Logos Now and Faithlife Connect: The Why

1. Thank you for sharing. I understand the financial issues. I don't think this is motivated by greed.

2. $100 (or even slightly more) was/is okay. $240 is way too much. The inevitable comparison is going to be to Office 365. Logos Now/FaithLife Connect doesn't offer anywhere near comparable value for most people.

3. Logos is becoming bloatware. Many of us want powerful Bible software, which you have created. Many of the same people are not at all interested in all the other extras--courses, TV, etc. We want to be able to keep our software updated and nimble at a reasonable cost. $100 a year was reasonable for that. $240 is not. $90 is not reasonable for a greatly diminished alternative set of features.

4. Thank you for the coupon, which mitigates the sting a little bit. I'm going to use mine to buy a Logos 7 feature set to "freeze" my present configuration. I will not renew my Now/Connect subscription, nor will I buy any other subscriptions you offer in the future. When Logos 8 rolls out, I will think very long and hard about whether I really need it or if it is just the start of another lap on the treadmill. So, from me this year onwards, instead of $240 or $100 in subscription revenue, your going to get $0. I'm sure I'm the only one who is change purchasing habits like this. I don't see how this change benefits either customers like me or FaithLife.

3. Logos is becoming bloatware. Many of us want powerful Bible software, which you have created. Many of the same people are not at all interested in all the other extras--courses, TV, etc. We want to be able to keep our software updated and nimble at a reasonable cost. $100 a year was reasonable for that. $240 is not. $90 is not reasonable for a greatly diminished alternative set of features.

I completely agree. I think that this new business idea is about as good an idea as when you guys wanted to get into the online dating business. 

(Continued.)

5. I am very concerned about the well-being of FaithLife. I want you, and my library, to stick around basically forever. That this move is considered necessary is somewhat disturbing.

6. The rollout of this change was terrible. That's kind of the default for FaithLife. You really need to look into why that is the case.

Bob - this sort of feels like a punishment.

I have a hard time seeing the value.

Forcing people like myself who have paid 10k, and have 10k still being paid off are on the short end of the stick when it comes to subscriptions.

If I thought I had a chance to get it, I'd ask for my 10k back, and to give back the licenses to the 10k (roughly, thats not the exact number) still owed. They can have all the licenses back.

THEN 240$ a year might be an acceptable price. THEN now/cloud/connect might be a good thing for me.

I could use 10k to finish my masters degree. To repair my house from IRMA, to pay off medical bills. Truck repairs... The list goes on. I feel like I've invested in a company that no longer values me. That may change. But thats how the continued march towards subscription feels.

You've been more than fair over the years, and I have no doubt that your fairness will continue.

I just feel sort of like reagan must have when he said he had been left behind by his party. I sort of feel left behind by my bible software company, while at the same time feeling the financial pressures of life, of pastoring a small church, of not being paid a living wage, and yet still trying to pay for seminary.

Thank you for the explanation Bob.

I'm not sure where the idea came from that we'd get new feature updates every six weeks. But I guess I must have missed that or not considered it important when signing up to Logos Now when it first was launched. My understanding was that Logos Now was launched in order to stabilise your income stream between major versions. The perk for signing up was that we got the new features sooner than we would with the major upgrades. I signed up as that was appealing to me, but also to support the ongoing development of Logos. I never expected new features every six weeks, maybe twice a year or so...

The biggest thing I have against Faithlife Connect is that I have to pay more than double the amount to keep the original benefit of Logos Now. If I was working at the moment I'd probably just shrug it off in appreciation for the work Faithlife does, but I'm just starting a four year MDiv, so I'm not eager to pay a lot more money. I can understand that prices will go up over time, and expected this to happen with Logos Now, but going to Faithlife Connect is a steep jump in pricing if you don't want the other parts of the package.

I appreciate that you've given a big discount to us so that we can use to lock in the new features by buying the Extended Features set, and I may need to do that, and that would save me money over the next few years, even compared to the current Logos Now subscription. However, I also would love to keep supporting the development of Logos and keep getting the latest features. I'd love to see an option in Faithlife Connect where we could customise our package, allowing us to only choose the Logos portion of it.

