Peppermint Tea

Pathstats Pepper, comes at a price!

Posted 24 November 2005 in by admin -

Jehiah has created the Pathstats Pepper that tracks how your visitors get to your site, and where abouts in your site they go after arriving.

However, Jehiah has placed a price tag ($3.80) for his Pepper. More information.

Comments would be great about this, are you willing to pay for Peppers?

cavemonkey50 Says:

1317 days ago #

If I have a strong need for the Pepper, I can see paying a small price. But anything over $5 is too much for a Pepper.
 
John Nunemaker Says:

1317 days ago #

I would be willing to pay for a pepper, but I agree anything over $5 would be too much. I would say around $2 or $3. I'm curious what Shaun thinks about it.
 
Jim Rutherford Says:

1317 days ago #

I was wondering how long this would take to happen, and no I don't mind paying for something I find useful - afterall - I did pay for Mint!

It's a very interesting model wher Shaun creates a totally awesome tool, and creates a plugin mechanism that people flock to and create peppers that add value to his original product. The great thing about peppers are that pepper creators can take Mint into directions that Shaun maybe never even imagined. This sparks innovation, and innovation should be rewarded.

As for cost, the market will determine which ones are worthy and how much they are worth.

Oh - and as a pepper author (adsense click pepper) I won't be charging for mine!
 
pepperr Says:

1317 days ago #

Dont see this pepper as that compelling to dish out the bucks- even if it is for a measly 3.80
 
jan Says:

1316 days ago #

I think if someone is willing to pay for this pepper, it will take not a long time until all peppers will follow and cost in future lot of money!
 
XIII Says:

1316 days ago #

Exactly, which will make Mint cost a lot more if you count the extra peppers, thus making it much much less attractive for potential new buyers.
However I hope and think that other people might take the ball and run with it, offering similar but free peppers.
 
ramanan Says:

1316 days ago #

This pepper looks a lot more complicated than some of the other peppers that have been released thus far. I won't pay $3.80 for it, but I would imagine there must be some people who will. I don't think we'll start seeing a flood of commercial Peppers for sale anytime soon.
 
Jens Meiert Says:

1315 days ago #

Well, I paid for Pathstats, and in my opinion, it's absolutely and definitely worth each cent!

By the way, don't forget to think about what measures you need for your site (it's not about getting all data which could possibly be tracked). And if a Pepper provides you with data you need (or, to be more precise since we're talking about Web Analytics, lol: you think you need), you shouldn't hesitate even if a Pepper costs 5$ or more. WTH are $5, I'm sorry!
 
George Says:

1314 days ago #

This pepper looks to be really nice but I too will not pay $3.80 for it. My worry is that an app as useful as Mint might be hindered in it's popularity and therefore eventually have to close down shop because of not enough interest. You pay $30 for the app itself. Eventually if peppers start popping up with a price, my $30 investment turns into $60, $80, maybe even a $100. Anyway, now I'm just rambling.

For the record, the Pathstats Pepper looks really neat.
 
themaxx.ca Says:

1314 days ago #

I have to agree with some comments, if peppers aren't free, the whole Mint thing isn't attracting that much anymore. Especialy when Analytics is free, you have to provide some candy to your costumers. I had the free Analytics acount minutes after it was made free, yetm today I decided to go with Mint. Now if I start to see more and more commercial pepper, I might regret my purchase.

But, it isn't the case yet, and I love Mint!
 
Beau Says:

1314 days ago #

I don't intend to ever charge for my plug-ins wether it be Mint, WordPress or some other project.

stomach grumbles
 
Robert Says:

1313 days ago #

I'm surprised, I think, by the ... I don't want to call it a double standard - but the people who seem to be discouraging people from charging for their efforts to add on to a product.

It's alright for Shaun to charge for Mint, but it's not alright for people to charge to /extend/ its functionality because it'll (possibly) reduce market appeal for Mint? Shouldn't the market be the arbiter of value, not "You shouldn't charge for this functionality that you could give away for free, because it might hurt the revenue stream of someone else"??

