Hi gang, As many of you know, I set a goal late last year to earn my living on BT in 2015. I've been unable to do so. I've been able to maintain the site, keep the backend alive, and move the needle forward only slightly. That's not enough. Fact is, I've been derailed by other bill-paying obligations (other work) and haven't been able to give BT what I hoped. The world of mobile is very different today than it was 5 years ago when all this started. The days of one device, one operating system, and one App Store are long gone. Buzztouch needs to improve. Plain and simple. I want to improve it but need to make some changes in order to make that possible. If you make apps like I do you're well aware of all the complexities involved in satisfying one client, one project, one "simple" app idea. iOS? Android? HTML5? It's simply not enough to produce a mediocre app and publish it to the store these days. All of our expectations have been raised to a level that requires a deeper understanding of the mobile landscape than ever before. You'll notice some BIG changes on the site as I begin to execute on some decisions. The "welcome" screen will be changed significantly. In essence it's going to read... "Hi, welcome to Buzztouch. My name is David Book and I'm a professional software developer in California. I created Buzztouch in 2009 to help folks get started making apps for the iPhone. Today I earn my living operating Buzztouch and rely on the support of paid-subscribers. You're welcome to use the awesomeness for free for a limited time. If you appreciate my work and want to support me I encourage you to become a subscriber before your free trial expires...." This simple messaging approach should help clarify what this is all about, how to support me (so I can support you) and drive some revenue. The fact is, I want to help people that support me and I need to increase the sites revenue to do that. I've done a poor job (my opinion) supporting paying members to this point and will no longer try to support "everyone." It's not fair to the paying members and loyal supporters. The screenshot below should help you understand where Buzztouch is headed. The 4.0 approach is mostly the same with some key differences. Notice no plugin selections, no partner selections, a few more download options, and some changes to the device / software requirements. Eventually... 1) Newly created apps, and new site visitors, will be walked through a process of creating a mobile HTML5 app. I will no longer be encouraging NEW mobile developers to START with native iOS or Android. My recommendation will be for them to start with an HTML5 app. Why? For a million reasons. But, mostly I want to be able to show them their creation immediately without any compiling, without downloading any special software (Xcode, Android Studio, etc) and without having to "understand" native development. 2) After creating an HTML5 version of their app, they will be given the option to continue with iOS or Android. It's my opinion that the steps necessary to do this (go native) require a deeper understanding and some additional help. I've been busy creating videos and tutorials to help this process along for would-be app developers. 3) BTU is going away. I've been unable to create compelling, fresh, modern learning materials recently (that ball never got rolling) and have decided that materials in the solution itself are far more appropriate. BT 4.0 includes videos and help materials on a "screen by screen basis." 4) The Self-Hosted solution is changing. BtCentral will be available as a download in individual app control panels. It's primary purpose was never to help people "create apps" but rather to "manage apps." The number of people competing with BT, with that package (or a modified version of it) is one of my biggest challenges (and disappointments). The new self hosted package will be styled, branded, and specific to ONE APP. It's an ideal solution to deliver to a client, to use on your own website, or to simply get a look under the hood. Apps will be created on BT.com and imported into a self-hosted install if desired. A modification to the self hosted package will be available to those of you that use it to manage multiple apps. In other words, if you use it to manage multiple apps we'll find a way to keep this working. 5) The plugin market is changing. Not significantly but importantly. The plugin market will be a list of THIRD PARTY PLUGINS BELOW BUZZTOUCH PLUGINS. That's an important distinction. Part of my new approach to earning a living will be producing plugins for Buzztouch subscribers. 6) The forum is changing. Non-subscribers will no longer be posting in the BT forums. They will have some limited read-only access. Free trial subscribers will be allowed many of the subscriber features, but not all. I've been doing my best to help aspiring developers get started making apps and had some good success doing that in the early days with a relatively simple approach to app building. Buzztouch has helped tens of thousands of folks and I'm very proud of that, and you should be too if you've helped like I suspect you have. As many of you well know, the vast majority of site visitors use Buzztouch without becoming paying members, without buying plugins, and without participating in the forums. This of course is the nature of the internet, sadly. Buzztouch is becoming a paid subscription product / service. It will be offered on a free trial basis for new site visitors. Buzztouch 4.0 cannot become a reality until this subscription model is up and running. I've listed a few questions and answers to help clarify some anticipated inquiries... WHEN WILL BT 4.0 BE AVAILABLE?: I dont' know. Soon I hope. I've given up on trying to make these predictions. WHAT WILL A SUBSCRIPTION COST: $15.00 / monthly. WHAT WILL I GET IF I SUBSCRIBE?: --Unlimited Apps: The ability to create as many iOS, Android, and HTML5 apps as you want. --Hosting: Data associated with these apps can be hosted on BT's backend. --HTML5 App Hosting: HTML5 apps are hosted on BT or on your own site. --Self Hosted: Downloads to BtCentral in each app's control panel. --Forum Access: Non subscribers will have limited read-only access to the BT forums. --Plugins (features): Two new Buzztouch produced built-in plugins monthly. --The sweet satisfaction of knowing you're supporting a freelance developer like me! WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON'T SUBSCRIBE?: You get the goods for a trial period then you subscribe or you find a different approach to app making. WHAT HAPPENS IF I'M A PAYING MEMBER NOW?: I hope you click a button to become a subscriber before your membership renewal date. If you do not become a subscriber on or before your membership renewal date nothing will change until your membership expires. You will continue to have exactly what you have today. When your membership expires, and you have not become a subscriber, you will no longer be able to make apps on BT.com, use your self hosted control panel to 'download apps', host app data on the BT backend, buy or sell plugins, or participate in the forums. HOW LONG WILL THE FREE TRIAL BE FOR NEW VISITORS?: This depends on a few factors. Expect 15 days. IF BUZZTOUCH MAKES TWO PLUGINS EACH MONTH I'LL END UP WITH LOTS. DO NEW SUBSCRIBERS GET ALL THE PLUGINS I HAVE? No, they have not supported me as long as you have! New site visitors (non subscribers) will have no plugins installed in their control panel. One of the differences of the new approach is that the system / solution has a list of "built in features" that everyone has. Think of these as the generic screen types I originally made. Maps, Documents, etc. 4.0 includes many other built-in features that are not actually a screens at all. Think of things like "launch dialer" or "play audio." If no third party plugins are used you don't have to add them to any projects, understand anything, etc. They're just included. When you subscribe you will start getting new plugins made by Buzztouch. All of the Buzztouch plugins made prior to you subscribing will be available for purchase in the plugin market. WHAT HAPPENS IF I SUBSCRIBE, MAKE AN APP, THEN STOP SUBSCRIBING?: If you have any data hosted on buzztouch.com it will go away. If you have a self hosted panel running somewhere, and you're not a subscriber, you'll be violating the license agreement. Note: The license agreement in the self hosted solution has changed. It's still open source but it's no longer free. Wish me luck! David

