
IFTTT introduces IFTTT Pro, free accounts now limited to 3 applets - immewnity
https://ifttt.com/explore/introducing_ifttt_pro
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Wowfunhappy
I really, truly don’t mind paying for software, but all of these subscription
services cost obscene amounts of money. $10 per month is $120 per year. $120!
I might pay that much for boxed software, but it would need to do a heck of a
lot more than IFTTT, and I’d expect to get much more than one year of life out
of it.

Affinity Photo, for instance, cost $60, and VMware Fusion cost $80, to name
two products I purchased recently. Neither needs to be bought again after a
year unless an update contains a new feature I want (and probably not even
then for Affinity), and both can do a lot more than IFTTT. Neither has a
server component, true, but how big a cost can that possibly be for IFTTT?

I’m probably never using IFTTT again. Oh well.

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solipsism
Would you run this boxed software on your machine? Would you maintain it? How
much is your time worth?

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reificator
> _Would you run this boxed software on your machine?_

Yes. Would you rather have ice cream or get punched in the face?

> _Would you maintain it?_

If maintaining it means scheduling updates through my host's package manager
or running docker pull, and not "hey it's thursday, time for a new
configuration format", then sure.

> _How much is your time worth?_

Enough to never host Elasticsearch, not enough to go SaaS-only.

~~~
solipsism
Upstream APIs change constantly. How will you pay for the development costs,
after your $120 boxed copy 1 year license is up?

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CarelessExpert
They... really don't.

Any service with any level of client integration will a) version their APIs,
and b) keep things sufficiently stable so that clients aren't constantly
breaking.

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elpatoisthebest
My experience has been different.

I currently maintain about 280 different API integrations. I have a team that
does constant maintenance. Usually 1-2 API breaking changes per day is what we
see after you get past the stable big ones. Even versioned APIs kick you off
the old version pretty regularly. In the upcoming months we have 3 scheduled
version bumps that are mandatory as they will discontinue the old version
completely. Not "use the new version for more features", like completely 100%
"we are not supporting v2 any longer. You won't get responses in 60 days. Good
luck."

It's easy to say, "they're doing versioning wrong" but it's the reality.

Everyone does oauth wrong. Everyone does versioning wrong. Everyone adds or
removes fields that were once critical to someone's workflows. Maybe 25% of
our integrations are a joy to work with. Once you get to the smaller players,
things start to get weird.

~~~
CarelessExpert
> I currently maintain about 280 different API integrations.

And if I was trying to self-host software that integrated with 280 different
APIs, I'd probably have that problem, too.

Most people don't need 280 different APIs. Then need a half dozen? Maybe a
dozen? Most of which are likely to be the "stable big ones" that you refer to.

So the rate of breakage in your experience just isn't applicable for anyone
doing anything at the hobbyist level.

That's not to say it's maintenance free! But I've been running my own
automation with Huginn for a year now, and for what I need, I could not
justify $120 per year.

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canada_dry
An aside... I've never really got why technical folks would use IFTTT vs self-
hosted. For non-techies I get it... but there are so many great and free tools
available e.g. python, tasker/automagic/B4A, node-red, etc, etc.

I'm guessing this move to PRO will drive capable folks away.

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emit_time
Because I created applets/whatever’s on ifttt like 5 years ago and I haven’t
touched them since, and they keep working.

God forbid I have to maintain a server, upgrade for new libraries, handle
moving a server, etc etc. Write the code in the first place, debug problems,
update my API keys...

~~~
wink
Anecdata, but the only thing I thought would be hard to get wrong was RSS-to-
Twitter which broke multiple times for me.

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guiambros
" _We believe that Pro’s price of $9.99 per month is money well spent.
However, because Pro is new and will evolve in response to your feedback, we
wanted to provide some payment flexibility. Our introductory set your own
price subscription allows you to choose your monthly payment for the first
year of Pro. This special offer expires in 4 weeks, on Wednesday, October
7th._ "

Interesting approach. I wonder what users will pay on average during this
first year.

If they give me a full blown console where I could run lambda-like python code
on top of all the existing device integrations they already have, I'd be glad
to pay the full $9.99/month. But the product would have to evolve _a lot_
versus where it is today.

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windexh8er
I look at IFTTT and Zapier and wonder what people use them for. Don't get me
wrong, I think both have a target consumer but they feel expensive for what
they appear to offer. I feel like if you're investing in automation the
agnostic nature of owning and operating the code is more valuable than
building into a walled system that relies on Internet connectivity and a SaaS
service. OpenFaaS plus some Python could get you a long way on a $5/month VPS.
Or... Pennies in any of the FaaS offerings wired up with cloud native tools.
Or Node-RED?

Are there any good OSS orchestration / automation frameworks out there that
scratch this itch?

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kevindong
My main use for IFTTT is that they accept incoming webhooks to send push
notifications to my phone via their app.

Incredibly useful and convenient.

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dahx4Eev
Any examples of how you use the webhooks?

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kevindong
It's literally just:

1\. Here's a URL (custom to each user/applet). You can either GET or POST to
it. No auth/headers required (the URL includes a token).

2\. You can optionally submit a JSON in the format of {"value1": ...,
"value2": ..., "value3": ...} and set up the applet to set those values as the
notification title, body, link, or image.

Rather unfortunately, you can only specify three values in the JSON so you can
only ever have three of those four properties filled in for a single
notification. But you can set up multiple receiving URLs/applets such that you
can send the first notification containing three of those properties and then
a second notification containing the last property.

