New Changes to SimpleLogin free plan that upset me

Hi!

First, they removed account delete option.

Here is a link to saved page as PDF:

[suspicious PDF link removed]

Second, they removed free breach checks:

Link to GitHub

Third, they removed free send feature:

Link to GitHub

But (!) allowed sending in trial period so this will not stop abuse because abuser will simply create new account.

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I can still see the account delete option… Not sure what’s happening with you. I do have a paid premium, which could affect it.

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You may be getting confused by the fact that there are two different settings pages. You have to go to account settings to delete your account, which is not the page you linked. As for the sending during trial, I also noticed that I was able to create a reverse alias during a trial with a fresh account, but this may be explained by a comment on the official discussion stating “This limit isn’t enforced at the moment.” In general, while the removal of free features is always unfortunate, it’s fully within a service’s right to push users to pay for a service that costs money to run, and in the case of SimpleLogin, you’re free to self-host it without any of these restrictions.

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You can’t have your cake and eat it. They have to put some features behind the paywall. If you are annoyed by them, consider spending a few bucks.

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I don’t see a problem with any of these changes (and as others have stated, it doesn’t seem the delete account option is gone), as it’s well within their right to make such features paid-only.

SimpleLogin is one product that I also really can’t mad at for this sort of reason, as their pricing is very fair and generous considering how immensely useful and versatile their service is. They also offer educational discounts on their already great price, along with the ability to self host for free. I’d take a SL premium subscription at double the price over any paid email service or plan if I could only choose one, even.

It is on the bottom, and here is the direct link

Other points are valid. You should pay to get these features.

The most confusing it that they make users use their service providing this for free but now they are taking it away. That is a pretty shameful practice. It should be paid from the beginning or free forever.

Not removed. Moved to account settings.

I think we should just be happy that the business model is a subscription payment rather than data harvesting, yes?

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As I said:

They grabbed user base using this practice and now forcing users that came on previous conditions to pay because of new conditions.

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It’s their business and they decide what they see is right. We should be lucky there even is a free tier. I’m happily paying for my subscription.

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They attracted people with free features, now they say them to pay. It is dirty practice.

I would like to buy it (as lifetime) but subscription is not for me. I don’t have bank accounts (why should I give anyone my ID?) and have zero stable income (it varies from month to month).

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Keep in mind that it’s not the same business as it was acquired by Protonmail.

Edit: In modern times, you should really be sceptical agains lifetime deals, especially services working in cloud.

Where are the sources saying that this is happening? Another post here from Techlore’s forum is saying the opposite based on this source here from a maintainer. The maintainer asserts that existing users will indeed keep this feature.

Although, the commit in OP’s post does supercede the discussion by date, so maybe some decisions were changed and existing users won’t keep receiving this feature? I don’t know how to read the code to interpret it. I also only have a paid plan, so I cannot check myself if this is the case.

I certainly do not like this change, of course, but that doesn’t mean I do not like their choice. There is a difference. If you are going to develop an opinion on their practices, account for why they are doing this, not just what is being done. I do not see an issue with their choice. If you actually expect them to follow up with your demands, i.e., be free forever, then expect them to be blacklisted from major websites, or worse: go bankrupt. Reality does not conform to our beliefs. The reality of the situation is that they wanted the feature to remain free but eventually had to change it due to bad actors.

Whether there is a better way to go about this or not, I’m not really sure. There are people who are paid to look at the costs and benefits of certain outcomes, of which I am not. But I don’t endorse calling their choices bad practice, even if it were the case that existing users weren’t grandfathered in.

I understand but, as OP said:

So it will be logical to block it even in trial. Because now it is looking like cheap marketing.

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Son, founder of SL here.

  1. The account deletion is moved to the “Account Settings page” along with other account related settings as the previous Settings page has too many options

image

  1. The “free breach” is an unofficial feature that we haven’t advertised, as it was still in development. It uses the HIBP API that recently increases their price. And as the number of aliases in SL have significantly increased, we have to upgrade to the more expensive options in HIBP and financially can’t just propose this for free. The data breach monitoring feature is still under development, mostly for stability and scalability, we’ll make an announcement for it when it’s done.

  2. The limit for creating reverse aliases has been mentioned on SimpleLogin | Pricing since Apr 2022 (commit) before it was enforced last month. That leaves enough time for new users to be informed and make their choice. It only affects new accounts, existing accounts before the enforcement date aren’t affected and can still create new reverse aliases.

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You need to write it in documentation.

Ok, understood

Why it is not blocked in trial mode if you are “fighting abuse”? Or it is cheap marketing instead?

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I do not understand the need for email aliasing services like SL, when DuckDuckGo Email Protection exists for free.

Then again, I am a total noob.

You don’t understand the need for email aliasing services when… an email aliasing service exists? :thinking:

Well, if you receive an email at Sprout3425@duck.com you can’t reply back from that alias, which is the biggest problem IMO. SimpleLogin also lets you encrypt all incoming emails with PGP so that they are stored securely regardless of your email provider, and lets you use custom domains (which is the main reason I use it).

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Replies do work with DuckDuckGo Email Protection and have worked for quite some time.

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Agree. Unfortunately, now it is the only one that is really useful and doesn’t have “paid” crap.

Free send, unlimited aliases…

The only minus is absence of bulk deactivation feature.

What?! You can (official source). Who told you that? You even can SEND for free (official article)

SL looks too paywalled if compared to competitors:

  1. Addy gives unlimited aliases on one subdomain and 20 (!) on shared domains.
  2. Duck provides totally unlimited feature
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