app pricing - what happens if a free apps start charging?

[interstella]

Hi All,

A basic question about free apps and I guess about pricing in general for apps.  If you start off paying say, $5 a month for an app and the developer raises the price to $10, are you grandfathered in to only pay $5 a month going forward?   Or would you instantly have to pay $10?

The same question goes for completely free apps.  If you install it when the price is free, is it free in perpetuity, or would you have start paying if the developer decides to start charging for it?

I don't want to install a free app that I might end up having to pay an unexpectedly large monthly fee for and then deal with transitioning away from it.

Thanks,

Andrew

[flareAI · Accepted solution]

Hello @interstella,

Gina here from flareAI.

The Shopify apps have full control of the price of their service. So they can increase the price or make a free plan to pay for whatever they need.

But they can't automatically convert previous customers to paid customers. The grandfathered clients will continue using the plan they chose while adding the app. To upgrade to the new plan, the client has to manually choose the new plan the app offers.

While you add a paid Shopify app, during installation Shopify takes you through a "Approve subscription" page where you can see the details of the pricing plan you have chosen for the app. Always read it carefully before approving. On that page, you are agreeing to the app that you will pay monthly/annually/free based on the plan. If the app increases the price, then you have to go through a similar approval step to upgrade to the new plan. So nothing to worry about as no apps will suddenly start charging more than what you approved.

Hope this helps.

Gina
flareAI: Generate Sales from Google Search, on Autopilot

[flareAI · Accepted solution]

Hello @interstella,

Gina here from flareAI.

The Shopify apps have full control of the price of their service. So they can increase the price or make a free plan to pay for whatever they need.

But they can't automatically convert previous customers to paid customers. The grandfathered clients will continue using the plan they chose while adding the app. To upgrade to the new plan, the client has to manually choose the new plan the app offers.

While you add a paid Shopify app, during installation Shopify takes you through a "Approve subscription" page where you can see the details of the pricing plan you have chosen for the app. Always read it carefully before approving. On that page, you are agreeing to the app that you will pay monthly/annually/free based on the plan. If the app increases the price, then you have to go through a similar approval step to upgrade to the new plan. So nothing to worry about as no apps will suddenly start charging more than what you approved.

Hope this helps.

Gina
flareAI: Generate Sales from Google Search, on Autopilot

[Rein · Accepted solution]

Hi, @interstella 

I understand you are curious about if apps can charge you more after you agree to a set amount. The answer here is that they cannot.

If the plan you agree to sign up for is free on the app store it will always stipulate if the plan is a trial and will charge you any extra after a certain period of time. You cannot be charged extra unless you have agreed to this ahead of time. 

Have you encountered a situation where this was not the case? If so please do share this and I would be happy to look into it.