~~~
m-p-3
I hope we'll see more than three values as a possibility with IFTTT Pro.

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tcbawo
A couple weeks ago, I was looking for some way to convert a Gmail email filter
into an Android clock alarm (not just a custom notification) so I can be woken
up if a certain email arrives. I haven't found a solution for this. I had
heard of IFTTT, so I took a look at the website, but I couldn't make heads or
tails of it. I signed up for a free account and I searched through the
integrations available, but it didn't seem to get me what I wanted. Maybe it's
just me, but it wasn't clear enough that it could solve my problem that I
should invest the time to figuring out how to use it.

~~~
CarelessExpert
What about IFTTT (or equivalent) plus + Tasker + ClockTask?

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urda
Bye bye IFTTT, this "subscription life" really needs to end.

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jasonlfunk
And what do you suggest replaces it? Developers don’t offer subscriptions
because they are greedy. They offer them because it’s the best way to have a
sustainable software business.

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ocdtrekkie
Charge for _new features_ like traditional software did. Subscription software
is literally rent-seeking... pay forever or your stuff stops working.

If the developer is actually continuing development, new releases that are
worth paying for will happen.

~~~
m-p-3
But it's not a software, it's a service that depends on a server farm, and a
constantly evolving set of hundreds of third-party integrations.

It literally will break if left unmaintained if not funded properly, unlike a
traditional software.

I do agree with other subscription-based models that sells software like Adobe
Creative Cloud, where I'd be perfectly okay with having a non-updating version
for a fixed cost.

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sorenjan
This reminds me, I've been meaning to set up a Huginn install to test out. I
don't really have a use for it at the moment, but I think more people in this
thread would find it interesting. They describe it as:

> Think of it as a hackable version of IFTTT or Zapier on your own server.

[https://github.com/huginn/huginn](https://github.com/huginn/huginn)

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Firehawke
Yeah, this just pushed me into dropping my account. It's been slow or
intermittently failing for ages as it is on the tasks I do have on there, so I
wouldn't call myself predisposed to give them ANY cash to begin with. Limiting
things on top of that just simplifies the decision.

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IceWreck
I put a bunch of scripts together, accept webhooks and run scripts based on
them or timed scripts after set intervals. Combined with a Telegram bot for
notifications, and Ive replaced IFTTT with a messy. but more extensible
solution.

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mumblerino
That’s unfortunate. IFTTT is not worth that much for most uses.

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tonyedgecombe
I'm guessing the free users aren't worth that much to them now they have got
established. If 90% of their revenue comes from 10% of their users then this
might be a convenient way to cull them.

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m-p-3
Maybe we're getting a good deal with Spotify, Netflix etc with a 10$/month
all-you-can-eat entertainment and it's worth more than that, but IFTTT Pro
certainly doesn't feel like a 10$/month service. I registered for the 2$/month
service for now, but I just did to give me some time to look for a selfhosted
alternative.

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foxylad
Interesting move. It seems to me that IFTTT caters for a non-technicial hobby
audience, because technical people and commercial outfits can replicate
everything it does (and more) with a web server and some python scripts. And
ten bucks a month is a lot for a hobby.

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skinnymuch
Replicating everything is Potentially a lot of time for a hobby too. Yet that
is being advocated. There’s no way half the developers or techies I know would
keep maintaining a self hosted alternative.

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2bluesc
> Faster Applet execution

What does faster mean?

My biggest frustration is that my Maker Webhooks[0] requests take hours (4
hours on average maybe?) to execute with Wyze integration.

[0][https://ifttt.com/maker_webhooks](https://ifttt.com/maker_webhooks)

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paledot
I'm here for this. Zapier is super overpriced and IFTTT is hampered by its
attempted "ease of use". As an individual, I need something in between, which
hopefully IFTTT Pro is/will become.

The 3-applet limit is weak, though.

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SN76477
meh

IFTTT has rarely worked properly for me with synchronizations running terribly
behind or not at all.

why would I pay for that, with a challenging interface and just single step
actions? Zapier does just as much if not more for $15 a month.

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skinnymuch
The polling rate will be much quicker. Zapier offering is pretty weak at
$15/Mo too. Better than ifttt but Zapier’s real power comes at the higher
prices.

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alexktz
F

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anaganisk
F

