Went to buy the full version, but... no?

[Stokestack]

I'm just getting started with Bruno, and I'm finding it useful and wanted to reward the developers with some dough. In several places I see a $19 purchase option mentioned, but this is nowhere to be found.

No dice anymore?

[bjartenilsen]

Pretty sure I saw the $19 personal option on pricing page just one week back.

[NiklasBr]

Yeah, strange. I bought a $19 "Golden edition" one-time purchase some months ago, it's gone now it seems.

Edit: I have this URL https://www.usebruno.com/buy-golden-edition in my browser history, but it is a 404 now

Youtube: Bruno Golden Edition Launch

[theoriginalstove]

I just purchased the Golden edition a few days ago, but it looks like they just changed their pricing model to a subscription based one: https://www.usebruno.com/pricing.

[bjartenilsen]

Even the Readme.md page on Github still say : "You can buy the Golden Edition for a one-time payment of $19!" - does not seem very well planned, or transparent to change the pricing policy over-night. A move in wrong direction on both accounts. I'm just tired of having all these software subscriptions I need to monitor and follow up.

[thgla]

I understand that building a product costs money, but why does it have to be a subscription? All I want is a plain and simple API testing tool that lets me store the collection of requests in my source control. Add to that environments, authentication support and I am happy. Just let me buy a perpetual license, and if new features seem enticing I will upgrade. I am very tired of everything being a subscription now.

[artemudovyk]

Free version covers all the bases for this, isn't it?

[thgla]

Fortunately yes, just checked the license, and since it's MIT licensed I can use it.

[Stokestack]

One might argue that if you want to support the project, just subscribe for a few months. I'm not excited about managing this, but it's their business model to do with what they please.

What happens after the subscription? Does the software check for licensing when run?

[NiklasBr]

One might argue that if you want to support the project, just subscribe for a few months.

I'm willing to support the project for a fixed sum paid once for every major version or so (this was my expectation when I bought the Golden Edition), maybe in the range of about $20-$50 or so. On top of that I am willing to provide detailed bug reports and pull requests to fix issues where I am knowledgeable enough to do so.

I have done all of the above, bought a license, advocated for the app among colleagues, reported issues, and submitted pull requests to be merged.

Now that the equation has suddenly changed my willingness to support the project has changed.

Bruno & Co are of course 100% within their right to do such a change. I am not here to "forbid" them to do such a thing, just to say I am disappointed and ask them to please reconsider.

[bjartenilsen]

For the Golden edition: Bruno will check on every start if the license is valid via calling license.bruno.com. If you are offline the license will stay active for 14 days and has to be reactivated after that time.

"Bruno is offline-only." - again from readme file of this repo.

[Stokestack]

I'm by no means endorsing this change. Just acknowledging that if they want to risk pissing people off with a rental arrangement, all we can do is let them know that they're losing income. I was ready to pay up, and then found that they don't want to take my money on the terms published in at least a couple of places.

If it phones home, that's a definite nope.

[drpixel8]

I don't think you can just subscribe for a month can you? The pricing page says "Billed Yearly". So their business model is to push users to the open-source edition, which is free, or to force you to buy an annual subscription at $72 which essentially gets you CSV data driven testing. I feel like that's a big "no thanks" for most people, but time and sales will tell, I guess.

I think this rollout should be a case study on what not to do. An email blast to existing licensees would have been nice as a heads up. The website pricing page should have been updated with an explanation as to the fact that things have changed and the Golden Edition is no longer being offered. The README, manifesto and similar postings should be updated to reflect that Bruno is indeed a for-profit company and subscription based.

[drpixel8]

"Bruno is offline-only." - again from readme file of this repo.

Sort of makes them hard to trust. I've recommended Bruno to many people and I as well as many others have invested a lot of time in writing test cases and scripts against our APIs using Bruno. Until everything has been clarified, I'm not recommending or using this product any longer. I don't want to have to rewrite my tests for another API testing tool if Bruno keeps heading in a direction I don't agree with long term.

[bjartenilsen]

Also, "We don't want to sell monthly recurring subscriptions" - #269. Sure...