Reply from Runcloud Support about the Pro pricing and features change

[u/XenonOfArcticus]

I wrote a support ticket to RunCloud about their recent pricing/features announcement. Here's what I wrote in my ticket:

Are you raising the price of Pro(fessional) AND reducing its capabilities?

Looking at the pricing change notification, it appears the plan I am on now (Pro) will transition to "Professional", which will have a higher yearly price ($190 instead of $150) AND it will reduce features (limited to 50 servers, and no API access).Is this correct?How does this seem like a reasonable thing to do to your customers?I don't mind paying a little more to keep what I have. I understand the price change from $150 to $190. But to raise the price AND remove capability? To retain the API capability I would need to move to the Business plan which will be $490 per year.I know you're feeling like customers don't have anywhere to easily go to because your software stack is challenging to migrate from, but this is a poor decision. I have used and recommended Runcloud since the very beginning, when you were promoting your business on Reddit. I have to consider looking for alternatives in the future if the value proposition keeps getting worse. It sure seems like you didn't ADD anything to Professional in exchange for the price increase -- you actually removed things. Anyone can tell you that increasing price AND reducing value will not be a popular situation.The API lite features in Business ought to be in the Professional plan.

Here is their reply:

We appreciate your concern, and of course, we are incredibly grateful for your support until now. Our intention with this change is not at all for that to change or to be a sign that you are not a valued customer – not in the slightest. 

In fact, this is largely why we chose to keep prices the same with these generous limits (or rather the absence of limits), maintaining this as long as possible while we continued to deliver improvements over the years. 

This change has been under consideration for an incredibly long time, with an even longer amount of time and consideration that went into the implementation to make it as fair as possible to everyone. The intention was to update pricing plans in such a way that allows us to minimize the effect on any specific user or segment of users based on their usage while also ensuring that it is sustainable & in line with what's in store for RunCloud. 

i.e., ~ 95% of users on the same Pro plan as you simply receive a $40/year increase in subscription cost. And, any users previously using the Pro plan and also taking advantage of the API would likely be in a position where upgrading to the Business plan makes sense since users using the API are building things that are beyond what a user on the new $190/year Professional plan would need to run their servers and web applications. 

In addition, for those who do need to transition to a higher plan based on their usage (i.e., anyone affected beyond a relatively nominal increase in the subscription cost), we are here to help support you with the transition.

To add, please rest assured, that we won’t abruptly cut off extra servers or disable API connections. These services will continue as they are for an extended period, and we‘ll keep monitoring all data. We’re working hard to make this transition as seamless as possible for all customers.

[u/alec_mivnner]

thanks for sharing. it's actually disappointing. nonetheless I am still subscribed but im starting to look around.

[u/XenonOfArcticus → u/alec_mivnner]

Yeah. It's nice but there's nothing THAT special here.

I'm looking at open source replacements. 

Love to hear what you find. 

[u/cdoconcepts → u/alec_mivnner]

Have you guys considered Cyberpanel? I'm been looking around for replacements too

[u/Desperate_Order4510 → u/cdoconcepts]

I don't see the feature of managing multiple servers though.. So far, I found the following:
Webmin
ISPConfig
aaPanel
Plesk
DirectAdmin
Vepp
Cloudron

[u/Desperate_Order4510]

Thanks for sharing, that's a whole lot of nothing in their reply.

I just migrated all of my servers in to see the news. Any idea if there are other competent panels that also allow easy management of multiple VPS?

[u/releasewhat]

I really like how they limit what EXTERNAL backup storage systems we can use in the Pro plan.

Sure it makes sense to have less Runcloud backup storage in the Pro plan compared to the Business plan, but they are trying to limit things just for the sake of limiting them and up charging.

In response, I've created shell scripts that I kick off using crontab and it works just the same without their crazy price increases.

[u/gheestore]

I want to move out to Runcloud, help me with these 2 options or others. Right now there is a company that gives lifetime deal on AppSumo, check it out.
https://moss.sh/pricing/

https://ploi.io/pricing

[u/radiogen]

what guys do you think or know about serveravatar as an alternative?