7 ms·

IFTTT introduces IFTTT Pro, free accounts now limited to 3 applets

66 points by immewnity 6y ago

guiambros 6y ago
"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.
- windexh8er 6y ago
  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?
  - kevindong 6y ago
    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.
    - dahx4Eev 6y ago
      Any examples of how you use the webhooks?
      - Namidairo 6y ago
        You basically just POST/GET url they provide with the json payload then hook it up to a notification service (whether that be their Android app, Telegram, etc.) Came in handy when I needed to poll something on my end, which would trigger the webhook when it met certain conditions.
      - kevindong 6y ago
        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 6y ago
        I hope we'll see more than three values as a possibility with IFTTT Pro.
    - windexh8er 6y ago
      If that's your only use case - wouldn't Pushbullet (or something similar) be a more complete solution? Genuinely curious.
      - kevindong 6y ago
        Short answer is that yes, there are other options. But they're always vastly more complex and would require actual work to use. Why bother with all that when I can just issue a GET or POST to a simple HTTP endpoint (no auth/headers required) and have IFTTT fill in the title, message, link (if the notification is tapped), and image with the values in the uploaded JSON object? The IFTTT API is truly a joy to use as a someone trying to quickly hack something together using cURL. Re Pushbullet specifically: it no longer supports iOS but either way, it's also much more complex [0] to use. [0]: https://docs.pushbullet.com/#create-push https://docs.pushbullet.com/#create-push
    - CarelessExpert 6y ago
      If you can run a docker container and you have an Android phone, Gotify is a nice alternative for this use case.
      - kevindong 6y ago
        I have an iPhone so it's not really an option. That's a really interesting project that I'd definitely look into if I still had an Android phone.
  - muratsu 6y ago
    We used Zapier at a previous startup to automate some gsuite tasks. It's really nice because it comes with monitoring and non-developers can edit/re-configure them if needed. It's expensive but headache free. You can find huginn[1] & n8n[2] interesting. https://github.com/huginn/huginn https://github.com/huginn/huginn https://n8n.io/ https://n8n.io/
  - MrStonedOne 6y ago
    > and wonder what people use them for We use it to relay tweets to a discord channel webhook. The requirement was that it had to relay the tweet contents with no flair or "tweeted by" or link to the tweet, all discord bot solutions fail this requirement and i didn't want to learn how2tweeterapi.
  - m-p-3 6y ago
    I currently use IFTTT mostly for the webhooks feature. I have some bots on Discord posting stuff from multiple sources, and not having to host my own server to do so is nice. I also use it to send important notifications from some of my servers to my phone. I just have to `curl` the info to IFTTT server with my API key and send the info I need.
- deanclatworthy 6y ago
  You can do this yourself. Just ping your lambda functions as if they were webhooks. The problem with IFTTT has always been speed for me. I had the soccer goal notifications activated once I got my hue lights years ago so that when my team scored itd flash the lights. Usually this happened five minutes after I watched it on the TV. Useless.
- skinnymuch 6y ago
  Hah I feel tricked. I was going to go for $1/mo and pay them $12 for a year. I don’t use ifttt but why not. The minimum is $1.99. That’s not pay what you want. I might still do it and combine what my brother or friend use it for into one account for a year, but still
alexktz 6y ago
F
- anaganisk 6y ago
  F
tcbawo 6y ago
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 6y ago
  What about IFTTT (or equivalent) plus + Tasker + ClockTask?
Wowfunhappy 6y ago
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.
- willio58 6y ago
  Maybe now that it will be payed they will make the product more worth while.
  - Firehawke 6y ago
    Don't bet on it.
- solipsism 6y ago
  Would you run this boxed software on your machine? Would you maintain it? How much is your time worth?
  - reificator 6y ago
    > 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 6y ago
      Upstream APIs change constantly. How will you pay for the development costs, after your $120 boxed copy 1 year license is up?
2bluesc 6y ago
> 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
SN76477 6y ago
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.
- MrStonedOne 6y ago
  >why would I pay for that polling rate is an hour normally, now with pro you can get it at 5 minutes
- skinnymuch 6y ago
  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.
urda 6y ago
Bye bye IFTTT, this "subscription life" really needs to end.
- jasonlfunk 6y ago
  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.
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    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.
    - c17r 6y ago
      If IFTTT was software that ran on your own hardware, I could see your argument. But they are not.
    - m-p-3 6y ago
      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.
  - apotheosis 6y ago
    It's usually product/marketing offering subscriptions, not developers. And unfortunately they are usually motivated by greed.
canada_dry 6y ago
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.
- emit_time 6y ago
  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 6y ago
    Anecdata, but the only thing I thought would be hard to get wrong was RSS-to-Twitter which broke multiple times for me.
- yen223 6y ago
  It took me something like 2 minutes to set up an IFTTT action to email me whenever a keyword showed up in an RSS feed I'm interested in, and I didn't have to worry about keeping the script running or anything like that. There's no way I could have done it that fast even with Python, and I would have to maintain the damn thing.
- fletchowns 6y ago
  My use of IFTTT is things like: * When my garage door is open (Garadget) then turn on my garage indicator light (TP Link Kasa Lightbulb). That way if I leave the garage door open on accident I have a bright red light telling me that * When the garage door opens after dusk, turn on the driveway lights * When the doorbell rings (Ring) and it's after dusk, turn on a group of lights (Leviton) * When the door unlocks (August Smart Lock) turn on a group of lights (Leviton) I'd love to self host rather than use IFTTT, but is that even possible with those other tools?
  - 6y ago
Firehawke 6y ago
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.
IceWreck 6y ago
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.
foxylad 6y ago
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.
- skinnymuch 6y ago
  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.
mumblerino 6y ago
That’s unfortunate. IFTTT is not worth that much for most uses.
- tonyedgecombe 6y ago
  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.
sorenjan 6y ago
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
paledot 6y ago
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.
m-p-3 6y ago
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.

