This topic was automatically generated from Slack. You can find the original thread here.
I feel like removing the ability to use Premium Apps in the free tier has really hobbled it.
There are 1300+ apps integrated into the Pipedream platform and the ability to write code enables an unlimited number of additional integrations. There are 22 premium apps today. I think saying the free tier has been “hobbled” is a significant stretch but I am open to learning more about why you believe this to be true.
I’ll give it to you that my use of the word “hobbled” is exaggerated and coming from an emotional place.
It’s coming fresh off the heels of enjoying the pipedream experience and being excited by how it will scale. I was emotionally invested in you all.
The rollout of this was not great. One second it’s working marvelously while I’m editing an already deployed workflow, then all of a sudden I hit save/deploy and I get a pop-up saying I need to upgrade.
In my head I’m going “OK fine, I’m ready to pay, I’ve got some great use out of this platform.”
Then it’s bam: $150 month (waving aside the annual discount). Much higher than I was expecting.
Now I’m thinking they are asking me to pay $150 just to send some transactional email triggered by a webhook.
Now I’m feeling not great. Not just because I’m having to do the math and figuring out my alternatives, but also because it was such a let down from how high on the experience I was before.
So hopefully that’s a helpful user experience data point for you. I know it may only apply to already existing users.
In response to premium apps:
(1) Only 22 today, sure–but what about tomorrow?
(2) All of these apps are things, that sure – most larger enterprises would use, but I think plenty of this stuff is useful for small scrappy boot-strappers as well. You’ve basically covered nearly all the transactional email providers in here (the popular ones at least).
Certainly won’t be using Salesforce anytime soon, though 
Premium apps concept is ok. But, there should have been notice to the users on that front (not sure if there was any)
I am shamelessly using a free plan too. But my volume is pretty low. (Around 20-30 invocations per day). Even then, I cannot imagine the amount of value it adds to my life and business. I have contributed towards developing few integrations and also made other people aware of pipedream capabilities and use cases whether I could.
If pipedream ever lifts the requirement for using a free account, I will be happy to go with paid plans provided there is prior notice and I can plan myself better.
Well, I agree that pipedream is not Zapier. It is much more and I wouldn’t go back to Zapier even if they offer it for free.
I upgraded to the Basic plan for the non-profit that I am volunteering for a couple of weeks ago and just now got bit by this. It took me a little bit to realize what was going on since I had been deploying the LinkedIn integration and relying on it for a couple of months. If LinkedIn is not on the basic plan, I’m afraid I’ll have to come up with a different solution for them. This is a disappointing change.