Apollo shutting down due to Reddit’s unaffordable API

UGH. We’ve been tracking the negative effect that Reddit’s decision to begin charging for access to its API has had on third-party clients including Apollo. Now the developer of the awesome iPhone and iPad app has announced that API change is forcing Apollo to go offline completely.

“Apollo will close down on June 30″ Christian Selig announced today. “Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue. Thank you so, so much for all the support over the years.”

The problem is that Reddit has decided to charge $0.02 per user for access to its service. While that doesn’t sound like much, Apollo would see a bill that estimated $20 million annually before ever turning a profit from developing the app.

In the article published on Reddit, Christian explains why increasing the cost of accessing Apollo isn’t really an option either.

“Going from a free API for 8 years to suddenly incurring massive costs is not something I can feasibly make work with only 30 days, he writers. “That’s a lot of users to migrate, plans to create, things to test, and to get through app review, and it’s just not economically feasible. It’s much cheaper for me to simply shut down.”

What happens next? Apollo is losing access to the Reddit API on June 30 to ensure that no cost is incurred under the new Reddit policy.

What about current subscribers? It’s a very similar situation to what Tapbots and The Icon Factory faced with Tweetbot and Twitterrific when Twitter effectively killed its free API.

Removing the API from Apollo will mean the app can no longer access content from Reddit. Naturally, this will prompt a number of users to request a refund on annual subscriptions to the app. Christian estimates that he would be on the hook for a quarter of a million dollars if or when this happens. Brutal. Seriously, 9to5Mac readers, encourage anyone you know to not request a refund.

You can read the full FAQ on what’s happened with Apollo and why here.

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