4 ms·

Moqups Premium

27 points by moqups 13y ago

benackles 13y ago
Seeing a paid option always makes me a little more comfortable using a product. It gives your product a sense of longevity. Congrats on launching premium! Just a simple gripe on blog design. A few months ago someone posted an article about an all-to-common problem [1] in company blogs. Your site doesn't have any link to your actual product. Luckily this article has a link, but unless every article links to the product, you are losing business every time. You're forcing your readers to manually type in the URL instead of having a simple link in the header of every page. It's a simple fix, but it could pay off big time. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5267330 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5267330
- moqups 13y ago
  Thanks for your input! Here's the link to the actual HTML5 App: https://moqups.com/ https://moqups.com/
  - calinet6 13y ago
    Good link - but there should still be one on your blog. And it should be the most obvious, most clear, and easiest to click thing on the entire page. Like 60% of blog posts on HN make this mistake. It surprises me quite a bit, but I guess it should make you feel better that apparently everyone makes this mistake.
mattmanser 13y ago
Hmm, this is a really great product and I've loved using it, but 2 projects? That's so ridiculously low that 'free forever' seems a bit hollow and vacuous now. It would be better if you just came out and said it. Are you just supposed to go one humungo project now? I'm certainly not paying a monthly recurring fee for a mock up tool to play with side projects! I could see upgrading it for the collaboration aspect for clients, but for toy and hobby projects you've seemingly just killed the tool. Calling it 'using in a casual manner' is bad, how is having a project per idea and being limited to 2 ideas 'casual'? A helpful compromise?!? Personally I think you've focused on completely the wrong thing to go premium for. I'm surprised you didn't go private projects & apps/dropbox integration (standard) > revision control & master pages (pro) > collaboration (ultimate) or something like that. But that's just the programmer in me I guess, we all know that multiple projects won't add to your costs, just massive inconvenience to the free users. Still, it's your product so do what you want and you're allowed to change your mind, just don't expect a lot of people cheering you on. I'm just personally sad I probably won't use it any more as I'm not going to faff around trying to organise multiple thoughts into one humongous project. As a reminder of what you originally said when you introduced it to HN: We'll keep the main functionality free (with some reasonable limitations). We plan on adding some really cool collaboration and annotation/feedback features soon that we'll probably ask a buck or two for. I just don't see 2 projects as reasonable at all but I always suspected something like this would happen as the tool was just too well done. Note that I would probably buy it for a reasonable fixed price (like $50-70) but obviously the storage, etc. will constantly be a drain on you. It is better than balsamiq, but not better enough to be dipping into my pocket every month for the rest of my life. The problem with saas I guess. EDIT: I guess this is the problem with an online tool being useful to both individuals and corporations. I can see real value from a recurring fee from dropbox as an individual, but a mock up tool? For what (should) be a desktop app that's gone to a sass model, are individuals really going to pay a recurring fee for this? On the other hand, it's a perfectly reasonable price for businesses, even small and micro ones if you use it regularly. I would definitely sign up if I do more consultancy again. Perhaps I'm cheap as an individual, but to me it's just far too expensive for my personal use case.
- cristianpascu 13y ago
  Just the other day I paid $20 for a pen. You know, half the 'pen and paper' alternative.
  - calinet6 13y ago
    Hey, I love nice fountain pens more than anyone, but you can get a good pencil and paper pad for a couple bucks.
    - cristianpascu 13y ago
      That's true. I wanted this specific pen for its quality. My point actually was that it's pretty much non-sense to complain about a free tool. You probably did the right thing, as a developer, you built your own system.
      - mattmanser 13y ago
        Why is it nonsense? They posted it here, do they not want feedback? This isn't a free advertising site you know. Once you say something like free, you can't take it back. In case you weren't aware it's $10 per month. Per month. Say your $20 pen lasts 5 years. Add maybe another $30 in refills. That's $50. In the same time moqups would cost you $500. And also if you stopped paying they might take away everything you'd 'written'. I certainly think it's worth the money for companies. Just not for individuals.
