Upgrade Changes, New Payment Processing, and No Ads
August 15th, 2007 / 80 Comments
Lately, we have been working on creating an alternative to Paypal for our customers who choose to upgrade their Vitalist accounts. While Paypal has served our needs very well so far, we realize that it required extra effort on the part of our customers to upgrade. Therefore, we have created our own payment processing system that will run alongside Paypal. This system will give us much more freedom in how we set up our subscriptions. In the future, we will be able to run promotions with free/reduced rate months as well as set up referral and affiliate programs.
The first change we are introducing is the addition of a new rate plan and some changes to the free Vitalist plan. Vitalist plans will now be broken down into 3 plans:
- Free: Free accounts will include unlimited actions and up to (Edit: 10) projects, contexts, and contacts each
- Basic ($5/month) Basic accounts will include sharing, file attachments with 250 MB of storage, and up to (Edit: 50) projects, contexts, and contacts each.
- Premium ($10/month) Premium accounts include unlimited projects, context, and contacts, as well as sharing, SSL security, and file attachments with 1 GB of storage.
Other changes include the ability to pre-pay for 1 year of Vitalist with a 2-month discount, and the removal of all advertisements on free accounts.
For our customers who have already upgraded your Vitalist plan: We will upgrade your accounts to the Premium plan you will continue to have access to the Vitalist Premium plan at $5/month for as long as your subscription is active.
For our customers who are currently using our Free plan: We will upgrade your account to the Premium plan which you will be able to use until September 16, 2007, at which point you will be prompted to upgrade to continue using the Premium plan. If you upgrade at any time in the next month, you will have access to the Premium plan for $5 per month.
Posted by Robert
From Jason on August 15th, 2007
How does one access the new payment processing system? The upgrade link still leads to PayPal.
What does…
We will upgrade your account to the Premium plan which you will be able to use until September 16, 2007, at which point you will be prompted to upgrade to continue using the Premium plan. If you upgrade at any time in the next month, you will have access to the Premium plan for $5 per month.
… mean?
I should upgrade now but then a deal get’s offered on 9/16/07 that I must accept to maintain the ‘upgrade now’ price point? What does that have to do with upgrading now? Or does it mean…?
By the way I applaud you offering the $5 deal to current basic users rather than forcing us immediately into the new pricing structure.
From dagers001 on August 15th, 2007
Maybe some coupon (or another bonus) for oldddd users?
From Flenser on August 15th, 2007
What happens in if we don’t upgrade and we have more than 5 projects and/or contexts? Will we lose any actions or will they just have extra contexts removed and the project field set to nothing?
From Alex Mauzon on August 15th, 2007
Do you mean 5 Active (incomplete) projects? Or 5 projects at all?
Thanks
From flipdoubt on August 15th, 2007
I’m a little confused by this, as it sounds like a downgrade to me. I currently use the Free plan, but I’m not aware of limitations on the number of Projects or Contexts. I have 5 top level projects, with several sub-projects beneath each. Does this mean I must upgrade to the Basic plan?
You guys are more than entitled to change your rates to make money. Heck, I don’t see much advantage to the paid plans now, as I’m more interested in tracking Actions than storing or encrypting files. But I’m equally entitled to be disappointed when I have to pay for something that I’m getting for free now.
But then there is that adage that nothing worth having is ever really free.
From Matt on August 15th, 2007
@Jason
That means that all current free users will be upgraded to the Premium ($10/month) for one month. After that month is over, you will have to start paying in order to continue using the Premium plan. During this month, we are allowing our users to upgrade to the Premium play for only $5/month.
Also, the new payment processing is not yet available, it will be available either this evening or tomorrow.
From Matt on August 15th, 2007
@dagers001
We are giving all of our current free users the ability to signup for half price ($5 instead of $10) on the Premium plan, plus letting them try the Premium plan free for one month.
From Matt on August 15th, 2007
@Flenser
You will not “lose” any projects, contexts, etc, but you will be prompted to remove some of those items once the time comes.
From Matt on August 15th, 2007
@Alex,
It will include 5 active projects.
From flipdoubt on August 15th, 2007
@Matt, you’re going to address everyone else by name but not me? Burn … that hurts.
So if I have 5 top-level plans with a few sub-projects, does that count as more than 5?
From Brad on August 15th, 2007
Well looks like thats me out. After years of searching I found Vitalist a month ago. And yes it’s the ultimate. I’ve tried them all. Just poured a heap of info in there, now I I’m told I need to add it to my list of subscriptions fees. Thats one too many. Damn!
