We've fixed one more major bug in Wikidot.com: our pro accounts are too cheap. Ironically, being much cheaper than other wiki hosting firms means that many people look at Wikidot.com and think, "oh, cheap and unreliable!" So we are applying a simple solution: we're doubling our prices.
A Pro-Lite account now costs $49.90 (€49.90 incl. VAT) for a year, and a Pro-Plus account now costs $239.90 (€239.00 incl. VAT) for a year. You can see the new prices on our plans page.
A 100% increase in prices sounds a lot, but it is modest given how much Wikidot.com has grown over the last year. We are still much cheaper than other wiki hosting providers. To compare, one of our competitors charges $480 for just a single five-user site. A Wikidot Pro-Plus account gives you 30 sites with unlimited users, about $1.00 per site per month.
As a way of saying "thank you" to existing Wikidot users, we're giving a 50% reduction until 1st December. That means you still have three weeks to renew your account at the old prices. You can extend your account for 12 months, or 24 months, or more, and benefit from this special offer.
My advice is to extend or upgrade your account before 1 December, to get the best possible price. But even when the special offer expires, Wikidot.com remains the best deal around.
Thanks for the warning. The new prices seem like a good idea, but they may be a bit steep for normal folks (non-web-developers and non-firms). Then again, Pro accounts probably aren't meant for us anyway.
As I said last time you nudged free users towards paying (http://blog.wikidot.com/blog:community-and-pro/comments/show#post-535054), I hope this is the end of the price-hikes. I got my pro-lite account partly to support wikidot and partly to get rid of the top bar. I put the top bar back (it's actually kind of nice), so I'll probably let my pro account lapse come next year.
Yes, I also like the top bar and put it back on most of my sites. We decided to move prices to what we consider the right level in one go, rather than a series of increases over months. There are no more increases planned, though we will be introducing new account options over time.
Portfolio
the title says it all.
…oh, you surely got to be joking. You are the best wiki farm I know, and this action so isn't like the impression I recieved of you these last years. I sure hope, with prices these high, that you never cease your free service.
I am actually thinking about buying a pro lite account (I was before I saw that you doubled the prices), although now it feels like I am kind of forced to it as long as the prices are low. Not a very good feeling, I can assure you.
We will not cease our free service, but will improve it and we want to eventually make it ad-free.
Portfolio
That sure is great to hear!
The one thing that really bothers me is the only-5-people-per-private-wiki. I don't make any money by using wikidot, but there may private projects arise - for university, for example, or a game development project - which need to have more than 5 persons and which shouldn't be readable by all the world and his brother.
For any educational project, you can upgrade your wiki yourself, in the site manager.
For game development, I'd encourage open collaboration anyhow.
Portfolio
If it's a revenue stream you are looking for I wouldn't follow the herd on this one as its a slippery slope and you could slide down the wrong path quick.
From a wiki perspective, an area with better revenue stream opportunity is through corporate sales. A lot of wiki's will only web host but with Wikidot being open it could be loaded and administered onto any intranet and thus opens the door for paid consulting. Think of the sales pitch….
Q. How much does the software cost…A. Nothing
Q. So you'll charge me for upgrades…A. Nope, not a dime
Q. Requires a lot of training…A. Not really, its so easy a caveman can do it (sorry Geico)
I agree totally, and we think the herd has it wrong. We want to make free wikis as powerful and useful as possible, very much a community of wiki sites, and then target the pro options at people who do not want to see the Wikidot community visible on their sites.
For students, individuals, and not-for-profit groups, being part of a community is perfect. For small businesses and professionals, paying a small amount (and the new prices are still very low), is perfect.
Corporate sales is a great idea, of course, but it's a market well served by products like Confluence and indeed mediawiki. Marketing, sales, and consulting are not what we want to do. We are a wiki farm, and will remain a wiki farm (where 'wiki' grows to include many types of collaborative application) for the foreseeable future.
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I disagree to the extent it's not as well served as you may believe, especially in very large organizations. Yes there are collaborative software packages but none are deployed with a Wiki farm approach. A company I work for, we deploy 300 to 800 employees on a single development project and with so many individual cogs things like data sharing, co-ordination, organization, structure, etc… is vital. Additionally, I work with 60 suppliers and I can assure you not one has an internal wiki farm approach.
Fair enough, that is a focused business objective and I can't fault anyone for that. If anything I'll support you a 100% because of this statement. But, if anyone is interested in starting a new career here's an opportunity :)
You are right, and we do see enterprise wiki farms as one of the products we'd like to launch, but it is too early: although the business definitely makes sense, it demands a sizeable structure to do sales and support. Selling consultancy is counter-productive when it means taking manpower away from product development.
In our vision of things, Wikidot has another year or so of growth, building better templates and tools for managing larger clusters of sites, and stand alone wiki farms. We experimented with wikidot.org, and decided finally that we needed to concentrate on our core service until we have at least built the product we want to make.
