Relay for Reddit could survive — however solely with a paid subscription

Many third-party Reddit apps will likely be shutting down as a result of platform’s prohibitively costly API adjustments, however I discovered one app which may survive — and solely by dropping a free model of the app and switching absolutely to a month-to-month subscription.

Dave stated that there’s “no financially viable manner for me to proceed to supply a free model of Relay,” which can not come as a shock given the obvious $20 million per yr price to take care of Apollo for Reddit below the brand new insurance policies. He’s lowered the variety of API calls per person per day, and on the new stage of calls, there’s “potential” to supply a subscription to the app at a $2 or $3 per 30 days.

Nonetheless, “the complete mannequin is in the end topic to what number of, and what kind of, customers select to stick with Relay as a subscription-based app,” Dave wrote. He stated the app can be ad-free and wouldn’t have really useful content material. It additionally wouldn’t embody sexually-explicit content material, which is a limitation that will likely be imposed upon all apps utilizing Reddit’s Information API. He added that the timeline to make adjustments is “alarmingly tight” — Reddit’s new API pricing goes into impact on July 1st.

Nonetheless, it’s good to listen to that not less than one third-party Reddit developer sees a possible path ahead. We’ve reached out to Dave to see if he can share any extra element on his plans.