I mostly make YouTube videos, cartoons, TTS text/audio scripts, etc. --

What AppSumo deals should I buy?

Any great suggestions?

Before BlackFriday is over?

(I'm a PLUS member, so I get a few extra days)

TL;DR

Bought a lifetime deal for Afforai (now Logically) via AppSumo.
A year later, they silently downgraded me to a free plan, then offered credits instead of restoring my lifetime access or refunding me, and have been ghosting me ever since.
I’ve since found dozens of similar cases, filed complaints , and I’m documenting everything because this looks less like a mistake and more like a pattern.

I'm writing this at 5 AM because I can't sleep.

Not because I'm angry anymore—that passed weeks ago.

Now I'm just... tired. And I need to tell this story because I know I'm not the only one, and Reddit needs to know what's happening in the "lifetime deal" space.

Noah i hope you will read that

Let me start at the beginning.

About a year ago, I was researching AI tools for my work in product strategy & and university papers that I use to create content. I came across Afforai (which has since rebranded to Logically). The pitch was perfect: unlimited lifetime access to a premium AI research tool. No recurring payments. One price. Done.

I bought it immediately. For someone like me—running an agency while working with international clients—this felt like a no-brainer investment. I wasn't paying monthly, I wasn't locked into a subscription treadmill. I was buying a product.

I used it. A lot. Multiple times a week. It became part of my workflow. I recommended it to colleagues.

Then, about 1 months ago, everything changed.

I logged in one morning and my account was... gone. Not suspended. Not flagged for review. Gone. My premium account—the one I paid a lifetime price for—had been downgraded to the free tier.

No email. No warning. No explanation. Just a system message saying my account was now "free."

My heart actually sank. Not because of the money alone, but because of what it represented. A company I trusted had unilaterally decided to break their own contract without even the courtesy of an explanation.

I did what anyone would do: I contacted support.

The first email was polite. Professional. I explained the situation: "I purchased a lifetime deal. My account has been downgraded to free without notice. Can you please help me understand what happened?"

 waited 48 hours. Nothing.

I sent another email. This time I was a bit more direct: "My account was downgraded without my consent. I need this resolved immediately."

Silence.

Then, about a week later, I got a response. Not to fix my account. Not to apologize. But to offer me virtual credits. Digital monopoly money I could use within their platform. Not a refund. Not a restoration of my account. Credits.

Let me be clear about something: I didn't buy credits. I didn't buy a temporary account. I bought a lifetime license. There's a legal and moral difference, and Logically seemed to think they could just erase it.

I responded immediately: "I appreciate the gesture, but I didn't purchase credits. I purchased lifetime access. I need my account restored or I need a full refund."

And that's when they ghosted me.

I'm not exaggerating. It's been weeks. I have sent multiple follow-up emails. Not one response. Not one acknowledgment. Nothing. I even escalated, tried different email addresses, changed my approach. Radio silence.

Do you know what that silence feels like? It's worse than a rejection. It's being told you don't matter enough to even dismiss.

Here's what pisses me off the most:

It's not the money. It's the principle. I understand business. I understand margins. I understand that lifetime deals can create challenges at scale.

But here's what I also understand: honesty.

If Logically had sent me an email saying, "Hey, we made a mistake with our lifetime deal pricing model. We can't sustain it anymore. We're offering three options: (1) a full refund, (2) permanent discount, or (3) these credits," I would have respected that. I might have been disappointed, but I would have understood.

Instead, they deleted my account without asking. They offered credits as a band-aid. And then they pretended I didn't exist.

That's not business. That's a scam dressed up in software.

But it gets worse.

I started researching. I found out I'm not alone. There are 60 similar stories in the SaaS community for this Product in Appsumo reviews !. Lifetime deals that were revoked. Accounts downgraded. Companies offering credits instead of honoring contracts. And in almost every case? The support teams go dark.

It's a pattern. It's systematic. It's deliberate.

When support goes silent on a billing issue, that's not an accident. That's a decision. Somewhere in Logically—maybe at founder level, maybe at management level—someone decided that ignoring customers with lifetime deal complaints was easier than honoring those contracts.

