From cheap tool to premium subscription: When a beloved app's price skyrockets
Huge price hikes force loyal users to reconsider their favorite apps.
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. But when the developer announces an extraordinary price hike, you’re forced to consider how much you really value that app.
Earlier this year, Evernote, a note-taking app, changed its subscription tiers, forcing some users to go from paying $130 per year to $250. The highest tier now costs more than 3.3 times as much as the most advanced tier did in 2023 and 10 times more than what Evernote charged for annual subscriptions from its 2008 launch until 2016.