I have a question about the pricing of the VIP plan and especially about the wording and meaning of the VIP plan. It’s really important to me that this is not meant as a rant or hate, I just want to add my perspective as a new customer.
Most paid software I know of, has a free plan with limited features, so people can try out some stuff etc. Then you have a subscription with more/all features which most companies call “Pro” plan. The business case for this is that you can attract more people with the free plan and if you want to use all features you have to pay for server costs, developing cost etc. The subscription is advertised as “if you want more features you have to pay for it”. Which is totally fine and understandable for me.
But for trakt the wording and advertising of the subscription is kind of different and honestly kind of confuses me. On the website and here in the forum there is this kind of strange wording where it seems that with the trakt VIP membership you do a kind of a donation and trakt is a non-profit organization and you were contributing to the common good with your subscription. That you “support” trakt with it and not just paying for their services. That you pay for the people who use it for free and also for the other apps that use the trakt service for free. That trakt is an open source software (which it isn’t!) and you support the project with you subscription. It’s also advertised, that if you pay for the VIP you can test the beta software. Sorry, what? I normally pay, so that you have money to properly test the software before it gets shipped to the paying customers.
I just want to pay for a service that I use. That’s it. I never read this kind of strange things on other platforms. Just think about Google would advertise their Google One plans to “support” Google and that you can pay to test their beta software.
Here are some examples from the website:
Btw, as I was searching the website for the above screenshots, I noticed that the wording changed and I’m pretty sure it was different some days ago.
It made me think, above all, because the price for the VIP is generally very high compared to the competitors, but also compared to other cloud services. I tried to compare some prices (some prices are only shown in Euro for me and I converted it to USD):
trakt: 6.99€/month (7.29 USD) (through Apple subscription on iOS)
JustWatch: 3.99 €/month (4.16 USD)
Letterboxd: 20.83€/year (21.73 USD)
Simkl 2.91$/month or 34.99$/year (2.79 USD or 33.55 USD)
Plex 4.99€/month or 39.99€/year (5.20 USD or 41.71 USD)
because the price for the VIP is generally very high compared to the competitors
Trakt doubled the subscription price for new members (or members without auto-renewal) without notice, which is why some people cancelled their subscriptions.
Just think about Google would advertise their Google One plans to “support” Google
Keep in mind that Trakt is made by like 5 (?) people, but I agree that $60 is too much for what they offer, and I would never subscribe at that price.
There are 10 people listed on the website. But I think it doesn’t matter how many people work there, you just pay money with your subscription for the features, which are made by x people. And trakt has to make it work with their business model that they can pay their employees with the subscription fees. But I don’t get their business model. It seems that their plan is to offer as many free plans as possible and if you want to support that, you can pay the very high VIP subscription. It seems like they want 99% free accounts and 1% paying customers, which are the supporters of this business model. Why not make 50% free accounts and 50% paid customers? What’s bad about having more paying customers? If you want to use the trakt services, which costs money to offer, then you have to pay for that.
I really don’t want to be pretentious. I’m writing all of this because I think right now trakt is the best app compared to other competitors (I tried all of them!) and I want them to last long, which is only possible with a solid income to pay their employees. But I’m kind of skeptical that there are a lot of people willing to pay that high subscription fee, especially because trakt doesn’t seem to be perfect polished and rounded (inconsistent UI/UX through website/Apps, no advanced filtering for watchlist etc.), which would justify that.
I agree with you that their business model seems to be puzzling. But I’m sure they have their reasons that we’re simply not seeing.
Logically in my mind a $6 annual fee for everyone and no free mode whatsoever would probably earn a far higher income for them than a diminishing paying support base since the doubling of the VIP fee.
There’s probably plenty of folks, myself included, who would continue to pay a VIP fee to express gratitude for the work and early access to some enhancements. But right now I can definitely see why some are questioning the now $60 pricing with a reduced level of advantages.
I’m honestly not sure why they didn’t keep the scrobbling feature a VIP only add-on but I’d assume there needed to be a certain number of people using it to make it worthwhile. And maybe ad revenue on this increased traffic offsets the loss of revenue from those canceling their VIP at this point.
Trakt is a for profit company. All the VIP features are listed here. A VIP membership helps support the Trakt community and as mentioned on the VIP page “Thousands of apps are powered by Trakt, most free to use. VIP helps pay for servers and other costs.” Trakt is a freemium model, just as you described.
By paying for their services you are supporting Trakt. That’s literally all that’s meant by it.
That trakt is an open source software (which it isn’t!) and you support the project with you subscription
I have never seen any indication that Trakt was open source.
That you pay for the people who use it for free and also for the other apps that use the trakt service for free.
This is true for every freemium product. That paying users subsidize the free users.
It’s also advertised, that if you pay for the VIP you can test the beta software. Sorry, what? I normally pay, so that you have money to properly test the software before it gets shipped to the paying customers.
I don’t think it’s unusual to give paying users early access to new features.
Just think about Google would advertise their Google One plans to “support” Google and that you can pay to test their beta software.
Comparing a company the size of Trakt with Google is flawed.
What do I pay for with the VIP plan?
I’m sorry but where did you look? There’s a huge list of VIP features right on the VIP page when you click “Get VIP.”