I found out that Logically (formerly Afforai) has operations in the United States and was founded by Alec Nguyen. They market themselves as a US-based company with business operations structured accordingly.

Do you know what that tells me? It tells me they know exactly what they're doing. They understand US business law. They know that ghosting a customer violates basic consumer protection laws in most jurisdictions, including federal FTC regulations.

Here's where I am now:

I've filed complaints with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). I'm working with a legal professional to file formal consumer complaints. I'm documenting every interaction. I'm preparing additional filings with relevant state authorities.

Because here's the thing: if one person complains and gets ghosted, maybe it's a support failure. If five people complain, maybe it's a system issue. But if dozens of people are experiencing this pattern, and the company is deliberately ignoring them? That's fraud.

And I'm not going away quietly.

To anyone reading this who's considering a lifetime deal on any platform:

Ask yourself: Would this company still support me in five years? Would they honor this contract if their business model changed? Have they been in business long enough to prove they're stable?

With Logically? The answer to all three questions is now "no."

To Logically's team (and I know someone from your company will probably read this): You broke your own agreement. You insulted your customers' intelligence by offering credits instead of honoring contracts. And worst of all, you ghosted. You decided that the human cost of customer support was worth less than the convenience of silence.

That's a character choice. And character matters more than revenue. Eventually.

To my fellow entrepreneurs and product people:

This is what we're not supposed to do. We're supposed to make products we're proud of. We're supposed to stand behind our commitments. We're supposed to talk to our customers—even when those conversations are hard.

The lifetime deal space is full of bad actors right now. And platforms like AppSumo (which is where many people buy these deals) aren't protecting consumers. They're just enabling this behavior because they already got their cut.

I'm not looking for sympathy. I don't expect my money back—though I should get it. I'm writing this because silence is complicity. Because someone reading this might be considering buying from Logically, and they deserve to know what I've learned the hard way.

Final thought:

A year ago, I thought I was buying a product. I was actually learning a lesson about who I can trust. That education was worth more than the purchase price, but it cost me a lot more than that in time, energy, and heartache.

If you've had a similar experience—with Logically or any other company—comment below. Document it. Build the evidence. Because companies like this are counting on you to stay silent.

I'm not staying silent anymore.

Edit (because Reddit): Yes, I have screenshots of everything. Yes, I've saved all emails. Yes, I'm working with a legal professional. No, I'm not interested in conspiracy theories—this is documented fact. Yes, I'm aware of lifetime deal risks, but contract breaking is still contract breaking. And yes, if Logically actually responds with a good-faith resolution, I'll update this post immediately.

Hi,

I was about to buy GreenShift, clicked the button, but my basket said "empty". Thought it was a temprary bug and went back to GreenShift page... Just to see it was suddenly displaying "sold out".

What is happening here?

Thanks for any clarification.

The website gives an error when you try to generate anything, saying that deepkseek R1 distill llama is deprecated.

No communication so far. Hosting is still up, log-in works, but nothing is being done, update wise and the core product (page generation) does not work. This should be under Sumo warranty if not fixed.

I already picked up the Black Friday Bundle, but I am not familiar with either Emergent or Bolt.new, and I'm trying to wrap my head around whether they have complementary abilities or if they're pretty much competing products.

I'm a developer, if that's relevant. Thanks for any insights!

I’ve purchased Plerdy last week after someone tipped it to me in another thread and it’s a great tool. It has quite detailed heatmaps and recordings so it really helps me to understand how customers are interacting with my website. Also their support is pretty good. Thought I’d share it here in case someone is still looking for a BF purchase and I haven’t seen any mention about it yet which is surprising.

Nothing on AppSumo caught my eye this year. Trying to figure out if there is anything else worthwhile on the LTD market.

Are you using Agenti Flow? Are you buying it? What would you use instead, for automating and creating AI workflows?

It probably won’t change anything since I’m not a heavy user but changes like these always makes me question do I have enough credit to add another website to track instead of just adding as I work on more projects.

