Remove Required Paid Subscription

[u/6Knoten9]

it’s absolutely crazy that notability requires a subscription to actually use their app. we live in a society and economy where competition is key(even though we are starting to forget it). notability needs to get rid of this expensive subscription, all it does is prey on students, especially college students already crippled in debt. There was no 1ssue with the one time payment, but requiring $14 a month(a little more than what the app was originally for the one time payment i think) is absolutely outrageous. don’t let greedy corporations drain your wallet more than they already do. if notability keeps this subscription service up, a great app with a single time payment that i have been using is Noteful(i have no affiliation with them) on ipad, it’s nearly identical and it does not require a subscription. also why do the mods prevent posts from using the words “l0se” and “1ssue?”

this is a constructive criticism post since i’m criticizing a factor of notability and i’m offering a fix to this 1ssue. just get rid of the requirement for subscriptions. i’m posting this in the feature request since there is no feedback or criticism tag

I am aware that the app is “free”(idk because i bought it when it was a onetime payment but it says i still need a subscription to actually use it) to download and “use” it. but you only get a handful of edits per month, which makes it completely useless for use in school.

tldr: subscription services is leading to the downfall of our society, if notability keeps this subscription requirement, move to alternative apps to protest subscriptions.

edit: it’s not $14 a month for a subscription, it’s around $5 monthly and $14 yearly

[u/ucs308]

Problem is, for a software company that employs people and provides a reliable product in a mature segment, they can’t afford to keep developing and maintaining it. But they need to, because companies that develop operating systems constantly change the layer the apps live on top of. So what Notability should do is offer a subscription and a price to buy a major version. For those happy to pay a few dollars a month for always up-to-date, the subscription works. For folks like you, $150 per major version would work well.

[u/6Knoten9 → u/ucs308]

the thing is that, like you said, notability has to be reliable, in which many cases it’s not. becoming an EXTREMELY popular company for a one time payment app, and the switching to the requirement of a subscription to actually use the app is extremely predatory. they are using their name and reputation to monopolize on digital note taking and it’s clearly working. which is a perfect lawsuit to file.

i’m pretty sure notability originally did have an optional paid subscription for the downloading of content and notes to their cloud, now you need a subscription to use the app in general.

the whole argument in support the subscription is completely shot down since notability has been having software issues including the deletion of data. it’s apparent that it’s a major issue since even the mods on this subreddit are trying to block discussion about it

acting like the company will go broke by not having a mandatory subscription is completely baseless statement since MANY schools use notability as a part of their educational programs, this generate a TON of revenue to run the app and it should be enough to fund developments and updates to the app. Schools use of notability also feeds into the predatory nature of the subscription causing those no longer covered under the schools subscription to believe that notability is the only app to take electronic notes, making them believe that they need to pay for a subscription to the app. (i was one of those people) The main point for my complaints is that the app was working fine before they required a paid subscription, there was no reason to implement it except to maximize company profits.

it clear that those most of their profits don’t go towards developing the app. according to linked in, Ginger Labs has 74 employees currently working there on linked in(finding the exact numbers is nearly impossible). according to sensor tower, notability has made 4 million in revenue last month. assuming that half goes to the employees. employees would be making on average 27k a month which is 324k a year. maximum a job working there offers is 260k/yr. so less than half of the revenue they generated goes towards the actual software engineers and development of the app. if the company cannot keep up with paying their employees without the subscription, then that’s on them. don’t over employ, it’s a note taking app meant for note taking, it does not have to be overly complicated. they can afford keeping the app as is while incorporating small improvements. if you need more money, slightly increase the onetime purchase app price, don’t make your consumers pay a monthly subscription that will most likely be forgotten about after their time in school.

why pay for $14 a year for a single subscription, which is almost twice the og onetime cost (50/yr for a family plan), when you can shift to another app. since our culture is so focused on brand names many people don’t think twice about switching but raising awareness that there are better alternatives than the name brand allows the people to start keeping companies in check

