LooseSuits

You could say the same for almost any product that has competition.

Shaun has the benefit of looking indie but if I went into a public forum and slagged off a product like a nvidia graphics card there would be lots of nvidia fans fighting me to the virtual death.

It's just business. To answer "do you think Shaun would use his influence on purpose?": Almost certainly. He'd be an idiot not to try and sell his product when there are so many people out there talking about it.

"The basics are: it's $19 per domain for an upgrade. By any standards, a 66% upgrade fee per-licence is very steep."

It's steep if we're talking 66% of software that costs hundreds of dollars like Photoshop, but $19? $19 seems pretty cheap for all the hard work he's put into it, the website, the new forums, etc. I could lose $19 from my bank account each week and probably not realize it lol.

Shaun earned his status by working hard and making a name for himself in the design community. Maybe he gets the awesome-end of the stick because far more people love Mint and are willing to pay for it than those who think it's an unfair price. It's like the 37signals' scenario, for awhile people were bitching about their apps and methodologies but they've been gaining 10% in revenue month after month for over a year.

"But, because it's Shaun Inman, and his pack of A-listers support it"

They support it because they are close, personal friends with Shaun and they support projects he's apart of. This isn't some group of random designers spreading praise for a product and person they've never used nor met, these are his friends.

I love mint and i dont mind paying

As mentioned earlier, 19$ isn't really expensive if you ask me and if you really look at the demo and the features, I guess its easy to be convinced that its worth it.

I also think its a bit steep, I bought my first license on December 28th, thus missing the Jan 1st deadline by just a few days. But I'm not fussed about that.

Personally, for now, I only use mint to see some crucial figures: Visitors per day, where they are, how they left and most importantly, where they came from. I know he's added some nice whistles and bells -- but I just don't want it at the moment, it's not worth it.

I think, if he'd decided to slap a $10 price tag on it I would have been more inclined to do that paying without thinking thing, where you think, "who cares, its just $10".

No offense to Shaun, Mint is an amazing product, it has a great interface and I feel he has a remarkably strong brand. Something all products like his need.

I think it's cheap. As I said on Shaun's site, it's the price of two drinks. And I'd gladly pay the guy two drinks for Mint.

Yeah I think it's lame that people complain about $20 for an upgrade. I spend that much on food in two days. Shaun has a huge reputation, and he didn't have to spend his own time doing this if he didn't want to.

He didn't have to spend his own time doing this? Dude, this is his business, he isn't doing us a favour, hes trying to earn a living and make money so of course he HAS to do this. I could understand your statement if hes giving it to charity but he isn't.

I don't care about spending money, trust me, but I'm just saying, from a marketing point of view (which is the category this is posted in), if he set the price at $10 he would have had more *immediate* sales.

$19 ONCE is a hell of a lot cheaper than some of the other options out there.

Yes there are free ones but to get a nice interface on your site numbers... $30 ($19) is pocket change.

Hell when I was in school it seemed like I was shelling out $200 a month in software upgrades so $19 is nuthin.

I don't have Mint, but I've seen it and would gladly pay the $30 and then upgrade for $19. I'll be getting it for sure.

I definitely don't think that he has to do this. I think he would be just fine if he never even made Mint at all. Of course he could have more immediate sales with $10, I'm just saying that $20 is pocket change, and shouldn't be complained about.

I never complained ; )

I never even realize that Shaun was an A-Lister. Just that Mint is a incredibly popular stat tracking program.

Mike!

I could lose $19 from my bank account each week and probably not realize it lol.

I'll send you my Pay Pal info. I'm saving up for a Labradoodle. :)

What Mike said above.

Yeah... If Mike's looking to loose money each week, I'm in. I need a new laptop for next semester...

66% is steep by any standard? Did you look at other software out on the market and determine that the average upgrade price is much lower than 66%?

Trillian: 100%;
WinZip: 100%;
Office 2003: 60%;
Vista Home Premium: 60%;
Filemaker 8.5: 60%;
Illustrator CS2: 34%;

Almost all the Adobe/Macromedia products are between 30% and 50%. Other small apps (mostly shareware) that I looked into either didn't offer upgrades, had unlimited upgrades, or priced between 30% and 50%.

Basically, it's all over the map. Therefore, I'm not sure which standards you might be referring to.

Keep in mind I'm not a Mint user, but let's forget the price for a minute. Looking at the new features most of them seem to be design related or things that should have been released earlier for free (ex. full support for IE 6+). If I were a Mint 1 user the only thing that would slightly appeal to me is Bird Feeder but from what I heard, FeedBurner is better and gives the bonus of managing the bandwidth for the feed - for free. I just killed my reason to upgrade unless I want it to look prettier.

It's also $19 per domain and that's not cheap (depending on how many you have) and Google Analytics gives reports that (if you have a commercial site) advertisers would want.

What I read here, the vast majority are saying Shaun worked hard on 2, it's only $20, he earned it for the work he put in. What I'm not seeing is "I upgraded to 2 because it has X, Y, Z - and I've been looking forward to that". I think if the price were $50 (whatever that magical price point is when it's not pocket change anymore) then the discussion would be very different.

All the arguments about 20 bucks being "change" apply in North America or Europe, sure, but this is a product that's being sold worldwide.

Make no mistake people, $20 equals food for 2-3 days for most of us.

Really? Damn!

$20 equals food for 2-3 days for most of us.

I can get by in the US for that or less if I don't go out to eat.

I am still waiting for someone to tell me what Mint does that shortstat doesn't.

Is the value in Shaun's name? Or the product?

@ jonathansnook, while I can see your point with software and their upgrade prices, I really don't feel that you're using the right market to compare.

You cannot compare Office upgrades, to a stats script, Mint. It's like trying to compare the upgrade price of computer, to the upgrade price of McDonald's value meal. They don't equate.

Mint is a great product, and yes, the free alternatives do not have what mint has. I just feel that weird by being required to pay an upgrade fee for it. I've paid for numerous scripts in the past, and those all have included free upgrades for it.

I've been with Whmcs for two upgrades so far, and I still pay the same rate, haven't paid more for the upgrades--I haven't paid any at all. Yet the support and product is still great.

It just feels like Shaun used the success of Mint's profits, to charge for the upgrade. That's just how it feels to me; I'm sure he would like to be paid for his efforts, but at the same time, I just don't see why the need to charge over half his product fee, for an upgrade.

I think it's funny knowing that even though I will complain about the price of the upgrade, I'm still going to pay for it because I like the product enough to want to be able to get the new features and peppers. I just hate that it feels like that price was slapped on there because of people like me--who will complain, but still pay.

Oh well.

Jonathan,

I was mostly comparing it to the apps I use & purchase often (Office, Creative Suite, etc). I know that other things like Windows have a higher upgrade price -- but that's because they pack massive new features.

I think $20 is steep for (realistically) very, very few actual new features (things you can do with Mint2 you couldn't have done with Mint1). Also note I'm not complaining really, just kind of throwing it out there. I put down the $$ because as most people said, it's not that much in the big scope of things... but my reasoning for doing so was based off what I thought of Shaun and not what I thought of the product.... which is what got me to this route anyway.

I love Mint to death, but it's still missing a much needed reporting utility. :(

@Riane: I specifically chose examples from a similar market (inexpensive, relatively independent developers) like trillian and winzip, both of which have extremely high upgrade costs.

My point was the claim of 66% being high by any standard, isn't. It's not in similar markets and not in dissimilar (although still related) markets.

Ultimately, if the value isn't there to upgrade, don't upgrade. I likely wouldn't have if I hadn't received a free upgrade. Mint1 still works just fine.