From Matt on August 15th, 2007
@flipdoubt
Sorry, did not see your comment.
5 projects will include all total active projects. So sub-projects will also count towards that total.
From flipdoubt on August 15th, 2007
Now that’s a reason to upgrade.
I was just joking about the burn, of course.
From Scuba on August 15th, 2007
Ouch. I didn’t mind the ads on free, but I sure did like the features. Thought I’d finally found the perfect tool… Looks like my life is going to get a whole lot less detailed, heh.
On another note, does anyone find the notion of “Contacts” for the Waiting Actions restrictive? I hardly every use someones name, rather an event. Most are my contacts are named something like “Contract to arrive in mail” etc.
From Chris on August 15th, 2007
When/How will be notified about the different payment options, like the pre-pay for a year? Will we get individual notifications at some point outlining more detail on the new payment options? Good thing – paypal wasn’t an option for me.
From Shaine › Vitalist Creates a Subscription Mix on August 15th, 2007
[...] Vitalist has put a new post titled The Net Effect »Upgrade Changes, New Payment Processing, and No Ads in which they announce changes to their billing and subscription services. [...]
From nedbaker on August 16th, 2007
Ouch is the word, all change on the gravy train. Obviously you guys have to make a living, though it’s a shame the ads don’t seem to be enough to keep the current free accounts afloat (what if we all promised lots of click-through?).
I will of course be transferring to the Premium account for the time being, but this transition will definitely mark a shift in how I view the efficiency of bug tracking and my ‘buy in’ to the ongoing development of Vitalist. I will also now have to look more carefully at the free/subscription competition out there, not that I’m expecting to find anything nearly as good
From Serge Tarkovski on August 16th, 2007
What if I have more that 5 projects in Free plan? Does it mean that you crop some of my projects out and leave only 5 of them ?
From chiching on August 16th, 2007
Very disappointed. Please go to your homepage and review your own commitment for free account as follows:
“FREE!
Anyone can sign-up for a free Vitalist account. Our free accounts have no limitations on the number of actions or projects you can create. Extra features such as sharing, file attachments, and ssl secure data transmission, you can upgrade to our Premium version for only $5 per month. ”
You have promised unlimited actions, projects, and contexts for free account. If you break your own promise, how can I have confidences to put my important data on your server?
I don’t mind upgrade my account while I am so worry about your credibility at this moment. Sigh!
From Flenser on August 16th, 2007
After some consideration I’ve decided to abandon web based tools and use a local application instead.
When the price and limits on a service have to change whenever the developer’s costs aren’t being met it doesn’t give the impression of stability. I can’t be sure any of these sites are going to be around in any form, free or paid, in the future so I’d rather pull out now than get burned later.
From Victor on August 16th, 2007
I think that you guys have chosen the wrong way. You have to improve your product, kill bugs – and only then try to sell Vitalist. I’m really disappointed!
From Jake on August 16th, 2007
This sounds like a downgrade to me too
I spent quite some time evaluating many GTD tools both online and offline and Vitalist seemed the simplest and nicest and followed GTD quite well.
I understand that we can now pay (half price) but in a world of freely available free software it seems a bit daft and a certain way to loose your user base. A big big shame, esp as too I have found support for Vitalist fast to respond with support questions and the like.
Good luck for the future
From Vitalist to ask for paid subscription : Moleville on August 16th, 2007
[...] Vitalist Changes to Services [...]
From John on August 16th, 2007
This is really the worst decision you could have made for the future of Vitalist. With only 5 projects in the free account it is totally useless. That means that probably all of your happy users will not upgrade to a paid plan but will go looking for a solution we can trust and that does not make their solution completely useless by implementing a totally different plan. As chiching has said you broke your promise big time. I have put all my actions in Vitalist (over 200) and work with it all day long. With over 25 projects, only 5 projects will make me decide to go to another company which is keeping their promises. If you need to increase your income, the first rule is to treat your existing customers with care and consideration. This is the end for Vitalist.
From Ryan on August 16th, 2007
Sorry to say, but I’m in agreement with most of the people here. With so many solutions on the web, I evaluated quite alot, and found that Vitalist met my needs the best, in no small part because of the pricing (aka Free plan completely functional, pay for pro-type features). Now, the free plan can be at best called a trial version, and at worst, cripple-ware.
Now that Vitalist has been brought down to the level of all the other tools on the web (im my view), I’ll definitely be leaving, and either go to a better online GTD solution, or just give up and go offline. There’s no reason I should be paying a monthly fee for what amounts to a few KB of data, when services like GMail offer gigs for free.
