Freemium Experience: More Features for All with Usage Limits

Announcements
518

I mean, the value hasn’t changed for existing VIP users, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at. By choose to adapt I mean if you’ve gone over the limit based on the introduced free limits, you can do a clean up or not, or look for another workaround depending on your use case. You can still track what you’re watching.

We’re going to continue working on the things we’re working on and monitor the changes, not revert something because something mean was said by a few users. Some people took the time to contact support or make threads and get support from the community on what they could do differently. We can’t help if not everyone wants to do that.

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520

A lot of excellent points here, @Clanhold_Cinema!

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I appreciate your passion but if you didn’t see value at $30 then there’s not much more I can say, clearly. I don’t see why we would reduce the price lower than it was previously.

As I already said, and you’ve pointed out, any damage done is on us and we’ll monitor.

Thanks for your time, either way.

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522

It hasn’t? So those VIP users that get their recommendations from users’ comments, users’ lists, users’ recommendations aren’t losing value when there’s a non-zero exodus of said users producing that content?

Even moreso, limiting lists, will impact future list creations and editions and probably more importantly current ones. There have been numerous VIP users in this very thread trying to get you to see this exact point. But alas, clearly it falls on deaf ears.

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The direct value. User content is not something you pay for directly, but sure the changes could hinder that user content.

I’m not sure what you want me to say?

524

I’m not sure what you want me to say?

They want you to agree with them and advocate to Justin to revert the changes.

Like listen my man I think you can bow out now. There’s no need to defend your boss’ decisions any further. You’ve said your piece.

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525

Sure, will do. (bow out)

527

You don’t have to say anything, I just wanted to reinforce the fact that the value for VIP users (that consume user made content on the site) will presumably (I imagine definitely) suffer at these changes. Totally fine if you disagree, but just needed to make my opinion clear there. Sorry if it come across as a little too hostile.

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As a shout from beside the ring, you’re fine, but we suggested we want to look into incentivising/rewarding free users who manage popular lists and other useful content creation, etc. We do understand that’s important.

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530

It seems to me that introducing mid-level tier pricing would keep a lot of users who would otherwise leave, and Trakt would still earn more money than it was previously because those users were paying nothing.

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532

instead of 30/60/120/whatever $/years, why not bring in-app purchases to unlock “single” features beyond the basic “free” ones?
like:

  • 500 items per lists → 2$
  • 1000 items per lists → 5$
  • filters → 2$
  • Plex scrobbler → 10$
  • etc etc

so every different Trakt users could “build” its own experience tailored to their own needs.
users are happy, Trakt get paid.
many apps do stuff like that.
would be not sustainable for Trakt?
wouldn’t more user pay for what they need instead of “stay free, pay (a lot of money) every year or leave”?

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533

About 500 comments in 2 weeks, almost all of them totally critical, from both free and VIP users…there is a generalized and overt dissatisfaction among your users, and not a single response from Trakt.

Lately, in addition to so many questionable choices, I notice poor communication. And this perhaps worries me about the future of Trakt even more than the latest choices.

I never used Letterboxd because I felt it was too commercial, on the contrary for the last 10 years I used Trakt because I felt it was more “homely,” a place for enthusiasts made by enthusiasts, with direct contact between developers and users.

Lately I feel I have gone from being a user to be listened to, to being a customer to be charged :confused:

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534

This sounds like a great idea!

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On a side note: How long do data exports take these days? I’ve requested my export 30+ hours ago and so far didn’t see any email with my data.

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536

You’ve been making perfect sense to me. Also, my Trakt value hasn’t been diminished in the slightest. The truth is nothing you say is going to satisfy people here. The only solution they’re gonna accept is lowering the price. Saying that y’all are going to look into regional pricing isn’t satisfying them. Hell some of these people want Trakt to sell them if it means getting Trakt for free. Some are asking for ads. We are living in crazy times, Tyson. But I appreciate you and the team. I can see the work y’all are putting in. Do I think y’all are doing things perfectly? Absolutely not. I think Trakt Lite is weird and waste of resources. Not doing 2FA and/or passkeys is also a weird choice. But I do see y’all trying and I appreciate that!

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Okay, everyone, I’m going to close this thread as the discussion has veered off-topic. Let’s try to keep future conversations focused on the original post. If you have any suggestions or questions, please send them to @support or email support@trakt.tv – we appreciate your feedback!

539

I apologize for not communicating these changes more clearly and we will do a better job moving forward! I’ll try to clarify some key facts about the recent changes and address some incorrect assumptions.

VIP Pricing

Why was the decision needed?

In 2015, we introduced two VIP pricing tiers: $30 and $60 per year. It is expensive to run Trakt, servers aren’t cheap :sweat_smile:. We retired the lower cost plan because it just wasn’t sustainable anymore. It covered things like infrastructure costs, but it didn’t leave enough to help with other expenses like salaries. As I’ve mentioned before, we are planning for Trakt to exist well into the future.

When was this implemented?

VIP pricing was changed in August 2024 on the website VIP page and official apps. We also introduced a $6 monthly plan, along with free trials and regional pricing (India and Brazil) in the iOS and Android apps. We ran various 50% off promotions until the end of the year.

What was the impact?

VIP signups remain steady, so it appears most people that wanted to subscribe still see value with the new pricing. Increased revenue allowed us to double down on product development, hire more people and deliver new features like our Apple TV app, data importers, automatic tracking (streaming scrobbler), better AI recommendations, month in review, etc.

Freemium Limits

Why was the decision needed?

The freemium model consists of a free plan for casual users and a premium plan for power users. A power user is someone who uses Trakt every day and enjoys a lot of the features we offer.

We’ve always had a freemium model, but our VIP benefits were a bit unclear. VIP subscribers were mostly people that realized by themselves they are power users and wanted to support Trakt to keep it going. It also wasn’t easy to try out any VIP features before deciding to sign up (we fixed this by offering free trials).

Collections and lists were misused and cost a disproportionate amount of resources that VIPs are essentially subsidizing. Limiting these to 100 items on the free plan corrects these issues and sets a clear threshold from casual to power user.

How was it communicated?

Not well enough, but we tried. We emailed users with bigger lists (100+ items) about the proposed change about two months in advance. We also offered a 50% VIP discount, but not many took advantage of it.

What is the impact?

VIP signups have increased since enforcing these limits. Another key metric, monthly active users also continues to grow strongly.

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Regional VIP pricing is now available in iOS.