Weather Gods Price Increased to $24.99; subscription plans coming

Nice and good price. Most apps and even a song is $2.00. If I was not using the beta, I would pay for it. Is worth the money and Bella the cat likes it.

Hi Scott,

I bought Weather Gods specifically for the Apple Watch, as I'm a weather guru and the app provides a ton of information through VoiceOver Smart Conditions that I haven't been able to get on the Watch face until now.

I think the prices for the subscriptions are very reasonable, especially since you've gone to great lengths to explain why it's necessary. As a weary consumer opposed to subscriptions on principle, your reasoning makes perfect sense to me and I can see clear value for my use case in subscribing.

Would it be possible to set the subscription to not auto-renew when the user first subscribes? One of my issues with the subscription concept is that, in every situation I've come across, the subscription is set to auto-renew unless I go in and turn that off. While it's not an issue with Weather Gods (see my earlier statement about my intent to subscribe for Watch access), as a consumer in general I don't like the idea of developers having an auto-recurring payment that it's on me to opt out of. I would be much more likely to purchase a subscription in general if auto-renew was not turned on by default; does Apple allow this or provide a way for users to opt-in to auto-renew instead of having to opt-out?

I would be happy to subscribe. Those prices seem reasonable. I use the app quite a bit on the watch, and appreciate all the effort, and back end costs that go into making this possible.

Many subscriptions offer monthly, quarterly, and yearly options. I prefer to pay annually, but maybe I'm in the minority for that.

Hey Scott! I have a quick question for you. Will I be able to use the beta still? And will I have to not pay for anything using the beta?

Also, I’m not sure what your plans are. But, if you add more features, like allergy alerts, or something else for example, what is the price increase for a subscription? And if so, maybe look into having a one time payment. And then everybody could get full access. I know there’s an app that does this. They also have subscription models. But if users don’t want to go that route they can pay a $200 one time purchase and get access to all the features in the app. Are you still looking into that option as well?

I would pay for it if I wasn’t using the beta. Thanks to you, I know when we have two weather apps on my iPad. Yours and an app for my allergy alerts. Where as before, I had an app for the hourly forecast, daily forecast, and weather alerts, and allergy and pollen related stuff. I think I even had an app for the weekly forecast. And the reason I had so many apps was because one forecast was accessible on one out but not the other one. So I would have to go with all of those. You’ve eliminated that.

I will continue to use the beta, and continue to test using my iPad. You are the only beta software that I test. And I test yours, because you’ve shown the fact that you take Accessibility into account.. And if there is a bug that somehow snuck bye you’re very prompt in both the response and fixing it.

I’m hoping that this new weather provider works out. And I look forward to seeing what weather gods has in store for us in 2021!

I will say one thing though. I’m glad that you’re offering a free option. Especially for people who can’t afford a subscription. Especially right now, when everybody is really trying to stretch their pennies, especially even people that were well-off. Thanks to this pandemic.

Hi Scott,
Very happy with your subscrition levels, how would these with family sharing. Best valueapp for money around
Take care Rhodie

Hey there,
As a consumer, I'm very sad to see this, but understand your reasoning.
I have a question: you say that "As before, we don't intend to charge existing paid users once subscriptions are live.".
Does that mean those who purchased the app before a certain date will have the free level, or will they have the basic, or premium level? I'm slightly confused.
Again, please keep up the good work!

I remember reading in the past that Apple does not allow subscriptions that don't auto renew by default, and that apps have been rejected or pulled from the store when they attempted to do that. So I would be very careful about offering subscriptions that don't renew, lest you might find yourself at war with Apple, which can get ugly.

I’ve been a loyal user since the app came out. I’ve even told a bunch of my friends about it. Seeing this information about a subscription, does not make me very happy. It’s making me look into another app, which ironically also requires a subscription for notifications, as well as other data.
I’m not sure what to do at this point. I’m a beta tester for your app, as well as the other one I mentioned.
In case anyone is curious, the other app in question, is carrot weather.
I will miss the Sounds, if I do decide to switch, and I wish other apps integrated those.
Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated.
I know that weather gods may soon be coming to the Mac, and that would be awesome.

The prices are reasonable. I would subscribe to extra features that I didn't use just to help you and keep the app around for years.

And since I’m on the beta, I won’t have to pay for anything also right? I just wanted to double check. :-)

I agree. I am not happy, but the price is more than fair. at least for us in the US. How much would it cost though in other countries. maybe 49 cents might amount to a few hundred dollars or what ever the exchange rate is. I've heard of such things. Anyway I'd be more than happy to pay for something when I can. I own the app but still.

First, I could care less about countries with a garbage monetary policy where their currency is valued at the level of toilet paper because no one wants it. Not surprisingly, goods and services priced in the Western currencies of the Dollar, Pound, Euro and Yen are expensive to holders of these local currencies. Where capitalism flourishes, incomes rise.

The price is very fair. It will actually be less for many because iTunes gift cards can be bought from third parties at a discount. I love the access and all the information. When more data is added, I will love it even more. The only wrinkle is if Apple adds all the functionality and hyper localization of Dark Sky to the Weather app. Somehow, Apple finds a way to take talented people and turn them into just above average rather than great app developers. This is evident in the music and podcasts apps.

Currently lower quality in Germany
From your announcements I gather that there are currently no weather warnings in Germany. This is a great pity, because it was the warnings that encouraged me to buy the app at the time. Besides, the weather forecasts are very badly translated at the moment. I like to pay when I get good information, but at the moment I have the feeling that the quality has decreased a lot. Please remember that you have customers in Europe.