I’m disappointed, Vitalist.
From mitch on August 16th, 2007
I’m sure you’ll lose some customers… can’t please everyone. What i keep thinking is that i used to use a paper planner – which cost me about $30-40 or more per year to buy the paper pack (yes there probably were cheaper ones as well)… so at $5/month, that’s $60/year (assuming no discounts). So… my guess would be that $30/year for the basic plan would provide great benefit. I don’t need file sharing and all the other stuff in the premium, i personally just need lots of projects and actions.
I also have an iPhone and this just rocks as an integrated tool that i can use at the computer as well as when i’m away on the iPhone. It beats all the other list managers i’ve tried so far on the iPhone hands down.
So, in summary, i will probably upgrade from the free account, but would love it if the basic plan were $30/year instead of $60 to match what i was paying in the old paper days.
From Dennis McCarthy on August 16th, 2007
I think everyone should give ‘em a break. They have a best-in-class tool and one of the best web apps out there. They continually respond to customer needs and innovate frequently. It must cost a LOT of money/time to put something like this together, much more than a little adsense trickle can accommodate. Additionally, more $ for the developers means a better product. I’m surprised it’s been free as long as it has and will gladly pay up for such a high quality tool. (Plus it’s the only gtd app that works well on the iphone).
From John on August 16th, 2007
Really disappointed as well. 5 contexts is pretty much unusable for me. So you basically are downgrading the free version.
I can only trust you guys have to do this since the ads aren’t paying the bills enough. In that case, the mistake you made was even offering the service for free like you did in the first place, since now you have to *downgrade* a service, which from a marketing perspective hurts. A lot.
From Jordan Fowler on August 16th, 2007
Wow…hey all you haters, how many of you would go to work for free each day, hmmmm? The boys need to feed their families and obviously you guys don’t click on ads. As to the money, it would cost more for you to go to Franklin Covey for a crummy “fancy paper daytimer system.” Is keeping your whole life organized not worth the price of a single latte a month? C’mon!!!
From MikeDidIt on August 16th, 2007
I agree with Jordan Fowler. I became a premium Vitalist member a few months ago when I decided that despite a few warts — feel free to let us know what application you are using that is perfect — I am easily getting $5 worth of value from Vitalist each month. Before Vitalist, I had stuff on two computers (home and work) that I did my best to keep synched using a flash drive. I definitely do NOT miss those days. The savings in my time alone is worth way more than $5 a month ($60/year). Would I rather pay $30 per year or $0 per year? Sure. I’d also rather have a free house, free car, free Internet connection, free electricity, free cable, free health insurance, too, but I live in the real world. If you don’t want to pay, then good luck to you elsewhere. I’ve tried the other sites and I use Vitalist because it is the best application out there, and it has an awesome and highly responsive development team.
From BT on August 16th, 2007
This is a fantastic service. I’ll gladly fork over $10 / mo. The Vitalist team has obviously spend a tremendous amount of energy creating a site that adheres to principles of both GTD and clean Web 2.0 design. I hope they make a killing, because they deserve it.
From Michael on August 16th, 2007
I, too, am very disappointed in the turn that Vitalist has taken. The thing that I loved was the fact that there was a simple pricing structure that was not tied to being able to get things done. I do not mind paying for “extras” in an app like Vitalist used to be. But to either change your whole methodology to stay free, or shell out money to continue using it like you had been using it is not for me. I was about to start using Vitalist again with my crazy amount of projects and stuff at work, but now I must restart the search for a lists tool.
Michael
Vitalist Member: Feb 2007 – Aug 2007
From Will on August 16th, 2007
OK – this is a huge shame. I run a tech company in the UK that focuses on helping people Lifehack in their homes and workplaces through better & more enjoyable use of their digital resources and as such I have been widely recommending Vitalist.
But I am afraid that your paid plans simply don’t work out as decent value. Come on, guys, GTD ain’t that complicated and IMHO it doesn’t require the sort of features that you are suggesting are worthwhile (SSL & file uploads – I mean, these are basic lists we’re creating in order to get the real work done).
I will be a reluctant departee and sad to have to tell my clients of the best alternative. (Or can we hope that this is an error that you correct after sufficient feedback, a la the disastrous removal of the contexts sort that you did a few months ago?)
