Simplify cannot continue to exist for free. It’s not sustainable. Building high quality modifications on top of software by other companies requires a lot of skill and time...
The conversations about "please keep it free" reminds me of folks complaining for a $1 app on the play store after forking over $1000+ for their phone.
I'll gladly pay for this. Having an atheistically pleasing, minimalist version of gmail which I use all the time is well worth a couple bucks a month. I love v1 and anticipate loving v2 even more.
You're an artist, and artists shouldn't work for free, they should get paid for the value of their work. And your work is valuable to me, so I will gladly support the new business model. And if you ever need a new beta tester, let me know.
I love Simplify and I'm surprised it's not already a paid subscription. Everytime I use my browser for email (I have Simplify installed on my Shift email client): I shudder with how overloaded the vanilla Gmail interface is. I'd happily pay $2 a month (a whole $24 a year) for it: although I do welcome suggestions of including multiple Gmail accounts for that price, as I do have a number of business emails that I work with.
Thank you for this brilliant service! All the best.
Simplify is a fantastic product that greatly enhances my productivity when using Gmail or G Workspace. It is something that you really (and especially) appreciate when you realize what the Gmail experience is like when Simplify is not enabled. I'll happily subscribe when you are ready to launch.
The only issue (for me) is perhaps the slight tweaking to the price per accounts ratio. Nothing major, maybe $24/year for 3 accounts would be the sweet spot if paying annually. I'm a long-term subscriber to a few email services (Fastmail, Mailbox.org, Protonmail, Google Workspace, and lately HEY, etc.) and the $24/year for 3 accounts seems more palatable than $36/year for 3 when compared to the cost of something like Fastmail (which provides exceptional value IMO).
Thanks for your hard work!! Such a shame that Google decided to shutter your INBOX creation.
The reality of each one and each contry is different. 3-5 us dollars may seem like nothing to some but it's a lot for others that live in the so called "3rd world". This is a great tool and I enjoyed it but it's a luxury I can't afford. Thnak you for the good times!
Just wanted to share my thoughts regarding the pricing for people using multiple accounts. I think in essence your goal is to have pricing correspond with the number of users, and for businesses this maps quite well to using accounts. For individuals that privately manage multiple accounts this assumption does not hold up. How else to distinguish users from each other? I can quickly think of two options:
1. Unrestricted single-user licenses: An individual pays for their license and wherever they setup the plugin with their Simplify account, the service will work. Perhaps to prevent license sharing between people, have payment information linked to the Simplify account.
2. Pay per device: A person might have 10 Gmail accounts, but probably not more than 2 or 3 computers on which they use it. For people in this situation this model might be more fair.
I don't think a one-size-fits-all approach is what you should be aiming for. I recently had to look into remote desktop solutions, and most of them have multiple plans to cover the many types of customers they have. You could do too!
100% behind the decision to monetize. Its been clear for a while now that paid apps stick around, and free apps die after a few years. I want simplify to exist well into the future and I am happy to spend the $24 a year to keep this service going. Its so much better than default gmail, and your v2 additions look awesome!
TBH I'd be worried about the future of this plugin if you kept it free for everyone forever. Thanks for committing to keeping it updated. I appreciate that more than getting something for free.
Simplify is awesome. I found it after Inbox went away, and it makes my life better every day. Thank you for all your hard work over the years as you kept up with Gmail's frequent design tweaks.
I'm happy to pay. Why should your hard work go unrewarded?
Simplify for Chrome sounds intriguing, Michael! Same to me re: Docs. If you could make this more tangible (e.g., by sharing more of a teaser ... say screenshot?) I think you might draw even more attention to all of the Simplify offerings.
Congratulations on reaching this milestone with Simplify v2 for GMail. I look forward to being a customer.
I would happily pay $4/m for Simplify and more as the service provision widens. Gmail is OK but Simplify is far more useful and that is always worth paying for!
Well done for taking the time to respond to everyone on here. You've clearly thought long and hard about what you're doing and the approach your taking.
I've 2 Gmail accounts and a gsuite account. The family also uses gmail and it would be great to have those bundled together somehow as a family type account. As more and more people become privacy-focused, something that deals with trackers effectively is an attractive proposition, as well as a design-focused UX solution to gmail. Absolutely agree that you gotta get paid somehow... For me, most "family" based model of stuff I use, from 1password to Bitdefender to Disney+ have about latitude 5 or 6 accounts, so something to think about maybe. As for price, all depends on where the price point is set of course and I guess everyone has been on the receiving end of apps/services that were once free only to be flipped later. But for me, happy to pay - you seem humble, committed and honest enough buy into a useful well-designed, well-considered app/service.
I use 7+ different gmail accounts.... happy to help out and pay as I find Simplify very useful personally - reminds me of Inbox by Google until they axed that, and when they did I was so sad that I said I would pay for anything that could get close to Inbox... Simplify did that for me, for free to boot! :)
Just considering that it's a bit tough to justify paying and registering on a multiple account basis since what we are used to currently where "the extension is installed browser wide and works no matter what account is logged into"
Hey Michael, great work on V2. Love the pricing model and that you are taking (small) enterprises into consideration as well. I don't think you need to have a free version around. You need to make a living of of this, and I would rather pay, then you stopping development in a couple of months.