Hey David! It's been a long time since I've been here (other projects became a priority, but will soon change) For the ones that are new here, I just wanted to praise the work David and all the early adopters of BT have done! As for BT 4.0, it is only natural to happen and as soon as my life gets on track I will be a happy subscriber :) All the best!

Good Luck Chief. Sounds Great Joe Sprott

Sounds great and plugins seem a great way to support BT. 2 guaranteed well-produced plugins monthly well worth it! Thanks for all the hard work, Stephen

Good Luck David. The modest bump of an extra $120+ for yearly membership is insurmountable in contrast to the product and support you have and will provide with the new direction. Anything that keeps you at the helm and allows you to focus 100% on BT can only be a good thing. Whilst I am still a relative Hobbyist on the platform (no published Apps, just some basic private Android clients), the changes will not have too much impact on me. I suspect though some of the seasoned developers (Plugin creators) that are using the platform commercially may have some queries. I'm sure though once it happens, they will see that the benefits will far outweigh any minor inconvenience in changing the way things happen. Look forward to changes, Paul

I'll be a happy subscriber, if you can guarantee that things work, i've been here for almost 2 years and haven't been able to publish anything, because one way or another there is always some problems, and as a non programmer i can't fix it, even if i put a lot of effort in it. Will a non coder be able to make working stable app easily?

David - I'm in for sure. It's a no brainer :-) Ciao @benetettoapp, seeing you're Italy-based like myself, I had to reach out. I am also coming from a non-programming background and have managed to publish a number of iOS apps and a couple of Android ones too. Is it easy? No, I wouldn't say it is, but it is doable and the end product is stable and works perfectly well. When you hit a road block, you get help from the folks on the forum. Judging from your English, it doesn't seem to be a language issue that you're having but if it is, don't hesitate to message me directly in Italian with any of the problems you're coming across and I'd be happy to help. [email protected] Derval

Yes David, looking forward to seeing these changes take place. I'll be in too!

I have a few apps created using Buzztouch version 1.4 from a few years back. If I subscribe, then will those apps still work? Will the control panel be the same? Thanks

Sounds like some much needed changes! I wish you God speed in implementing them all - sounds like a lot of fun work ahead. ;)

David great effort , I am in all I just want to clearify is that those of us who have most of our apps on the self hosted platform, what becomes of those also what of those plugins that work only on self hosted will they now work on BT

It's a good change. :-) As you get time, please share insight into the HTML5 APIs for the plugin developers amongst us. Looking forward to the next leg of this journey. -- Niraj

Wow! I feel like I just got punched in the gut. I might have been able to come up with the $79 for an annual, but $15 a month or $180 a year? Might not seem like anything to most people, but to others this may be the end of a dream. I've been trying for 11 months to build this app, and for the last six months we've (a BT expert has been helping) been trying to figure out why it kept crashing. Finally, narrowing it down to a free plug-in. Unfortunately, we had to wait almost two months to hear back from the plug-in developer who was gallivanting around the world. I'd like to say I'm in, but it's too bad you couldn't give people the option of a one-time annual fee or a $15 a month subscription. And what about those apps in development that are already in Android, is that still going to be supported, or are they going to have to start over in HTML5? (shoot! I wish it'd been in HTML5 11 months ago, it'd probably have been done already). Oh well, if wishes were horses we'd all ride.

Great news David, whatever helps keep this ship afloat i support and having more of you at the helm is a great idea, The change in the plugin market is a great news as at least third of plugins i have bought either don't work anymore or the developer doesn't offer support, I love the sound of 2 new plugins a month as that's the only downside for non coders like myself, there being gaps in what plugins are on offer, @ benedettoapp I have been here for the same time as yourself and im a complete novice when it comes to coding, but i can assure you Buzztouch is geared up for newbies like us, I have at least 20+ apps in both stores, admittedly I don't charge a lot for apps, but that is down to my limited skills in coding, but as the new buzz is gonna increase the plugins by 2 a month , I will be able to charge more, so i don't have any probs with increased subs as its going to increase what i can offer. Im all for the new changes David, so onwards and upwards Cheers Sean

Will see what happens.

Count me in! Good luck David Dave

Supporting BT since 2010, all changes sounds good, bring on BT 2016 and beyond !

I know ios support for hybrid apps has gotten a lot better as of ios 9. Now is a good time to move in that direction.

Looking forward to some of these changes! More quality plugins will be much appreciated. And the HTML5 stuff is awesome! I'll be here every step of the way, helping anybody who needs it! Mark

Cool. I am in. Thanks.