From Will on August 16th, 2007
Oh – and I don’t mean to be incendiary but anyone who thinks it might be helpful to the community to suggest some of their favourite GTD tools then let’s hear them. In the running for me are Omnifocus (when it appears but the beta seems good), Remember the Milk (for use of Google Gears offline editing), the integrated features of Basecamp (if you are a user) and the new PingMe.
From Screaser on August 16th, 2007
Just to add my vote:
1) I think I would do $5/month without thinking. $10/month is a lot for what I get out of vList
2) I’m absolutely dismayed, though, with the lack of responsiveness from the vList folks… it takes weeks to get replies on the forums, and more importantly there seems to have been almost no progress on very important and much discussed flaws in vList (nor any update on when to expect progress).
There is much work to be done on the core application, and since around April(?) it seems like nothing is happening.
Lack of visible progress with the application is the *only* reason I’ve been waiting to go to a premium account.
I don’t think I can justify paying before things start developing again.
From Brad on August 16th, 2007
So off I go again to keep looking at GTD tools. God knows I’ve tried millions. Thought I’d found the answer but I agree with Will. A simple list keeper with 5 projects is pretty well useless let alone worth $5 p/month.
From NickD on August 16th, 2007
Damn – I’m really sad, and trying not to be bitter. I don’t want to buy in to $60 pa for ever, but just 5 projects is tiny – I have something like 30 or 40 in my hierarchy.
I’m going to have to somewhere else – but it does feel like I’ve been let down, and you have pulled he wool over my eyes with your earlier statement.
From flipdoubt on August 16th, 2007
Honestly, guys, I’m good with $5 per month for the Basic plan.
From Mary on August 16th, 2007
Too good to be true – sigh. I haven’t been using Vitalist for terribly long – just a few weeks. However, that’s an eternity for sticking with any system compared with the rest of my record. I’ve been very pleased with the way everything works. For that reason, fear of the daunting task of moving everything to another system, and feeling that $60 is a good price for this kind of sanity – I’m 98% sure I’ll be upgrading. Like others, I have no need for file sharing and the other current premium features but, as I’m already beyond 25 projects, an unlimited number is a must.
I am curious to know what other dissatisfied customers will be using instead…
From NickD on August 16th, 2007
I think I’ll be looking for something I can pay for just once and run off a U3 USB drive.
Right now my problem is working out how to export the data I have entered into Vitalist, under the assumption that they meant what they said about unlimited projects and actions.
From Robert on August 16th, 2007
For our users who have many projects and actions in their accounts but do not want to upgrade to the $5/month level, we will be adding an xml export feature in the next few days. Hopefully this will reduce the headache in maintaining your data and moving to another system.
Our intention with Vitalist has always been to create a subscription based service that would continually evolve and improve. The advertisements never felt quite right with us and certainly did not provide any significant revenue. Our biggest mistake, I believe, was thinking the original structure would provide our users with enough incentive to upgrade.
From mahalie on August 16th, 2007
Makings something free and then taking it back, well there’s a racial slur that comes to mind for that HOWEVER I have tried every GTD app out there and I would rather have a well developed, evolving, functional tool that I pay a bit for than rely on ads and eventually get a bunch of underpaid unmotivated developers and no support.
That said, I don’t care for the limits on the basic plan. I don’t need to store ANY files because I use my own wiki for reference files and project planning notes. I can’t justify $10/mo ($120 per year) just for what boils down to a bunch of online lists. I can see paying more for online storage, but like I said, I don’t and I’d imagine many people don’t need that. I already pay $20/year for Flickr (best deal EVAR) and over $120/year for my webhost where I have plenty of storage space. C’mon.
From Robert on August 16th, 2007
@mahalie
Anyone who already has an account can secure the Premium upgrade with unlimited projects for $5/month.
From AT on August 16th, 2007
Robert
If a Premium upgrade is secured for $5/month now, how long will this promotion last or is it locked in forever?
From AT on August 16th, 2007
Forget it…I just re-read the instructions above. I personally feel Vitalist is worth $5/mo for all its features. Now $10/month is another question.
Good luck.
From Heather on August 16th, 2007
I feel like $5/mo would be reasonable if it were unlimited, BUT 5 projects/contexts for the free service is not enough to even get started in GTD. How can people get hooked if there’s not enough space to get going? Even 10 or 15 contexts would be better than 5. Personally I think the whole thing blows and there are other free services that will work as well for me w/o having to subscribe.
