I noticed that according the the RM forum, the annual price that a RWC user would pay has increased by at least 100% to $79/year. I say at least 100%, because RWC appeared to be on sale most of the last 12 months with 60% off. No justification for the huge price increase has been given.
Also, what happend to all the new features that were promised 12 months ago? Where is all the great stuff that was coming?
Nothing wrong with an anual subscription model justified with genuine new and useful features and capabillity.
It will be interesting to see how much more RM will charge per year for Elements.
Not sure where you got that information, itâs not accurate. I actually answered this on the RapidWeaver Community when we were asked a similar question. Copy/pasting below for your easier reference:
Thanks for the question. The annual renewal has always renewed at the appâs normal price. The discounted upgrade pricing is for the first year only. Nothing has changed in that regard, itâs been that way since we switched over to the current license types (shortly after RW Classic was released last year)
Whatâs changing is that we are merging those two license pages into one. Starting August 22nd, 2023 all users will be directed to the RapidWeaver Store page when purchasing a license for RW Classic. Existing users looking to upgrade at a discount can take advantage of our sales pricing when we have sales events throughout the year, or using various discount coupons we send out sometimes in our Newsletters.
We like to think that pricing judgments are subjective. What might not be valuable for some might be extremely valuable for others. We welcome those using RW Classic to make their own judgements regarding the value it brings to them.
To expand on your pricing comment though, we personally feel the price point is a bargain considering:
Itâs less than $100 a year.
Provides non-technical hobbyists, business owners, and anybody else the ability to easily build a website without having to have coding knowledge.
Users get regular updates to ensure compatibility with the latest system updates as well as regular security and bug fixes.
Users can build as many websites as theyâd like, no âper websiteâ limits like many other website builders.
Unlimited and responsive support.
We have not landed on a price for RW Elements yet, however the beta will be free for all users who have joined the RW Elements section of our forum and want to try it out when weâre ready to release it. Once the beta is over and we are ready for a public release of RW Elements, we will be offering a launch discount for all users (new and existing alike).
Hope that helps clear up some of the misconceptions in your comments. If anybody has any questions feel free to reach out to us on the RapidWeaver Community.
New features are factual and there doesnât appear to have been any in the last 12 months as promised.
My pricing judgment would be that its always better to be totally upfront about pricing. Subjectively, I would say that many found the introduction of RWC to be far from upfront about pricing, and the forums lit up with complaints when you changed to an annual subscription (or what ever it is called). Now the strategy seems to be to apply big discounts in the first year and then to double the original price in the second year.
@webdeer if you tell me who is holding that gun to your head and forcing you to buy it, Iâll get the gun out of their hand for you. ;-)
I use the 5 machine licence. I think this is about $120 a year, or summit like that. So a tenner a month. For a product that lets be bill out about ÂŁ2k a month, that seem good value! Of course, hobbyiest might feel differently, but then, they most likely wonât need the 5 machine licence. Either way, no one is forced to pay it (I donât think?) Upgrading is optional, isnât it?
For me itâs the fact that I had over 10 years working with Realmac. To see the whole thing, looking from the outside, implode, is sad and a part of me doesnât want to let go.
That said, I no longer rely on an income from this software so itâs easier to âtryâ to not comment. Obviously I still do. đ
Both versions of RapidWeaver will continue to coexist as they cater to slightly different customer needs.
RapidWeaver Classic will continue to serve thousands upon thousands of customers who maintain and build existing websites using a variety of legacy plugins and stacks. We will continue to develop and update RapidWeaver Classic to support this âclassicâ workflow as well as ensuring compatibility with new system updates and hardware.
RapidWeaver Elements represents our vision for reimagining web design on the Mac. Our goal is to make it easier and more powerful than ever before â This version of RapidWeaver is where the most innovative changes can and will occur.
Customers can choose the version of RapidWeaver that works best for them.
I really hope that helps clear things up, but if you do have any follow-up questions, please donât hesitate to ask.
Iâm really sorry, but completely disagree. Over this period Iâve heard again and again how this benefits the customer. This simply isnât true. This will cost customers and the way itâs being done will create more resentment down the line.
RWC exists because without Stacks RW would have little business. RM are in the process of moving as many of the Stacks user base to elements as they possibly can. To that end RM have even built a converter from Stacks to Elements. Stacks is not an RM product, it is still an active competing product to Elements and building a converter really seems an underhand thing to do. Let the developers convert their own Stacks if they choose to.