Thank you, you deserve to charge more and live your dream, you already give alot free that you spend countless hours on. Looking forward to learning some new stuff with everyone

Hi David, I fully understand, and as you so kindly helped me last year when I had an issue with Eclipse, I thought I had to give support back. You are trully awesome. And I still owe you a beer next time you come to Nice. Other people have helped me figuring things out, and I thank the community. However, I'm not doing this for business. I've made an app for a specific environment I work in, to help coworkers, and I make at best 50 € on it per year. So clearly, I don't make money. I did spend a whole lot of hours trying to understand that coding (I'm mechanical engineer, far from all this) and I found amazing satisfaction with having that app up and running. I was so impressed by what can be done, and I'm so very proud of my simple tiny app. It's nothing compared to what you guys do, but coming from a mechanical background, the smallest app is a major achievement for me. Since I don't make money, I can't subscribe to a 75 USD a year membership, and so I will even less pay a 15 USD a month membership. Instead, I thought it would be fair that I buy pluggins, from you and from others, so everybody wins. Since you want to make more pluggins, even better. As much as I understand your reasons, I'm very disappointed to see my thing go to trash because I'm not a professional of app-making. I've worked so many months on this stuff. It's not what I thought BT was about. Could still an option be found for those like me who don't make a living out of it ? Those 3 free apps could become 3 apps for a xUSD of pluggin bought per year (so you do gain from it) ? Anyways, I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I admire BT very much, and I thank you very deeply for what you've done. Unfortunately I am, like clhend, taking a big punch in the gutts.

David, that's probably one of your longest post. I remember when I met you in Oxford when you came to the UK and it was pretty clear to me then that you were climbing Mount Everest on your own. I've always liked BT and its offerings, but some times you hit a brick wall. I always felt that this day would arrive if the platform was to truly grow. I totally hear you in regards to the ever changing landscape of the mobile development and market and as a result I too have become disillusioned and lost interest as I couldn't keep up with the native side of things and decided to stay clear of building any further apps. Your ideas for the plugin market is much needed and I will be kine to see the HTML 5 solution as I do a lot of development using Jquery Mobile. Anyway to tie this post up into a nice little bow, I think you are making the right decision and having met you I think it would be a big loss if you were unable to carry your project on because of a lack of funding. Totally support you as many will not understand the complexicity and difficult decisions you have to make on a day to day basis to keep things running. I await the launch.

i can understand were David is coming from I also don't have a buzz account but I've spent a lot of money on plug-ins and My ??opinion?? is the people that are already involved with buzz like me i would buy the membership to keep the ball rolling because also I've made app that were free I would buy the membership but the month to month thing won't fly nobody wants a month to month if you forget to pay then all your work is gone and also what happens to all the plug-in I've bought ??? I think you can get a month to month on new people. Us the people thats been here (for years) helping you make a name for buzz should be put on a different type of pay plan I know your a good man David and i know you will make the right decisions just pray on it Im Still your friend LOL Crayandroidz

The changes ahead are inspiring. Buzztouch 4.0 feels bold. The future is bright for all of us. You are offering us: 1) Native apps 2) HTML5 apps 3) Self-hosted branding 4) Unlimited downloads and 5) Unlimited hosting. Buzztouch 4.0 is a complete app development platform + mobile/web marketing platform for developers and agencies. For only $15 a month. This is way too good to be true. My suggestion to you is to double your monthly price. Insure you are well compensated and can bring even more innovations to the world David. We need you to keep this new platform up and running. There will be a few complainers but a majority of new users and current users will pay, and will be thankful.

Just a thought for all of those who seem reluctant to pay monthly. Think a about what's going on behind the scenes at the Buzztouch compound. Servers- Servers are the backbone to to everything that we are trying to do. David is putting in countless hours keeping these servers running. They need constant maintenance on a daily basis not to mention that he needs to keep Buzztouch fresh and running. So let's say that David is a really nice guy and wants to donate his time to maintain the servers. The electric company will still send a bill every month to run those servers. If David misses an electric payment, the electric company turns off the power. If the servers don't have power, we don't have Buzztouch. What happens if we forget to pay on any particular month? Luckily for us, David will probably use a subscription model for us to automatically pay monthly, quarterly or yearly so we can plan our budgeting. So now let's say that David is maintaining 10 servers. These servers cost money. The software on the servers cost money. The electric to run them costs money. The space to to house the servers cost money. If a server breaks down, in costs money to repair or replace. Free use of Buzztouch equals more people. More people equals more servers needed. More servers equals more space needed and higher electric bills. It just goes on and on. We can buy all of the plugins that they have on Buzztouch. Unfortunately, most of the plugin income goes to the plugin developer but let's say that the free user only needs 3 plugins. He spends $25 one time for the plugins and keeps his app in the App Store for 15 years. So assuming that David was able to keep all $25 from the plugin purchase. Do you honostly think that that $25 covers the cost of the free users app being stored on BT servers for 15 years or more? $15 per month is a steal! For the record, I'm not a coder, I have a regular full time job and I have a few apps in two app stores. One app is producing a little bit of income. Barely enough to cover my costs but enough none the less. Buzztouch IS for the novice and Buzztouch IS worth keeping alive. $15/month IS a steal Just my opinion Dave. (Not THE Dave from Buzztouch)

David I support you 100% because without BT I wouldn't have been able to create a single app and BT has enabled a non-coder, graphic designer a chance to make a dream a reality and I appreciate all your hard work and dedication over the years, not to mention the priceless support from all the forum members. Lets be realistic here when we talk about a monthly fee how much money does the average person spend on a cup of coffee per day/week/month $15 a month is not a lot for what we get and I'm sitting on an exchange rate of close to 14 to $1 :-) Keep up the great work. One request please can you create an easy way to get apps off a self hosted server back onto BT servers without having to update the right button tap load screen item id's on each and every screen when copied

Shut up and take my money. ;) Cheers! -- Smug

Totally get this and will most likely continue as a supporter but David, I respectfully urge you to re-think the plan for those of us who bought on early (existing paying members). Please consider a way to grandfather us into a special plan.