You can get freeware Photoshop plugins. You can buy plugins for Photoshop that cost twice as much as Photoshop itself.

Why not the other way around? Mint is free, but Peppers are charged for? I think there is a very real risk here of people being seen as "He's allowed to charge for his work, but you shouldn't, because you charging for your functionality - which he doesn't provide - lowers the value of his product." Because if that functionality was built into Mint itself, you don't think we'd be paying for it?
 
Ren Jonsin Says:

1313 days ago #

I would and I did pay for it. It was just what I needed. The four bucks was well spent just for the support.

When I had a problem with it, I contacted Jehiah and within minutes he had sent me a fix for my problem.

Sometimes "Free" costs you more trying to get help for a problem than it's worth. I think that four bucks was a bargain in this case.
 
themaxx.ca Says:

1313 days ago #

Don't you agree Robert that, if every peppers worth using were not free, Mint wouldn't be as appealing as it is now? I mean, maybe before Google made Analytics for free, I would had agree with you. But now, let's face it. I paid $30 because I like the interface of Mint better. Shows the stats the way I like. But if I had to spend $50 total or so to get what I need out of Mint, then, I think I would just forget it and use what's free. Which in this case isn't bad at all...

Actually, now that I think of it, the main advantage for me to use Mint was to have it runing on my server.

Wait, I'm getting softer... If a pepper was to give me something awsome, and had good support, I would seriously consider buying it. If it's cheap. Cuz I'm a cheap bastard :P And poor too...

Whatever, Robert, I think your comment made alot of sense and forced me to look at it in a different way.
 
Robert Says:

1312 days ago #

Oh, I'm not saying there's not a middle ground, and that these are all factors to be considered. But more that I don't know where the line is drawn - I kinda figure the market will determine: is the Pepper going to add such functionality that you'll pay for it, etc?
 
George Says:

1312 days ago #

Robert is right. It could turn out to be just like Macromedia and it's products, specifically Dreamweaver.

What got me was the reaction a friend of mine had. I have been talking to him about Mint since I bought it. He came over to hang out and I got to show him the app. He wanted to pick up a license and then he saw Pathstats and saw that there was a price for the pepper, so he decided not to pick it up. He's exact words were "let's see what route the app and it's peppers take. Then I'll decide."

But I can agree with themaxx, most people don't have a lot of cash and therefore might have to use something free like Google Analytics. We have to remember that not all people using Mint are running it for business purposes. Some are running it for their personal sites.

Also, Robert has a point, there has to be a middle ground. I think that with the community that Mint has, it won't be too hard to get to it.

Thanks
 
Steve Williams Says:

1312 days ago #

I too was waiting for this to happen: a pay for pepper.

I won't be checking it out any time soon, especially with beau's fine work available for free - but I see no reason why it's unfair for pepper developers to charge for their work if they want to go that route - so long as they keep it proportional.

I'm guessing the 80c is the paypal tax?
 
Jehiah Says:

1312 days ago #

The paypal tax is .41 or .45 cents. the $3.80 was just a pricepoint I picked because I felt it represented the value the plugin adds to my stats. That said, I feel that Robert is correct in that the market will ultimately determine the correct price point for a pepper.

Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback.
 
Share ware or commercial at 13 steps Says:

1311 days ago #

[...] A discussion here got me thinking about why it rubbed me the wrong way. Aside from the fact that I think [...]
 
Leeps Says:

1253 days ago #

Yeah - absolutely would NOT pay for a pepper. One of the big reasons I found Mint so attractive from the start was the free Peppers community - extending the usefulness and lifespan of the program.
 
Allyn Says:

1249 days ago #

No! It would have to be a pretty damn good Pepper for me to consider purchasing it. Why would I buy Pathstats when I can get SessionTracker for free., I wouldn't.
 

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