        moqups 13y ago
        Hi Matt, don't worry - we really appreciate and reflect upon all kinds of feedback, specially the most honest ones. We may disagree on various topics, but that's what makes a good debate!
        cristianpascu 13y ago
        Matt, I don't think feedback is non-sense. Never! What I find difficult to understand is why one would expect something to be free. And more, negotiate on that 'free product'. It's really not about moqups here, but about products in general. And I think that it's not about companies vs. individuals. It doesn't matter if you're a company or not. What it matters is that the products does a job for you and you benefit from it somehow. There is a profit you gain from using the product. You should accept the idea of making a little investment in order to get that profit. You don't get free coffee at Starbucks, or free chips or McDonalds or free breakfast at a gas station, just like that. You pay for everything in the real world. Software should be cheap, but not free. My opinionated 2 cents. :)
nateweiss 13y ago
This is a totally trivial nitpick, but when I see 500MB at the $9 level I start to do multiplication in my head and kind of get distracted. If it wouldn't cost you too much more, I would suggest considering 1GB for that level. The little story told by the levels just seems simpler that way to me. Like I said, totally minor point, and perhaps it's just me so take with a lot of salt. Congratulations getting to this stage! The price levels seem reasonable to me. I personally wouldn't have a problem paying for it. Is there integration with Basecamp or similar? That would be nice.
- moqups 13y ago
  Thank you - you have a very valid point with the image limitations so we'll reconsider. We're also planning many more integrations and Basecamp is close our radar. We're seeing huge amounts of traffic coming from tools like Aptana, Trello or Basecamp so this makes a lot of sense. Stay tuned!
  - mtrimpe 13y ago
    Looking forward to it. Great work on the responsiveness of large projects by the way! It runs much smoother now than it used.
dmix 13y ago
I wasn't able to find the actual pricing anywhere on the app or this blog post?
- weslly 13y ago
  https://moqups.com/#!/pricing https://moqups.com/#!/pricing
calinet6 13y ago
I recently evaluated mockup apps (from Balsamiq to Moqups to Mockingbird to Axure) for a new project of ours, and nothing I found gave me what I needed—which was the ability to mock up interactivity in a predictable, easy, and non-tedious way. I made my own library instead to simply control state in an HTML page using simple, logical class names and IDs. This, combined with Bootstrap, made an HTML mockup a very fast and easy way to do exactly what we needed. Is there some new feature in Moqups that helps with interactive state such as this? Or do you have any suggestions on what the "best practice" for interactive UI mockups should be? Or is this something people don't usually do? Is it seen as "too realistic" or unuseful? So far we've found the interactive mockup invaluable in honing generic UIs and determining which direction to go, so I can't believe it's so difficult in most tools to control and easily switch component states.
- bobwaycott 13y ago
  Well, I use the Link feature with a button in the prior version to link to other pages. This is now consolidated into the revamped hotspot feature. I've used this on a single project so far to show off interactivity by creating a mockup, duplicating it, adding in the interactivity changes (say, a popup or other state changes), and then create a button to link off to the duplicated page with the extras. It made for a pretty nice mockup with demo-ability. The current version has moved this into the hotspot feature, which appears to allow arbitrary hotspot creation and the same ability to link to other mockup pages. There is now no need for a button as far as I can tell.
  - moqups 13y ago
    We're looking at elegant but simple ways of adding support for other states (hover, double click and so on).
  - calinet6 13y ago
    Cool, that is an improvement. Does this allow for incremental refinement/iteration of the mockup? My problem with duplicating pages is basically having a bunch of shared components on the same page, and then having to make a change to one of them... across the dozen different pages representing the states... so it was still an insufficient method for me.
mtrimpe 13y ago
Finally! These guys rock. I prototyped our startup's entire user flow with Moqups and I couldn't be happier ... their way of configuring elements from a plain textfield with a Markdown-inspired philosophy works really well for me. I literally asked them when I would finally be able to pay them for privacy controls a while ago ... they haven't mailed me yet though ;)
- moqups 13y ago
  We're very happy to hear this. Our newsletter is in the works - we've been quite swamped by the launch :)

