We NEED To Talk About ACF Pro!

If you're an ACF Pro lifetime deal owner you probably got this email yesterday regarding you buying an annual subscription to show your appreciation to the developers for doing their job!

Well, here's my take on why this really sticks in my throat and why it's really leaving a bitter taste in many other LTD owners mouths too.

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[dmorty]

My experience in marketing is that instead of begging/guilting for additional annual subscriptions, they should have an option to accept donations... AT MOST. That way if a lifetime subscriber desires to help the development team, it can be done guilt-trip free.

[davematthews]

You did say this, but I think it needs restating, us early adopters bought a lifetime license on a product that was new to market and we helped paved the way to an advanced product prior to it being so. We took the risk in buying that license and as early investors into the company's future, the new owners should be thanking us for allowing them the opportunity to have a product to buy. Your suggestion about a lifetime discount on future products should not fall on deaf ears, for then they too would benefit from our supports across their other products, if they have any. I bought a lot of products on spec, like ACF Pro, and some of them failed. That's a risk I took, and with ACF Pro, that was rewarded with such an awesome product.

I equate our early purchases of lifetime licenses to that of investors into a company. Without those investors, there would be no company. Once the company is bought out by someone else, you don't go back to the investors and ask them to re-invest again and perpetually! It's beyond rude.

[madhumenon]

There is no question of whether the LTD was a contract or not. It definitely is. And a company that acquired the company also acquires their legal obligations. Delicious Brains needs to hire a PR person who will (hopefully) tell them not make such bone-headed moves and hurt their reputation and the trust of their customers.

[kylevandeusen]

I agree with you 100%. I see DB's issue here, but they had to know that was going to be an issue before they bought ACF. There might be a tactful way to do this, but this was NOT it.

[nomadsdesign]

Paul, how you managed to do this video for as long as you did AND kept a straight face (for the most part) AND did not bust out laughing, yelling, and kept such a calm cool collected body demeanor is way more than I could ever do! Question is, how many takes did it take you or edits to get the video done! Hope you are doing well sir, and Merry Christmas :)

[marcoprofwebsitenl]

In the Netherlands, energy prices have risen dramatically. those who had a fixed contract received a letter that they were now getting a variable contract with higher prices. The judge punished the energy companies and vindicated the consumers. A deal is a deal. Even if the contracts were resold to other companies.

[notarmonbuchli]

Hi Paul,

That is precisely the reason why I never go with LTD. Plugins change, new great plugins are developed, some are sold (like ACF). I never feel safe enough to make that investment. If there is one plugin I considered, it was ACF Pro. In the end I didn't.
I totally agree with you here. It's not even they ask for money, it's how they do it. There a million ways it could be done in a proper way and probably motivate more people to support them.

Keep up with the great and very honest content.

[brokeartisan]

I am all about supporting them, it speeds up development, improves quality, and you couldn't pick a better company to support. I think they just stumbled with their approach.

[quantum_leap]

Don't worry, Paul, I have no guilt at all for not giving them what they want, in fact I feel sorry for them and their marketing department.

[ArpadSzucs]

I agree with you Paul. I suppose most of their users are LTD license owners, so I kind of understand their intention of monetizing LTD clients, but they should have suggest one-off donations instead of recurring payments, with a marketing copy something like:

"Thank you for being an early adopter! As an LTD license holder you will NEVER need to pay again for ACF PRO, however if you'd like to continue supporting us, buy us a coffee. We would really appreciate it (you know developers run on coffee right?). Thanks a lot for your support!"

My 2 cents.

[pkg]

I’m agree with you Paul … I love ACF Pro and had it for years… I would be happy to purchase plugin from the new owners to show appreciation … but can’t giving up my original ACF license… no

[BrockBarr]

I'm a lifetime owner of ACF Pro. However, this actually highlights why developers shouldn't offer lifetime subscriptions. It's not good for the future of the software and one thing that good website builders need is software to be maintained long into the future. I've been building websites since 1999 and I've seen a few dev companies go under because of cashflow. That said, a contract is a contract so delicious brains probably didn't do due diligence on how much lifetime licenses were out in the wild. I agree with you Paul that they should do incentives to monetize that user base rather than try to guilt them. Delicious brains actually make amazing software so it would be nice to be able to get in on some of it at a good price point.

[youdrhnews]

I actually never gave it a second tought on receiving that email. Trashed it straith away. But you are absolutely right, lifetime is lifetime.

[adrianlightfoot]

Exactly right, lifetime deal should be honoured.

[まめ-pw]

point of view from Japan. I never heard this kind of thing even in Japan. ACF have to re-announce this .

[KubaSobecki]

That was a very memorable day I received this email 😂

[missalona]

Hi, isn't "Pods" the same and FREE? why should we stick with ACF?

[chuckkeller]

I'm surprised their marketing dept. didn't consider how this may land for potential customers. Since see this, I would actually spend more time now looking for alternatives. It's caused me to consider if this company would be a good fit for my customers for any of its products since it appears they want to go back on their obligation to lifetime licensees of ACF.

[nancymikyska]

I bought their annual pro plan last black friday. Never used it. Tried using it (the free version) with a site I'm in the middle of building. Turns out I'm not going to use ACF at all on it. So it was a waste of money last year, and this year I cancelled. I'm trying to cut down my Black Friday buying spree this year and going forward. I got this email, too. Bad form on Delicious Brains part.

[eduardkoops]

Hello Paul,

I am not a user of ACF Pro but what they are doing now, I really have no words for. You don't break a deal, you simply can't do that, whatever it may be.
It's really ridiculous. This is helping no one an certainly not the developers. Yes, to sponser their own pockets.
I hope they eventually come to see that this is a really bad move and come back to their decision and then apologize to all of you who got this email.

All the very best in this one.