66 points by immewnity 6y ago

"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.

windexh8er 6y ago
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?
- kevindong 6y ago
  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.
  - dahx4Eev 6y ago
    Any examples of how you use the webhooks?
    - Namidairo 6y ago
      You basically just POST/GET url they provide with the json payload then hook it up to a notification service (whether that be their Android app, Telegram, etc.) Came in handy when I needed to poll something on my end, which would trigger the webhook when it met certain conditions.
    - kevindong 6y ago
      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 6y ago
        I hope we'll see more than three values as a possibility with IFTTT Pro.
  - windexh8er 6y ago
    If that's your only use case - wouldn't Pushbullet (or something similar) be a more complete solution? Genuinely curious.
    - kevindong 6y ago
      Short answer is that yes, there are other options. But they're always vastly more complex and would require actual work to use. Why bother with all that when I can just issue a GET or POST to a simple HTTP endpoint (no auth/headers required) and have IFTTT fill in the title, message, link (if the notification is tapped), and image with the values in the uploaded JSON object? The IFTTT API is truly a joy to use as a someone trying to quickly hack something together using cURL. Re Pushbullet specifically: it no longer supports iOS but either way, it's also much more complex [0] to use. [0]: https://docs.pushbullet.com/#create-push https://docs.pushbullet.com/#create-push
  - CarelessExpert 6y ago
    If you can run a docker container and you have an Android phone, Gotify is a nice alternative for this use case.
    - kevindong 6y ago
      I have an iPhone so it's not really an option. That's a really interesting project that I'd definitely look into if I still had an Android phone.
- muratsu 6y ago
  We used Zapier at a previous startup to automate some gsuite tasks. It's really nice because it comes with monitoring and non-developers can edit/re-configure them if needed. It's expensive but headache free. You can find huginn[1] & n8n[2] interesting. https://github.com/huginn/huginn https://github.com/huginn/huginn https://n8n.io/ https://n8n.io/
- MrStonedOne 6y ago
  > and wonder what people use them for We use it to relay tweets to a discord channel webhook. The requirement was that it had to relay the tweet contents with no flair or "tweeted by" or link to the tweet, all discord bot solutions fail this requirement and i didn't want to learn how2tweeterapi.
- m-p-3 6y ago
  I currently use IFTTT mostly for the webhooks feature. I have some bots on Discord posting stuff from multiple sources, and not having to host my own server to do so is nice. I also use it to send important notifications from some of my servers to my phone. I just have to `curl` the info to IFTTT server with my API key and send the info I need.
deanclatworthy 6y ago
You can do this yourself. Just ping your lambda functions as if they were webhooks. The problem with IFTTT has always been speed for me. I had the soccer goal notifications activated once I got my hue lights years ago so that when my team scored itd flash the lights. Usually this happened five minutes after I watched it on the TV. Useless.
skinnymuch 6y ago
Hah I feel tricked. I was going to go for $1/mo and pay them $12 for a year. I don’t use ifttt but why not. The minimum is $1.99. That’s not pay what you want. I might still do it and combine what my brother or friend use it for into one account for a year, but still

alexktz 6y ago

anaganisk 6y ago
F

tcbawo 6y ago

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 6y ago
What about IFTTT (or equivalent) plus + Tasker + ClockTask?

Wowfunhappy 6y ago

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.

willio58 6y ago
Maybe now that it will be payed they will make the product more worth while.
- Firehawke 6y ago
  Don't bet on it.
solipsism 6y ago
Would you run this boxed software on your machine? Would you maintain it? How much is your time worth?
- reificator 6y ago
  > 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 6y ago
    Upstream APIs change constantly. How will you pay for the development costs, after your $120 boxed copy 1 year license is up?

2bluesc 6y ago

> 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

SN76477 6y ago

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.

MrStonedOne 6y ago
>why would I pay for that polling rate is an hour normally, now with pro you can get it at 5 minutes
skinnymuch 6y ago
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.

urda 6y ago

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

jasonlfunk 6y ago
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.
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  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.
  - c17r 6y ago
    If IFTTT was software that ran on your own hardware, I could see your argument. But they are not.
  - m-p-3 6y ago
    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.
- apotheosis 6y ago
  It's usually product/marketing offering subscriptions, not developers. And unfortunately they are usually motivated by greed.

canada_dry 6y ago

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.

emit_time 6y ago
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 6y ago
  Anecdata, but the only thing I thought would be hard to get wrong was RSS-to-Twitter which broke multiple times for me.
yen223 6y ago
It took me something like 2 minutes to set up an IFTTT action to email me whenever a keyword showed up in an RSS feed I'm interested in, and I didn't have to worry about keeping the script running or anything like that. There's no way I could have done it that fast even with Python, and I would have to maintain the damn thing.
fletchowns 6y ago
My use of IFTTT is things like: * When my garage door is open (Garadget) then turn on my garage indicator light (TP Link Kasa Lightbulb). That way if I leave the garage door open on accident I have a bright red light telling me that * When the garage door opens after dusk, turn on the driveway lights * When the doorbell rings (Ring) and it's after dusk, turn on a group of lights (Leviton) * When the door unlocks (August Smart Lock) turn on a group of lights (Leviton) I'd love to self host rather than use IFTTT, but is that even possible with those other tools?
- 6y ago

Firehawke 6y ago

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.

IceWreck 6y ago

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.

foxylad 6y ago

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.

skinnymuch 6y ago
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.

mumblerino 6y ago

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

tonyedgecombe 6y ago
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.

sorenjan 6y ago

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

paledot 6y ago

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.

m-p-3 6y ago

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.