27 points by moqups 13y ago

Seeing a paid option always makes me a little more comfortable using a product. It gives your product a sense of longevity. Congrats on launching premium! Just a simple gripe on blog design. A few months ago someone posted an article about an all-to-common problem [1] in company blogs. Your site doesn't have any link to your actual product. Luckily this article has a link, but unless every article links to the product, you are losing business every time. You're forcing your readers to manually type in the URL instead of having a simple link in the header of every page. It's a simple fix, but it could pay off big time. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5267330 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5267330

moqups 13y ago
Thanks for your input! Here's the link to the actual HTML5 App: https://moqups.com/ https://moqups.com/
- calinet6 13y ago
  Good link - but there should still be one on your blog. And it should be the most obvious, most clear, and easiest to click thing on the entire page. Like 60% of blog posts on HN make this mistake. It surprises me quite a bit, but I guess it should make you feel better that apparently everyone makes this mistake.

mattmanser 13y ago

Hmm, this is a really great product and I've loved using it, but 2 projects? That's so ridiculously low that 'free forever' seems a bit hollow and vacuous now. It would be better if you just came out and said it. Are you just supposed to go one humungo project now? I'm certainly not paying a monthly recurring fee for a mock up tool to play with side projects! I could see upgrading it for the collaboration aspect for clients, but for toy and hobby projects you've seemingly just killed the tool. Calling it 'using in a casual manner' is bad, how is having a project per idea and being limited to 2 ideas 'casual'? A helpful compromise?!? Personally I think you've focused on completely the wrong thing to go premium for. I'm surprised you didn't go private projects & apps/dropbox integration (standard) > revision control & master pages (pro) > collaboration (ultimate) or something like that. But that's just the programmer in me I guess, we all know that multiple projects won't add to your costs, just massive inconvenience to the free users. Still, it's your product so do what you want and you're allowed to change your mind, just don't expect a lot of people cheering you on. I'm just personally sad I probably won't use it any more as I'm not going to faff around trying to organise multiple thoughts into one humongous project. As a reminder of what you originally said when you introduced it to HN: We'll keep the main functionality free (with some reasonable limitations). We plan on adding some really cool collaboration and annotation/feedback features soon that we'll probably ask a buck or two for. I just don't see 2 projects as reasonable at all but I always suspected something like this would happen as the tool was just too well done. Note that I would probably buy it for a reasonable fixed price (like $50-70) but obviously the storage, etc. will constantly be a drain on you. It is better than balsamiq, but not better enough to be dipping into my pocket every month for the rest of my life. The problem with saas I guess. EDIT: I guess this is the problem with an online tool being useful to both individuals and corporations. I can see real value from a recurring fee from dropbox as an individual, but a mock up tool? For what (should) be a desktop app that's gone to a sass model, are individuals really going to pay a recurring fee for this? On the other hand, it's a perfectly reasonable price for businesses, even small and micro ones if you use it regularly. I would definitely sign up if I do more consultancy again. Perhaps I'm cheap as an individual, but to me it's just far too expensive for my personal use case.

cristianpascu 13y ago
Just the other day I paid $20 for a pen. You know, half the 'pen and paper' alternative.
- calinet6 13y ago
  Hey, I love nice fountain pens more than anyone, but you can get a good pencil and paper pad for a couple bucks.
  - cristianpascu 13y ago
    That's true. I wanted this specific pen for its quality. My point actually was that it's pretty much non-sense to complain about a free tool. You probably did the right thing, as a developer, you built your own system.
    - mattmanser 13y ago
      Why is it nonsense? They posted it here, do they not want feedback? This isn't a free advertising site you know. Once you say something like free, you can't take it back. In case you weren't aware it's $10 per month. Per month. Say your $20 pen lasts 5 years. Add maybe another $30 in refills. That's $50. In the same time moqups would cost you $500. And also if you stopped paying they might take away everything you'd 'written'. I certainly think it's worth the money for companies. Just not for individuals.
      - moqups 13y ago
        Hi Matt, don't worry - we really appreciate and reflect upon all kinds of feedback, specially the most honest ones. We may disagree on various topics, but that's what makes a good debate!
      - cristianpascu 13y ago
        Matt, I don't think feedback is non-sense. Never! What I find difficult to understand is why one would expect something to be free. And more, negotiate on that 'free product'. It's really not about moqups here, but about products in general. And I think that it's not about companies vs. individuals. It doesn't matter if you're a company or not. What it matters is that the products does a job for you and you benefit from it somehow. There is a profit you gain from using the product. You should accept the idea of making a little investment in order to get that profit. You don't get free coffee at Starbucks, or free chips or McDonalds or free breakfast at a gas station, just like that. You pay for everything in the real world. Software should be cheap, but not free. My opinionated 2 cents. :)