David, It sounds like great value for $15/month. Best of luck, John

I guess all this is fair. The fee seems little for pros or regular users. I don't really know what I'm talking about anyway. If some of you, regular BT users or IT experts, use your mechanical skills once every two years to change a wheel, well just think of me as the opposite. So I can't ask for BT to fit me. However please hear my point. You understood I'm no expert. In fact I didn't know anything about coding/app/android/IOS stuff before BT. My computer was still running on XP until a few weeks ago. When I looked into doing my very simple app a couple of years ago, I saw many many many websites offering pre-made stuff for cheap. It didn't look exactly like what I wanted, and I was feeling taken into a new thing without having a chance to understand it. I then discovered BT and it was the promised land ! Since I knew absolutely nothing, I had to work my ass off and really spend many many many hours to understand (with a major help from some of you) a little bit of all this stuff, just enough to make an app that opens pdf... Duhh. I'm already a very busy man, and so it was a major commitment for a small project of mine, and I'm very proud of it. I haven't changed the world with my app but BT changed mine on many levels. And that's why I love BT. It allows people like me to step freely into a complete new area of knowledge. I don't create much and my presence in the community is irrelevant. I cannot help 99.9% of you. You love BT because it opened your door much larger for your job or hobbie. I love BT because it cracked a new door open for me. OK, BT is not made for people like me. It's made for people like you. But then people like me have no place to go. I wouldn't have joined BT after a 15 days trial after which I would have barely understood what Eclipse is. I won't pay 180 USD a year when I use it once every 2 years and I make 50 at best. I could do it for a year to pay my part, but could not do it year after year. And still, I received so I shall give back. And that is where I liked the idea of buying pluggins. It runs money towards the people who work on BT. Until recently, last time I connected was last winter, and in the meantime the number of pluggins has doubled. So I thought : Great, surely some will interest me and I'll spend some useful money into the community. I bought one a few days ago and am fully interested in checking out new pluggins. I guess that's the way from the mechanical guy to say thank you BT and participate financially at the level I'm using it. I read all comments about this BT change, most being very supportive, as should be. They all make sense. And indeed the money is not much. Still, it can't make sense to me since my project would be in the red after 3 months, and I would like my app to stay up and running for years, even if I don't make money on it. I would like to see an intermediate option. BT will still attract many people like you all, and I'm sure shall be very successful. But it won't attract the minority that I am any more, and it's a shame because there's no place for us. I'm not playing the weak guy asking for a favor, I'm very well on my feet. But I'm disappointed to see the door closing on us (is it only me ?). I've been doing my part to make my little thing work. To finish, I can only wish, no matter what, that BT is successful and that you David can live happily from it. I can't pretend I know what the amount of work it represents, but for sure when I see those long emails of your explaining a whole bunch of things and everybody applauding on the effort it's been for you to do that, I don't need to understand. I also don't forget how much help I received from you directly, as well as from other users via the forum. It meant a lot to me, and it allowed me to feel very proud of that tiny app of mine. Maybe some of you feel like that when you've changed a wheel.

Hi gang, quick update after all of the responses today. I appreciate all the support and also all of the genuine concerns. Each of us literally has to consider our best way forward, all of you are included in that. Ultimately it's a matter of me not taking a different direction all together and starting fresh with no legacy promises. I think most of us want the same thing, a future for BT and Aa better way to make an app. For those of you who cannot afford the new subscription or cannot justify the cost based on your app development objectives, I absolutely understand. Of course I do. The intention is not to kick you out of anything and abandon any of your apps. The intention is to match people who think what I do is valuable with my skills. Both sides of the equation must be happy. Me and you. Anything else isn't going to work. What I do know is I can no longer subsidize thousands and thousands of applications. It's just not possible anymore so I'm trying to find the best balance. This is my best effort at doing that. I did the same thing two years ago and got us this far and need to make this adjustment now. All of you seem to understand That which is awesome. If 15 bucks a month is "more than BT gives you" and not a good value proposition, then we just don't have a good fit. Again, that's entirely OK. It's not a simple matter to just "move your app" but it certainly can be done. I've been pondering this for several days now and do hope to publish some materials in a video explaining how you can "move off of BT" without breaking your apps. Of course I shouldn't be spending time showing people how to leave me but I absolutely feel compelled to do that based on the relationship we already have. This sucks is for some, I get it. It sucks for me too in many We'll get through this change, each of us, this is not an emergency, just a pain in all of our tear ends for a bit. Lastly, just for fun, I just ran a query… 31,473 applications serving up data to millions and millions of devices owned by developers who have not visited BT in more than two years! Consider the problem illustrated :-)

what ever way it goes I'm still on board

Hey David, I am happy to pay whatever you will put up and 15 per month sounds more than reasonable! I am a little bit worried about the self hosted part though. As you know, for me it is all about clients and I actually do not want them to have access to anything, as I am selling "update" services after the app is online as well. I hope there will be a good solution for self hosted to maintain all apps on my own server even if you decide to kill BT after some years (yeah nobody wants it, but you just never know). I understand that I could then not download any projects anymore, just need to be real self hosted like it is now. Is that going to stay for sure? Regards Leon

David, you'll always have my support. What you're offering is unbelievably fair in regards to price. Buzztouch powers my entire business, and by association, my entire life. I have to pay $15 a month to support you for supporting everything that I do and will do? Not a hard choice. I'm super excited about the changes, they all sound great, and I can't wait to see things moving! mrDavid

David - Love the post brother. You are probably the only gent on this good old terra firma that could have done all this and continue to innovate. Killer days ahead. I still chuckle when I fire up Xcode and find myself thanking you, ton of people on here do, tens of thousands just sit in the back ground and bleed resources. Not going to work unless you sell your soul and that isn't going to happen. Good times ahead, maybe the best times ahead in fact. Those are stupid stats, I'd send an email to all registered email addresses and say respond or be cut off. Ask them where their Yahoo Geocities website is! Melissa Mayer still supporting Geocities sites from her own pocket? On yir bike ya muppet. People now expect David to build in disaster contingency plans for their businesses built for free on BT? I don't believe some of what I am reading. Some folk on here should be sending more than $15 a month and should have been for the last few years. I know half the people on this thread have either met or had one to one help from the good Book. Onwards and upwards good sir. Been a blast for years and I'm still driving the car my first good app paid for. Love that Subaru.

