I’m back! Or to be more precise, the homepage is back. Almost two years since the previous blog post and more than 4 years since the latest public release. I’ve been very quiet here, but I’ve actually been working on MailMate during all that time — which should be obvious based on the other blog post today about the latest beta and its release notes. For years now, the main focus has been on improving/maintaining MailMate and that is great for existing beta/test users of MailMate, but obviously it’s not great for generating revenue from new users.

The long time between public releases is also related to my personal uncertainty about how to best move forward with developing and monetizing MailMate. I will try to convey some of the thoughts involved further below, but the result is the new license key setup described on the pricing page. You can go directly to that if you don’t care about the “why”.

Also note, I’ve added an End User License Agreement ((EULA)[https://freron.com/eula]) to MailMate (presented on launch whenever it has changed). I’ve done this to more clearly state what users can and cannot expect from MailMate – and just a bit about what I expect from users of MailMate. As many other things in MailMate, it’s a work in progress.

In the new license key setup, a MailMate license key is obtained by starting a subscription ($10 every 3 months). An active subscription means that MailMate will run in its “Support Mode”. An inactive/cancelled subscription means that MailMate will run in its “Free Mode”. These modes are (almost) identical. Essentially, this means the price of a MailMate license key is now $10, but it is strongly encouraged to continue the subscription and for many users it is, in principle, required.

Why do it this way? First of all, paid upgrades are not a realistic option for me. It requires working on two versions of MailMate at the same time and I’ve clearly proven that I’m not able to do that. The first license key was sold more than 14 years ago and it is still valid!

The past 8 years, some users of MailMate have also been patrons of MailMate. Most of them paying $10 every 3 months — just like the new subscription model. This has never surpassed the revenue from license key sales, but it is the main reason MailMate is still under development.

An option would be to make patronage a strict requirement (explicitly putting MailMate into the subscription software category), but this also has some obstacles. Most importantly, I’ve made promises in the past about free upgrades, in particular to the elusive version 2.0. That might be forgiven, but it wouldn’t feel right to me.

My solution is a somewhat voluntary subscription setup similar to the old patronage option. The details can be found on the pricing page. Essentially, the initial payment is symbolic, but you have to explicitly cancel your subscription to avoid further payments. If you do that, then MailMate will eventually switch into its “Free Mode”. In this mode, a header line is added to every outgoing email revealing the free mode usage to your correspondents. Most of your correspondents will never see this, but it might be enough to nudge some users/businesses to continuously support the development of MailMate.

It’s a huge gamble because I will no longer be selling any $50 license keys, but it’s also an opportunity to redefine what users are paying for. Or more precisely, “emphasize” what users are not paying for. Users support development and maintenance of MailMate. Users are not paying me for providing support by email or any other way. When I do that, it’s a bonus and not part of the deal. It simply has to be like this, because I’ll never get anything done if I spend too much time answering emails. Also, in practice it’s already like this. Users will often wait a long time for a reply and far too often never get one. That said, I don’t mind feedback. This will still be how bugs are fixed and new features are born.

There’s also another issue often on my mind. I’d like users to understand that they are paying for what MailMate is doing for them today (or the past few months) and not for what it might be doing for them tomorrow. This might sound strange, but I simply do not feel that I can give the user any assurances about the future. Most users have at least 1 account with one of the big email providers (Google, Microsoft, Apple) and all of them have a “kill switch” for MailMate. This is not just a theoretical issue although I’ve only had serious problems with Gmail.

Time will tell if the switch to subscriptions is a good or bad idea with respect to increasing revenue. In any case, I’ll have a more steady predictable income making it easier for me to prioritize my time. I might need to do freelance work or get a “real” part time job and if that’s the case then it’s ok. I’ll be fine. Most likely, I’ll also be able to keep MailMate running in the future.