Pricing

It may appear _premature_ to be discussing pricing before the app is launched,
however our reasoning is simple: to _start_ the discussion! 💬
If anyone has any thoughts/feedback on these ideas, please share!

# _Free Forever_ for "_Founding_" Members

Everyone that uses the "beta" version of the App will have free access including unlimited storage of `items` _forever_. This is our way of saying _thanks_ to people for trying the App and giving us _feedback_ that helps make it better for _everyone_.

We consider the **first 100 people** to be "founding" members.
These people will have to put up with UI issues and we are _eternally_ grateful to them for their patience using the "beta" version of the App.

> After that, to _qualify_ as "founding", you need to use the "beta" features and submit one `item` of _feedback_ once per month. i.e. if you are help us to improve the product, then it's it's free for you! We think that's a "fair" trade. It will take someone less than **5 minutes** to submit feedback using our integrated feedback system. €6 saving for the month for **5 minutes** of input is the easiest money _most_ people can "make" (_after inviting friends that is ... see below!_)

## _Free_ For Everyone Who _Infrequently_ Uses the App

We want _everyone_ to have a dwyl account.
There should be _zero_ barrier to entry or excuse _not_ to use the App.
Anyone who does not _use_ the App will not be asked to pay a cent for it.

It's not a "free trial" it's more of a "free tier" based on _usage_.
If someone uses the app more than 40 times in a month we will count them as "frequent".
That means they used the app at least once per _working_ day of the month.

We can make it _free_ for people who _infrequently_ use the App because they won't be adding very many `items` or using the servers so the cost is near-zero.

## €6/Month for _Frequent_ Use

People who use the App every day and derive **_significant_ value** from using it will be _asked_ to pay €6/month (_or the equivalent in their local currency_).

Nobody is _forced_ to pay the monthly membership fee.
Money will never be a _barrier_ to using the product/service.

If people cannot _afford_ to pay (_e.g. because they are unemployed or a student_) they can send us their _reasoning_ why they strapped for cash and we will wave their fee. Obviously if _everyone_ does this we will need to tighten the rules to _qualify_ for "free" usage. But I believe _enough_ people will find what we are doing useful that they will _want_ to use it with their team/company and _pay_ for the service.

€6/month works out as _less_ than **20 cents** per day.
In most affluent countries this is less than 20% the cost of a coffee.
For reference, it's less than the price of a _single_ cigarette in _most_ countries.

> Fun fact a _single_ cigarette costs $1 in [Australia](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=17) 💸 🔥 because they want people to quit so they tax it heavily! We wish _more_ countries would apply heavier taxes on tobacco/nicotine, lung cancer really is a _horrible_ way to die! We've had relatives+friends go that way. 🚬 💀 😢
The dwyl App will help people define a health goal and setup a _system_ to help them stop. 🚭

Obviously if you don't smoke or never have (_give yourself a pat on the back!_) this example is not relevant to you. But [20%](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_cigarette_consumption_per_capita) of people in the world do smoke and it's more than likely you know someone that does so you can at least empathise with this expensive habit/addition.
Consider other daily habits like drinking store-made Coffee, over priced snacks or streaming services. Our App will be cheaper than all of those and will help you **make** more time so it will pay for itself!

## dwyl With _Friends_!

Each person who uses the App will have a `handle` (_similar to Twitter_)
e.g: [dwyl.com/**alex**](https://dwyl.com/alex)
When a `new` person visits an existing dwyler's profile and decides to register,
it will count as them having _invited_ the `new` person.

Similarly, if an existing member delegates a `task` (_this is just an `item` with the `tag` "task" applied to it_) to a `new` person who is _not yet_ registered with the App (_by inputting their email address_), that counts as an "***invitation***".
We will _track_ who joins based on which invitation and use that information to calculate the "cash back" (_name still to be determined, definitely not calling it "commission"_ 🤮 ...)

For each person you invite that _pays_ for the product, you will receive €1/month off your membership fee. If you invite more than 6 people each additional person will add a _surplus_ to your account. i.e. you will be in _credit_. Once you have €10 in your account you can "cash out" and get that money in your bank. This is to avoid the overhead of micro-transactions with payment processing; there's no point transferring €1 to a bank account as the fees will be 30 cents.

We will not have a cap/ceiling on the amount people can receive. If you know a lot of people and they all join and 106 of them pay you will get €100/month in your bank account. If you're ***Beyonce*** and a Million of your fans pay to use the App you will get $1M/month! (_obviously we know this is unlikely, it's just an example for illustration_!) It's _far_ more likely that a popular YouTuber focussed on "Productivity" gets 20k people to sign up and 5000 of them pay to use the product (_because it's amazing and changes their life!_) and then the YouTuber gets €5k/month from dwyl.

This is not an ["affiliate Marketing"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing) scheme that allows _anyone_ to register an account and _spam_ their followers/friends on other social platforms to sign up for a dwyl account. Only people who are _frequently_ using (_i.e. paying for_) the App qualify.
If you invite someone and they register and _pay_ to use the App but you stop using it, then you no longer qualify. We _know_ this seems harsh. But it's our way of ensuring that random "influencers" don't _temporarily_ use the App, invite their _million_ followers and then never use the App but still collect a cheque each month. This would lead to low _quality_ of the engagement and we want to avoid it up-front.