Tookapic will no longer be free to use. But that's good.

6 years ago

Tookapic was bootstrapped. I used my own savings to build it and keep it alive. There is no big investor behind this project. And that's good. Nobody tells me how tookapic should look or work. Nobody expects us to grow with 100K new users a week. Nobody will make me sell to a big company and leave my users with nothing.

That said... I've tried but it's now obvious that I can't provide the service for free, like Facebook, Google or Instagram does. I don't have millions of dollars to burn.

If you think about it - tookapic is just me and a talented developer hired part-time. And you of course. Few thousand of amazing people who meet online everyday to share their daily pic with the rest of this awesome community.

If tookapic is here to stay - it has to make money not only to support itself, but to also support the makers. Imagine you have a full-time job that nobody pays you for. That's exactly my case with tookapic. I can't do it any longer. Either tookapic dies or I will collapse, because it's simply physically exhausting.

And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love working on tookapic. It's a lot of fun. But fun is not a currency. I'd love to keep working on it full time and treat it as a real job - paid one.

There are a lot of ways to monetize Tookapic. Most of them are a bit sneaky and therefore - I don't want to execute them. The simplest and most fair way is to ask you - the community - for support.

Hold on, running tookapic can't be that expensive

That's where you're wrong. Let me just show you some estimate numbers. Time of people who work on tookapic (let's assume it's a real, paid full time job) is about $90.000 a year. Accounting costs $2.900 a year. Servers and third party apps that keep tookapic running is another $12.000/year. Domains, SSL certificates, lawyers is few thousands more.

That adds up to more than $100.000/ year. I can assure you, we never came even close to that.

That's why starting December 15th 2017 running your 365 on tookapic will require purchasing membership. Browsing, commenting and liking photos will remain free.

Why is that a good news?

There are many reasons this will only make things better. Here are few of them.

1. Tookapic will get better

Tookapic and the community focused around the idea of 365 projects is an amazing achievement. I want it to last as long as possible. Instead of worrying about how to pay that hosting bill - we'll focus on improving tookapic.

2. Mobile apps

Our apps need updates (iOS needs to be rewritten from scratch). The budget for that is being eaten by expenses like servers or accounting. Thanks to memberships, we'll be able to provide the best possible quality.

3. No ads

I don't want to put ads all over the place. It'll ruin the tookapic experience. Thanks to memberships - ads will not be needed anymore.

4. Motivation

Most of you don't know that but we've checked and it turned out that people who paid their Hero subscriptions have 11x better chance to finish 365 project than poeple who use tookapic for free.

5. Tookapic will stay here

This unique, one of a kind place will be here to stay and change lives of even more people. But it will only be possible with your help.

How much will it cost?

Monthly membership will cost $9. Annual membership will be $69.

What will I get with that?

Full tookapic experience including all the premium features (plugging in own domain, stats, premium templates, photos export - everything).

What if I'm a Hero already

First of all - thank you! You will be able to keep using tookapic. So if anyone wants to save some money - Hero subscriptions ($6/mo or $59/y) will only be available for another week.

I'll do our best to reward those of you who supported tookapic before today's announcement. Thanks to you I managed to keep tookapic alive for 3 years. I'll think of something special for Super Heroes as well (suggestions are welcome).

What if I don't pay?

Memberships will be implemented next week for every new user that signs up on tookapic. Those of you who are now using tookapic for free will get 30 days of "free trial". You won't be asked for payment until January 13th next year. Until then you will be able to use tookapic and all it's features.

If you, however, decide to leave us - you'll be able to export and download all your photos in full resolution.

After January 13th adding new photos will be blocked if no membership was purchased.

Wrapping up

Together, we created a place that delivers a lot of value for beginner photographers. It's a therapy for poeple who found themselves in a rough time in their lives. It's everyday meeting place for unique and wonderful people.

The only place like that available online. Let's keep it online. Together.

I tried to explain everything, but if you have any questions - feel free to ask in the comments. If you want to ask privately - you know my email address. You can also send me a private message on tookapic.

Have a great weekend!

150 comments

tania Good.