From Vitame on August 17th, 2007
I do think $5/month is worth it for something like Vitalist. I tried jumping from GTD system to system in the past, but Vitalist works for me. My assistant (who does not work in the office with me) can organize my tasks for the day for me without my having to sync, I can access my list on my Treo, I can email myself tasks (and attach files to a task by email), and I can set ticklers for myself. I can prioritize tasks visually, drag and drop to organize a list, and keep reference materials for the future. Having the right tool to keep all this stuff organized is worth a little cost to me.
I know we’re used to web 2.0 betas for free, but sooner or later, I think we do have to realize that companies like Vitalist are businesses. It’s not reasonable to expect the world for free — at least not permanently.
With that said, with a subscription account, I think we can (and should) expect continued development and growth from Vitalist. Maybe file storage is the only big bell or whistle available now, but what if other features would be developed? One thing I’ve learned is that Vitalist seems creative in development and responsive to our requests. I see my $5/month as supporting not just what we’ve got, but what could be in the future.
From Michael Stiber on August 17th, 2007
Robert Posted on August 16th, 2007
For our users who have many projects and actions in their accounts but do not want to upgrade to the $5/month level, we will be adding an xml export feature in the next few days.
Thank you! I’ve been a Vitalist user for a few weeks now, and have comfortably settled my several hundred items into your system. I don’t mind buying software, but am too old-fashioned to subscribe to it, especially since I already pay for web hosting. Maybe I’ll just go back to todotxt.sh…
From Ryan on August 17th, 2007
Since reading this yesterday, I’ve done a quick re-review of the available tools on the web. Found this in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_GTD_software
Hope it helps to compare services, even if you decide Vitalist is worth the money!
From Nickd on August 17th, 2007
Yes, I agree that Vitalist need to make sure they have a revenue stream from this. Even the lower level, though, of $5 pcm is $60 pa. Assuming I live for another 30 years, that’s $1800 Vitalist will get out of me. If I do subscribe (and I’m coming round to the idea that I’ll have, as I can’t see any way of getting my data out – I don’t understand what the promnised “XML export” will get me), I’m going to expect a lot of development for my $1800.
I think we will see a change in the mood of the fora – right now there are a lot of grateful and polite people gentlky suggesting things, with a coupel of more demanding paid-for users. As we all become paid-for users, I think many more of us will be more demanding that Vitalist develops the features that we each need. After all, we are buying in now to a nascent, developing system; if we get to pay top dollar now for something that isn’t as good as it will be in two or three years, it shoudl OUR requests that get met.
From Meg on August 17th, 2007
For the amount of time I spend in my vitalist list, and the amount of time it saves me, $5/mo is nothing. I would like to see existing users “grandfathered” in so that we continue to pay $5/mo for the premium account even after the first year.
This is a great tool. I’ve invested enough time in it that a small fee is negligible at this point.
From flipdoubt on August 17th, 2007
@Heather and others, the proposed $5 Basic plan gets you 25 projects/contexts/contacts, not 5.
From Black Belt Productivity » Fare thee well, Vitalist on August 17th, 2007
[...] I was greatly saddened when I learned yesterday that Vitalist has unwisely changed their pricing structure. I had heard about it on another blog (whose name escapes me). So I went to the Vitalist blog, The Net Effect, and read the article detailing the changes. [...]
From Brian on August 17th, 2007
@Meg
If you read the post they made, it does state that those that upgrade now for $5 will continue to have the Premium account for as long as they are subscribed.
I don’t mind paying for the service, but I think the price is a little steep. If you are a new subscriber (after the promotion) and bought the whole year for a premium, your talking $100/yr! Honestly, I think Vitalist premuim is worth around $50/yr.
From Marc Orchant on August 17th, 2007
Your new pricing plan seems completely reasonable to me. You deliver a lot of value at $5/mo. or $60/yr. and your offer to current users is very generous in recognition of their early adoption. For those who feel as though you’ve been hoodwinked, get over it. This is a business and the notion that ad-supported application is the only way to go is ludicrous. In a GTD app, you’re working your lists, not clicking on ads. The idea is to have distraction-free place to get your head empty and make intelligent decisions about next actions and priorities.
If you want free – there are plenty of alternatives. If you want a well-designed, well-supported, frequently updated place to work on the web, give these guys (or Nozbe or 3 Signals if you prefer) your money. Or pay Omni for their desktop client (whenever it actually ships). And consider the cost relative to the value for goodness sake. You can blow $20 per person on a bad movie any night of the week. Take a date and it’s double that. In the grand scheme of things, $5/mo. is not exactly a hardship, even for those on a relatively tight budget.
