127% increase on my subscription!

Hi Michael,

Looking at your account, you have less than 35 sites. So the 35-site level, priced at the same price ($145 or equivalent in other currencies) as you paid last year, remains suitable for you. And you can still apply the 40% discount for timely renewal off that price. So, it looks like there isn’t a change for you, until you reach the stage where you have grown to need more than 35 licences.

Concerning the downloadable invoice having changed, we will have to look into that – apparently a bug in WooCommerce.

Best wishes,
David

Hi Michael,

I understand that price changes are rarely welcome events. But, if you’re planning to go over 35 sites, then you’re looking at 25 pence/site/month (and going down the more sites you add) – you are still eligible for the 40% renewal discount on the price of the unlimited package. We think that this price is excellent value given the importance of reliable backups (the price is published in the same places as before: our front page, and the shop product pages – obviously you managed to see the price, hence this conversation).

I’m not going to patronise you with meaningless pleasantries, and I hope you can respect that: we’re a business, we want to be able to keep growing, employing top staff for product improvement and support, developing new products (which in today’s WP marketplace normally need to be funded from the proceeds of other products for years prior to profitability) etcetera. UD will only exist in future years if we can successfully do that. (And we have some significant improvements to UpdraftPlus, not found in any other backup plugin on the market, planned for the next year). You’re running a business too. We understand that if you don’t value our product at the price on offer then you’ll prefer to look elsewhere. That’s business. You’re not afraid of changing, and we respect that if that’s your decision. This is our new price, and if enough of our customers agree with you, then eventually we’ll have to review it. But for the near future, we’re seeing what the market makes of it.

Best wishes,
David

Hi Michael,

I can confirm that the packages are as published on the front page and shop pages: 2 licences, 10 licences, 35 licences, unlimited. If you want more licences than is in one then you’ll want the next one up, yes.

By the way, in your calculation of the increase, you’ve added UK VAT to this year’s price, but not to last year’s, and thereby added total of 27% to your calculation of the increase.

Cassandra, we will take on board your feedback that you think future price increases should be notified of in advance, thank you for it. Though, like Michael, since you’re not using over 35 licences, our software that sends you out your renewal reminders should be pointing you towards the same-priced package as you bought last year – i.e. if you click the ‘add to cart’ link in the ‘renewal reminder’ email, it shouldn’t be putting the more expensive ‘unlimited’ product in the cart, since you’re still a distance off needing that. Is that not happening? Let me know if not, and we will investigate.

Best wishes,
David

Michael,

Aaah…. I am sorry; one of our staff did the wrong thing when entering prices. They had the new ‘Enterprise’ USD price to hand, which was fractionally over 2x the old ‘Developer’ USD price. They were meant to apply the same ratio to the EUR and GBP prices, but instead looked up daily exchange rates, and entered prices based on that. The end result of that is that the shop price for ‘Enterprise’ in EUR and GBP was somewhat over what it should have been – and our testing/review missed that. (I was doing my calculations based in my previous post on USD and then guessed that the discrepancy must be due to VAT).

I sincerely apologise for that unnecessary part of the sticker shock. It has now been corrected, and the proper pre-tax GBP price for Enterprise is £187.50, or £112.50 after the 40% discount.

David