Today I’m writing with some big news: this fall we are switching to a new pricing model. This new model will coincide with the release of Banktivity 8 for Mac, iPhone and iPad. We call this new model a “subscription that doesn’t suck” because, while you will be asked to pay annually, if you choose to cancel: the app continues to work and provide value, and we never hold your data hostage. For the rest of this blog post I dive into why we are changing pricing models, and I cover some of the details of our new subscription.
One important note before I dive into the details: over the coming weeks I plan to release a couple more blog posts covering the new features coming to Banktivity 8 for macOS, iOS and iPadOS. It’s been a long road to get here, and I’m excited to finally be sharing what we’ve been working so diligently on!
Why change pricing models?
There are two main reasons for switching to our subscription model. First, we want to work on things that make you, our customer, happy. Second, a lot has changed since we first started offering connected services. What used to be cheap, or even free, has now become quite costly.
Happy customers
We hear a lot from our customers, and that’s great. We hear that you want enhancements to existing features to make the application easier to use, faster releases of bug fixes, new features and OS compatibility updates, and you want all of our applications to work together. We want all of those too and our new subscription model helps us get there.
More updates, more frequently
Going years between big releases isn’t really good for customers or us. We want to release features as they are ready, not accumulate a bunch so that we can then declare a big new release and charge for it. With subscription we can just release features as they are implemented – this is a win for everyone.
One purchase, all of our apps
If you go out and buy all of our apps today, you will be faced with two required purchases (Mac and iPad), one free download (iPhone), and one optional subscription for Direct Access — which works across all devices. In addition to this being confusing, it never feels good to have to buy so much to go “all in” on personal finance software. We want customers to manage their finances at their convenience and we’ve developed three great apps (Banktivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad) to help them do that. But it’s confusing to have to buy two different apps and one subscription and understand how it all works. With our subscription you pay and get access to (and support for) all of our apps, including all upgrades with new features, enhancements, and fixes.
Online services
Back in the old days, there were many online services that were free and we were able to piggy back on these. For example, Yahoo’s stock quote service used to be free, disk space was often free and so on. But times have changed. Yahoo doesn’t even have a stock quote API for developers anymore. Really, across the board there has been an increasing monetization of data. Additionally, services which we’ve maintained for years, like our cloud sync server, are more expensive to operate now because of increased security threats. When it comes to managing financial data, you don’t want a company that has a “set and forget” mentality. We take security and privacy seriously, even if it demands more resources from us. By switching to our subscription model we can ensure that our customers are paying for — and receiving — active support and security for our online services.
What happens if I cancel?
IMPORTANT UPDATE as of October 16, 2024: Please read this article about how are subscription has changed with the introduction of monthly pricing.
We understand that some customers might wince at the sound of subscriptions. We get that! Many companies today take a very unpalatable stance on data access. For example, if you subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Suite and you stop paying their subscription, you can’t even open your existing Photoshop files. Hitting closer to home, if you subscribe to YNAB, but decide to not pay your subscription, you can’t access your budget or data. We think this is an odious practice: they are effectively holding your data hostage – ransom payment required!
Our approach is fundamentally different than many of the subscriptions out there. With our subscription, we don’t hold your data hostage. If you decide to cancel (hey we get it, it happens, no hard feelings!) you can continue to use Banktivity in basic mode. That is you can still add accounts and transactions, manage your budget, create and edit reports and so on. Other premium features, mostly the ones that connect to our online services, will stop working. This means with a cancelled/expired subscription, Direct Access, stock quote download and such will stop working. Similarly, our technical support will only be available to people with active subscriptions. However, our online support articles will remain available to everyone.
Common Questions
How much does it cost?
Our customers span a broad range when it comes to where they are on their financial journey. Some of our younger customers have only recently gotten to the point in their lives where they have finances to track at all, and may just be beginning to build an emergency fund — while some customers are managing millions of dollars across a diverse array of accounts and currencies. Given our customers’ diversity, we knew a one-size-fits-all pricing wouldn’t work for our subscription.
We will be offering three different pricing tiers to better accommodate our customers’ needs.
Our lowest priced tier is called Bronze and will cost $49.99 USD a year (that’s a little more than $4 a month). It includes everything you need to get started with managing your finances including Direct Access connectivity, cloud sync, budgeting and more.
The next tier up is Silver and includes everything in Bronze plus support for tracking investments, mortgages and loans, real estate and more. Silver also includes support for downloading stock quotes and home prices (US homes only). Our Silver tier is $69.99 USD a year (or less than $6 a month).
Gold is our premium tier. It includes everything in Bronze and Silver plus support for setting up and tracking accounts in different currencies and check printing. The gold tier also allows you to download currency exchange rates. The gold tier is $99.99 USD a year (or a little over $8 a month).
Compared to what some of our competitors offer, we think our new subscription is a great value.
Is there a free trial?
Yes! You can try the new Banktivity 8 apps for free for 30 days. After 30 days, your credit card will be billed based on the selected tier (bronze, silver or gold). During your trial you can switch tiers as much as you’d like to help you decide which is the right feature set for your financial tracking needs.
What happens if I’m a paying Direct Access subscriber and I want to move to Banktivity 8?
We allow customers to convert their remaining Direct Access time to the new system. This way our customers that want to move to our new subscription don’t have to leave unused time on our old system.
Can I subscribe through Apple’s App Store?
Yes, you will be able to subscribe through Apple’s ecosystem or buy from us. If you download Banktivity for Mac from our website, then the purchase will be through us. If you sign up through one of our apps downloaded from the App Store, then you’ll be signing up through Apple. You will still get the same great support no matter which channel you choose!