"People now expect David to build in disaster contingency plans for their businesses built for free on BT? I don't believe some of what I am reading." Bah, I feel like that was in reflection of my post. Oops. To be clear, David owes us nothing, and has done more than enough beyond comprehension for most of us (including me) for nothing in return. My post is more of a "Crap crap crap crap!" panic reaction than a "We deserve this." post. Hope that makes sense. Heh. Apologies to the big man, I didn't mean it that way. mrDavid.

Disaster relief. Best comment ever award. Self hosters with a heavy dependency...I get it. I Sooo get it. Nothing dramatics gonna happen until we're all sure nobodies gonna be hosed. But, as you can well imagine, I can't engineer solutions for your successful enterprises at the expense of ignoring my not successful enterprise. Just a matter of not turning off anything self hosters rely on until we get past this first hurdle. That being getting everyone onboard with the new subscription model, getting 4.0 out, then considering how to best evolve all of you with the self-hosted-my-business-depends-on-you folks. No stress, always a way through this. Nobody panic. Nobody should stress. Nobody that's helped this along this far (that's willing to support my effort by subscribing) is losing anything.

+1 well said, MacApple. I'm in.

David, I've been with Buzztouch for over 2 years. You've been a stand up guy all along. I've made plenty of money from your hard work (and mine). I'm a paid user but I'm happy to pay more to get you fairly compensated and keep the doors open. I would hope that those that had a free ride all these years would just be grateful that they had a free ride all these years, and recognize that a man is worth his wages. We all lose if you have to shut down BT. I'm looking forward to you taking BT forward.

50 cents a day to be sure that BT will live on? Yes, definitely yes! Cheers Jack

Making buzztouch financially sound can only help all of us that use it. I have benefited enormously from BT and what David has created. He opened my eyes to Xcode when he came to Oxford. I am a non-coder yet I have apps built for both android and iOS. All thanks to David Book and BT. Paying $15 a month will not only be a pleasure considering the benefits I have received and will continue to do so, but will also help make up for the fact that it's been very difficult for this non-coder to give back as much as he would have liked. Of course, change is concerning, but we will all find our way through it, and probably be better off for the new approach. Go for it, David!

I am happy to pay a subscription but would like to see updated guides. Buzztouch for dummies would be my requirement. I have managed to publish apps but it's took a lot of hard work and with help from the forums I've got there. The guides are not very up to date for things like xcode etc. I presume a subscription service would see a lot of improvements. If that is the case I would certainly continue to support Buzztouch. I love Buzztouch and would like to see it develop further.

thx for quick answer David. Happy.

I'm in this camp, running my own SH and charging clients for the service. If you pulled the plug today I'm pretty sure the only thing I'd loose would be the ability to package a new app? Otherwise my existing client apps will all still function. This was something I tested before I stated selling services to people. You have to do that and protect yourself and make agreements with clients, etc... We've seen sites like Scringo vanish because they can't turn a profit. Applicasa switched to a game dev platform back end to lure new customers. Companies come and go and the SH option was the best way to build a small app business and ensure it would still exist if BT 'vanished'. I would love a 3.x or 4.0 SH update that irons out a few 3.0 bugs - notably the PHP 5.4/5.5 incompatibility with child items. I've had to keep my own server that is running 5.4 because hosting companies tell me no more PHP 5.4. If an update and move from the SBJSON parser to the standard NSJSONSerialization could be made too, that would be even more awesome. It just needs to package a BT 4.0 app. You could cut off services like PN and anything else that utilizes the BT API. Just something that works independently with 4.0 projects. We can hammer out our own issues with XCode updates and use the forum to hammer out the BT code incompatibiliy that arises from updates.....

I'm in. Buzztouch has been an indispensable tool in helping me create and share apps for myself and, more recently, clients. Having met David I can concur with the above posters that he's worked jolly hard to create something that simply does not exist elsewhere and is sorely needed. This is just another leg in what I hope will be a journey to the product that David wants and needs to create. I'm looking forward to the changes and will happily part with my green.

I'm feelin' a webinar soon, and a lot of old faces. :-) Another cool idea: BuzzCast should become a subscriber thing, but allow the first 5 minutes to be released to the public to give non-subscribers the chance to peek behind the scenes. .. and completely unrelated and unhelpful, a top 25 badge, only to be shown if you're a subscriber. ;-P mrDavid

Having looked around in May this year there was only one out and out platform to build apps on, that was Buzztouch. I'm not in for making money off Apps, mine are designed to make no money, no advertising and provide a signposting site for victims of crime. However, I fully recognise this site needs to make money for the owners of Buzztouch. To this end I do have a question, I paid a year subscription in May for Buzztouch. If I start subscribing for the newer buzz touch, do I lose this money? Can it be recycled into 3 months worth of subscription? Or is it a case of tough, stick out until membership expires or write off the money and join the upgraded site? P.S. I don't have a lot of money to go round. Any other suggestions please let me know.

Looking forward to the changes, I'm sure the core member support is 100% with you.

