I really, truly don’t mind paying for software, but all of these subscription services cost obscene amounts of money. $10 per month is $120 per year. $120! I might pay that much for boxed software, but it would need to do a heck of a lot more than IFTTT, and I’d expect to get much more than one year of life out of it.
Affinity Photo, for instance, cost $60, and VMware Fusion cost $80, to name two products I purchased recently. Neither needs to be bought again after a year unless an update contains a new feature I want (and probably not even then for Affinity), and both can do a lot more than IFTTT. Neither has a server component, true, but how big a cost can that possibly be for IFTTT?
I'm not, like, a fan of IFTTT, but it's likely that you just aren't the target market for the product; it might be valuable to you, but "people like you" might be a small enough niche that the product can't be made sustainable at a price point you'll swallow. This happens a lot, right?
You should compare recurring cost with other recurring costs. Otherwise, it will always seem expensive, because you can multiply an arbitrary period of time to the price.
After inspecting my own personal finance, I’ve found that my spent on software subscription is less than 1% of my yearly spent. So, I’ve stopped worrying about it quietly accumulate. Not yet worth optimizing.
An aside... I've never really got why technical folks would use IFTTT vs self-hosted. For non-techies I get it... but there are so many great and free tools available e.g. python, tasker/automagic/B4A, node-red, etc, etc.
I'm guessing this move to PRO will drive capable folks away.
Because I created applets/whatever’s on ifttt like 5 years ago and I haven’t touched them since, and they keep working.
God forbid I have to maintain a server, upgrade for new libraries, handle moving a server, etc etc. Write the code in the first place, debug problems, update my API keys...
It took me something like 2 minutes to set up an IFTTT action to email me whenever a keyword showed up in an RSS feed I'm interested in, and I didn't have to worry about keeping the script running or anything like that. There's no way I could have done it that fast even with Python, and I would have to maintain the damn thing.
My use of IFTTT is things like:
* When my garage door is open (Garadget) then turn on my garage indicator light (TP Link Kasa Lightbulb). That way if I leave the garage door open on accident I have a bright red light telling me that
* When the garage door opens after dusk, turn on the driveway lights
* When the doorbell rings (Ring) and it's after dusk, turn on a group of lights (Leviton)
* When the door unlocks (August Smart Lock) turn on a group of lights (Leviton)
I'd love to self host rather than use IFTTT, but is that even possible with those other tools?
"We believe that Pro’s price of $9.99 per month is money well spent. However, because Pro is new and will evolve in response to your feedback, we wanted to provide some payment flexibility. Our introductory set your own price subscription allows you to choose your monthly payment for the first year of Pro. This special offer expires in 4 weeks, on Wednesday, October 7th."
Interesting approach. I wonder what users will pay on average during this first year.
If they give me a full blown console where I could run lambda-like python code on top of all the existing device integrations they already have, I'd be glad to pay the full $9.99/month. But the product would have to evolve a lot versus where it is today.
I look at IFTTT and Zapier and wonder what people use them for. Don't get me wrong, I think both have a target consumer but they feel expensive for what they appear to offer. I feel like if you're investing in automation the agnostic nature of owning and operating the code is more valuable than building into a walled system that relies on Internet connectivity and a SaaS service. OpenFaaS plus some Python could get you a long way on a $5/month VPS. Or... Pennies in any of the FaaS offerings wired up with cloud native tools. Or Node-RED?
Are there any good OSS orchestration / automation frameworks out there that scratch this itch?
You can do this yourself. Just ping your lambda functions as if they were webhooks.
The problem with IFTTT has always been speed for me. I had the soccer goal notifications activated once I got my hue lights years ago so that when my team scored itd flash the lights. Usually this happened five minutes after I watched it on the TV. Useless.
Hah I feel tricked. I was going to go for $1/mo and pay them $12 for a year. I don’t use ifttt but why not. The minimum is $1.99. That’s not pay what you want. I might still do it and combine what my brother or friend use it for into one account for a year, but still
A couple weeks ago, I was looking for some way to convert a Gmail email filter into an Android clock alarm (not just a custom notification) so I can be woken up if a certain email arrives. I haven't found a solution for this. I had heard of IFTTT, so I took a look at the website, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. I signed up for a free account and I searched through the integrations available, but it didn't seem to get me what I wanted. Maybe it's just me, but it wasn't clear enough that it could solve my problem that I should invest the time to figuring out how to use it.
And what do you suggest replaces it? Developers don’t offer subscriptions because they are greedy. They offer them because it’s the best way to have a sustainable software business.
This reminds me, I've been meaning to set up a Huginn install to test out. I don't really have a use for it at the moment, but I think more people in this thread would find it interesting. They describe it as:
> Think of it as a hackable version of IFTTT or Zapier on your own server.