What if I want to stay on Banktivity 6 or Banktivity 7?
You can continue to stay on your current version of Banktivity if it is working for you. Nothing about them is changing now, but they will no longer be developed and support will eventually be phased out.
Will Banktivity 8 work offline?
Yes. While an internet connection is required to purchase and use some of our online services, all non-Internet based features fully work, even if you are offline.
Conclusions
We didn’t arrive at these changes overnight. For years we’ve been thinking about ways to deliver more updates to customers in less time. Further, we need a better way to pay for the online services our customers expect us to develop and maintain, in a world where those services incur continuous ongoing costs. Last, we wanted to do all of this while still offering a tremendous value to customers with the right spirit.
If you are a current Direct Access subscriber we think switching to subscription with Banktivity 8 makes a lot of sense. For as little as $5 more a year you get all three Banktivity apps, the new features coming to Banktivity 8, and access to future features as we continue to improve and enhance Banktivity across Mac, iPhone and iPad.
We love our customers, without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Further, we want to be around for many more years to come. So, please accept a heartfelt THANK YOU for your support over the years and we look forward to building the best finance apps for you and your family for many years to come.
I’m looking forward to talking about some of the user-facing features coming in Banktivity 8 for Mac, iPhone and iPad in the coming weeks!
Sincerely,
Ian Gillespie, President
- Banktivity 9.5 and Monthly Subscriptions - October 18, 2024
- Coming soon: Banktivity 9.5 - July 19, 2024
- Continuing Investments in Direct Access - February 26, 2024
I have been using iBank/Banktivity for a long time—about 14 years, I think. I’m ok with some sort of subscription model, so long as the improvements/upgrades over each 12-month period seem sufficient to justify the cost. However, I hope you’ll consider a lower-priced option for people who don’t need all the features you’re bundling. I do not use Direct Access, or iCloud sync, and while I have your iPad and iPhone apps, I never use them. (I do like to be able to download stock quotes, however.) So it seems as if even your lowest-priced tier would have me paying for a lot of stuff I don’t use.
Two questions: When you say the SIlver tier includes support for tracking investments, does that mean I can’t list and update my investments at all with the Bronze tier? Also, can I have accounts in different currencies with less than the Gold tier so long as I update exchange rates manually? If not, the price of Gold seems pretty high to add that feature.
@Jeff to add investment accounts and securities you need Silver. If you do not renew your subscription, you can keep managing your investments in “basic mode” without having to pay again. Same goes for Gold. You will need it to add accounts in multiple currencies. If you don’t renew, you can continue to update exchange rates manually. I hope this helps!
Thanks for the reply, Ian. I’m still not 100% clear on this, though. What would I not be able to do in “basic mode”? If I buy the new Bronze version, will it show my current investment accounts and accounts in other currencies and allow me to work with them manually? In other words, will it just not update currency rates and not allow me to add new investment or international accounts? Or will the accounts I have now not even be imported to the Bronze version?
When you import your document it will detect what tier you need based on the account types and currencies. So if you have investment accounts and more than one currency, it will have you buy the Gold tier. If you do not renew your subscription, you’ll continue to get all of the capabilities of the Gold tier except for the services: no Direct Access (or OFX), no stock quote downloading and no currency exchange rate downloading. Those services will stop working when your subscription expires. At the point the app entires “Basic Mode” at the Gold tier and you can add/edit/update your data manually. Let me know if you have more questions.
That’s helpful. Thanks for the quick responses. Sorry to keep bugging you but I have just two last questions:
1. If I buy the Gold tier, can I then renew at the Silver tier (to keep the quote downloading but skip the exchange rate downloading)?
2. What’s happening with your Apple Watch app? I don’t see any mention of that in your post.
I agree with Jeff Burger. You should consider a basic tier for customers who do not use any online services. I think you can do better than purchase-and-don’t-renew; perhaps $20 annually. Please consider the idea. You have a great product, and I’m willing to annually subscribe if you provide a more accommodating tier.
How about a low cost desktop base model with no Direct Access connectivity or cloud sync. Some folks want to keep it all “in house” You can call it… Tin 🙂
For this case, you’d want to subscribe at the tier you want but then just don’t renew your subscription. I hope that makes sense.
This indeed makes sense But it’s not really a subscription service if we are not renewing; it’s just a one-time payment, and we get no updates after not renewing. We are happy to join your service, but please provide a tier for those of us who use just basic services.
Your subscription service does not suck; however, it does not provide the granularity we would like, Please reconsider.
+1 on the Tin 🙂
Hi Ian,
It’s great to hear about this new subscription model and I’m looking forward to the new update.
I’ve been a long-time user of personal finance software, starting with Quicken for Windows. When I switched to Mac about 10 years ago, I tried to stay on Quicken for Mac but found it wanting. I went through Moneydance, Moneywell, and a number of other options before finally settling on iBank (now Banktivity). With its multi-currency support and other advanced features, Banktivuty was great until last year, when support for online access/downloads from European accounts ended.
I’m a power user of Banktivity, using it for accounts on 3 continents and 4 currencies. I would be willing pay twice the gold level for the convenience of not having to manually download my European transactions. Would it be possible to restore this access with a platinum level for example? Feel free to contact me directly. It would be great to stay with your pla6form.
Hello
I’m a UK user of Banktivity 7 since a year or so when I moved from Windows to Mac and was looking for a native mac app to replace MS Money. For day-to-day accounts / transactions / reporting, Banktivity is fine but one area that attracted me initially was the ability to track investments and update stock market prices automatically. I was previously using a Windows program (Fund Manager) for this and it worked very well.