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Whilst it might seem like a big increase, all of the plans now boil down to approximately one dollar / per site / per month. Which I think everyone one can agree is a fantastic bargain. The trouble is some bigger organisations are going to be wary of something that cheap, so I think the changes make sense, especially since you can always lock in the cheap rates for 5 or 10 years if you are really concerned about the price hike.
Wayne Eddy
Melbourne, Australia
LGAM Knowledge Base
Contact via Google+
Agreed :-)
λ James Kanjo
Blog | Wikidot Expert | λ and Proud
Web Developer | HTML | CSS | JavaScript
There should be an easier way to do this. Currently, you can only extend your service 12 months at a time.
Even though I wasn't due to renew until December, I renewed back in October while I was thinking about it. I'd be interested in locking in for a few more years at the reduced price, but would prefer not to have to go through the hassle and then explain the multiple line items on my company's credit card. (And it might look kind of fishy to my credit card company). There needs to be an easy way to prolong the service for multiple years.
Also, as a further incentive to lock in for a longer term, it would be nice to see some discounts for multiple year extensions.
Even thought I'm still running a now ancient Open Source version on my own hardware, my future plans are to migrate everything over to Wikidot's servers so I can take advantage of all of the fantastic changes in the last several months. I'm in this for the long haul and am happy to pay a fair price for the service (but won't be sad if I can lock in now at reduced rates!)
-Ed
Bootstrap Playground - Wikidot Meets Twitter Bootstrap!
Wikidot API - PHP · A PHP client and code samples for the Wikidot API
Yes, you can. Sorry about this (counter-intuitive) limitation in the upgrade panel, but you can put multi-year upgrade in the same "cart", but you can order the upgrade multiple times itself, i.e.
Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalf.me
I think you mean "but you can't put multi-year upgrade in the same "cart"
I know I can order multiple year extensions one year at a time, but can't you make it easier so I don't end up with multiple transactions on my credit card for the same amount? A quantity field that defaults to "1" would be great. As I said above:
Thanks,
Ed
Bootstrap Playground - Wikidot Meets Twitter Bootstrap!
Wikidot API - PHP · A PHP client and code samples for the Wikidot API
… for one reason: just want to continue playing with you, funny guys.
and a lot has changed. ( I had my grand children with me) .
I think I will take the opportunity and pay the next 2 years before 1. December…
I understand the target of this change.. after the "educational freeing" this will bring a lot of new users, which again after some time will pay for a little privacy, and there sites will grow in the future…
The educational free sites is the best marketing for future expansion…
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org (Open source), Wikidot-Handbook.
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Well, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford renewing my account when the free one you've given me runs out… so I've turned to adsense to help me pay for some of that. The increased prices make that a little bit harder ;-)
Though I understand completely what you are saying — and your reasoning makes sense. So it's not as if I'm disappointed/annoyed, because in a way this change also has a few advantages for all of us and I can see that.
The best solution would be for me to get another free account somehow… any theme competitions or other competitions coming up with a pro account as the prize? =)
Shane Smith
Web Developer and Wikidot Community Administrator
Links: Blog, Wikimated, Editor (STE), Documentation
Yes, we're going to be launching some new competitions.
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I believe that I have an unclaimed free account floating around somewhere.
I feel that I'm getting far too good a deal as a "super guru" to claim it, so I am happy to pass it on.
Wayne Eddy
Melbourne, Australia
LGAM Knowledge Base
Contact via Google+
It doesn't make much sense, really. The technological advancement of the world allowed everything to be cheaper: internet connection, site bandwidth, web space, domains, etc. Much of the hosting companies are even lowering prices to compete with one-another. Even porn came from credit-card-only to oh-just-google-it. So when Wikidot increases prices by 100%, the only logical reason is that the company is barely on, or probably below, a positive net income.
I do agree, but only partly however, on one point - that the new prices are the best deal around.
It may be true, if the owner is able to fully utilize most of the pro features. Owning a couple of wikis that has low traffic, for example, is not enough to warrant an annual $50 payment to get rid of ads. Only by having multiple wikis with high traffic can it be worth it. Otherwise, it's better to get cheaper host and slap a wiki engine on it.
this is a forum signature. really.
Wait a second… are you comparing the economics of porn with the economics of Wikidot???
λ James Kanjo
Blog | Wikidot Expert | λ and Proud
Web Developer | HTML | CSS | JavaScript
Even if he did, this was only one little sentence among other —um, porn-free (and more logical) ones. Don't play the I-pick-an-irrelevant-of-your-sentences-and-take-offense-game…
I was just teasing =P
λ James Kanjo
Blog | Wikidot Expert | λ and Proud
Web Developer | HTML | CSS | JavaScript
The comparison would be relevant if wikis were a mature market, but they're not.
Sorry, could not resist the pun… :-)
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The cost of technology is falling by 50% every 18 months, this is accurate. We can double the capacity of our infrastructure every 18 months, without spending more on machines and bandwidth.
However the biggest investments we make are in people, and although I keep asking my team to take a 50% pay cut every 18 months, they mutter something about mortgages and feeding the kids, and refuse.
The reason for not just slapping a wiki engine on a cheaper host is that Wikidot provides much more than software. You are paying for a service, and if you manage your own wikis, you know that does not come cheap (or else you do it cheaply, and then suffer the consequences).
