it doesn’t make sense to discriminate a @gmail.com or @whatever.com account… it’s google drive anyway… it’s the same service, the same app, the same program, but one has a custom address… it doesn’t make sense…
I find the difference between gapps account and traditional gmail accounts quite disappointing too.
I am using Insync with my school email address, but it is totally for personal use (my school gives me more free space).
Also, because the email went into spam, I missed the free extra Prime membership I could have gotten…
Out of interest, is this still on offer? I would for example use it indeed to get a family member on.
To pick but one of the many complaints about this. Just a short note, that I don’t get the self-rightous position that lies behind all the complaints. Not picking on this one in particular, it’s one of the less huffy ones after all. But wanted to say only that if you can run a business on a $20 or $30 a seat model as a one-off payment to receive endless upgrades and support, come back and table your credentials. But if you imagine yourself with just an hypothetical small software concern to manage, say 5 staff, say the earn $sal per annum and all want to keep doing that, are a great team, and you actually outlay $tot per employee in salary plus distributed on-costs (having an office, and whatever else you face on top of the salaries) then building a growing base of customers that contribute nothing to your annual expenses and consume support services is called business suicide and you won’t see any insync upgrades to be jealous of anyhow.
And if they reason that people using their own domain name (which demonstrates they are happy to pay an annual fee for that) and people who use a free account represent two distinct markets, well, that to me smacks of business acumen, and your complaints as self-righteous naivite.
Just saying. I have no shares in insync ;-). But they have delivered outstanding support and an outstanding product for chicken feed and I am grateful.
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Have I missed anything on the upgrade path? I keep looking for the email that was referenced in Terpua’s post in early January, but have not seen it. I would like to upgrade all three of my accounts (and add another one if the free promo is active) to plus.
Will be available soon! Just fixing stuff on the backend 
Here’s the real FAQ (free jokes for all!):
What is Prime?
Prime is the new Insync license, replacing Plus/Pro/Business and thus complicating things even though we simplified it.
Prime is not…
- making any difference between home or professional users
- free, not it every will be, you’ll pay up (yes, again)
- obligated, you can still stay on an old version. Well, until we stop supporting it I guess
- diverse, it’s the only option for new customers and currently there’s no option for existing customers
Traditional desktop software is generally sold as a one-time purchase between major versions with a discounted upgrade between versions. Even though we made you think we’re different, we’re just like any other company.
Current customers have the option to stay on their current license or pay again.
How much is Prime?
For new customers? Easy, it’s $29.99 per Google account with a 30-day money back guarantee. There are volume discounts for multiple licenses.
For loyal current customers? Ouch, that’s a tough one. Depends how much you already spent on our software, about 40 to 50 bucks in total I guess.
But hey! You can buy like 100 accounts and it’ll be cheaper (per account) and you’ll have many thankful friends. That’s priceless!
When will Prime be available?
If you’re a new user, right now! Old and loyal? Sorry, you’ll have to wait.
What is the difference between Plus/Pro/Business and Prime?
Plus vs Prime
- Something with versions… We don’t really care.
- You’ll pay more, that’s all I remember from the memo.
Pro vs Prime - It’ll be cheaper!
Business vs Prime - It’s tax deductible, why on earth would you care?
All customers on Plus/Pro/Business have been grandaddied, whatever that means.
How do I check what license I have?
Find the confirmation mail we sent you. What do you mean, you can’t find it anymore?!
What was the original promo email about, the one that went to spam for some customers?
We don’t really remember, can anyone send us a copy? Our spam folder already got deleted. It went to spam because it basically was spam, we offered something for free that isn’t really free and that’s pretty much the definition of spam. No, once again, you will not be getting Prime for free, stop asking! If we did free upgrades to all our existing customers, we couldn’t afford a second company Porche for all employees. Yeah sure, we passed out some free accounts back in May but that was only for three days. Boy, that sure was the craziest start of the week ever, I can tell you that.
What do I need to do to continue using Insync? Do I need to upgrade to Prime?