Banktivity worked OK for this (not all funds updated but most) until earlier in the year when Yahoo stopped working and you moved to IEX. I tried changing symbols from .L to -LN with no improvement. Today, I just get zero prices, if anything, for UK funds. I gave up with Banktivity and continue to use Fund Manager running in a VM.
Q1: So, as part of the changes you’ve announced, will the quote updating functionality be improved from what is currently available in Banktivity 7.5.1, to work for UK-listed funds ?
I would be happy to pay the Silver-level subscription if Banktivity 8 was an improvement and meant I could finally ditch Windows but if not, I’ll continue with Banktivity 7 for day-to-day accounting and Fund Manager for investment tracking. I have spent hours looking for a decent native mac app that fully supports UK fund price updates but have not found any that can equal Fund Manager. What I don’t understand is that Fund Manager offers 30+ quote servers to choose from and the one I use works fine (Morningstar). They don’t charge a subscription or extra for different quote servers.
Q2: So if they can do it, why can’t you ?
I do hope they come up with a solution to this for Australian (ASX) users. Surely there has to be a way…
Hello Ian,
I may want to upgrade my iMac sometime next year and am wondering if the move by Apple to start using its own chips will affect whether or not Banktivity will run on the new processor.
Thanks,
Donna G.
No, it won’t. Banktivity will run just fine no matter what chip is in your Mac.
Stay tuned for our next post about the upcoming changes coming to Banktivity
Hi. This is exciting and I am pleased with what I have read. Can you give us an idea in when this will be rolled out and how we will be notified of the change? Also, what will the cost of Banktivity 8 be for Mac and for iPad? Will the iPhone app remain as a free download?
Also, is there any chance that balancing statements will be an upgrade for the iPhone app? Another upgrade that would be helpful would be to add new upcoming bill payments through the iPhone app. Thanks I really appreciate your app.
Thanks for any information you can share.
Hi Vickie, with the subscription model you get all of the apps for the single subscription price. I’ll have a post coming soon about new features coming to all of our apps 🙂
“What happens if I’m a paying Direct Access subscriber and I want to move to Banktivity 8?
We allow customers to convert their remaining Direct Access time to the new system. This way our customers that want to move to our new subscription don’t have to leave unused time on our old system.”
What does this mean? Does it mean if I have 6 months of Direct Access subscription left, then I will automatically have 6 months of new subscription? Which tier will that be?
Upvote – I have the same question – Which tier will any carryover credit from current Direct access subscribers be at?
We are sill working on these details…
Ian, perhaps you missed two questions from me above:
1. If I buy the Gold tier, can I then renew at the Silver tier (to keep the quote downloading but skip the exchange rate downloading)?
2. What’s happening with your Apple Watch app? I don’t see any mention of that in your post.
@Jeff Here are my answers:
1. Yes, you could do that and the system was designed to handle that just fine
2. No major changes to the watch app right now
Ian, I am hopeful that the Banktivity 8 updates will include the ability to do account reconciliations on Banktivity for iPad. This is a feature that has been missing for far too long. I am not wild to see you folks go to a subscription model, but it does seem to be the trend these days.
Ever since I upgraded from version 6 to 7 I’ve always regretted it. With almost every move I make, I get “beach ball” delays, which I never had in version 6. Even after I shrunk my file size by basically archiving older years and having my current working file cover two years at once (ie 2018-2019, 2019-2020, etc.) to maintain tax continuity, I’m still having that problem. My Mac has 16 GB RAM and is relatively new. Tech support was no help. I hope that the new version will address this issue.
Hi,
I live in the UK and some time ago i lost the ability to download transactions from my various accounts due, i believe, to a change in EU law. Will i get this feature back if i subscribe to Banktivity 8?
Thank you
In upgrading to Banktivity 8, is the subscription level shareable with ones family? I have young adult children that I would like to encourage to take control of their financial lives and would like to have them have access to all the bells and whistles I will have for myself in the new subscription model. I saw you mention that we could share Banktivity ID but would that allow them to have different banking files so they would be independent? If not, maybe make it available in one of the tiers?
Hi David, thanks for the inquiry. Each subscription is tied to a single Banktivity ID. You could setup multiple documents, each having different accounts, all tied to the same Banktivity ID. I think this approach would meet your needs.
Awesome! Now together them to use it. I am really excited by the possibility of increased support and a smoother update pathway! Let me know if you need beta testers!
Seems like a reasonable Subscription Fee, if it means more development & updates it gets my Vote ?
Is there an Estimated release date for Banktivity 8?
Was also wondering what new features are coming.
Everything is moving to subscription, it was more a when than if
I am a Banktivity user since before it was Banktivity (over 10 years)!!
I have not found anything close to Banktivity, I would be lost if the app was ever wound up
An annual fee is fine and encouraged that in doing this we will get the best app
I don’t have a problem with it, but I would like to suggest a change to how it works.
Offer a basic, really basic, price for just the product itself. Then have add-on pricing for what individual customers need. For example, none of my accounts uses Direct Access, so my pain for that service is undesirable, and I would have to seriously consider paying a subscription. But, I do a lot with the market, so stock quotes is something I would pay for, but having to pay for Direct Access, plus an additional fee for quotes would, again, make me think about a subscription at all.
Instead, allow me to purchase a basic B8 at, say, $39.99, then add-on stock quotes for $10,00. Another customer might want basic plus DA as an add-on for, again, $10.o0. Someone who wants both might be willing to pay, say, $15.00 for both. These are just example prices, but you get the idea.
