Changes to Ning Plus and Pro Pricing

[Jason Rosenthal]

I wanted to update you about a change to our Ning Plus and Pro prices. We’re publishing this announcement in a number of places, including www.ning.com, your network Dashboard, and via email, but I know many of you get your news on Creators, so we are sharing it here.

Beginning on July 20, 2011, we’ll update the price for Ning Plus and Ning Pro subscriptions. You will be billed automatically so no action is required.  Your first invoice after July 20 (when your current monthly or annual subscription renews) will reflect this pricing.

The new pricing will be:

I know that pricing is top of mind for many Network Creators today. Last July we phased out our free service in order to focus 100% of the company on enhancing the features and services we offer our paying Ning Creators.  Since then, we’ve launched more than 30 powerful new features, including the Ning Design Studio, Social Sign-in, Leaderboards, Like Buttons and Ning Everywhere.  Just last week, we announced Paid Access, which will enable you to charge for membership, exclusive Groups or content.  We’ve made numerous enhancements to existing features, including the recent improvements to Groups and the Activity Feed.  We’ve made major investments in improved platform performance and, as a result, delivered 99.99% uptime in the last 6 months.  And we expanded customer support, adding billing phone support for all customers and dedicated phone support for Ning Pro customers.

We’ve made major investments over the past year, and as a result, your subscription is more valuable than it was a year ago.  You can deliver a richer experience for your members, you can drive even faster growth and member engagement, and starting next month, you can begin charging your members in a variety of ways.  And we’re already hard at work on adding more features and services with one goal in mind – helping Ning Creators to create thriving communities.  

I recognize that some of you will have concerns about this pricing change.  My hope is that you’ll recognize the same value we see in Ning every day, and that you’ll be as excited as we are about what we will accomplish going forward.

Of course, we’re always interested in hearing what you think, and one of the things I enjoy most about Creators is that you always let us know how you are feeling.  We’ve also set up a phone number for anyone who has questions about this upcoming change. I encourage you to give us a ring at 888-278-4386 if you are located in the U.S. or Canada, or 650-713-3158 if you are located outside of these countries. We’ll try to answer any questions you may have about this upcoming change. 

[Andrew G Bell]

I think this will probably be the death blow to my network: a ten dollar hike on the already-expensive Pro plan, plus hosting costs, plus 20 bucks for the privilege of adding a payment add-on, that pretty much puts this, and my nascent network, out of action. I'm already feeling that I'll be removing my network and creating a gratis one on LinkedIn.

Andy Bell

[Hector Feliciano]

Before Ning, I had socialgo, talk about expensive at 149.00 per month, and crappy service, ning

is a god send! 60 bucks per month is not bad at all considering what you can do and the kind of social network you can create is amazing. I think we should thank them.

 

Hector

[Andrew G Bell]

Well, this was the last straw for me. I've been running my network for 2 years, but can't continue to run a paid social network with this level of insecurity over when the next price hike will be, or when the next change will be foisted on me, with no form of consultation. This business model might work for you guys at Ning, but I'm about consultation and value for money, neither of which seem to be primary considerations for Ning now. I've shut down two of my family networks today, and have informed my paid network members that I will be closing that network one week hence (to enable them to share contact details and take content with them).

Andy Bell

[Star-Dust]

Because of Ning bad timing, it does not give your members much time does it? This is the part that most people hate also, cause their members get less time now to move their stuff.

[Lexie Anne]

Buddypress is another option it looks alot like ning. I have one set up and working on it as we speak. I will keep my one site on ning. I am moving the other one.

[Joseph Shaw]

you know i just checked that out last night and to be honest it really did not look that bad at all and their a ton of themes you can find for buddypress.

 

you figure the most you have to pay for is a domain name and hosting and hosting at gatorhost for 9.95 a month

 

and domain names at go daddy are cheap .com you can have a whole network that you would actually own for under 25 a month verses a platform that you do not own and pretty much that will do what they like including price jacking.

 

Buddypress is well worth to look into

[Hector Feliciano]

Except SocialGo is 149.00 per month I know because I left them for Ning

[gudris]

like a thunder from a blue sky

 

its absolutely unexceptable the way ning announce this

 

we also have some budget plans for year ahead or more

 

 ..ning should have a roadmap for pricing at least year ahead...so we can plan bugdet and if ning becomes too expensive prepare to close ning account

[solo]

@gurdis +1

[Joseph Shaw]

lol to be honest ning reminds me of a bad pyramid scheme on how their actions been.They wouldn't even have what they do if it wasn't for the free accounts they use to have and now price jacks lol wtf ever.

 

I think some are just fans (or use to be) of ning from long ago that keep holding on to their community that they worked on some even when it was free but what is it really worth it in the long run I have yet to hear someone actually making good money from one of their sites most break even if lucky and others are just paying for a headache.

 

their really no reason for the price jack at all but the ning corporation just being greedy and do not expect this to be the only price jack from them this is just a start of them bleeding your pockets dry.

 

They can say well we added this and that in the past year but we are already paying for them features if your going to rise the price add new ones.

 

I mainly feel for the people that are still trying to build their network that might be considering on not having a network at all because of the randomness of ning.

 

This if anything should have been posted when they started discussing raising prices instead of just dropping it on the network owners.

 

maybe it is best to just start from the ground up rather then have a premade solution which really you do not own when it comes down to it ning does which ning proved that long ago.

 

I guess it gonna be what is your networks doing and is it growing at a good pace and making you money to be willing to pay for all the price jacking that will happen towards the future.

[Lexie Anne]

For you its not a big a deal. For me it is.

[Strumelia]

I don't use most of the added features that have been added over the past 6 months.  I don't even like the new visual changes to the Latest Activity List, yet I can't don't much of anything about it to make it look like it used to.

 

This is a very large price hike with virtually no advance warning.  Very unprofessional.

I ran a donation drive several months ago to raise the money from my members for our next year of being Pro Plan.  Now suddenly it's going to be $100 more, and it would be just too tacky to start another 'fund drive' now that we celebrated having raised the goal we needed for next year, and I already announced last month that we had all the money we needed for a whole nother year.  I even declined a couple of donations since then!  So this increase will come right out of my own pocket this year.  Thanks a bunch.

 

Why doesn't NING show us the 'good business' consideration of announcing a price increase in a timely manner so we can make needed arrangements to accomodate it ??   Should have been announced 4-6 months ago.  BAD MOJO MOVE, NING.