Ning Update: Introducing Ning Pro, Ning Plus and Ning Mini

[Eric Suesz]

Our CEO, Jason Rosenthal, just posted a blog post about our upcoming plans and pricing. I thought I would reprint it here for Creators. 

"I’m excited to introduce three new versions of the Ning Service that we will roll out in July. When we announced two weeks ago that we were going to refocus on paying Ning Networks and phase out our free service, we knew there would be many questions about what the new Ning would look like. Our goal with these offerings — as explained below — is to enhance the experience Network Creators have on Ning, and by extension, the experiences your members have as well. 

What will we be rolling out in July? We’ll start with many of the things Network Creators have been asking for and extend the service from there. The end of Ning promotional links, leading to a more customized, branded experience for you and your members. An ad free experience and the option to run your own ads — if you like. Easy content export and back-up. The end of Ning ID and ability to add Facebook and Twitter sign-in. API access for a more integrated experience. The ability to charge for membership and accept donations. We’ve listened to your more frequent and pressing requests and combined them with our current premium services into three new product offerings — Ning Pro, Ning Plus and Ning Mini.

For full comparison of the three plans, click here.

Our pricing plans offer incredible value relative to our current Premium Services. For example, your Ning Network currently has the option to Use Your Own Domain, Remove Create Links, and Run Your Own Ads. You can take advantage of all of these services for about $55/month right now. With the Ning Plus, you’ll be able to have them all for $19.95/month. We will also offer current Network Creators a one-time annual pricing discount that provides even greater value.

We also recognize that many small non-profit, family or other small group Ning Networks have limited budgets, and we value what you’ve created on Ning. For $2.95/month or $19.95/year, Ning Mini provides a powerful set of features to continue to grow and engage with your members — ad-free or with your own ads.

We’ve also heard from many Network Creators who use Ning in the classroom as an integral part of their curriculum. I am particularly excited to announce that a major education company will be sponsoring Ning Mini Networks for educators in primary and secondary education. Ning will remain free for K-12 educators and their students. We’ll have details on this program soon!

We will roll out Ning Pro, Ning Plus and Ning mini in July. Current Network Creators will have 30 days following the roll-out to decide which plan best fits their needs. For Ning Creators using our free service who choose to move to another service, we will offer a simple way to export all of your content.

We know there’s a lot of questions, including how to choose a plan, when you can sign up and what happens if you don’t choose an option. That’s why we’ve created a place with all the details about this new offering, including details, a timeline and FAQs (also available in Spanish, here). I look forward to your feedback, both in the comments below and on Creators."

[Nigelburke]

Also doesn't address the question of why there was such a delay between the first announcement and the pricing - would have saved a great deal of bad feeling if you said straight up there was an under $5 offering. I believe a lot of people will still feel they have been kept in the dark and badly treated and will have little confidence that you wont change things again in the future when the going gets tough.

[John McDonald]

Morgan,

Congratulations on the success of your Ning Network!

Confirmed - Ning won't run Google ads on any of the three new paid plans. You will have the option to go ad-free or run your own ads. I'm glad to hear you may have advertisers lined up for your network.

Ning Pro customers will have the option to purchase additional storage and bandwidth. With video and music uploads, you may need it. We've also heard from several Network Creators evaluating Ning Plus who are concerned that they may exceed the 10 GB storage limit with all of the photos on their networks. We are considering offering the storage and bandwidth upgrade to Ning Plus customers as well.

Thanks!
John

[Craig Zelizer]

As someone who has been using premium Ning service since I started the Peace and Collaborative Development Network (http://internationalpeaceandconflict.org) I am very pleased to see the new pricing plans and features. This seems more than reasonable given the very high quality service Ning has provided over the past several years (and I hope for many more years in the future). I have been very pleased with the functions Ning provides (although would like to see many new features), the reliability and the support.
Having helped to create two similar networks in the past where I hired IT companies to create customized sites for a nonprofit at a very significant cost, only to have both networks implode due to technical limitations and poor design, I love that Ning is constantly improving and adding new features, while retaining the core stability.

I hope this change does help the company stay on firm financial footing. I am also very much looking forward to the ability to be able to export network content which is a must for Ning to Implement.

[Chris Richards]

I was very worried about this announcement, but i am pleasantly suprised and pleased. I think the pricing is reasonable and will actually save me money on my 2 networks which i had been paying $45/month for premium services. I do hope though that Ning now will improve the many things the creators have been asking for on this forum over the past few months.. including better chat, facebook login, commenting on user's status', being able to categorize videos, to name a few... and the sooner the better!

[Patrick Chappelle]

[Eric Suesz]

We've hit well over 600 replies in this discussion. Once it gets that large, it becomes hard for people to follow it. But I wanted to thank you for participating and sharing your feedback today!