I have two concerns about the new model, especially since I left Quicken because of their model, though I do appreciate you recognize the hostage situations they put you in. However, 1) similar to others commenting about currencies, my issue goes a step further. The second currency I use is Guatemalan Quetzales, which is an “unsupported” currency and I do not get automatic updates. I assume this will change and all of the unsupported currencies will become supported? I understand there are costs to the online services but I am not receiving any online data for my currency so justifying the gold tier for that is unacceptable. However if I will start getting automatic updates then I am all for it. And 2) are software updates going to become automatic? My concern there is let’s say I subscribe and don’t renew because I don’t use Direct Access, iOS apps, etc., but I also lose support. I would not want to receive any future updates if I will not have access to support. I assume if you do not have a subscription you will stay at whatever revision you are running, yes?
Right now we don’t plan to block people from updating the app, even if they do not renew their subscription. If you want support, then yeah, you’d need to keep the subscription active.
Ian, Sign of the times. The recurring revenue model is needed and preferred these days. There last thing we want is to lose the product, company and be forced to use Quicken. If this allows you to continue producing a great product, outstanding service AND keep our data private, am all in !
I agree with a lot of comments here and on Reddit. I welcome the yearly subscription model, but we need a more basic one. I use it for my personal finance and all I care as non US and non European customer is cloud sync across devices. I mainly use Banktivity on my Mac, but I sometimes like to add expenses with my iPhone on the spot so I don’t forget about them later. Direct access doesn’t work where I live (not because of you, our banks don’t support anything like that). I also use multiple currencies, but I only have one account with a different currency… it’s my savings account, and I have it hidden and doesn’t count towards my net worth, so I don’t mind if the exchange rate doesn’t update ever. I don’t need direct access, mortgages, investments, stock quotes, check printing or anything like that… I would be thrown into the gold tier just because of one account that doesn’t even need exchange rate updates. The “just buy gold and then never renew” doesn’t sound very nice or like a good approach… Besides I don’t think I will be able to use cloud sync if I don’t renew… I would basically be paying $100 just for cloud sync? Sorry but that subscription does suck…
I am more or less in the same situation. I don’t really need the on-line capabilities especially since most cannot be used here (restrictions due to bank itself). I really hope you will review your model to accommodate more basic users (even if I have a few stocks and different currencies in my banktivity accounts)
Hi JP,
You can purchase once, then not renew. If you do this, you’ll continue to get regular updates, but just loose access to connected services (and some premium features). This is kinda the whole point of why we are saying it is a subscription that doesn’t suck, if offers a path forward for those that don’t feel like they need the services year over year.
I have two concerns about the new model, especially since I left Quicken because of their model, though I do appreciate you recognize the hostage situations they put you in. However, 1) similar to others commenting about currencies, my issue goes a step further. The second currency I use is Guatemalan Quetzales, which is an “unsupported” currency and I do not get automatic updates. I assume this will change and all of the unsupported currencies will become supported? I understand there are costs to the online services but I am not receiving any online data for my currency so justifying the gold tier for that is unacceptable. However if I will start getting automatic updates then I am all for it. And 2) are software updates going to become automatic? My concern there is let’s say I subscribe and don’t renew because I don’t use Direct Access, iOS apps, etc., but I also lose support. I would not want to receive any future updates if I will not have access to support. I assume if you do not have a subscription you will stay at whatever revision you are running, yes?
Ian, can I ask you to confirm backwards compatibility of v8 data files, to v7 app?
The scenario I envisage is me taking advantage of the 30-day trial of v8 to test what actually works for me across the three tiers. If I decide, at the 29-day point, to stick with the older version, will the data file still open in v7, with the transactions, stock prices, etc that have been entered during the trial all OK?
A.
Hi Al,
Unfortunately, the Banktivity 8 data files are not backward compatible with v7.
As an overseas customer for 10 years I have been very happy with the product although only used on my desktop. The multi currency feature is the only on-line feature that is any use to me but live updates are not essential and I usually update manually anyway. I would be reluctant to pay a subscription service that includes so many features that I did not use or could not use outside of the USA. Please consider your long term supporters from overseas.
Agreed, as Josh suggested in an earlier post, a basic subscription for the apps themselves with additional costs for add ons would make your subscription model a lot more flexible, customizable and attractive for everyone, allowing users to pay for only those services that they need and use.
+1 for John’s and Glen’s response
Hi, I’m all for paying for a subscription model for a quality product and having used Banktivity since the early years I love it and use it multiple times a week. However, living in the UK it’s been frustrating that Direct Access has stopped working when UK Banks introduced Open Banking (a more secure was to connect rather than screen scrapping !). So just wanted to check if Banktivity 8 will incorporate Open Banking integration so I don’t have to manually download all my finances ?
Still waiting for your blog posts covering the new features coming to Banktivity 8. ‘sup?
😉
It’s very close. I hope to publish it this coming week.
I’m really hoping that with the new data file format you mention that you will run the synch on Apple iCloud platform. It has always baffled me that you use in B7 a rather clunky and inaccurate file-based sync through your own server when there is free and excellent Apple iCloud bit synch available. You have the advantage over rival software of running only on Apple platform – yet you don’t currently use one of its most impressive advantages.