We don’t really know. For our sake, just take the damn upgrade and leave us alone already. Think about the time you got Windows XP, probably the best operating system evah and then Microsoft ended its life and forced everyone to upgrade. This is the same thing… Or is it? What were we talking about?
What happens if I don’t upgrade to Prime from my current license?
Didn’t I just explain that? Seriously, stay with me.
Will Insync 1.x (the version we’re on now) become obsolete when the next version update (2.x) is released?
Yes, eventually.
If I upgrade to Prime, will I need to pay again for future major version upgrades?
No. Unless we pull a stunt like this again, then yes. But no, we don’t think we will. Larry! Will we ever “simplify” our price points again? What’s that? Maybe in about 5 years? So I can tell them no, right? Right. No.
How and when can I upgrade to Prime?
We’re currently test driving some new Porches, we’ll send you a form or something, you’ll hear from us. Note: for Business, our people will talk to your people.
How will the upgrade work?
• Vroom vrooooom vroom vroom vroOoOoOooOm
• VROOM vroom vroom vroom vroooooom vroom vroom
• Honk honk! VroOoOoOOooOOooOOoom vroom vroom VROOM vroom vroom…
Is Prime a bait-and-switch or some other pricing scam?
Hahahahaha, hahaha, I don’t see why you would think that. Hahaha… No*, of course not*. What do you mean? I don’t see any asterisk. You silly bugger, haha. Buy Prime now!
.
.
.
.* it may be, we haven’t decided on that yet.
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i guest you missed the point…
but it’s pointless to start a comment “battle”, but the question is not about hypothetical business management scenario, but a question of real customer service management…
Strange, I’ve been upgraded to prime now - getting at the least basic security and fixes is needed.
I could see adjusting for microtransactions (for added features and usages), or even a subscription model like Lastpass has/had ($12/year for mobile access, and other options).
Thanks for the Prime!
It seems they’re sticking with their “if you used a gmail address, we’ll give it to you for free; if not you can pay again, at 30% off (which still makes it the same thing it cost in the first place)” train.
As such, I will be looking into a refund/other options, as the software was alright a month or two ago; but that was before I knew I’d have to pay twice for the same thing.
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To clarify, Plus users only get 1.x upgrades and you can stay on it and not pay anything extra so you actually got what you paid for 
If you want free upgrades to 2.x & beyond, then you will need to upgrade. As mentioned above, if we gave everything away for free, we wouldn’t be around that much longer.
No, according to the other posts here and in the other forum topics that have been created by the staff (that I’ve seen), 1.x will not recieve upgrades; they’ll just recieve updates to keep them working in current states.
And the bigger problem, is that if somebody wants free upgrades to 2.x (and only 2.x because there is no faith remaining that “beyond” will not require subsequent purchaes), all they have to do is have used their gmail address when signing up.
Why on earth would I want to “stay” on a product I paid for two months ago, that will not recieve any further development, or “choose” to pay that amount again (at a 30% discount mind) for the next version? Might not seem as bad a rub if I’ve been using it for a year or so already, but to me, this is just a “oh thanks for deciding our product was worth it with your wallet – by the way, that’s outdated now, if you want to get development on your two month old product, you’ll have to pay again”.
I’ve already sent an email to support requesting a refund; this is not acceptable to me, but I wish you the best of luck with this phlisophy with your business.
The philosophy of our business is actually quite common: we sell desktop apps for a one-time price for each major version (1.x, 2.x, etc.) with discounted upgrades to existing users. Existing users can choose to stay with the current version or upgrade at a discounted price. Desktop apps (large and small) have followed this model since the early days of the PC/Mac.
It just so happens that you bought version 1.x later in its cycle (it’s happened to me and I’m sure it’s happened to many that purchase desktop apps) but Insync version 1 is almost 4 years old, which is not common among desktop apps. Generally, they are on an annual or bi-annual major version release schedule (i.e. they will ask for upgrades more often).
We have been more than fair and perhaps too accommodating to our detriment (just look at the free upgrade for gmail users). In any event, we need to run a sustainable business and if we give every major version away based on our one-time pricing model, we wouldn’t be able to survive, much less iterate on new updates or upgrades.