I wish you all the best in what I'm sure is a challenge job in planning the future for Faithlife.

Bob Pritchett said:

Access to new features early, as they were released, was just a little part of what we imagined Logos Now would be, which we hoped would make it more attractive to transaction users, helping them transition to a subscription world.

This really makes me sad. My only motivation for joining Logos Now was to keep up on new features and support in that way, the development of the program.  I thought of it also as a way to "pay in advance" to help with the sticker shock of each upgrade. I am sad because it appear to reveal the true motivation, something we all have had reason to suspect and that is that one day, our investment in Logos downloadable is going to be outdated software just like Adobe Photoshop downloadable (Which no longer exists) is outdated, or Microsoft Office Suite is outdated.  Your sentence here is the reason for us who have invested heavily to worry regardless of what we hear.  It is the reason for slowing down our purchases.  We have been losing confidence over the years with the decision making process. 

Bob Pritchett said:

We need a true 'no purchase necessary, pure subscription' product.

I thought that was Logos Cloud.  Why not kill Logos Now and that solves the problem you seem to be addressing.  Logos Cloud is subscription only.  Logos Bible Software is downloadable.  The downloaded product can have a feature to pay for accessing their content only online.  Why is this so difficult?

Why could you not first email long term, heavily invested customers these ideas of yours to get feedback before implementing what amounts to a shock?  Do you not think that many of us would be willing to engage in an honest exchange to help in the thinking process?  You have valid points.  But the roll out of these things could be much better. Would it be correct to assume that people on the beta channel were in the know about this as they were in the change from L3 to L4?

Mark said:

Bob Pritchett said:

Access to new features early, as they were released, was just a little part of what we imagined Logos Now would be, which we hoped would make it more attractive to transaction users, helping them transition to a subscription world.

This really makes me sad. My only motivation for joining Logos Now was the keep up on new features and support in that way, the development of the program.  I thought of it also as a way to "pay in advance" to help with the sticker shock of each upgrade. I am sad because it appear to reveal the true motivation, something we all have reason to suspect and that is that one day, our investment in Logos downloadable is going to be outdated software just like Adobe Photoshop downloadable (Which no longer exists) is outdated, or Microsoft Office Suite is outdated.  Your sentence here is the reason for us who have invested heavily to worry regardless of what we hear.  It is the reason for slowing down our purchases.  We have been losing confidence over the years with the decision making process. 

Bob Pritchett said:

We need a true 'no purchase necessary, pure subscription' product.

I agree Mark!

Bob: So you are getting rid of a program people did like, and do use, to prop up something that YOU like, but isn't selling as well? seems risky.

Bob Pritchett said:

Thanks for letting us know what you think, even if you're unhappy.

Thank you for the thorough explanation. (I was one of the people who owned the feature set, but still subscribed for early release access, although when fewer features were getting rolled out, I was considering letting LN lapse.)

If I was a brand new customer, I'd definitely subscribe to FL Connect, as it would be much cheaper to rent books and features, than to spend the amount I have over the past few years!

Unfortunately, I've made a large investment now, and I can't see how subscribing is anything but being charged to rent books and features which I already own.

The only apparent option remaining is to buy new features, but miss out on any early release access for two years. In that regard, I feel that I am missing out, since there is no middle ground but to pay 2.4x each year to get what I previously had.

I'll say it again. I didn't mind paying $99/yr for early release access -- LN was an amazing value --  but I don't think that early release access is worth $240/yr.

I'll likely take my $X00 and buy the L8 feature set. It makes no sense to rent features at $240/yr when I can own them outright. (I understand there are other benefits to Connect, but features are what drive/advance the software.)

I'm not unhappy. It is what it is, and FL is making a reasonable and fair adjustment in how they market and develop software. Thank you very, very much for the benefits (voucher, extension, and so forth).

If FL Connect changes by the time my subscription lapses -- i.e., a tier without book/feature rentals to avoid being charged for what we own, for ~$120/yr -- I'd probably subscribe.

Thanks again for writing, and for listening. May God bless you and your company, Bob.

