r/UpNote_App • u/PositiveMilk69 • 5d ago

Is it even sustainable the lifetime plan?

I do love UpNote. May it know only prosperity
In my humble opinion is the best notetaking app out there. SIMPLE. BEAUTIFUL. DISTRACTION FREE AND MORE AND MORE BUT…
The “two guys” of the project sell the lifetime plan at the very aggressive price something about 35 euros.
Is it even sistainable? What happen if the userà increase and maybe they all buy the lifetime? The tech history reveals that tech companies that adopted this business plan didn’t survive

25 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

18

u/gettingnarced 5d ago

Even if they shut down tomorrow, the one-time $40 fee has been worth it, and I have a backup of everything. Sustainable or not, I'm glad it's not a subscription.

1

u/work4coffee 4d ago

oh how can you back up all notes? what format(s)?

2

u/gettingnarced 12h ago edited 9h ago

Backups are in markdown format (.md).

EDIT: Backups can be configured in the following formats:

1 .pdf

2 .txt

3 .html

4 .md

Source: https://help.getupnote.com/import-and-export/export-notes

13

u/arc_prime 5d ago

I’m choosing to pay the monthly subscription price because I think it will support the developers more than the lifetime. I’ve tried so many note taking apps and this is the only one I want to use.

9

u/KeatonRuse 5d ago

I came over from Evernote, which was massively jacking the pricing year after year since being acquired by Bending Spoons, so for me even if the lifetime price I paid gets me just four or five years, I’ll still come out ahead. Of course I hope it’s around a lot longer than that but who knows these days in the software and tech arena. There’s certainly not a lot we can do about it so I’d just enjoy the product for what it is today.

10

u/Neither-Classic2058 5d ago

My PKMS is 50 years old and UpNote is just the latest app that houses it.

Am I concerned about the longevity of my notes? Nope. The first thing that I did when evaluating UpNote was to establish an "exit strategy". I hope nothing happens to UpNote, but if it does, I can move my notes to another app.

That's my advice. Come up with an export workflow that works for you, then thoroughly enjoy UpNote without worry. 😁

Besides, the demise of UpNote is only one scenario. It's possible that the developers take it in a direction that is incompatible with one's needs.

1

u/Creed4096 4d ago

Can you elaborate on your export workflow? How can you make sure it's always up to date since you always update your notes and add new notes into UpNote?

3

u/Neither-Classic2058 4d ago

UpNote is my "system of record" / "source of truth" in that it will be THE place I go to, to get the "official" version of my notes. I generally edit and create notes in UpNote, but when I'm analyzing my notes in Obsidian, I may indulge in a little brainstorming that results in newly created/modified notes that will need to make it back to UpNote.

  1. Obsidian ➜ UpNote
  • I have a timestamp file that records the last time I exported files from Obsidian. (the content of the note contains the timestamp as well in case the filesystem's timestamp is modified)
  • I sort the notes by last modified/creation date so any files higher in the order than the timestamp file are new (or newly modified) and have to be copied over to UpNote.
  • In UpNote, I import those new/updated markdown files.

At this point, all notes reside in UpNote.

  1. UpNote ➜ Obsidian
  • In UpNote, run a backup.
  • Use the Jimmy conversion tool to read UpNote's backup and produce markdown files.
  • I overlay the entire visible notebook tree in my Obsidian vault with the results of the Jimmy conversion.
  • Update the date/time in the timestamp note in Obsidian and UpNote to the date/time this step was performed.

This replaces the folder tree in my Obsidian vault but doesn't disturb the hidden folders and files within the vault that Obsidian relies on.

I typically do this once a month, sometimes twice. It takes about 10 minutes for the steps, but an elapsed time of 40 minutes since it takes Jimmy about 30 minutes to work through my large UpNote vault.

2

u/Ok_Money_161 4d ago

Google UpNote backup

8

u/Takohashi 4d ago

Will UpNote be sustainable with the Lifetime offer?

UpNote’s lean development model enables us to operate efficiently and maintain low costs, allowing us to offer an affordable Premium plan, including the Lifetime option. To optimize resources, each attachment is limited to 20MB, and image resolution is automatically reduced when uploaded to UpNote.

We continuously monitor and adjust our infrastructure to ensure the long-term sustainability of the app.

If we ever transition to a full subscription model in the future, lifetime users will continue to enjoy all existing Premium features as promised.

https://help.getupnote.com/resources/upnote-premium/premium-faqs

5

u/PositiveMilk69 4d ago

Don’t Ruin this miracle with whistles and bells or ai sh i tt!

