Pixelmator Photo, one of my favorite apps, is now going to be a subscription app for new users (while allowing existing owners to continue without subscribing). The devs' blog post explains their reason(s) here:
The comments on the post are maybe less heated than you'd expect but still mostly negative.
The "early adopter" subscription pricing is $4.99/month, which gets you Pixelmator Photo on iOS and Pixelmator Pro on MacOS. For comparison, Adobe's Photography plan is $9.99/month for Lightroom and Photoshop on mobile and desktop both. (There's a one-time Pixelmator purchase option also for around $50.)
I'm undecided at this point. For me, Pixelmator Photo has the best resizing, very good sharpening (but no Structure or Clarity), HSL sliders, and 5-band tone adjustments -- those are my main tools -- plus other adjustments you'd expect. What it does not have is layers.
I have other apps, like ACDSee Pro, that can do most of those things. For resizing, though, I'd have to fall back to Big Photo, which is OK but not as good to my eye.
I already own Pixelmator Photo so, according to the blog post, I can keep using it without subscribing, although it's not clear if there are any conditions on that (like "for the next 2 years," etc). If I were a new user, I'd be hesitant -- so far I haven't subscribed to any apps, and the devs haven't made it clear what happens to your work if you stop your subscription.
I understand the devs' problem. The Apple App Store doesn't allow them to charge for upgrades (which seems like the obvious solution to me), so they can either go subscription or go pay-once-use-forever. If they go pay-once, the only way to have a steady income is to constantly be chasing the diminishing pool of new users, putting existing users in second place. If they go subscription, people get grouchy, with legitimate concerns about not owning the tools they use, monthly payments for apps they may use only now and then, and the fate of their work in the future. (Pixelmator Photo, for example, saves your work by default as a project in its own format. You have to export rather than save to get a JPG, TIFF, or other common format.)
As I said, I'm undecided.
The comments on the post are maybe less heated than you'd expect but still mostly negative.
The "early adopter" subscription pricing is $4.99/month, which gets you Pixelmator Photo on iOS and Pixelmator Pro on MacOS. For comparison, Adobe's Photography plan is $9.99/month for Lightroom and Photoshop on mobile and desktop both. (There's a one-time Pixelmator purchase option also for around $50.)
I'm undecided at this point. For me, Pixelmator Photo has the best resizing, very good sharpening (but no Structure or Clarity), HSL sliders, and 5-band tone adjustments -- those are my main tools -- plus other adjustments you'd expect. What it does not have is layers.
I have other apps, like ACDSee Pro, that can do most of those things. For resizing, though, I'd have to fall back to Big Photo, which is OK but not as good to my eye.
I already own Pixelmator Photo so, according to the blog post, I can keep using it without subscribing, although it's not clear if there are any conditions on that (like "for the next 2 years," etc). If I were a new user, I'd be hesitant -- so far I haven't subscribed to any apps, and the devs haven't made it clear what happens to your work if you stop your subscription.
I understand the devs' problem. The Apple App Store doesn't allow them to charge for upgrades (which seems like the obvious solution to me), so they can either go subscription or go pay-once-use-forever. If they go pay-once, the only way to have a steady income is to constantly be chasing the diminishing pool of new users, putting existing users in second place. If they go subscription, people get grouchy, with legitimate concerns about not owning the tools they use, monthly payments for apps they may use only now and then, and the fate of their work in the future. (Pixelmator Photo, for example, saves your work by default as a project in its own format. You have to export rather than save to get a JPG, TIFF, or other common format.)
As I said, I'm undecided.