Everett Headley said:

Mark said:

  It is the reason for slowing down our purchases.  We have been losing confidence over the years with the decision making process. 

Absolute truth.

 That which we have asked for largely goes unanswered.  That which we don't ask for, gets pushed onto us.

I have been here for nearly two decades, and if I could recoup my investment, I would sell.

We may not be your shareholders, but in a very real sense there has been much of the public trust between us broken.  It is time for Bob to see this, realize it, and revitalize this base that helped build his company.

You've said it better than I had. My last major purchase was under L6. All the changes feel almost predatory, or at least descriminatory towards those who have spent money like water with the company. I said in another (maybe this thread... Lost track) if I could get the money spent back, and forfeit all the licenses I've bought I would. I would happily sign up for now/cloud or whatever they want to call it. Short of that, I'd have to pay twice for resources - once to own, once to rent. A thing I have absolutely no interest in.

Thanks for the explanation Bob.

As a retiree and a lay person I was happy with the cost and value of Now. I didn't realize you guys were on a 6 week cycle. And it didn't mean anything to me. I was mostly after the Logos 7 feature set and the free book of the month.

I can't afford the jump to Essentials to get the same features I have now. and the $100 coupon code won't do me much good as it is too little to get me the Logos 7 full feature set. That really disappoints me.

JT (alabama24) said:

FWIW - I think "Faithlife Connect" can be a great thing... but for many users, it isn't the right thing. 

I would agree with several points in this thread - many new users are accustomed to the subscription model - I have heard time and time again where I have shared the idea of Logos to people and they are on board... until they hear the price.  But for some reason, people are perfectly fine dolling out as much or more in a smaller monthly payment.  I'm thinking mostly of my lay leadership team and church members.  This subscription method may make Logos "accessible" to a new community of the "average" church membership since the high spending users (like myself and several other forum users) may be reaching a slowed pace of purchasing power.  (Although, I know I got plenty more books to buy, wife-willing!)  

If Logos is committed to continuing making the software experience more user-friendly for the devotional and congregational life of a Christian, then I believe a larger adoption of the software would continue.  The subscription model seems to make sense for that customer.  

I personally feel like the LN switch to FLConnect was abrupt - maybe a teaser email before the rollout would have been nice?  On the other hand, this rollout gives us 9 months heads up (at least) before any real changes happen.  The challenge is for those that anticipated LN to continue on indefinitely and used it as a way to not have to get a purchased feature set.

Phil Gons (Faithlife) said:

Just a quick clarification that whether you buy a base package or subscribe to Connect (or Cloud or Now before that), you have the same offline and online options. Base package owners can use the desktop app, the mobile app, and the web app. The same is true for Connect (and Cloud and Now). The fundamental difference is owning a perpetual license vs. subscribing to a temporary license, not offline vs. online.

I do not see this and I guess you can help me to see it. But I think you misunderstand. (Maybe I misunderstand).  IF I owned nothing and I subscribed to Connect but I owned NO resources...it was all subscription based...then there is nothing to download.  It is all done via a web app.  If this is not true, then FL has failed miserably to make it clear.

Thank you for taking the time to explain the situation. I purchased Logos Now a few months ago to have access to the feature set, not all the other components. I was not aware that "new features" were due every few weeks. While I appreciated the other components like a free "classic" each month, which helped me learn the value of Logos for more than just Bible study. I considered everything else a perk to the primary value of having the feature set. As a student who just started his MDiv, this new model hurts.

I do not have a problem with the new subscription model for new customers. As I read through the tiers, I realized that there were a few people I know on the fence about Logos and this price point may help convince them. I think Faithlife has provided a lot of value in these tiers (Faithlife TV being the exception.) However, I am holding off on recommending this to friends and family, because I want to see how this transition is handled. 

My biggest concern is the lack of dynamic pricing for the hybrid approach. I see two main pieces to Faithlife Connect (FC): subscribing to content and subscribing to software. I have no problem subscribing to software, I have done this elsewhere as others have mentioned; Microsoft Office being the prime example. After all, for probably most Logos Now subscribers, we subscribed for software not content. What matters for software is the quality of the product, not the quantity of new features it contains. As to content, if I already purchased content that is now offered in a tier, but am going to be charged the same as if I had not purchased that content, I feel cheated. 

