I just got a notice before the weekend that Gravity Forms dropped the beta for their long awaited Conversational Forms feature. The excitement was real until the rug was yanked out from under my feet.
Reading the disclaimer in the announcement article it says that once the beta is over, only users with an Elite license (GF’s current top tier) will have access. This means that anyone with a legacy Developer license, either Lifetime or grandfathered subscription, will not be eligible to have access to this add-on. Or any other future feature add-on for that matter. You’ll still get core updates but forget about any features they plan to roll in as an add-on.
This is because, when Gravity Forms changed their license plan names from Personal/Business/Developer to Basic/Pro/Elite they sunset Developer license holders from the promised “access to all future add-ons”. They did this by simply changing the plan name from Developer to Elite. The plans are 1-for-1 the same minus grandfathered users no longer get future add-ons because of that name change. It’s a real slap in the face to all legacy Developer license holders as our licenses are essentially now stagnated.
This shows a poor company ethos and a complete disregard for any customer who has a legacy Developer license with them. Many of these customers have been with Gravity Forms for over a decade, paying a grandfathered subscription, recommending their tool to other users, filing bug reports and feature requests, etc. They helped the company grow to where it is today and they’ve been given the shaft when it comes to future feature development, all because they’re not paying as much as current users; punishment for being long time, loyal customers.
They did this all very quietly, I can’t recall a single “Developer” license specific notice that went out to inform us all that we’re were being dropped from future add-ons; although they did a help doc to their website so that they can refer individuals users to that change when they contact support.
I’d hazard a guess that many Developer license holders don’t know that they’ve been affected like this, simply because this is only the second feature add-on that they’ve added since the plan change, the first being a Google Analytics one. I doubt many paid attention to the new GA add-on but Conversational Forms is another matter; it was a highly requested and long awaited feature.
A conversation regarding this type of marketing practice was started on their Twitter thread about the new feature announcement. Unfortunately, the GF founders have decided to double down on what can only be described as poor business ethics.
They’ve tried to justify this terrible treatment of longtime customers by saying things like:
>”We could have easily done what companies like Google, Slack, Adobe, Help Scout, etc. have done in the past and automatically raised prices at rental time. Or forced selecting a new plan at renewal time.”
and…
>”When we moved from Personal/Business/Developer to Basic/Pro/Elite there wasn’t 1 to 1 parity between old plans and new plans.”
​
1. They’re not a SaaS company. They don’t have the same amount of overhead that those solutions do; not saying there’s none but comparing WP Plugin to SaaS is not the same. That aside there are MANY companies that DO grandfather users properly and map them to new tiers accordingly, both SaaS and WP Plugin companies alike.
2. This is disingenuous. The legacy Developer license was their highest tier. It included Unlimited Sites, Multisite, Priority Support, and all future Addons. Likewise, their new Elite tier is Unlimited Sites, Multisite, Priority Support and all future Addons. The caveat being that Developer is no longer eligible for “all future add-ons” because they changed the name to Elite. Feels very bait and switch.
They’re essentially telling anyone who is a legacy Developer license holder upgrade to the same plan, at a higher rate, under a different name just to get access to future add-ons.
What Gravity Forms did is not acceptable. Customers, especially those who have supported them for over a decade, have every right to upset by this change as Gravity Forms is showing that they can’t be trusted to be an honorable and reputable company that cares about it’s customers. Should they ever change the names of the current plan tiers/increase the price I have no doubt in my mind they’d pull the same shenanigans.
I urge anyone who is affected to share their voice on the matter. Even if you’re not affected, and you just don’t agree with this kind of customer treatment then feel free to speak up.
The discussion about this that’s happening on Twitter can be founder under their “Conversational Forms Add-On” announcement here: [https://twitter.com/gravityforms/status/1611032269325570048?s=20&t=1DbqycBH3anGUZ4HyAZJlw])
Alternatively, users are also commenting on their FB Thread announcement about the issue here: [https://www.facebook.com/GravityForms/posts/pfbid02PUijYxN2gh1Hgk6YZp68xy2e2qQazpoNoPB5EHjbK9gpanjheaiCjNJFS8AyfL4ul])
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