purchase from the App Store those MacOS apps (including subscriptions if applicable) that have an iOS component that I chose to use in sync with the MacOS app.
Otherwise, for apps that are, or that I will use, as macOS only, I’ll continue with the Setapp subscription for now.
This is for me a cost effective solution and obviously everyone needs to figure their own economics.
(If anyone here is looking for a crises management gig, I have a suggestion 
)
Exactly what I’m doing I will purchase the component iOS Apps and still will come ahead with my numerous iOS devices.
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I do see that, for some people, SetApp still represents great value. For me, I already owned licenses of some of the banner apps in their selection. I even started using the SetApp version of some purely so some of my sub fee would be directed their way.
But in terms of the “apology,” I stopped reading fairly quickly because it looked more like a justification than an apology. Like the bully (I’m not calling SetApp bullies) who shoves you aside and then apologises when caught, rather than asking you to move in the first place.
I suspect there will be plenty of people like me who had remained SetApp subscribers largely through inertia, who have now re-evaluated their stance.
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