This raise a couple scenarios:

1) I own a library now. If I subscribe to FC with content that overlaps what I bought, will the price be adjusted?

2) I own nothing. I subscribe to FC. I purchase a library. Will the library be dynamically priced? I would imagine no, because the content through FC is a temporary license. Will my FC subscription be adjusted due to the licenses which have switched to permanent?

Looking back at my purchasing decision a few months ago, I have a couple observations. When I was trying to determine what to buy, Logos Cloud was never on my radar. I did not know it existed, I wish I did. When I contacted Faithlife with questions about Logos Now, I was not suggested Cloud as an alternative library. Instead I was given the hybrid option, which is fine. I subscribed for software and bought the content. Even finding Logos Now was a bit of an accident, however. It was not featured in a prominent way as an alternative to purchasing the feature sets. For me, the problem with Logos Now and Logos Cloud was the lack of marketing. Even a side banner on the product page of base packages for other purchase options would have helped me navigate my options. 

Bob Pritchett said:

I’m sorry when that frustrates you, and promise that we will continue to try and do right by every user, even if we have to address each user’s situation specifically. We will also continue to listen to your feedback; it is the most important thing in helping us make decisions.

Thanks for letting us know what you think, even if you're unhappy.

One last thing: Bob, I appreciate your openness to feedback, whether positive or negative, and your willingness to dialog with your customers.

I wish to highlight this section of Bob's post to some of the forumites who regularly jump in and start calling people bad Christians whenever they raise complaints about something FaithLife has done. Here you have it from Bob himself--they can handle the criticism.

Bob,

Thanks for the detailed and well thought out post. As usual, it was helpful in understanding FL's thought process, vision, and strategy moving forward. Unfortunately, as is too often the case with FL's roll-outs, this post should have PROCEEDED the launch, not come a day after as a P.R. response to a near mutiny. FL needs to over communicate on new launches, not throw it out there and see what happens. FL customers are invested, both financially and emotionally, in the products and services you provide. This is no different than coming home after work and telling your wife and kids you've quit your job and you're all moving to the South Pole. A little communication up front goes a long way. Many of us have been with you a long time and want to see FL survive and thrive. We're for you, not against you. How about letting us know what's going on ahead of time instead of dropping major changes out of the blue? That's all most of us our asking. As you explained, we now have plenty of time to understand the changes and decide what we want to do moving forward. But few of us understood that because of the terrible way it was rolled out. My sincere advice--whether it's L8 or the next big idea--is to communicate early and often with your customers. Better yet, ask us for our feedback, and we'll tell you. Better to do it that way than the way this was handled, as you've seen  

Shalom

Bob

I appreciate the conversation that has started here. 

Bob Pritchett said:

Sean said:

6. The rollout of this change was terrible. That's kind of the default for FaithLife. You really need to look into why that is the case.

We hear this criticism with almost every significant announcement. (I hear it internally when we make internal announcements.)

It could be you're right, and we're just incapable of communicating clearly... :-(  It's a hard problem -- if you just put something out for discussion casually, you don't have the details and specifics that people immediately want to understand it. If you put out the details and specifics, people complain there was no warning.

This time we put all the information together, prepared specific "your individual situation" emails for everyone, and designed it to take nine months to actually change anything (other than giving you new stuff for free immediately).

Yes, I suppose we could have just put a "Here's what we're thinking...." label in front of it... but in many ways this IS the pre-announcement. (While we think the plan is done, it's also nine months from full implementation, which is plenty of time to gather feedback and make necessary tweaks...)

Why not do a kind of ‘pre-pub’ or ‘community pricing’ concept to guage support for new ideas and features (as well as books) and what people would be willing to pay?

Bob Pritchett said:

(While we think the plan is done, it's also nine months from full implementation, which is plenty of time to gather feedback and make necessary tweaks...)

This is what I appreciate about FL, that you can be responsive and make adjustments.

Sincerely hoping you can find the sweet spot where FL is profitable and successful, and we continue to subscribe and support the company!