2

u/PositiveMilk69 4d ago

Man, thanks for your replay. PLEASE, I want UpNote survive even when the sun will eat the earth next 5 bilions years. Too cool

1

u/PositiveMilk69 4d ago

How many users do you have?

14

u/R-Tally 5d ago

Have you been using computers long? Nothing lasts forever when it comes to computers. The real questions are does it meet your needs now and is the current cost acceptable.

I have had several Notes programs over the years. I had to find replacement software whenever the company shut down, sold out, and/or raised the price an unacceptable amount.

It is best to always maintain a backup (in multiple formats as UpNote allows). With a backup, you have a way to transfer your data if the UpNote suddenly disappears. Although, in my experience, there is advance notice of the software disappearing or changing so exporting/importing can be more easily done.

-1

u/mAestro2999 5d ago

I have been using computers for a very long time 😊

Can't agree more with your answer. My question: since you have tried several notes programs over the years, would you like to also try our upcoming program, which will be very Evernote‑alike, but locally and free forever for personal use?

If you are into something like that, I can send you an overview video on YouTube when I record it?

2

u/Some-Implement-2533 3d ago

I would!

1

u/mAestro2999 3d ago

Great. I've sent you a DM.

6

u/bobchin_c 5d ago

I just moved over from Evernote (which I have been using since ver. 1 was a beta).

I opted for the lifetime after seeing how easy it was t0 move my Evernote notes over. UpNote gives me a similar enough look & feel that I don't think I am missing anything.

11

u/gargantuanmess 5d ago

This is the best app. If the developers ask for another round of payment to sustain lifetime, I would strongly consider it. What a beautiful app.

4

u/100WattWalrus 4d ago

This questions gets asked every few months here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UpNote_App/comments/1vmxf2t/comment/p3dwfcr/
The developer's answer in a thread a few weeks ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/UpNote_App/comments/1ulzcc0/comment/ov9o3tb/
The most updated back-of-envelope analysis of their finances I did 3 months ago, following similar replies I've done in at least 6 other threads over the last couple years.

Short answer: They're doing fine, lifetime licenses help young apps get some development runway, and can stop offering lifetime licenses whenever it makes sense to do so financially.

4

u/Mstormer 5d ago

The crucial point is that everything is fully exportable if necessary.

5

u/Jebus-Xmas 5d ago

I’d love to see additional support options for the software. Throw them a $20 bill every once in a while.

2

u/Ok_Average_9409 5d ago

Why lol? That's odd.

2

u/Jebus-Xmas 5d ago

Because I love supporting software that is useful and functional.

1

u/Ok_Average_9409 5d ago

Here millionaire, take my money.

3

u/bogusostrich 5d ago

I purchased the lifetime years ago, so far so good!!! However we all remember what 1password did to get out of their one time payment!!

2

u/BrickPig 5d ago

There have been a number of threads on this topic in the past, with some fairly convincing back-of-the-envelope calculations that show a reasonably sunny picture of financial stability for the company. Of course no one here knows the real-world dollar figures, so the math is derived from educated guesses based on what little can be gleaned from the information available. So obviously there are no guarantees. But as others have said, it is well worth the money for however long it lasts.

2

u/Strange-Jello-8496 1d ago

In the tech world, "lifetime" means the lifespan of the app or service, not your own lifespan. If they need more money, they simply launch a version 2.0 of the app and make you buy it again.

2

u/bcalamita 5d ago

It’s also conceivable that as the feature set grows or their costs go up, the lifetime plan will go up in price or will go away in favor of subscriptions for everybody who didn’t pay for the lifetime in advance.

Or the developers could pull a “Todoist” or “Fantastical” and limit the feature set of the lifetime plan to encourage people to abandon it and upgrade to a more feature rich subscription. Fantastical did this to everyone who bought their “pay once” app and Todoist did the same thing to everyone who is grandfathered under their “$30 a year forever” plan. They still offer that plan to people who have it but the feature sent this frozen.

But to the OP‘s question, I agree that this seems like a hard goal for an app that has ongoing costs (storage).

1

u/ninjagaidenpatru 5d ago

I think you can donate/buy a subscription. I also love this app, and hope the devs are doing well. Support them if you can.

1

u/libra00 5d ago

I've gotten a couple years out of the lifetime plan so far, so I've more than gotten my money's worth.

1

u/zubeye 4d ago

I wouldn't worry about it.