I 100 % agree with Richard. I am 100% on the Apple ecosystem. I use and pay for Apple’s iCloud service. Everything on my iMac, iPhone and iPad uses Apple iCloud: Mail, contacts, calendar, photos, Apple Music, iMessage/Messages, notes and entire Documents folder along with iCloud Drive which lets me get access to files on my iMac on our iPhone and iPad. Please consider using or giving option to use Apple iCloud so I will start using your Banktivity iPad and iPhone app. Either way am a loyal customer and have no problem paying the new subscription service, just won’t use on mobile devices with your cloud service. Reality is we prefer mostly using the iMac anyway for finances. I am glad to hear that you are going to also keep supporting Intel Macs as I am close to buying the new 2020 iMac and plan to keep it for at least 6 years before going to Apple’s new chip. Thanks.
I appreciate the feedback. The story for why we use our own sync server is a little long, but I’ll try to give the short version. Long ago (> 10 years ago) we used to use MobileMe/DotMac for syncing. This was way before iCloud even existed. Apple terminated that service and it left us scrambling for a solution. We learned a lesson here, we have to be careful about how much we rely on Apple’s auxiliary services. When it came time to implement our own sync server we decided this was something we needed to have “in-house”. Sync is notoriously difficult in the programming world. And when it comes to something as complex as Banktivity, it’s really something we want full control over.
Some feedback on this…I am personally fine with subscription model but your pricing seems way off base when compared to competitors like Quicken. Due to the many DA challenges I’ve been experiencing with Banktivity I signed up for Quicken in parallel, which is also a subscription. Quicken’s normal price which allows a similar capability to your Gold tier is normal $60 Canadian and I got it on sale for $47 CAD. Your $100 USD is like $135 CAD which is way off base. I was already paying a bit of a premium with Banktivity with an annual DA subscription plus paying for upgrades but this price is really off the mark in Canada when compared to Quicken. Just giving honest feedback as it will likely drive me to stay with Quicken which also has great features like Quicken Web etc.
Is there check printing in the bronze tier
I agree. Heck, I’d be willing to pay for it in the silver tier, but only enabling it in the gold tier seems like the wrong place.
I noticed that too. I certainly hope so as it is a basic requirement.
I see this as a beginning of the end of Banktivity by switching to Subscription model.
I do not see much justification for the fees being charged (packaging features not needed!! and asking users to pay the price for the same). I wish you considered to continue the current model which guarantees the current user base rather than loosing the users you have. I am for one who will consider quitting.
You could continue 2 models – Current one (non-subscription model) and then introduce Subscription model (priced lower) and test the market. If in 2 years more takers for Subscription model then you can “phase out” the current (non-subscription) model.
I appreciate your honest feedback and I hope we don’t lose you as a customer!
I just discovered Banktivity today and started a free V7 trial I’ve been a Quicken user forever and have looked off and on for a replacement since they and Intuit parted ways, more recently, as every Quicken update, and they are frequent, has altered my data, though they, of course, say this is impossible. I’ve been looking for a desktop program. I’m fine not having paper, but I do like my desktop. I think I am totally hooked. Yes, I’ve run into problems connecting to some 0f my credit cards, but everything else so far is easy, once I read how to do it. Even having instructions that make sense is practically miraculous! My brain is relaxing, rather than exploding. I just want to know when V8 will be out! It’s not officially fall, but close enough!
I have used Banktivity since when it was called iBank. I am a fan even tough many of the features are not available to me as I am based in the UK. We are all in the business of making money so I understand the reasons for your move and support it. I just have a few comments: you make a big point about making customers happy. In the past I have written three times to Banktivity with queries and not once did I get a response. Will this change with a subscription model? My accounts are all in GBP but I also hold US securities… does this mean I will need Gold tier even tough many of the Gold tier services are irrelevant for me? It doesn’t feel right, wouldn’t you agree?
Hi, thanks for writing. We do our best to get back to customers, some channels are one-way…for example, when you provide feedback through the app, those emails, while read, usually don’t get responded to. Our main channel for communication has always been through our support page (www.iggsoftware.com/support.php)
As for your other question, if all of your accounts are in one currency, then you do not need Gold. Sounds like you would need Silver.
Hi, fellow Indonesian here. There might be only tiny of fraction of Indonesian using Banktivity. I used Banktivity since iBank days, looks like I already use it from iBank 3(?)
My yearly subscription for Direct Access has just ended, and sadly (yes, I am literally sad), I decided not to buy another year of subscription yet, because I cannot optimized my DA subscription. I could only use DA to sync 2 of my bank accounts. (And both wasn’t my main accounts.) Not even my credit card accounts from the same banks can automatically connected. Every single month during my DA subscription, I still have to input lots of transactions manually. Then I also need to manually input my mutual funds price every time I need the info of my exact balance. Overwhelming. Hence my hesitation to re-subscribe DA.
As much I love Banktivity (I upgraded regularly, now I am using Banktivity 7), I really hope the next upgrade (Banktivity 8 with subcription) will accommodate what I need. At the very least, I hope it can update my banking transactions. Otherwise, looks like I have to survive with Banktivity 7 until I don’t know when.
Hope for the best so the new version will be successful!
Like with most transitions to subscription models this makes the product more expensive. Previously the cost been a bit less than yearly upgrade. The upgrade to Banktivity 6 did cost $29.99 USD. The one to Banktivity 7 did cost $34.99 USD (+16.6%). The one to Banktivity 8 will cost $49.99 (+42.9%).
The bundling provided as explanation for the increase assumes, that one has a need for the products added. For myself I do not have a need for the iPhone / iPad client. Direct access does not work properly with my bank in Australia. It also voids the banks liability, if I give my account credentials to a third party.
Subscription
Thanks for the comments. For your case, if you don’t have need for our services, it probably makes sense for you to subscribe, but then just not renew. The app will keep working in “basic/manual mode.”