Although I've popped out a few apps over the years there has always been that first one from back in 2010 that is my "baby". Like Buzztouch, it has gone through many revisions over the years... some minor, some complete overhauls. The home screen has literally changed about 20 times. I added "socialize", then I took it out. You get the idea. And like BT, it was initially free, for about a year, but then the time I spent working on it, advertising, and hosting the website got to be too much so I started charging for it. It's still profitable all these years later (and easily covers the new annual fee). BT is David's "baby" and he's trying to make it the best he can. I get it. So although I intentionally disconnect all of my apps from the BT server so I don't necessarily NEED BT going forward for my existing apps, I WANT it. And will for many years to come. Keep up the good work! Josh (Mutzy)

/signed ATRAIN53 David, maybe it makes sense to think of 2 sorts of paid members with self hosted (mainly for people that have several clients) and BT-hosted for people that maybe only have 1 client or more likely build apps for customers. I would like all 4.0 benefits for the self hosted as well, so maybe there can be a basic self hosted fee which could be the same or a bit different to the BT-hosted $15 per month and a higher level fee which includes support from you for a higher price. I could also think of paying the same subscription fee and buying updates for the self hosted from you like: Self hosted Software 4.0 = OneTime x$ + $15 per month Self hosted Software 4.1 = Update x$ etc...

I'm new here. Can I build a plutonic hook up dating app for my herd of Guinea pigs?

@MacApple, Only if my pigs match with your pigs. Edit: That sounded way worse that I thought it would. mrDavid

Cool times ahead.. haha. I guess changing our membership to subscription and turning off self hosted, we will need to update our apps with BT4.0? Lets roll

Hello David, I have a few apps created using Buzztouch version 1.4 from a few years back. Are you still going to continue to support version 1.4? If I subscribe, then will those apps still work? Will the control panel be the same? I need to know this ASAP otherwise I will have to unpublish my app and issue refunds. My app requires updating daily. I don't know how to convert my apps to newer versions of BT so I need to know this. Thank you, Ara

@David (Book) I'm sure you did already think about it... There will be an important feature needed for existing self-hosted apps... -> 'Apps will be created on BT.com and imported into a self-hosted install if desired.' No problem. But what about existing self-hosted apps? We'll need a way to import them in BT.com to benefit of the new features, plugins, and so on. Some kind of 'Backwards App Copier' tool. At the moment, all my self-hosted apps are iOS-only, but I'd like of course to develop Android versions (and HTML5 versions too). Even if most of them rely on some iOS-only plugins, I can use the App Copier to clone them, then substitute plugins. In a perfect BT-world, I'll be able to import my self-hosted apps in BT.com, then clone them and substitute plugins if needed. Hope this will be possible! Thanks for all and all the best! Cheers Jack

Good Luck bro,your happiness is our(BT) strength, You work hard for less all this time you deserve more.Thanks best regards!

Ps. apart from all the amazing updates to buzztouch and improved functions that you have in store David, what i would like to see is some sort of added bonuses for all the Buzz gurus that help out in the forums, without them myself and many, many others would still be stuck on there first app, I,m sure you already do this in some way. One of the Huge advantages of Buzztouch is the forum and it still amazes me how fast the gurus respond, and i would like to think they have extra privileges or bonuses or maybe a bung em box, so we can put a drink in there for them :)

Hello David Change is good! Someone told me that a few years ago. David if we can help with the change in anyway please let us know. Schools and students are also starting to use BT as well. I would LOVE to build a curriculum for the new BT. Also are you taking plug in suggestions? If you are can we send them to you or through a form. Love the energy in this post!!!

I like the subscription model and anything that will help David make Buzztouch better. However, I would love to see an annual subscription model even if there is not a price break for paying upfront. +1 for ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION PAYMENT OPTION :)

Hi David, I am an absolute noob in the app world, and have almost no app development skills as such (I am a perl programmer, not an app developer) BT has essentially given me a way to make an app even with my limited knowledge. Im just wondering as of this date, how long do I have to become a member and subscribe for full access before I lose my current apps? I have every intention of paying monthly, I simply may not have enough for October, will the changes be implemented over the next day/days?

Without David, BT and the community, I wouldn't have been able to produce as many Apps as I have without the awesome BT platform that I rely on. I really hope we can continue to make self-hosted BT an ongoing option for those of us with clients. Happy to subscribe and keep the ball rolling. Really looking forward to David working on some great plugins for the platform. Cheers Darrel

I'd like to hear more about how self-hosting will work with the 4.0 version. Since small companies disappear all the time, I see the self-hosted version as insurance that my app will continue working even if the unthinkable happens, because it's connecting to my website instead of BT. Hoping that's still the case.

Sounds great. Would like the option to pay annually.

You go girl!

I am excited to see all the positive forum support! Keep believing in David and his vision for bringing you the best App building software on the planet! Stay coding my friends..... Tony K. BT

David, well done and thanks for all your support in the past. It makes sense and hope that as a paying member myself for many years, that other will follow suit and support your excellent work. Looking forward to the changes. All the best Alan

Count me in, I'm enthused. Will html5/js/css be extended to admin and the creation process? I dream of drag and drop gui's. Amongst other things.

Look who it isn't?!?!

yes it's not..

Excellent. If it was it would have made my weekend seeing the name. But I didn't and it isn't so it didn't. Klopp.

You did, it is, it might. The Jurg.

We should probably get a private room. Yahoo hackers lounge available?

i'm not a member here it's my mistake when i am using bt from last 2 years. i have learned lots of stuffs from buzztouch and i really appreciate a great work of david and all supporters. this time i am in for all new buzztouch 4.0 all the best david

Hello David, I am with you 100%. I will subscribe to the new BT. I am concerned about the work I'm doing now. I am self-hosted and am working on an app at this time. What should I do? continue the work as self-hosted or wait for BT4.0? Question: in the BT4.0 we will only be able to build applications in the BT server, correct? What will happen to applications built in self-hosted?

stop worrying about selfhosted, David already replied that all will be good as long as people subscribe! Continue your work like always, don't wait for 4.0, nobody knows when the changes will happen. Probably not even this year yet.