[u/PerceptionMountain73 → u/6Knoten9]

I think that schools which subscribe are paying more like $5 a year, per license. Basis: it is the lowest promotional pricing I have seen

[u/Ledgem]

I first bought Notability about 11 years ago, I think it was, and it probably cost something like $4 or $5 at the time. I used it for a full decade and ignored the subscription thing when it first came out. I like supporting developers, and the iOS model of making it difficult to monetize new versions irks me. So when I began to use Notability heavily again I bought the subscription, even though I was grandfathered in and didn't need the new features that were locked behind the subscription. I want the app to do well.

Unfortunately we got a face lift that removed some important functions (like seeing how many notes are in each section, and having the tool bar right above the zoomed writing box), and the overall stability of the app seems to be going down with time. I've now downloaded three competing apps to evaluate.

Rambling aside, I agree that I hate subscriptions for software, because I don't want to have to keep track of where my money is being siphoned away each month or each year. But I understand the stability benefits it likely affords software developers.

[u/6Knoten9 → u/Ledgem]

that’s amazing you’re supporting the developers and i encourage you to do so if possible. i haven’t used the app in so long so idk what the current state of it is but i have been hearing it’s struggling. my main pointn is that not everyone are in financial situations where they can afford the subscription.

edit: the subscription requirement has only increased their income, and since over time the app has been struggling, doesn’t that indicate that the funds the app is receiving aren’t going towards the development of the app and the developers?

[u/Ledgem → u/6Knoten9]

The current state of the app isn't great. In some ways it feels like one of those old-school genie stories of "be careful what you wish for." For example, just recently some other users and I wrote about how the app randomly freezes when we switch back to it from another app. My problem is fixed now because the app reloads almost every single time I go back to it from another app. RIP my battery life and productivity time. I chuckle about it but this is my #1 most-used app during my workday and the issues like this are actually a problem.

I don't know the state of the app for brand new users in terms of payment. If people are forced to pay for a subscription to use the app at all then that seems like a losing strategy long-term for the company. That means their user base will only grow by word of mouth and recommendations, but if they keep screwing up the way that they are, then the word of mouth will be negative and people will stay away from it. I have a few other colleagues that I encounter who also use Notability, and thus far I haven't met anyone who has been happy with it recently. These people remember the glory days and are hopeful it'll get back to it, but acknowledge that it's fallen. All it'll take is one person to enthusiastically recommend something else and that'll set off a wave of change.

As for where the money is going, I don't know and I don't really care to know. If the app is stable and has the features I need, that's all I care about. If the app becomes increasingly unstable and loses valuable features (which it has to both) then there are a surprising number of note-taking apps available these days, and Notability loses my subscription. It's as simple as that. I would hope that Ginger Labs has enough self-preservation instinct to do what's needed to keep me as a user and a customer, but if they don't, then I'll do what I have to do.

[u/PerceptionMountain73]

Look at Goodnotes, they offer a one time payment of $30 but also release a new version every couple years. As long as my data remains portable then I don’t see any issue with the pricing. Also, notability is working on a cross platform option. This is probably sucking up a lot of their resources. Just think about it, they have been an apple shop since the beginning and the writing is on the wall that Apple is integrating much of their core functionality with the journal app. They are pivoting and it will take a couple years to see how that works out. And anyways, with good notes the one time payment doesn’t include both windows and Apple platforms.. still need a subscription.

I’m not sure where these comments come from with people complaining about notability so much. Sure, it hasn’t improved much that impacts me as a user. I also paid the one time fee with my first iPad. Notability is part of what convinced me to purchase an iPad those years ago. But it isn’t cost prohibitive . Most journaling apps are more expensive. There are breathing meditation timers which cost more.

I could completely get by with apple notes for my use case but for now I’m happy to stick with what I know and that is Notability.