If you don’t plan on using any of the connected services, I think you would be a good candidate to subscribe and then just not renew.
I am just looking at the beta and it looks like I need to use the most expensive option as I am using loan accounts. The price increase for switching to a subscription would therefor be from $34.99 USD per year to $99.00. That is 283%.
Hi Martin, loans and mortgages are under the silver tier. Where are seeing loans require gold? Thanks for the feedback!
If one does not renew, I would expect that one does not get any updates. That means one would be frozen on the last version until one pays again
Actually, you’ll continue to get updates even if you don’t renew!
I live outside the US and Europe and bank with multiple currencies, as somebody said in another comment, the automatic downloads service is useless in many countries as banks simply do not support it.
So the main functions I use in Banktivity are:
Manual importing and recording of activities
Currency exchange rates being automatically updated.
I do not use stock prices, or any automatic downloads, but it looks like I still need to pay $99 PA is that correct?
If so, do I get bronze and just update the exchange rates manually or is that not an option?
Totally understand the subscription service. I’ll most likely be one of those buy and cancel folk… is there a payment method similar to Microsoft Office? They offer both a one time payment (with less bells and whistles) and a subscription service. One other question, I don’t know if it’s been asked already: Will there be a way to manually add adjustments to currency exchange rates and the like? I fully understand it not being automated if the subscription service is canceled.
Hi Colin, you can manually enter exchange rates in Banktivity 7 and that won’t change for the new version either.
Hi, just recently came across this – I was a little surprised this news wasn’t mentioned in IGG’s regular email newsletters.
I live in Canada with a few USD accounts – the U.S. home prices would not be useful for me, and I believe the Canadian standards for self-printed cheques (to the extent I’d use them) are different from what Banktivity supports. If Silver included manual currency tracking, or even support for 1-2 foreign currencies for non-US customers in place of the home prices, it’d be a no-brainer for me, but with Gold I feel like I’d be paying too much for U.S.-centric features I don’t need, to get at one fairly minor thing (USD support) I do want.
I work in software dev too so I realize there’s always tradeoffs (for both devs and customers), just wondering if there might be a slightly better mix here.
Now that you are moving to a subscription-based model. Is it possible to increase the customer support/engagement experience to something that is more central?
It would be great if the support articles, community conversation, and an idea board (somewhat of a public roadmap) could all be located under the support menu item from your home page. For example (https://trailblazers.salesforce.com/)
I think moving to a subscription-based model your customers will expect more services and not just a product.
Also miss the ability to schedule a private 1on1 with someone to help get you set up.
Thanks for the feedback Ryan.
I can’t wait. Every time I upload the updates, I get grief with passwords. I use 1 password and keep it current. I do use direct access and it is a godsend! I handle multiple accounts and bank cards for several reasons, and haven’t dare venture into my stock accounts.
But I do wish that I had a more stable way to open my accounts that doesn’t go ring around the roses with 1 password/time machine and a separate file on my hard drive….IN CASE of disaster, I live in hurricane zone and I love redundancy. After years of Quicken I was delighted to discover IBank and then Banktivity. Love it to pieces, especially at tax time!
The service and support I have received are stellar!!!! very great support staff.
I can’t wait. I want it now. I will check the free trial..if I can ever get my Banktivity 7 files passwords. I update the latest version today, and none of my passwords worked. If I buy the new one asap, can I restore my passwords. Cuz I have Time Machine backups. I did find the keychain access file. Password… I had installed the new IOS 14, and dutifully updated all versions on all devices. I never really tried on iPhone, and had problems with IPAD version. Looking for word to improved integrations!
Can’t wait. Thanks for making such great software…I am just jammed between versions and updates on platforms ! Gack.
Interesting to read this, and not a surprise. As a customer I don’t look forward to the idea of a formalised subscription service.. However, as a long time user of Banktivity, I would be at a total loss if the software stopped being developed and ultimately stopped working..
I hope that this means that we can look forward to smaller, incremental updates over the course of a year. I would love to see shortcuts support or some form of quick-add transaction watch app.
Looks great! When do expect release of Banktivity 8 – I can’t wait.
I love the proposed changes to reconciling on iPad. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I love your software, have my sister and future daughter in law using it; everyone is happy. Best of they are watching their finances. Please know that many of us appreciate all the very complicated work you are doing to make our lives easier. I will never go back to Windows or Quicken; thank you.
Thank you for the kind words!
I can’t wait for 8 – Full of great ideas and I will definitely be jumping on board………..but do you have an idea on how close we are to release?
Can we have an update Please on Banktivity 8 release date.
Other request for target release date for v8 please (although given that you seem to have ignored previous requests for that info, I won’t hold my breath!)
See below, beta now available! http://www.banktivity.com
Public beta is now available: https://www.banktivity.com
I have Banktivity 7 for Mac, iPhone and iPad. One thing I would like to do is to be able to download stock quotes from Sao Paulo (Bovespa), however I can’t do it anymore. I will be able to do this in Banktivity 8?
I would urge you to reconsider the pricing of currency exchange rates.
I live in Europe but have accounts in euro and in dollars. The *only* reason I use Banktivity rather than your competitors is because it handles currencies better than the competitors. Living in Europe, most of the features in your Bronze and Silver tiers don’t work for me: the bank connectivity doesn’t work with my bank, your home data is US only, for example.
I wouldn’t mind paying a subscription, but charging $100/year just to have the currency support is a bit much, don’t you think? US-based users will be getting a lot more useable features for a lot less money. More to the point: I don’t think I’m willing to pay you that much money per year unless your support for European users becomes much better with broadly similar feature sets to what US users get.