Mainly, we want to raise prices because looking at the sales patterns, we think we can, and that the extra income will let us grow the business faster. We're not interested in being cheap, we're interested in being value for money, and that means charging the right price.
We had lots of fun debating this internally. Many of us want Wikidot to be cheaper: $50 is a lot for some people, particularly here in Eastern Europe. But we got rid of the crippleware in the summer. Free accounts are powerful now. Personally I still feel that we're too cheap for business users who depend on their sites for customer support. Any self-hosted option would cost 10x what Wikidot costs, and be significantly more pain to operate.
I expect this to be a long thread, especially when we email all 400,000 users with the good news. :-)
Portfolio
Looks like the 400,000th user will sign up on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Should do an article about them in the newsletter, or at least send them PM.
Congratulations you are the 400,000th person to join Wikidot ……..
Wayne Eddy
Melbourne, Australia
LGAM Knowledge Base
Contact via Google+
That's a great idea…
Portfolio
I can remember - at the start there was a confusion about Dollar or Euro -
but I understand the Dollar-prices are in the "figures" euqal the Euro-prices.
You pay in the currency - where you are living…means Ed Johnson in the USA pays in Dollar the same amount in Dollar as I would do in Euro. ( of course . the Dollars are in their value "cheaper" in my mind).
Pieter - is this correct?
PS: I do not know if visitors outside EU does see another price list…
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org (Open source), Wikidot-Handbook.
Sie können fragen und mitwirken in der deutschsprachigen » User-Gemeinschaft für WikidotNutzer oder
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No, Helmuti, it is not the same. I have just paid (by mistake, I hope I can get my money back somehow) as a non EU citizen, and I paid 24,95 dollars. On my CC account, it shows the charge of 17,10 euros. Therefore:
24,95 dollars is 17,10 euros.
EU citizens pay 20,50 euros plus 22%VAT.
17,10 euros is not 20,50 euros.
Therefore, EU citizens pay 3,40 euros more than non EU citizens for Pro-lite account. Until Dec. 1st. Why is that?
Why EU citizens do not pay 17,10 euros plus 22% VAT?
3,40 euros is not much, but in a larger scale, it can be important amount of money. For example, new prices, paying more than just Pro-lite, and for more than one year….
Let us calculate a little bit more. Now here are the new prices.
49,90 dollars is 33,55 euros.
33,55 euros plus 22%VAT is 40,93 euros. Not 49,90 euros.
So, here, EU citizen pays for Pro-Lite 9 euros (13,37 dollars) more than non EU citizen.
239.90 dollars is 161.31 euros.
161.31 euros plus 22%VAT is 196,80 euros. Not. 239.90 euros.
So, here, EU citizen pays for Pro+ 43,10 euros (64,07dollars) more than non-EU citizen.
I dare to say that Wikidot should recalculate their prices in euros.
Don't just be sorry, DO something. - the animals
Be happy, you have to pay in dollar. :)
The reason is how I said:
It is true - the dollar in his value is not strong enough in his currency rate against the Euro.
It can happen in some days if the US Currency will get stronger - you will pay more than an EU citizen in Euro.
But that is fact, that an EU-citizen is bound in the Currency in the EU.
All this is commercial decission and I for my own would not change the pricelist as long as the prices are very near in their figures.
Or wikidot has to change always their price list.
Or wikidot has to show only one currency with all the risks of outrunning currency exchange rates..
But it is simler as it is now.
I for my own would insert a t3. big currency too with fixed prices: the "YEN" !
or a fourth for china - I have no time to check what their currency is.
All the relative stable "lead" currencies to avoid such exchanging rates discussions.
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org (Open source), Wikidot-Handbook.
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They are not near, Helmuti. They are very different.
The both prices should be the same no matter if they are in dollars or euros. The only thing is that those in Euros have also VAT. Now I will repeat:
49,90 dollars is 33,55 euros. Therefore, the price in euros without VAT should be 33,55 euros. Now we should add VAT for EU citizens and see if we get the price in euros that Wikidot gives us — 49,90 euros.
33,55 euros plus 22%VAT is 40,93 euros. Not 49,90 euros.
So, here, EU citizen pays for Pro-Lite 9 euros (13,37 dollars) more than non EU citizen.
Here's some more calculation.
40,93 plus 22% gives 49,90 euros.
The conclusion is obvious.
Wikidot made a huge mistake in calculating the price in euros for EU citizens.
This is not about me at all. This is about a mistake Wikidot made and the price are paying EU citizens. I think this is very serious matter. The currency rate can vary, but not that much.
Don't just be sorry, DO something. - the animals
@Helmut:
I'm afraid this not true.
Since the wikidot service is based in Poland and since Poland is not a member of the euro area, wikidot invoices could be labeled in Polish Zloty…
Oh no!
:)
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org (Open source), Wikidot-Handbook.
Sie können fragen und mitwirken in der deutschsprachigen » User-Gemeinschaft für WikidotNutzer oder
im deutschen » Wikidot Handbuch ?