I like VitaList a lot. I don’t use it myself but I see the hard work and creativity that’s gone into it and, if it were a fit for the way I practice GTD, I’d be signing up this minute.
From Michael on August 17th, 2007
@Marc
As I stated in my post on BBP, in my mind, it is not about the money. It is about the fact that 95% or more are being forced to upgrade because, as some have said here, 5 contexts/projects are not enough to even get started. I understand that this is a business, and their goal is to make money, but to diametrically change the way a vast majority of users will use the product with no input from the community is not good business practices. I mean this is a blog. Why not drop a post that says “this is the pricing structure that we are thinking of..what are the pros/cons of it to you, our users, the ones that pay (or we hope to pay) our bills.” At least with Nozbe, you knew that structure going into it. They set the price and when it came out of Beta, that was in place. This product has been in the marketplace for at least 8 1/2 months as a free unlimited service. Then August 15th hits, and BAM…to keep using it, you now have to pay.
Some here have also questioned the responsiveness that you talk about. There are some complaints that responses from the Vitalist team have been slow on the forums, and there has not been a major upgrade since the end of May.
You should have maybe read (and maybe you did) the 54 comments before yours to get a feel for the user community. And how do you know about the value of Vitalist when you say “I don’t use it myself”. People who used it everyday see the value, and according to a lot of them, $5/month for 5 contexts/projects is not a very good value.
From Michael Stiber on August 17th, 2007
More on software subscriptions and changes to user agreements:
When I pay $50 or $100 to buy software, I can be 100% confident that I will be able to use it as long as I can keep a hardware/software combo working that it will run under. In fact, I occasionally run software that is more than 15 years old. I also have some confidence that there will be upgrades, bug fixes, etc. that may be offered free or at a greatly reduced price. In contrast, under the subscription model, I could pay out a similar amount (or more) and then suddenly find the service gone — I have to rely on the good graces of the service provider that they will keep the service up and running. A major part of the GTD approach is eliminating worries by getting everything out of my brain and into a task tracking system, and I feel subscription software runs counter to this philosophy (for me).
While of course service providers typically reserve the right to change their service agreements at any time, major changes like this are not terribly user-friendly. Changes like this that aren’t paired with massive changes in levels of support are doubly so.
From chiching on August 17th, 2007
@Marc
Personally, I don’t mind paying $5/month for the services like Vitalist. However, what’s more important to me, IS keeping your promises. I believe that there are lots of users who signed in the account as Vitalist promised to provide unlimited Tasks, Context and Project for free account. I have put lots of efforts and time to set up the GTD system including many context and project to make it working perfect. Imposing unexpected limitations to free account means creating troubles to these users and forcing them to upgrade. It gives a very hard feeling to these users. My worry is: what will these guys force me to do in the future if I continue to use it?
From Nickd on August 17th, 2007
Yes – this feels a little like being mugged. Having put a load of work into getting Vitalist working for me, and entering a lot of data, suddenly I’m being told that to carry on with that I have to pay them money, right now. I’ll probably do it, because I don’t have time to find an alternative, but it feels rude.
Also, as I say – I’m damned well going to be expecting service and response for the $60 pa/$1800 lifetime that this is going to cost me. I’m going to be ewanting to see those new features added, a plan for what’s being released when, and so on.
From Betsy on August 17th, 2007
I understand that the Vitalist people need to support their families. In light of that, it makes perfect sense for them to begin charging a fee…to NEW subscribers. But to begin charging ANY fee…even a reduced fee…to current subscribers is wrong on several counts.
1. It is a breach of an agreement, and therefore a breach of trust.
2. It creates a huge problem for anyone who does not choose to pay the new fees. It forces them to un-do all of their hard work setting up their GTD system, waste time searching for a new system, and spend even more time setting up that new system.
3. It causes a problem for those who DO choose to pay the new fees, because they will never be certain that they can trust Vitalist to stick with the agreement that they signed up under.
I will stick around for a few days to see if Vitalist comes to its senses, changes its mind, and chooses to honor its original obligations and agreements to current subscribers. If they do not, I will have to unsubscribe and find an alternative that I can trust.
From Janåke Rönnblom on August 17th, 2007
I have been using vitalist for about a week now. I did try out other webbased gtd application but I found none that are better than vitalist.
Since I use Firefox with Adblock Plus I dont even get to see the ads and I had a discussion a few days ago of how long vitalist can sustain a service when there is no incentive or value for me to upgrade to a paid plan. That was before the change in plan. I had no need for anything offered in the old plan but now I do want more than 5 projects.