Just following up: I can’t see a rationale for the Gold tier. $30 extra per year over the Silver tier for a single additional feature (that I already have in Banktivity 7)? Not worth it. You should have 2 tiers: Standard ($50) and Premium ($70) and Premium should include everything. The Gold plan just smacks of gouging on the assumption that everybody needing multi-currency support must be loaded and therefore you can charge them whatever you want. It’s the same rationale the US government used when it called the legislation that imposes onerous reporting requirements for American ex-pats “FATCA” (get it?: Fat Cat). As if ex-pats are some giant cash cow waiting to be milked.
Anyway, it’s not the case that everyone needing multi-currency support is rich and willing/able to pay $100/year. I like your product and have no objection to a subscription model, but the Gold tier features/pricing is completely out of whack and if that ends up being the pricing, I’ll go elsewhere.
The multi-currency support is one of those features that adds a ton of complexity throughout the app. We want to keep supporting it and even make it better, but in order to do that we need to make sure our development costs are covered. There is only a small fraction of our customers that need multi-currency support, so we decided to put it out into the gold so that its costs aren’t subsidized by customers that don’t need it.
As I understand it, the API that your app connects with in Banktivity 7 only updates exchange rates once a day. By charging $30/year for that service, you are effectively charging $30 for 365 daily update calls to that API. Every other sync of exchange rates does nothing, since the rates only change once per day.
That’s $0.08 per update. Explain to me how you need 8 cents per update per customer to cover your costs on this… Because, frankly, I don’t believe your costs are anywhere near that, which would mean that you’re asking the Gold subscribers to subsidise others (or you’re gouging them).
I thought the new services were supposed to resolve issues like the constant 2FA/MFA prompts from banks? I decided to give the beta of Banktivity 8 a try and started my 30 day free trial of the subscription but I still have all the same issues I have with Banktivity 7 in terms of constant MFA emails. Also there is still no ticker search for Canadian mutual funds.
If I get the gold version and then renew with the silver version, will I then be able to manually update currency rates? I don’t see a way to manually update the rates in V7…
You can manually update currency exchange rates in Settings > Currencies then click the blue text of the rate you want to change.
I am a long time UK user of personal finance software, from M/S Money in 1995, through iBank, Jumsoft Money and Moneywiz before back to IGG and Banktivity 3 years ago. All of these have been one-off purchases, albeit most with 1 to 2 year paid upgrade cycles Can I say how much I hate switching between packages with the data degradation and time-consuming task of sorting out the inevitable mess of anomalies in 25 years of data. I have settled on Banktivity and enjoy using it, but I am a little worried by what I have read about your proposals for “Subscription that doesn’t Suck”. I have no need for Direct Access (it caused more work than it saves), but I do rely on cloud sync as I use iPad, iPhone, MacBook Pro & iMac for access to my accounts. I consider just short of £50 a year to be expensive and as far as I can see, just holding my file on iCloud will not provide access on the pad & phone. What’s more I don’t think sticking with B7 is an option if I will lose sync capability. I am sure I am not alone and shall be interested to see how promised release (which is now looking more like Winter than Fall!) and support systems materialise.
I left a reply to this blog post somewhere early September. Unfortunately for one reason or another, it was never published. Was is an oversight or something I wrote? Maybe my reply was harsh, but I don’t think it was offensive. If it’s was censored, I’d like to know why. If not here’s a second and attempt. I’ll elaborate a little more, but I’ll be just as harsh…
As a customer it always saddens me to see an application switch from a proprietary license to a subscription model. Where are the days that you could buy a lifetime license including all future major and minor updates?
As someone making a living in IT, I understand that maintaining software comes at a cost. Just like maintaining a car. While I may have bought my car and can drive it for as long as I want, I will need to get regular maintenance such as an oil change or new tires in order to be able to continue to use it. This is something that we all accept, and we all accept that we pay for that oil change or the new tires.
At the same time, we’ve all grown accustomed to minor software updates that are provided free of charge. After all, why wouldn’t they be? Aren’t minor updates just bug fixes? Doesn’t it make sense that the software developer fixes his or her mistakes for free? Just like a car manufacturer will recall and preventively replace a part when they notice that there is a substantial problem. Or is there more to it?
In fact there is. Minor software updates not only include bug fixes. They often include small enhancements. In addition to that, what users often do not know is that a minor updates can also include under the hood changes to maintain compatibility with other related services or changes in the operating system. No car manufacturer will ever adapt your car just because the roads you drive are changing.
So taking all of this into consideration, I do understand the switch from a proprietary license to a subscription model. Maintaining software is a job and nobody wants to work for free. Everybody needs to make a living, including software developers. So I’m ok with subscription software.
But that is only half the story. I may be ok with subscription software, but the subscription should have value for money. The more I pay, the more I expect. That is probably not only the case for me, but for every customer.
Unfortunately, this is where most subscription models seem to go wrong. Subscription models typically forget all about customer loyalty. Sure many subscriptions offer one or two months for free if you subscribe for an entire year. But what about customers who have been around for a long time? Loyalty seems to be under-appreciated. In the good old days, after paying for a proprietary license, I knew that I would need to upgrade that license every one or two years in order to make use of new features or to maintain compatibility with a new version of the operating system. I had no problem with that. In fact I budgeted for it. However when I look at subscription pricing there are very few models that take my customer loyalty into consideration. What I see all too often is that the annual subscription price is no different than what a full perpetual license used to cost.
