Pushbullet recently announced that it is introducing a new premium service called Pro. The app remains to be free for download. However, the company is moving some of its features into the premium tier subscription. For users to be able to take advantage of all the app's features, they need to subscribe to a monthly premium fee of $4.99.
Free apps transitioning into the paid service landscape is not entirely new. Several apps that started as a free service eventually migrated their services into subscription basis or via in-app purchases.
For some it might sound like a way to earn money. However, a close reality check will reveal that developers of these apps also need to eat and pay their bills. Sometimes in order to continue serving the many, a little monetary compromise is needed.
Pushbullet will retain most of its features at the free level, although it now has some minor limitations. For example, free users will be limited to a maximum of 2GB storage space while Pro users will have a storage limit of 100GB.
Some tech analysts said that the monthly subscription fee also justifies the services that Pushbullet provide to its users. Useful software and apps deserve monetary support in order to grow and add more improvements to the service.
In terms of improvements, the company posted on its official website, "These improvements will be additional features, increased reliability, support for more platforms, deeper integrations, more API support, additional privacy options, and much more."
The Pushbullet Pro is available in two payment system; $4.99 monthly or $39.99 annually. According to Computer World, Pushbullet Pro will kick off on Dec. 1.