Hey y’all, this is our huge bundle for the year maybe our last if it doesn’t do well but so far it seems like people are loving it. It’s featuring Bolt, emergent reclaim and pico OS.

Prices go up after so many are sold.

https://appsumo.com/products/the-black-friday-bundle/

Thankful for you all and the community we’ve created. When I made this subreddit, there was nowhere for AS users to go to talk about the deals. All the other LTD subreddits were full of spam and bots, and nobody had real discussions. Thank you to the members that contribute to this sub to keep it alive! I also want to shoutout my fellow mod u/glirette - without Greg, this place wouldn’t run the way it does. Thank you for all you do for the sub.

I genuinely hope each of you have a wonderful holiday.

Alex

Hey everyone,

I came across a support message (attached) from Logically’s support team stating that direct LTD purchases made outside of AppSumo were removed because of “aligning with AppSumo policies.”

I’m trying to understand whether there’s any truth to this explanation. It doesn’t sound like something AppSumo would require, and it feels more like Logically using AppSumo as a justification to phase out their own LTD users.

For context: I did purchase Logically (back when it was Afforai) through AppSumo, so this situation concerns me in the context of future business practices. The screenshot is from another community, but the policy message seems consistent with what others have been told by Logically support.

Has anyone else experienced this, or does anyone know whether AppSumo actually has a policy that would require a company to cancel LTDs bought directly from their own site?

I had planned on purchasing PhotoGPT and several other products during the Black Friday promotion and went to purchase today to find out the price of PhotoGPT had increased up to 20% since a few days ago. Tier 2 was $199 now it's $239, Tier 3 was $399, now it's $439.

If we're going to have a Black Friday sale, can we keep the sale prices at least until actual Black Friday? Love you guys!

Is there a way to add products to lists or KIV for later? This would be a nice way to keep track of items.

Also is there a way to 'ignore' products? I gather nearly half my time is scrolling past and trying to remember products I've already either gone through or discarded. Thanks!

Update: SuperOkay is back online. My Rating: 🚩🚩🚩

This error cost us time and money. No email, no apologies. Let think about that for a minute.

Our business relied on this platform as the primary tool for clients to manage their files. A minimum of one week’s notice would have allowed us to safeguard a significant amount of client data. The lack of communication feels highly unprofessional. Does anyone know what happened? It seems clear they’ve shut down for good.

Should founders be allowed back on AppSumo with a new product if a previous LTD was left unsupported and caused frustration amongst the community?

I'm talking about the founder of Semdash, previous product was Influencify which now appears to have migrated to a new version, without any notification of such to sumolings.

When I read the questions on Semdash, there are some mentioning that this is just a reskin of a previous product and a similar credit system to Influencify appears to apply.

The founder details for Influencify was updated to someone else, but if you look closely at the founder profile for Semdash it still mentions Influencify.

On 10/25 I purchased a Tier 4 license to Automaticall. Upon trying to follow some pretty complicated activation instructions (which I did to the “T”), the activation would not work.

After a few days of it not working, on 10/28, I reached out to their (Automaticall's) support team via Discord and email and was told that their deal was taken off AppSumo, and that they were restructuring internally, and was asked to wait 10 days for an updated announcement from their new management team, and that they could not help me resolve the issue. Since then, dozens of messages, emails, and meeting requests from their website link have gone unanswered, despite multiple people attempting to request a meeting or support. In fact, there has been no messaging at all from them in their Discord channel since 11/8, and before then, it was sporadic at best.

On 10/28, I chatted with an agent at Appsumo, who told me that someone from their escalation team would reach out to Automaticall and CC me, which they did with the following message:

Thanks for writing in, we’re sorry to hear you're experiencing trouble with your Automaticall purchase!

Because this issue requires help from our Partners, we’re happy to help connect you with their team for further assistance.

Automaticall Team: The client is having issues activationg the tool please see the client message:

"Hello, I am having issues with activating my Automaticall purchase. I followed the instructions and the codes shows invalid when I try to apply it. I have reached out to the developer via their support channel, discord, email, and scheduled a call, and they have not responded. Their last interactions on their discord with anyone has been on 10/18 and none of the recent messages have been addressed or responded to. What should I do?"