Growing pain for sure. Wrong move for BT.com? I think not. Thank you David and many others who posted in here. I know that your good nature and conscience will not leave us hanging. I'm 5 of the 30+ thousand apps but I am for sure a frequent visitor. David.... If there is a way to turn your best users and forum participators into subscribers without transferring cash, I and the others would appreciate that. Who needs another bill these days? For example, some of us (not necessarily me) have a regular presence supporting other users and contributing to your success.... buzztouch's success. Can we reward certain individuals like the earliest adopters with a grandfathered plan like we have had? God Bless you, Text You Soon, Shefik

I just noticed that the subscriptions started today. Mine says that the free trial expires on December 1,2015. Is this correct? That's longer than 30 days. I just want to make sure. Also, David thank you for supporting version 1.4 apps. I don't know how to convert my apps to newer versions of BT and prefer using version 1.4. Thanks

Also, have a look at the Pricing option of the main menu: https://www.buzztouch.com/pricing/ Seems the change already happened!

What do I do? My subscription reminder has come but it's yearly at the old rate

That was fast, the new subscription is in place. I am in, hopefully for years to come. But I can't rid of a feeling that BT is fragile and can disappear one day. For me a conclusion: continue to include my content into apps and avoid BT hosting if possible.

BT isn't fragile buddy, trust me. I have apps that are 4 years old and still run. I know that isn't your point but this platform was built to last and at every turn we have a fearless leader, adopting, improving and innovating. None of us should have doubts about supporting the platform we all love. Above all else though there is a key factor. The man at the top cares

Count me in, David! Wish you luck and all the best! Kristian, Copenhagen

David: I greatly appreciate all you have done at keeping Buzztouch running. I apologize for some perhaps harsh comments that I have made about iOS 9 support and other issues. As a technological Neanderthal trying to get out of the Stone Age hybrid seems like a very good solution. For those who are complaining about the price, have you looked at the cost of alternatives such as,Appery, Tekerik, Red Foundry, and even Ionic Creator? All make BT look positively cheap, and with BuzzTouch you get the most devoted and helpful user community you could ever hope to find and a very talented and devoted master coder. Carry on, David.

I'm so totally in! Buzztouched enabled me as a medical doctor with no knowledge about programming to get an app on the Appstore. It is a free app and I am not making any money out of it. For now. It is a hobby. But I have learned alot about appmaking in the process. And of programming. Learning objective-C and now Swift, is made easier by looking into the code generated by Buzztouch. Getting error massages in xcode and then posting about it on the forum enhances my understanding of how apps and code work. I have many ideas for creating other apps. As my knowledge and skills improve they will become a reality. I look at Buzztouch as an investment into the future. It is part of my retirement plan. By building apps that will continue generating revenue well into the future my retirement becomes more secure. All of this for $15 a month? For sure! Tyrone

Hey dudes! I didn't get any kind of email or anything, and I have pretty much chased all kinds of rainbows when I should have kept pumping out good quality apps. I too think that buzztouch is a great value, and I would be happy to pay this. I would like to also register another vote for an annual subscription option, but maybe give folks a discount on the total price if we pay for a year up front. To me, buzztouch was on to the "reskin" craze years before it went mainstream, and buzztouch has the ability to sort of reskin an app, but give it the customization that you as a developer can give. Speaking of reskinning, if you go to one of the sites that does that, you're going to pay $99 - $249 for a quality app anyway, so why not support David and buzztouch, which have been around for a good long time. I would like to beg, plead, and suggest some sort of plugin or way to integrate the major ad networks like AdMob - this is SUCH a frustrating thing to do. Overall, my goal is to earn $1,000 per month to pay off debt, as I already have a day job I love. I've been down some rabbit holes, but I still think it can be done building apps. Thank you for this community David, and please send a mass email with these changes. Oh yeah, and Roll Tide!!!

High quality products and unlimited knowledge. can't put a price on that. all in:)

Sorry if this has already been answered and I missed it (so many comments). But my account says it expires, Monday, May 9th, 2016. But I haven't started paying $15 a month. I'm self-hosted, only one app out. Will my app stop working?

Hi Shenry! If you're app is built with (and downloaded from) the Self Hosted panel, as long as your self hosted website is up, your app will continue to run (because the app's data not dependent on Buzztouch's server). When your Buzztouch subscription runs out, you may lose the ability to re-download the source code for your app, but your app will continue to work. :)

CakeBit, Thanks for the clarification

Re: Current Paid-Up Members ... How do we change over to the new membership plan in order to support Buzztouch, without upsetting our account details and maybe losing plugins etc ?

Change should be automatic, have you check your subscription status on BT?

Thank you for your reply, There is no facility/link to make the change other than your account history. Registered: Subscribed: Expires: Terms:

Exactly, it will be automatic. When your membership expires, (expires date) you will have to subscribe to continue on a subscription instead of a membership. Until then, there is nothing to do.

MadRod, Thank you for your time. It was not my intention to wait for my membership to expire ... April 2016. I wanted to have the option to subscribe earlier so as to contribute to the new service costs that 'David' requires to maintain Buzztouch as going concern.

I don't think you'll be able to do that.

You may be right.

Thank you for your reply, There is no facility/link to make the change other than your account history. Registered: Subscribed: Expires: Terms:

Although I understand your motivation and cannot argue with your decision Dave, -- indeed I was just thinking the last time I signed in I was surprised you had not yet mandated a subscription as the Net in general seems to become increasingly less free these days -- I am a little sad as I use your services not to make a profit or even attempt to profit, but solely to create an educational app I provide for free. Now I have to decide if I want to take my app out on my own and try to struggle as I am may to keep it working or commit $150+ every year to keep it up via Buzztouch hoping others find it useful enough to make it worth my investment. Oh well. :/

Hi Jaundice, I understand that feeling, but if you don't know if you're willing to invest to keep your free app online, why should Buzztouch invest to keep your app online? All our apps take space and space online costs $$$$. But, on the other hand, if you're self hosted, your app will still be online, you'll jut have a harder time updating it, but it will still be there and work. Cheers