So I’ll try vitalist until September and if I still like it its time to pay.
$5 a month is fair for this service so I’m glad I got onboard before the change of plans!
Looking forward to the XML export as a way to backup my vitalist in the future.
From Mary on August 17th, 2007
Upgrading clarification, please:
The payment options are either $5/month or $49/year. So, if we upgrade and pay $49/year now, does that mean we will be charged $49 annually until we cancel the subscription?
Thanks.
From Robert on August 17th, 2007
@Mary
Yes, the $49 per year rate will apply until you either cancel or downgrade your account.
From John on August 18th, 2007
Just started using vitalist two weeks ago and this had to happen! At least I’m glad I haven’t used it so much that all my data could potentially be lost and time wasted. This shows that web based GTD tools come with a huge risk – you’ll never know what you’re gonna to be held hostage to, when the site will go bust, etc etc. Perhaps it’s time to look for more stable client-based alternatives (are there any?), get more things done, rather than worry about issues with web based tools.
From Betsy on August 18th, 2007
I have just discovered a wonderful desktop app called Accomplice http://www.accomplice.com . I realize it’s tacky to talk about competitors here, but I suggest that everyone check it out!
From AT on August 18th, 2007
@betsty
I used Accomplice for some time, and it was a really good app. The problem I found though was the program becoming quite a memory hog…it would jump up to 150mb quickly. Anyway, IMHO I still find Vitalist a much better option…even at $5/mo.
From Nathaniel on August 18th, 2007
hi i enjoyed the read
From Geoff Ruddock on August 18th, 2007
I am not going to lie Vitalist, I am disappointed.
As a student with a small budget, it was a huge jump for me to pay $5 a month for a free service. I did not mind the ads, I did not really care about sharing, I only paid to support an app I love.
But if I just saw Vitalist today and hadn’t been a past customer, I probably would leave and find another GTD service.
I know that you guys can’t please everyone, but I HIGHLY suggest you give customers more options. Personally I would way rather have ads on my page than limited projects. Hell, I wouldn’t even mind if you went the gmail path and had a robot scan our actions and display relevant ads! I would embrace that in fact!
Vitalist used to be a “THIS IS AMAZING” service, which I recommended to all my friends, and my blog readers. Now its just another GTD service….
I highly urge you to re-think your business plan.
A loyal, and very satisfied customer,
Geoff
Gearfire.net
From Stephanie on August 19th, 2007
Looks like I’m about 5 days to late to take advantage of the $5 premium upgrade. That is disappointing. I just found out about vitalist, and I can see it will meet my needs. But being a new user — and I’m not feeling so inclined to pay $10/month. $5, yeah, I’d do that, but I do not need file storage or sharing, and don’t want to pay for that. I just want the lists. For that, $5 seems reasonable to me. But $10 – not so sure I’ll be signing up at all, because 25 projects is not adequate to fulfill my needs — and I’m not wild about the idea of doing the system only “half way”. And it was a little disappointing to be guided to this blog only to find out that the $5 premium plan for existing users does not apply to me, since I only signed up today.
From nedbaker on August 19th, 2007
First off, it’s great to see so much heat generated here, there’s a strong community supporting this great site, just a shame it has to be over this issue.
My unscientific poll of Vitalisters’ opinions being posted here suggests three main positions:
1. Pissed off, not coming back – about 40%
2. Disappointed, weighing up their options – about 35%
3. Happy to pay the new rates – 25%
This suggests Vitalist haven’t got it totally wrong but that there’s some ground to be made up in order to keep a good chunk of the community from dashing/drifting off to other products.
I think the old pricing structure was about right: a basic version that could be used as for simple GTD processing and tracking; and a premium version which added extra Vitalist goodness (though extras such as sharing and attachment storage hasn’t been attractive to me and doesn’t seem to be for a lot of posters here).
The new $5 plan is simply not worth it – a GTD tool where you have to keep worrying about how many projects you’ve got available is worthless. The pricing structure has got to reflect additional features that sets Vitalist apart. I couldn’t recommend Vitalist to anyone on this basis.
As for $10, this is just too much for an app that might evaporate tomorrow (no disrespect guys, you never know what might crop up). Michael Stiber makes a great point (57 above) about buying software that will go on giving for years.
A business model would be a return to the two tier structure:
1. a free version stripped right back to the bare bones – unlimited actions, contexts, projects and contacts; grouping, filtering and perhaps a few others that allow it’s use as a full GTD tool. Get people hooked on the great simple stuff, then give them a month’s trial access to…
2. a paid version that adds all those things that make Vitalist the great tool to which many of us have been contributing – reminders, Google, RSS, iCal, emailing the inbox, sharing projects, SSL, attachments, storage.
