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Ning Announces Price Increase - June 21, 2011

Ning Plus and Pro Pricing Increase

Just announced by Ning's CEO Jason Rosenthal, effective after July 20, 2011, Ning's Pro and Plus Subscription Plans will increase. You will have the opportunity to purchase your plans on an Annual basis to maintain the current pricing.
The new pricing will be:

According to Jason, Ning has added all kinds of new features in the past year, with major investments for an improved platform, better platform performance - - making Ning subscriptions more valuable.

He mentions the following features that have been implemented this past year:

Ning Design Studio, Social Sign-in, Leaderboards, Like Buttons and Ning Everywhere.

He then talks about the "up and coming" "Paid Access", which will enable Ning Network Creators to charge for membership for a Network or Special Content. Ning Network Creators may take issue or be confused with the mention of the "Paid Access" module in this announcement. There's an additional monthly fee to activate the new module when it's available: $19.95. It's not included in the "more valuable subscription" features.

Mr. Rosenthal completes the announcement with comments about the upcoming Activity Feed that will offer better member engagement.

My immediate thoughts are:

The new Activity Feed rocks, no doubt about it. Ning Members can add Status Updates from the home page, comment on other member's Status Updates, make comments on Photos, Videos, etc...play videos inline, and more.
The other new Features are great too. There's no denying it.
The platform has hit an all time high on uptime, instead of downtime, at about 99% uptime according to Ning.

But here are the questions:

How will Ning Network Creators react?
Is Ning soon to be the platform of choice for the larger player? Is it becoming too cost prohibitive for smaller business?
What do you think?

To be fair, I'll tell you all what I feel about the increase, in a little more detail:

I feel it's a bit too sudden for some NCs. And I feel the "paid access" should be included. Aside from those I'm okay with it - - especially if we continue to receive a stronger and better product. But, would I be okay with yearly increases? Absolutely not.

Ning provides a phone number for anyone who has questions about this upcoming change. Jason encourages you to give them a ring at 888-278-4386 if you are located in the U.S. or Canada, or 650-713-3158 if you are located outside of these countries.

Join the Conversation...

See original announcement on Creators

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by shadowradio on June 23, 2011 at 2:17pm

we do have info on this as i said earlier the program remains free on the basic level and if they were to ever start charging higher prices one thing they do offer is the ability to move your complete site ive been running 2 networks with them now for a little over a year and from what i hear they are suppose to introduce lower rates do not quote me on that but after a discussion with them we thought a lower rate plan would help and they said they were working on it buit we do know they plan on being free even though free doesnt offer as much as the old ning free networks the scripts they use are light weight and dont use a lot of space or bandwidth

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Permalink Reply by www.overtone.cc - Jens on June 23, 2011 at 5:24am

I posted the same reply on creators.ning.com - and my reply was deleted - that's too strange from NING.

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Permalink Reply by The Human Touch on June 22, 2011 at 4:04pm

I'm not really happy with the decision, either... But I have nowhere else to go because of the way I use my network:( So I'll be staying. If any of you are going to have to close your networks for financial reasons, but really don't want to have to get used to a Ning alternative... You are welcome to join my network as a group. I posted about this on Creators, please take a peek for more info. If you are not a member of Creators, feel free to contact me on here instead.

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Permalink Reply by Magic Happens on June 23, 2011 at 3:08am

l also would do this, but l do not want a big site. But you can tell your members to check us out.

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Permalink Reply by Magic Happens on June 22, 2011 at 7:44pm

What's the fee. Ning was like that and spruz said the same and then changed.

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Permalink Reply by Magic Happens on June 22, 2011 at 9:57pm

Thank you. I understand now. l guess people can learn to make it work, or we can ask someone who can help. Ning did add a phone number, but l think that is about the same as what they have before, not always getting a answer.

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Permalink Reply by ISN (Yshatar) on June 22, 2011 at 9:17pm

I agree with many here, it is way, way, way to soon.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Norris on June 22, 2011 at 10:34pm

I posted this in a discussion on Creators, I'll share it here too.

Please feel free to correct me if I have any of the pricing wrong.

It's not costing that much more at all for service, especially if you pay for your network 1 year at a time. This is by far the best deal for any level.

Advance pay of a year of Plus (my plan) was $199.99, (which was approximately 17% discount from $19.95 if you paid on a monthly basis)...For Plus and Pro Creators who pay for a year at a time, It's not as bad as it seems.

PLUS PLAN 1 YEAR

$199.99 broke down to about 16.67/mo.
Now, at $239.90 it breaks down to $19.99/mo.
A difference of $3.32/mo. or just 11 cents a day if you pay 1 year in advance.

PLUS PLAN MONTH TO MONTH

Month to month Plus was $19.95/mo.
Now 24.95/mo. $5 per month or 17 cents per day increase.

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PRO PLAN 1 YEAR

$499.99 broke down to $41.67/mo.
Now, at $599.90 it breaks down to 49.99/mo.
A difference of $8.32/mo. or just 28 cents a day if you pay 1 year in advance.

PRO PLAN MONTH TO MONTH

Month to month pro was $49.95/mo.
Now $59.95/mo. $10 per month or 33 cents per day.

What could one be losing that costs at most 33 cents a day that they couldn't sacrifice for the life of a network we all work hard to make successful? you can't even get a 12 oz Coca~Cola for 33 cents.

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Permalink Reply by Magic Happens on June 22, 2011 at 10:41pm

I seen this when you post this on Creators and broken down does not seem too bad. l think people are thinking it will be more next year and the next one after that. It is kind of like not having trust or the fear of not being able to trust. When trust is broken a few times it does not give that person any security. Like continuity, reliability.

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Permalink Reply by Martin de Goede on June 26, 2011 at 4:43pm

Broken down or not. It's a 20% increase in the first year we are talking about. No amount of new features can justify this. If NING should do this every year (and that is the message they are giving us with such an increase after the first year) we would pay more than double after only 4 years years (1.2 x 1.2 x 1.2 x 1.2 = 2.07) . Furthermore the new features are all necessary to keep up with the improvements of the major free social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. It's too much too soon for too little extra. I am seriously considering switching to a static Wordpress website with Facebook and LinkedIn Groups for those who want to be part of a community.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Norris on June 26, 2011 at 5:05pm

it will never go up like that. Servers space is getting less expensive, while platform competition is on the rise for Ning. It will plateau long before that

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Permalink Reply by Susan Kay Daniels on June 22, 2011 at 11:08pm

The price increase really breaks my heart. I will have to close down one or more of my sites. This is just too much. The last time they increased pricing it was difficult and I am still in the red on everyone of my sites. I am very disappointed with Ning's customer service and the price increase. Don't they know there is a recession going on and people are trying to survive? I really have to think about this.