nateweiss 13y ago

This is a totally trivial nitpick, but when I see 500MB at the $9 level I start to do multiplication in my head and kind of get distracted. If it wouldn't cost you too much more, I would suggest considering 1GB for that level. The little story told by the levels just seems simpler that way to me. Like I said, totally minor point, and perhaps it's just me so take with a lot of salt. Congratulations getting to this stage! The price levels seem reasonable to me. I personally wouldn't have a problem paying for it. Is there integration with Basecamp or similar? That would be nice.

moqups 13y ago
Thank you - you have a very valid point with the image limitations so we'll reconsider. We're also planning many more integrations and Basecamp is close our radar. We're seeing huge amounts of traffic coming from tools like Aptana, Trello or Basecamp so this makes a lot of sense. Stay tuned!
- mtrimpe 13y ago
  Looking forward to it. Great work on the responsiveness of large projects by the way! It runs much smoother now than it used.

dmix 13y ago

I wasn't able to find the actual pricing anywhere on the app or this blog post?

weslly 13y ago
https://moqups.com/#!/pricing https://moqups.com/#!/pricing

calinet6 13y ago

I recently evaluated mockup apps (from Balsamiq to Moqups to Mockingbird to Axure) for a new project of ours, and nothing I found gave me what I needed—which was the ability to mock up interactivity in a predictable, easy, and non-tedious way. I made my own library instead to simply control state in an HTML page using simple, logical class names and IDs. This, combined with Bootstrap, made an HTML mockup a very fast and easy way to do exactly what we needed. Is there some new feature in Moqups that helps with interactive state such as this? Or do you have any suggestions on what the "best practice" for interactive UI mockups should be? Or is this something people don't usually do? Is it seen as "too realistic" or unuseful? So far we've found the interactive mockup invaluable in honing generic UIs and determining which direction to go, so I can't believe it's so difficult in most tools to control and easily switch component states.

bobwaycott 13y ago
Well, I use the Link feature with a button in the prior version to link to other pages. This is now consolidated into the revamped hotspot feature. I've used this on a single project so far to show off interactivity by creating a mockup, duplicating it, adding in the interactivity changes (say, a popup or other state changes), and then create a button to link off to the duplicated page with the extras. It made for a pretty nice mockup with demo-ability. The current version has moved this into the hotspot feature, which appears to allow arbitrary hotspot creation and the same ability to link to other mockup pages. There is now no need for a button as far as I can tell.
- moqups 13y ago
  We're looking at elegant but simple ways of adding support for other states (hover, double click and so on).
- calinet6 13y ago
  Cool, that is an improvement. Does this allow for incremental refinement/iteration of the mockup? My problem with duplicating pages is basically having a bunch of shared components on the same page, and then having to make a change to one of them... across the dozen different pages representing the states... so it was still an insufficient method for me.

mtrimpe 13y ago

Finally! These guys rock. I prototyped our startup's entire user flow with Moqups and I couldn't be happier ... their way of configuring elements from a plain textfield with a Markdown-inspired philosophy works really well for me. I literally asked them when I would finally be able to pay them for privacy controls a while ago ... they haven't mailed me yet though ;)

moqups 13y ago
We're very happy to hear this. Our newsletter is in the works - we've been quite swamped by the launch :)