Long-time Mac and iOS developer Pixelmator today announced that their mobile photo editor Pixelmator Photo is switching to a subscription pricing model. Up to now, Pixelmator Photo was available in the App Store for an upfront purchase of $7.99.
The app now costs $4.99 per month or $23.99 per year, with a seven day free trial. A $59.99 lifetime option will also be available. The subscription unlocks access across all your devices, including the upcoming newly-announced Mac version. Existing paid customers are grandfathered in for free.
Pixelmator Photo for Mac will be a fully native app, designed for macOS. The Mac app will be available by early next year. They also note that the subscription price tiers may rise once the Mac version is available, but you can subscribe now to lock in the current pricing.
The team explain more behind the pricing model change on the company blog; essentially the old one-time pricing was unsustainable for an app as complex as Pixelmator Photo and the iOS market is not kind to apps with higher upfront pricing.
Like with most subscription products, Pixelmator admits that some casual users will now no longer want to pay an ongoing subscription for something they don’t use that often. However, building a base of recurring revenue from dedicated users helps supports development of the application long into the future, with all new features released as soon as they are ready — rather than bundling features into a major new version with upgrade cost.
The changes do not apply to Pixelmator’s other products. At least as announced so far, there are no changes to the pricing of flagship product Pixelmator Pro (which is also currently on a paid upfront model).
You can get Pixelmator Photo now on iPhone and iPad from the App Store.
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