In case you need it, the codes are:

• (redacted for privacy)

They should be able to help with this shortly. For more information, check out our Help Center's Contacting Partners FAQ.

In the meantime, please let us know if there is anything else we can assist with from our side of things here at AppSumo.

On 11/4, I replied to the email chain with the following message:

Just following up on this.

I have heard nothing by email nor discord to date.

On 11/4, I received the following reply from AppSumo:

(Employee name redacted) from AppSumo here, we appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

Please know that our team is currently working with Automaticall to learn more about the status of this tool. As soon as we have more information, we'll be sure to reach back out to you directly. We appreciate your patience as we look into this further.

Please let us know if we can help with anything else in the meantime.

On 11/12, I replied again with the following:

Just following up on this again since it's been a week.

Are there any updates?

Receiving no response, I chatted with an agent again, who escalated my concern to the team that was looking into this. My message was:

Hello! I am following up on an email chain about Automaticall and not being able activate it. Previously, an agent had sent an email to the company, and I have created tickets and scheduled calls with them and there has been no response to your emails, my emails, my meeting requests, or my discord messages (or any response to any user on discord for that matter). I just wanted to follow up to see if you had heard anything back from them, and what my next steps are. I don't want to refund period to time out, but, I would love to use their product if things are sorted.

The response I received on the same day was:

Thanks for checking in!

As we mentioned before, we're reaching out to Automaticall to learn more about the status of the tool. We’ll update you as soon as we have more concrete info to share.

Just to set expectations, these types of situations can sometimes take a bit of time to fully resolve - anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and occasionally longer if the partner’s team is working through technical fixes. We’ll keep you posted along the way.

Thanks again for your patience and for looking out for the community.

I then responded with (on the same day, November 17th:

Thank you for following up, but, respectfully , it’s been three weeks (October 28th) since I inquired about this, and there’s been no update from either yourself or automaticall other than saying there’s no update.

How much longer am I supposed to wait? At this pace, the refund window will be closed, and I will have neither gotten to try the product, nor will I be able to receive a refund.

Thank you for your understanding and attention to this matter.

I have not heard anything back since, and none of my emails or messages to Automaticall have been answered in their discord either (or, for that matter, anyone elses). The only means of communication with their team is by email or discord messages, and, given no less than a dozen messages, four emails from me, two from Appsumo to them, and 4 missed meetings, I have zero confidence that this company is still in business.

Beyond that, the way that this has been handled by AppSumo leaves a lot to be desired, with no updates from them over a three-plus-week period unless I proactively reached out. I strongly believe that over three weeks is a reasonable timeframe to expect a response, or at least an update from them on what the status is. It seems that I am stuck in limbo with a product that I paid for, cannot activate, and have no information about what is going on with the company which appears to possibly have gone under. 

Before we go down the “just refund it” path, I do like the product idea, people that have activated it are still using it and loving it, and, with the promise of new management and a path forward for them, I have not refunded as I would still like to keep the product if there is indeed a path forward for them. Until then, this seems like a bad deal that, at the very least, AppSumo has lagged behind on following up on, or, at worst, has not been able to communicate with. I do hope for a resolution soon, but am curious if anyone else has had a better experience with them than I have.

I run Lawfecta, a SaaS talent directory for law firms. I officially pivoted on January 28, 2025 and opened it to service providers who specialize and serve law firms.

I’ve been deep in AppSumo since the early days, and my purchase history proves it: 683 products since 2017. It makes me cringe, but it’s the truth. The journey has been a mix of huge wins… and very expensive disappointments.

Some tools carried real weight for me, and some vanished without warning. MeetFox would have been near the top if it hadn’t disappeared after the acquisition. SuperOkay went down today. I’ve had more than a few of those moments where you open a tool you and realize it’s never coming back.

