As we announced nearly two weeks ago, Fellowstream will no longer be free to all beta users starting January 16, 2011.  While we still have a free plan, 20% of our entire customer base (and almost all of our active customers) fell under a paid plan. Read the Upgrading and Downgrading your account FAQ here for specifics on how to manage your account.

As we expected, we received a lot of inquiries and outright complaints about our move.  In the spirit of open dialogue, I’ll answer some of the most common questions I’ve seen.  Please respond to any of my answers of the questions below and also ask some fresh ones of your own.

Why charge for Fellowstream?

We are, first and foremost, a business.  We have real costs, including server, hardware and (most expensively) developers.  In order to stay in business, we need to cover those costs.

Why didn’t beta testers get more of a discount?

We priced ourselves well below most of our competitors ($9/month for Fellowstream vs. $20-$50/month for other online collaboration tools), that we felt we didn’t need to give more of a discount.

Why didn’t you give beta users a longer grace period than two weeks?

Having used a lot of online beta tools ourselves, we found that most companies didn’t even give their users two weeks: they simply flipped the switch and locked accounts.  We felt two weeks was a long enough period to get people used to the idea without dragging out the process, kind of like pulling off a band-aid.  We also emailed the top 10% of our customer base with a message asking if they had questions or concerns with the transition.  Those 10% received a bit more special treatment because they really put the site through the ringer.  People who contacted us also receive a bit of special treatment.  (Hint!  Hint!  If you have questions or concerns about your account, you should email me: deborah@fellowstream.com.)

Isn’t the free account useless?  You can only have up to 2 people and 1 project.

Actually, a majority of our active users are still free accounts.  You’d be amazed how many people are using Fellowstream solo or as a pair.  It’s also a great way for us to allow people to try out the product risk (and cash) free.

So what’s next for Fellowstream?

We still have a lot of features we’d like to add with Fellowstream over time.  We’ve already implemented a few minor changes, and will continue to do so as long as those customer requests keep coming in.  As always, feel free to email me or start a discussion in Fellowstream’s forums if you’ve got an idea for us!

-Deborah Fike

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