Hi i am an old member and as i was thinking to make a new app, i come back to renew my membership and saw that lot of changes going to happen ... When i was start interesting about making an app for mobile phones i find out about the buzztouch .I didnt know to code nothing at all... After one month or two as a free member and with lot of experiments + the help from the forum i manage to make a simple application that was working for the Android Platform (i could stay as a free member and develope 2 more app.... awesome !!) But decide that the membership was the right way to do it.. so i become a pay member i decide also to have a self hosted solution for my future apps... i bought lot of plugins and starting make my app in one year a made 3 applications for android platform ... always with a lot of help from people around here... after 18 months in googlePlay store my app (the other 2 were for free) manage to earn the money i spend in first place here for the membership and the plugins... very cool :) so i decide that was time to start make a new app... and now i am little worry with all that changes if i should or not... or wait for the new buzztouch I understand Mr David.. but in the other hand i dont think that with the new plan will gain more people...(like me - the coding background i had at that moment ) from my experience. i decide to pay after i saw that i could manage to make a working app... so wouldnt loose any money if was something to difficult to manage... so 1 free app for testing and playing with it, free members at that moment would be ok... and with the very basic plugins 15 days or month or and 2 months will never be enough for amature developers.. 3 free apps? to much... Also something that one member here clarify to me recently.. even i havent done it.... i thought all this time that having a selfhosted bt it was something that could use as a reseller and make other people pay you for making their own apps from your server... why i misunderstand that ? because the BT selfhosted was made with that way... with that option.. you can make a new member and as a simple member has the option from panel to make a new app from scratch and had the option to save/download the code also i thing that was a bad design... if the goal was the clients just to manage the app after was published from developer, then they shouldn have these options (make new app and dowload code) this should be only in administrator options (the owner of selfhosted bt ) Mr David said that ''BtCentral will be available as a download in individual app control panels.The new self hosted package will be styled, branded, and specific to ONE APP. It's an ideal solution to deliver to a client, to use on your own website, or to simply get a look under the hood.'' So every time i decide to make a new app with bt... when i choose to download the final product i will have and an option to download the Bt central for this app ? so i can upload it to my webserver in order to make changes every time i need? if so... that is something that make me happy But i saw also this : ''WHAT HAPPENS IF I SUBSCRIBE, MAKE AN APP, THEN STOP SUBSCRIBING?: If you have any data hosted on buzztouch.com it will go away. If you have a self hosted panel running somewhere, and you're not a subscriber, you'll be violating the license agreement. Note: The license agreement in the self hosted solution has changed. It's still open source but it's no longer free.'' So if i decide to make a new app as a subscriber... and i download the code and the new option with the dedicated BtCentral... after the expiration of my subscription i will be violating the license agreement having the Btcentral to my web to manage my app ? or this is just for the selfhosted bt Greetings from Athens Greece

So in my opinion the best would be : 1) 1 free app for new users without time limit but with minimum plugins just for testing purposes 2) full access to the forums as from there the new user can get all the help that needed to clear what is about buzztouch and how easy is or not to make apps with his ideas 3) 3 Payable plans... one per month - subscription every 6 months per year all companies the give you the choice to make a year pay plan with a discount.. so they reward you for prepaying all the year 4) unique bt central panel for each app you make... this is awesome feature 5) You have to find a way for long-term subscribers not to loose their work -apps from here if they dont pay for a while otherwise is like to punish them . (imagine to be subsciber for 2 years and for some personal reason you could not subscribe for 2-3 months in the future... you will loose all your work here? 6) selfhosted servers was a good idea... i think you must continue support this feature... but with some changes.. as i said and in my previous post.. was a design (coding ) mistake the options for simple users to make or download the packages... this should be only in administrators options.. so it wouldnt be so easy for others to make their selfhosted servers as reseller of buzztouch 7) You have to think adding a tool for users inside hereto copy their apps (make clones).. they will save them a lot of extra time making a similar app they already have i bought a similar tool for my server and was a time saver every time i wanted to make a similar app as the one i had already in my bt central panel hope you find some of my ideas useful

Hello David, I don't have a problem paying a $15.00 subscription. BT is well worth it. What would really help me if there were an option to pay quarterly or annually. Tony

Hello again everyone What I am excited about is the HTML5 design feature. It's easier for newbies to learn HTML5 as oppose to Objective-C, Swift or Java. Also we can now create appd for Windows platform using Buzztouch. Windows has a short tutorial showing how to create a Windows 10 app using HTML5 and JavaScript. https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/mt280216.aspx I also like the feature of a stand alone self-hosting for each app. You can customize the layout for each customer and use the customers resources to host the app. Such as have the customer create an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account, which they are responsible for any charges. I understand why Dave want to move away from the current self-hosting plan. I attended most of the meetings he hosted last year with developers. But some form of that would help developers who create apps for themselves. It can free up server resources for Buzztouch. But the issue of others using Dave's your hard work to compete against Buzztouch has to be addressed.

So when does this change and what exactly are the new terms?? So much different stuff floating around here

I have no issues with making changes, and thoroughly support the idea of supporting David! :-) (We have been "paying" supporters since 2013,so . . .) I have more issues with HTML5 than BT apps - I get 5 times as many support issues from the few HTML5 Apps we did than BT-created IOS Apps. Hybrid Apps have a lot of issues, especially when running on MAC and IOS systems. (and if you are foolish enough to upgrade to Win 10, be prepared for a lot of software to stop functioning!) Davids post seems to have raised more questions and concerns and a bit of confusion, including with us. We are a self-hoster. I have created - using our self-host - dozens of Apps and manage them on our server, including push notices. So, of course, we are interested in exactly how self-hosting will change. Hopefully not change tooo much. :-) Joe C.

Just did the Annual subscription, got the 10% discount. Absolutely support this effort! Ronnie

I'm in. My goal is to provide apps for churches, using self hosted, dependent on connection to BT, and to pay the BT subscriber fee. I hope that is allowable and not violating any policies. If so, please let me know!