I hope this conversation will continue with people making better suggestions than these so we can get it right.
Right, I’m off to do a comparison of pricing structures for other sites…
From MikeDidIt on August 19th, 2007
Regarding Accomplice (#65 & #66), after a quick peek, I still think My Life Organized (http://www.mylifeorganized.net) is a better application. Its developer is is very responsive.
As a side note, MyLifeOrganized is the desktop application I was using when I moved to Vitalist. As noted in my comments (#30), I still think Vitalist is a better alternative. Still, I thought I’d share the name of the application in case someone is seeking greener pastures.
From Brad on August 23rd, 2007
Appreciate your listening to the public nedbaker. Can I just clarify… It says up the top “up to (edit:10) projects”. in your latest post for the free version you mention “unlimited actions, contexts, projects and contacts;” . Have you decided exactly how the new structure will go? I too would pay eventually pay, but not until I’ve used it and used it and decided 100% that its where I’m going to store my brain load.
From Marc Orchant on August 27th, 2007
@Michael (and @chiching): I’m not arguing the validity of your concerns. It’s great that Vitalist maintains a blog to air out these concerns and discuss ways to address them.
Having seen this kind of story play out many times in the past, I can tell you that there’s nothing new here. I think characterizing this decision as somehow being contrived or duplicitous is unfair and unwarranted. And raising the emotional tone to a histrionic level doesn’t help the conversation. This situation is just learning curve and coming to grips with the fact that, best intentions notwithstanding, reality has a way of forcing your hand from time to time.
As to the question of how I can assess value received as a “non-user” of Vitalist – I’ll simply say that I have been reviewing software, especially tools devoted to the practice of GTD for many years and I feel quite qualified to make such pronouncements. Vitalist (like Nozbe) is a well-crafted web-based solution for practicing GTD. I worked with it extensively enough to form what I consider to be a well-informed opinion about the application, much as I have with Nozbe and other web-based offerings. That was kind of a rhetorical question coming from someone who’s just published a very high-altitude overview of a number of GTD tools on his own blog, don’t you think? As I said in my earlier comment, I have chosen to use a desktop-based approach in my own implementation (at least at this time). That may change as I continue to make the migration to the iPhone as my primary mobile device – especially with the kind of UI work Vitalist has done to make the service accessible and usable on that device.
Anyone who’s practiced GTD for any period of time knows that adoption of tools and gadgets is an ongoing thing. The beauty of David’s work is that it is so neutral when it comes to the tools we use to practice his techniques. And many of us who’ve been striving for black-beltedness for a long time have adopted and replaced many tools. That’s hardly a cataclysmic event. If a particular tool is not right for you (because of features and capabilities or because of cost vs. value delivered), there are plenty of other options.
From My Tasks Reside in Toodledo, Where Are Yours? « Legal Andrew on September 3rd, 2007
[...] For a while I used MonkeyGTD. Then I switched to Vitalist. I was pretty happy with Vitalist, until they announced a new, restrictive pricing plan. Even though they revised it, I had already changed systems. [...]
From Kevin Crenshaw on December 5th, 2007
The GTD Software Comparison article (mentioned by Ryan on Aug 17 2007) is no longer valid. The article has MOVED. (Wikipedia editors deleted it for being too list-like for an encyclopedia.) The new home of this comparative list is:
http://www.priacta.com/Articles/Comparison_of_GTD_Software.php
I hope this helps. Someone should check periodically to make sure the Vitalist information is correct.
From Idetrorce on December 15th, 2007
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
From Vitalist to ask for paid subscription | JTSR on April 10th, 2008
[...] Vitalist Changes to Services [...]
From Darren Cauthon » Blog Archive » Goodbye, Vitalist on December 27th, 2008
[...] it is with sadness that I have to stop my Vitalist crusade. Today, it was announced on the Vitalist blog that the free service they offer would be downgraded. You can still use it for free, but you will [...]
From cjw on February 27th, 2009
GTD software that’s worked best for me is Outlook-Track it (google it) it downloads a small toolbar where you can flag emails for followup reminders!
From Why you should NOT use an online todo list / task manager? | FruitfulTime Blog on April 11th, 2009
[...] (if an exporting feature is implemented) and import all your tasks in the new service. See the comments of sad users of VitaList when they got to know that they have to pay to keep on using their current [...]