Some of the apps I already had published to the app store before the price jump were Tiny Sales CRM, Tiny Customer Connect, and Auto Decisions. They were custom creations for small companies that only needed basic level stuff. I wasn’t able to use Thunkable for a full blown CRM development due to lack of extended functionality. If i could have, I would have… but I couldn’t, so I didn’t.
Some of the old things that haven’t changed deal more with the block functionality and options that are needed. For example:
-The grid data viewer still doesn’t have any settings for the grid dimensions or size (how many columns).
-There’s still no way to filter data viewer information in any form of simple way. It’s often a complicated process using api filtered queries.
-There’s no filtering data through the integrated API’s (Blocks), such as for airtable. It’s still that you have to know the row id before you can get the information, which means more manual API queries.
-There’s still no way to refresh portions of the screen… still have to reload the whole screen.
-Local DB is still very limited. Would be nice to be able to specify a 3D or 4D array for data analysis and history, but it’s just a local version of excel or airtable. Even something more akin to MS Access as far as data manipulation and filtering would be nice.
-Lacking many of the more popular API’s as a quick build (the blocks) such as google maps geocoding, street view, IFTTT, Open Weather Map, etc.
-Map functionality is still a bit finicky, but the thorough documentation is lacking.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a great commercialization of the original MIT developed App Inventor. BUT pricing is usually based around capability and functionality. It’s the reason Autodesk can charge $1800/year for Autocad… there’s not much that their software can’t do. I get that Thunkable is significantly smaller, but the pro subscription still accounts for $540/year which denotes some full functionality and in depth capabilities. This isn’t that… there’s still some top level stuff that needs to be expanded in order to justify the move from $288/year to $540/year.
That’s where my confusion comes in… where’s the jump in overall functionality that justifies the jump in price? Back-end side, while important, doesn’t really qualify. In-app purchases, while nice for those who are using pay-walls and adverts in their apps to produce profit, aren’t useful to the rest of the business world that can really use this development platform for the day-to-day “band-aid” apps.
Okay, I’ve said my peace… I’m off my soapbox.