Sadly, from my perspective, the announced subscription model of Banktivity is no different. Allow me to explain.
I’ve been a customer since Banktivity 5 in March 2016, when I paid $59.99 for the license, followed by an upgrade in May 2017 at $29.99, and another in November 2018 at $34.99. As an EU customer I’ve never had any use for a Direct Access subscription as it does not work in Europe. So all together I’ve been able to use Banktivity with features such as investments, mortgages and multi-currency for approximately $30.00 per year. A more than fair and reasonable price.
In fact, that price is so reasonable that I would actually be ok with continuing to support the development of Banktivity even if that annual cost would go up by 50%. Unfortunately if I want to do this and use the same level of functionality as I had before, it will cost me $99.99 per year. That’s more than 3 times my current cost! I understand that prices increase. I understand that everybody needs to make a living. What I don’t understand is why, I have to pay 3 times as much to get the same level of functionality? Would you keep driving your car if it would cost you 3 times as much? Sure the new subscription includes Direct Access which should correspond to a $49.99 per year value. But as an EU customer I have no use for it, so it has no value! And while it may be on the roadmap for EU and UK customers, you say yourself that things can change. So there is absolutely no guarantee when or if this will be available.
I want to keep supporting the future development of Banktivity because it’s probably one of the better personal finance applications. However, the announced subscription model is not one that I’m willing to support. It gives me the impression that you either don’t know your customers or don’t care about them. (Remember, I mentioned I would be harsh)
Hopefully you’ll rethink tiers and pricing. My advice is to keep things simple. Give your customers a choice. Distinguish between a Standard and Premium subscription and keep Direct Access separate. That way you don’t force users in paying $49.99 for things they cannot or do not use. After all, if your customers wouldn’t mind spending money on things they don’t need, they probably never would have looked for Banktivity in the first place.
Hi Sven, thank you for your detailed comments. I want to point out an important point that I don’t see addressed in your comment.
If you do not renew, the app keeps working. That means, you could buy the Gold tier, for $99 and not renew. Then the app will keep working and you’ll even get updates without paying. As some point we might introduce a new feature that you’ll need an active subscription for, but to just keep using the software in “basic mode” (without connected services and some premium features) you only need to pay once.
I hope this clears things up!
Hi Ian, thanks for your response. I am somewhat confused. What would basic mode mean? If I buy the gold tier to have access to investments, mortgages and multi-currency would that still be accessible if my gold tier subscription expires? Or would I just have everything in bronze minus the direct access?
Hi Sven, basic mode means you can keep using the app, but the connected services will no longer work. For example, if you bought gold, but then after a year decided not to renew, you could continue to enter currency exchange rates manually, but they wouldn’t update automatically anymore. Similarly, cloud sync and direct access would stop working, but you could add transactions (and even new accounts) in different currencies – just everything about these accounts would need to be done manually. Let me know if you have anymore questions!
Ian, I’m going to chime in here and say I think you are missing the point. The new model has too many tiers differentiated by features that cannot be used globally and yet your tier pricing does not reflect that outside of the USA, most of the gold (and silver for many) features are useless.
As an example, I have 2 investments accounts that I trade both US and Canadian facilities in. Because Banktivity itself can’t handle multi currency in a single account, I have to do a hack and create 2 separate Banktivity accounts to represent the US trades and the Canadian trades. This limitation then forces me to go up to the gold tier at $130 a year CAD basically to compensate for a software limitation. I’m actually not complaining about the limitation as this same limitation exists in every package I’ve ever used, the problem is Banktivity is the only SW that charges more just to have an account in US currency. Also, I pay for at least silver access so that I can download stock prices but since I’m in Canada, have of the funds I trade in aren’t available in your new stock feed.
The point is kind of moot now for me, as of last week when I saw that Banktivity 8 with the new services basically does not address a single issue that I have with Banktivity 7 (continued MFA prompts for my DA accounts, inaccurate currency downloads, no Canadian Mutual fund prices being the main items) I decided to full on convert over to Quicken as my primary software. For $62/year CAD (less than half what I’d pay for Banktivity) I get my bank accounts transactions downloading, it actually has prices for my Canadian mutual funds and currency downloads at no extra price.
So I’m not trying to advertise for your competitor here, I quite liked Banktivity up until changes over the last year where my bank accounts stopped downloading without multiple MFA issue and you switched stock feeds to stop carrying the funds I trade in. IGG has made some critical design decision flaws basically alienating not US customers over the last year and you look poised to do it again with these changes. I hope you take this as constructive feedback and reevaluate at least your tiering price structure,
Hi Don, I appreciate your honest comments. While I can’t say for certain whether or not your CAD mutual funds are supported with our current feed, I do want to point out this article which indicates the suffix needed to fetch securities for different exchanges: https://www.iggsoftware.com/support/articles/banktivity-7/which-stock-exchanges-are-supported-for-security-price-downloads/
Also, Banktivity 8 doesn’t get any major updates to our Direct Access technology…yet. However, this blog post (https://www.iggsoftware.com/blog/2020/08/services-roadmap/) explains that is one of the next major areas we are focusing on.
Hi Ian, all is clear now. I actually forgot about the cloud sync but something I am also using.
I guess for me this means I will not be upgrading to Banktivity 8 at this time for the simple reason that, for me, at this price it just does not provide value for money.
For now I will be staying on Banktivity 7 and start to look out for an alternate solution. With macOS Big Sur release coming up I will not be making any decision before the new OS is released. Hopefully Banktivity 7 will continue to function on the new OS. That would at least give me the option to stick around and monitor the Direct Access evolution.