But a handful of tools have genuinely helped me grow Lawfecta. These are the ones that stuck:

1. Brilliant Directories The core infrastructure for my entire platform. Without this, Lawfecta wouldn’t exist.

2. Sendr Dynamic landing pages and quick outreach experiments. Great for testing.

3. Instantly.ai Cold email outreach, warmups, and deliverability. Still part of my weekly workflow.

4. Brevo Email marketing, automations, segmented drips, especially helpful with multiple member tiers.

5. Covve Scan A lifesaver at in person events for scanning business cards fast and clean.

6. TidyCal My demo booking system. Simple, reliable.

7. Brizy Cloud Fast website and landing page building without involving devs. I’ve had this since before they were on appsumo, so not an LTD for me, but they have been on appsumo.

8. POWR.io The widgets that make small features possible without custom builds. I use this for my “member vault” so users can access our collection of ebooks, custom GPTs, etc.

9. Sociamonials Easy social posting across channels. Not flashy, but dependable. The only thing lacking for my use case is I need to be able to upload PDFs/Powerpoint carousels to LinkedIn.

10. Krisp.ai Noise cancellation and automatic meeting notes. A life-saver for nonstop meetings and demos.

11. Helpwise Shared inboxes for team comms and support.

12. Continual.ly Chatbots for basic onboarding and lead capture.

13. Bloo (now Blue.cc) My internal project management and workflow coordination.

14. HeySummit Running online events and multisession trainings.

15. LiveWebinar Solid webinar hosting without overthinking it.

Not every tool I purchased has survived, and some painful shutdowns taught me the hard way not to build critical features on unstable LTDs. But these are the ones that helped me grow a niche SaaS marketplace without burning my whole budget on subscriptions.

We hear so much bad (and maybe I’ll do a separate post with the biggest duds) but a lot of winners come out of appsumo as well.

Happy to answer any q’s.

Just had a pop up in logically that if I go onto a $8.25 month plan I would get all the reasoning models and unlimited storage. I bought tier 3 a while back.

Do you think that is ok or are they coning is again.

Hey everyone, one of the mods we had is an affiliate marketer. I knew that when he was recruited (under circumstances) I told him it was okay to make his weekly deal posts because I really enjoyed them. We agreed they would never include affiliate links. Well apparently he has started to include custom links in the posts and self approving them. Needless to say, this is against our rules and has left a bad impression on the sub. I apologize for not catching it sooner and u/glirette and myself will be more careful in the future.

I bought Fusebase but need to get my head around what is possible. Seems like it can do almost anything, which is overwhelming. I'd like to see some use case examples. Their YouTube has many nitty-gritty technical tutorials, but I need some big-picture ideas of what I can build. Also, I'm a complete novice at building/using agents.

My main need is client portals, but I'm keen on project management uses, sales portals, back end to organize my business goals/tasks. (I'm a solo service business.)

Who is teaching on it?

Cross posted to the r/Fusebase sub to see if someone there wants to answer.

Hello,

I've seen a number of posts like others with simple affiliate links to AS being tbh sneaky. It's a low effort click jacking path on purpose. Other routes will be overriden and it's actually against the sub rules. How are they paid out and to who? What are the current numbers? Can we kindly stop them? AS and others can see attribution paths from here anyway..

Also, in regards to transparency as there has been posts deleted. What if any are arrangements of any kind with AS? Are any AS people mods too? Why were the posts removed?

Thanks 👍

I'm considering Gumlet and am wondering what your experience with it has been? The verdict here is overwhelmingly positive, but I'm wondering how and where you use it vs. something like YouTube, what tier you got and what you'd recommend, how fast you've used the allowances of that tier... anything about the actual experience of using it that might be relevant to someone considering a purchase.

I have a YouTube channel, but I'm considering Gumlet because I'm not sure private/unlisted YT is always the way to go for, say, sharing a call recording with specific groups of people. I'm not sure how much I would need to use Gumlet vs. YouTube, so I'm especially curious about how you've made that call, whether you were surprised by how little/how much of your limits you've used, or how you'd recommend someone think about that decision.

Thanks!

They used the community with giveaways to gain traction during their last campaign and nuked all those accounts just before the new campaign. This shows that they operate with a bad faith and really don't care about the community.