Yeah, this just pushed me into dropping my account. It's been slow or intermittently failing for ages as it is on the tasks I do have on there, so I wouldn't call myself predisposed to give them ANY cash to begin with. Limiting things on top of that just simplifies the decision.
I put a bunch of scripts together, accept webhooks and run scripts based on them or timed scripts after set intervals. Combined with a Telegram bot for notifications, and Ive replaced IFTTT with a messy. but more extensible solution.
I'm guessing the free users aren't worth that much to them now they have got established. If 90% of their revenue comes from 10% of their users then this might be a convenient way to cull them.
Maybe we're getting a good deal with Spotify, Netflix etc with a 10$/month all-you-can-eat entertainment and it's worth more than that, but IFTTT Pro certainly doesn't feel like a 10$/month service. I registered for the 2$/month service for now, but I just did to give me some time to look for a selfhosted alternative.
Interesting move. It seems to me that IFTTT caters for a non-technicial hobby audience, because technical people and commercial outfits can replicate everything it does (and more) with a web server and some python scripts. And ten bucks a month is a lot for a hobby.
Replicating everything is Potentially a lot of time for a hobby too. Yet that is being advocated. There’s no way half the developers or techies I know would keep maintaining a self hosted alternative.
I'm here for this. Zapier is super overpriced and IFTTT is hampered by its attempted "ease of use". As an individual, I need something in between, which hopefully IFTTT Pro is/will become.
The polling rate will be much quicker. Zapier offering is pretty weak at $15/Mo too. Better than ifttt but Zapier’s real power comes at the higher prices.
[+] [-] Wowfunhappy|5 years ago|reply
Affinity Photo, for instance, cost $60, and VMware Fusion cost $80, to name two products I purchased recently. Neither needs to be bought again after a year unless an update contains a new feature I want (and probably not even then for Affinity), and both can do a lot more than IFTTT. Neither has a server component, true, but how big a cost can that possibly be for IFTTT?
I’m probably never using IFTTT again. Oh well.
[+] [-] tptacek|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] solipsism|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] powersnail|5 years ago|reply
After inspecting my own personal finance, I’ve found that my spent on software subscription is less than 1% of my yearly spent. So, I’ve stopped worrying about it quietly accumulate. Not yet worth optimizing.
[+] [-] willio58|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] canada_dry|5 years ago|reply
I'm guessing this move to PRO will drive capable folks away.
[+] [-] emit_time|5 years ago|reply
God forbid I have to maintain a server, upgrade for new libraries, handle moving a server, etc etc. Write the code in the first place, debug problems, update my API keys...
[+] [-] yen223|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fletchowns|5 years ago|reply
I'd love to self host rather than use IFTTT, but is that even possible with those other tools?
[+] [-] guiambros|5 years ago|reply
Interesting approach. I wonder what users will pay on average during this first year.
If they give me a full blown console where I could run lambda-like python code on top of all the existing device integrations they already have, I'd be glad to pay the full $9.99/month. But the product would have to evolve a lot versus where it is today.
[+] [-] windexh8er|5 years ago|reply
Are there any good OSS orchestration / automation frameworks out there that scratch this itch?
[+] [-] deanclatworthy|5 years ago|reply
The problem with IFTTT has always been speed for me. I had the soccer goal notifications activated once I got my hue lights years ago so that when my team scored itd flash the lights. Usually this happened five minutes after I watched it on the TV. Useless.
[+] [-] skinnymuch|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tcbawo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CarelessExpert|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] urda|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasonlfunk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sorenjan|5 years ago|reply
> Think of it as a hackable version of IFTTT or Zapier on your own server.
https://github.com/huginn/huginn
[+] [-] Firehawke|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IceWreck|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mumblerino|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tonyedgecombe|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m-p-3|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] foxylad|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skinnymuch|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 2bluesc|5 years ago|reply
What does faster mean?
My biggest frustration is that my Maker Webhooks[0] requests take hours (4 hours on average maybe?) to execute with Wyze integration.
[0]https://ifttt.com/maker_webhooks
[+] [-] paledot|5 years ago|reply
The 3-applet limit is weak, though.
[+] [-] SN76477|5 years ago|reply
IFTTT has rarely worked properly for me with synchronizations running terribly behind or not at all.
why would I pay for that, with a challenging interface and just single step actions? Zapier does just as much if not more for $15 a month.
[+] [-] skinnymuch|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MrStonedOne|5 years ago|reply
polling rate is an hour normally, now with pro you can get it at 5 minutes
[+] [-] alexktz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anaganisk|5 years ago|reply