RMâs Elements forum gives the impression that Elements is the replacement for Stacks. Theyâve never once clearly stated to users that Stacks and RW are diverging and theyâre bringing in Elements as a competitor. RWEâs beta demo show Elements converted from Stacks from developers who clearly stated they are not moving to Elements (STH).
This makes RM come across with business practices that I totally disagree with and brings me too a conclusion that RM are not a company I want to support. I donât hold any animosity, just totally disagree with your business practices.
RWCâs days are numbered. Once Elements is released and Stacks Pro, RWC simply wonât sell.
Itâs more to do with new features being promised and then not a single new feature being added, and in addition an effective doubling of the annual cost. Month after month RM mailshots promise of great things to come, yet nothing is delivered.
RWC is now the most expensive web creation App for Mac, yet it does almost nothing without buying additional themes or Stacks andadditional stacks.
RWC after 12 months is stil nothing more than RW8, renamed as RCW or RW9. It is still a legacy feature barren front end for Stacks. In the last 10 years, all of the development has come from the innovative and creative stacks developers, who none of which will allow their stacks to be botched to work with Elements.
RapidWeaver Classic users still rely on A LOT of plugins. We see this daily when supporting our customers.
As far as weâre aware, the following plugins are in active development, and listed on the new RapidWeaver Addon Marketplace:
Ecwid Online Store
FormLoom
Stacks
While the following plugins havenât been updated in a while, Iâd presume they are being actively supported as they are still being sold by YourHead. Again, we see A LOT of project files that use one or more of these plugins.
PlusKit
Blocks
SiteMap
Accordion
Collage
Flow
FAQMaker
Customers are also using plugins that are no longer being sold but they rely on, such as RapidCart Pro and probably some others that I canât remember off the top of my head (sorry).
We believe a lot of users will continue to use and stay with RapidWeaver Classic + the Stacks Plugin for many, many years. Weâre dedicated to supporting and improving Classic for these existing and future customers.
Isnât this a load of horssh!te? â not a statement, a question!
Those plugins donât work with the latest macOS, right? And the latest RW doesnât work with older macOS, correct? So doesnât logic dicatetthat the whole argument or even post above is invalid?
We believe youâre referring to some of these plugins not being built for Apple Silicon. To use the plugins that have not been updated, simply run RapidWeaver under Rosetta as many customers are already doing.
Alternatively contact YourHead and request they build a universal version of the plugin(s).
And no, not only Apple Silicon, this goes back further too.
Anyway, Iâm out. I wonât join you in these circle jerking (yeah I learned that term from one of your forum members) discussions as it leads nowhere. You need to have the final word anyway, so you can have it. Bye! đ
There are several discussions on here that compare RW to Blocs. The main (only) advantage RW had was the number of Stacks and the established community.
Realmac has destroyed those two advantages and also gone subscription, which Iâm sure they said they never would.
Subscription puts you up against a whole host of Wordpress options.
I just donât get it.
As it stands, I donât see how RW can offer me anything moving forward.
Youâve taken a huge gamble. As a British business, I genuinely hope you do well, but honestly, you donât deserve to :-(
In their defence, the subscription model is quite forgiving. Everything remains functional after your sub expires, only the product updates stop coming in.
Compared to other packages, including a lot of sub based WP plugins, which cease to work entirely once you stop paying your sub, this isnât that bad.
Except they have not lived up to their end of the deal. Continuing product development. Compatibility updates only is not what they promised. Bug fixes has always been free.
Up to RW 8 you bought a license for support until that version was discontinued. That could be a year, or two, or three, depending on the rate of new versions being released.
Now you buy updates for a year, and although you wonât get any updates until you renew that period, your software continues to work after that year ends.
In all honesty, I donât think itâs a bad business model. The chimney needs to smoke, wages need to be paid. The construction guarantees that work continues on RW Classic.
You could even purchase just one year of updates and let it expire until you really need an update. For instance, when Apple changes something that makes RW Classic incompatible with a new version of macOS or something - then you buy another year of updates and - presto! - your issue is resolved.
Itâs the same model that Crossover (Codeweavers) and Parallels use and the same model that the boxed version of Microsoft Office uses. Even macOS used to have this model when it was still a paid OS.
The difference? They donât call it a subscription. But it works the same.