The conversations about "please keep it free" reminds me of folks complaining for a $1 app on the play store after forking over $1000+ for their phone.
I'll gladly pay for this. Having an atheistically pleasing, minimalist version of gmail which I use all the time is well worth a couple bucks a month. I love v1 and anticipate loving v2 even more.
You're an artist, and artists shouldn't work for free, they should get paid for the value of their work. And your work is valuable to me, so I will gladly support the new business model. And if you ever need a new beta tester, let me know.
I love Simplify and I'm surprised it's not already a paid subscription. Everytime I use my browser for email (I have Simplify installed on my Shift email client): I shudder with how overloaded the vanilla Gmail interface is. I'd happily pay $2 a month (a whole $24 a year) for it: although I do welcome suggestions of including multiple Gmail accounts for that price, as I do have a number of business emails that I work with.
Thank you for this brilliant service! All the best.
Simplify is a fantastic product that greatly enhances my productivity when using Gmail or G Workspace. It is something that you really (and especially) appreciate when you realize what the Gmail experience is like when Simplify is not enabled. I'll happily subscribe when you are ready to launch.
The only issue (for me) is perhaps the slight tweaking to the price per accounts ratio. Nothing major, maybe $24/year for 3 accounts would be the sweet spot if paying annually. I'm a long-term subscriber to a few email services (Fastmail, Mailbox.org, Protonmail, Google Workspace, and lately HEY, etc.) and the $24/year for 3 accounts seems more palatable than $36/year for 3 when compared to the cost of something like Fastmail (which provides exceptional value IMO).
Thanks for your hard work!! Such a shame that Google decided to shutter your INBOX creation.
The reality of each one and each contry is different. 3-5 us dollars may seem like nothing to some but it's a lot for others that live in the so called "3rd world". This is a great tool and I enjoyed it but it's a luxury I can't afford. Thnak you for the good times!
Just wanted to share my thoughts regarding the pricing for people using multiple accounts. I think in essence your goal is to have pricing correspond with the number of users, and for businesses this maps quite well to using accounts. For individuals that privately manage multiple accounts this assumption does not hold up. How else to distinguish users from each other? I can quickly think of two options:
1. Unrestricted single-user licenses: An individual pays for their license and wherever they setup the plugin with their Simplify account, the service will work. Perhaps to prevent license sharing between people, have payment information linked to the Simplify account.
2. Pay per device: A person might have 10 Gmail accounts, but probably not more than 2 or 3 computers on which they use it. For people in this situation this model might be more fair.
I don't think a one-size-fits-all approach is what you should be aiming for. I recently had to look into remote desktop solutions, and most of them have multiple plans to cover the many types of customers they have. You could do too!
The only way for good software to survive is charge enough for it. The only way to be able to use good software is by paying enough for it.
100% behind the decision to monetize. Its been clear for a while now that paid apps stick around, and free apps die after a few years. I want simplify to exist well into the future and I am happy to spend the $24 a year to keep this service going. Its so much better than default gmail, and your v2 additions look awesome!
TBH I'd be worried about the future of this plugin if you kept it free for everyone forever. Thanks for committing to keeping it updated. I appreciate that more than getting something for free.
Simplify is awesome. I found it after Inbox went away, and it makes my life better every day. Thank you for all your hard work over the years as you kept up with Gmail's frequent design tweaks.
I'm happy to pay. Why should your hard work go unrewarded?
i cannot play rn but anyway when i can i WILL purchase/pay as i like what ur doing :)
Simplify for Chrome sounds intriguing, Michael! Same to me re: Docs. If you could make this more tangible (e.g., by sharing more of a teaser ... say screenshot?) I think you might draw even more attention to all of the Simplify offerings.
Congratulations on reaching this milestone with Simplify v2 for GMail. I look forward to being a customer.
I would happily pay $4/m for Simplify and more as the service provision widens. Gmail is OK but Simplify is far more useful and that is always worth paying for!
I'd buy this!
Well done for taking the time to respond to everyone on here. You've clearly thought long and hard about what you're doing and the approach your taking.
I've 2 Gmail accounts and a gsuite account. The family also uses gmail and it would be great to have those bundled together somehow as a family type account. As more and more people become privacy-focused, something that deals with trackers effectively is an attractive proposition, as well as a design-focused UX solution to gmail. Absolutely agree that you gotta get paid somehow... For me, most "family" based model of stuff I use, from 1password to Bitdefender to Disney+ have about latitude 5 or 6 accounts, so something to think about maybe. As for price, all depends on where the price point is set of course and I guess everyone has been on the receiving end of apps/services that were once free only to be flipped later. But for me, happy to pay - you seem humble, committed and honest enough buy into a useful well-designed, well-considered app/service.
I use 7+ different gmail accounts.... happy to help out and pay as I find Simplify very useful personally - reminds me of Inbox by Google until they axed that, and when they did I was so sad that I said I would pay for anything that could get close to Inbox... Simplify did that for me, for free to boot! :)
Just considering that it's a bit tough to justify paying and registering on a multiple account basis since what we are used to currently where "the extension is installed browser wide and works no matter what account is logged into"
Looking forward to seeing on what you decide!
Hey Michael, great work on V2. Love the pricing model and that you are taking (small) enterprises into consideration as well. I don't think you need to have a free version around. You need to make a living of of this, and I would rather pay, then you stopping development in a couple of months.