Feedly has been doing its best Google Reader impression in recent months, but now it's adding in something Google forgot to do. Mainly, the business model. Feedly will be making money on its new cloud synced RSS reader with a $5 per month subscription for Pro features. Interested parties can also drop $45 for a whole year of Feedly Pro. But the deal the company is running right now is something special. For $99 you get immediate access to Feedly Pro forever. This is limited to only 5,000 spots.
Update #1: HTTPS will be the first feature to go free "when the next batch of feedly pro is available," according to this post on Feedly's blog.
Update #2: All lifetime Feedly Pro spots have been sold:
The new Feedly Pro tier will include a few neat features at launch, but more will be added regularly as the service grows. If you decide to pony up the $99 for a lifetime account, you'll get the following:
- HTTPS
- Evernote integration
- Premium support
- Article search (finally)
The regular $5 subscriptions don't launch until the fall, which basically makes the lifetime users a nice batch of guinea pigs in a manageable size. It also comes with $500,000 of quick development cash. This is where we find out if Feedly can really make this work. If you really use a lot of RSS feeds, this is a tempting deal. Here are some pics from the premium version:
Got questions? Feedly planned for that.
Where is the money from feedly pro going to?
The funds will finance the hardware needed to make feedly pro generally available and help support the next batch of features.
Will feedly pro include more features going forward?
Yes. We will be introducing new pro features regularly. The next batch of features will be decided on by feedly pro users themselves, as you will get to vote on what features you would like feedly to develop next.
Will feedly pro features be available in other apps?
Yes. feedly desktop is the first pro app but we are making all the pro features available via feedly Cloud API. So you can expect feedly mobile and other cloud apps will take advantage of them shortly.
Are you continuing to invest in the free version of feedly?
Definitely! We will continue to iterate and add new features to the free feedly. If anything, feedly pro makes us more sustainable and enables us to innovate faster.
Can I ask for a refund?
Yes. If you try feedly pro and are not satisfied, you have 7 days to ask for a refund. Please use your pro support line to ask for a refund.