So clarify…
Above you said (in the FAQ) [quote=“terpua, post:1, topic:8280”]
Pro vs Prime
yearly vs one-time pricing
3 vs 5 business days support
transferable (all time) vs non-transferable licenses
both offer free major version upgrades
[/quote]
And now you said [quote=“terpua, post:21, topic:8280”]
In any event, we need to run a sustainable business and if we give every major version away based on our one-time pricing model, we wouldn’t be able to survive, much less iterate on new updates or upgrades.
[/quote]
So if I buy Prime now, and you release version 2 Do I need to pay for version 2 even if I have Prime?
You don’t have to pay for version 2 if you purchase Prime since that license covers version 2 
So if our adress is @business.com … and we have the Plus!, we need to upgrade to Prime to receive all new version ?
And despite the fact that it include new document support, what else ?
Anyway, for that price, i will pay the upgrade without problem. This application works fine since the begening !
Plus is supported for all 1.x updates. For example, we are planning a version 1.4 which you will receive automatically without doing a thing.
If you want to receive 2.0 and beyond, then yes, you should upgrade to Prime.
RE: document support – don’t know what you mean but Prime includes free version upgrade.
Thanks
Apparently everyone who was eligible to Prime has been upgraded for free now, at least I got an email about it.
I have to say that while in the long run I benefit because of the one-off purchase, this licence changeover is a bit of a mess and a costly affair.
One of my accounts is on Plus and the other two are on a Pro subscription. The Plus account could stay as is until Insync 2.0 gets released, and the Pro subscription is due for renewal on February 5, so my total cost is $15. In order to upgrade all three to Prime I would have to spend $63, which is a considerable amount to me and can’t afford it in one go.
How long is the 30% discount offer valid for? Also, given that my Pro subscription is up for renewal in 3 days, will an upgrade to Prime be prorated?
I think this could have been handled better, and as other have pointed out, it seems unfair that gmail.com accounts get free upgrades but Google Apps/G Suite users have to pay. I fail to see why, as it’s the same service, same software, same functionality. I totally understand that you can’t give everybody free upgrades, but many Google Apps users are private individuals who are simply Gmail users with a custom domain, so why do we get ‘penalised’ for having a custom domain? This stings, especially when we already get the same treatment from Google themselves (Gmail users can share Android app purchases and Google Music All Access subscriptions with their families, but Google Apps users cannot).
If, as you’ve stated, you’d go out of business if you gave everybody free upgrades, then why give Gmail users a free ride? This doesn’t make sense, especially considering that you will not make any more money from existing users, Gmail and G Suite alike, once they’ve upgraded to Prime.
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The upgrade offer has no expiration.
RE: Pro renewal – I suggest that you upgrade to Prime since your Pro is up for renewal already (i.e. you have used up the yearly subscription so you aren’t wasting any “unused” time). But you can stay on Pro if you prefer to have transferable licenses and need faster support. And no, you will not be pro-rated when upgrading to Prime.
We gave gmail users a free upgrade as a way for us to apologize for the initial communication snafu. In hindsight, this wasn’t the best approach as you can tell from user complaints (i.e. those who are on Google Apps) but the intent and spirit of our upgrade was always about “customer first”.
While it’s good to know that the offer won’t expire, your reply just highlights the mess this licence change is.
As explained, I can’t afford to upgrade all three licences at once, so I have no choice but to renew my Pro subscription. But since you’re not offering a pro rata deal (like you used to when upgrading from Plus to Pro), I’ll have to wait with upgrading to Prime until Feb 5 2018 (assuming that the upgrade offer truly has no expiration on it). And even then, I still have to fork out $42 instead of $15, so no matter which way you turn it, your upgrade path is a costly affair.
Now I’m glad that I haven’t used up all three licences on my Pro subscription, as that would have added another $21 to the bill.
To me this is not a “customer first” approach, even if I do stand to benefit in the long run once I’ve converted all three licences.
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