Update (03/11/2021): In a new post, the company said that all the current subscribers will get access to all existing premium features:
It’s hard to find a good note-taking app that works across all your devices, but if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, Notability is one of them.
The good news is that the app is now free, but is it really? The app is switching to a subscription model which requires you to pay a yearly fee of $14.99 (currently $11.99) for its premium features.
First, the good news: the app (which used to be $8.99) is now free! Well, kinda. Notability is switching to a subscription model, which requires you to pay a yearly fee of $14.99 (currently $11.99) for its premium features.
Here’s a roundup of the features between the free and premium versions of the app:
The new change will make the app available to more customers, but what about existing users? People who already shelled out the $8.99? Well, Gingers Labs, the company behind Notability, says it’ll give you access to premium features for a year, but then you have to pay up. Here’s its statement:
A lot of people who’ve paid up for premium features in the past, are irked by this new model. That’s if Twitter’s anything to go by:
A commenter on Reddit also noted that this change could break Apple’s app store subscription rules. Here’s the full comment:
We’ve asked the company to clarify if this change applies to the app, and we’ll update the story if we hear back.
Looking at this from the dev side
As a user, it’s valid to be frustrated when you have to pay for a product and features that you’ve already shelled out for in the past, but it’s important to look at this from the dev side too.
The nature of development and what people expect from apps has changed rapidly over the past few years. Users expect constant bug fixes, updates, and new features.
Combine this with the cost of things like hosting servers and you can see why the Ginger labs team made this decision.
Despite that, it’s a bitter pill to swallow to pay for a piece of software you already bought.
You can read more about Notability’s pricing change, and features of the new app here .
