Price of Smart Launcher

Answers to questions about pricing and licenses.

Why is Smart Launcher expensive?

Smart Launcher is developed by one of the largest and most experienced teams among launcher developers. While this results in higher development costs, it also allows us to deliver more frequent updates and improved features. If you compare Smart Launcher’s price to other products developed by teams of a similar size, you’ll find it is competitively priced or even less expensive.

Why do I see different prices at times?

Smart Launcher’s pricing is adapted to the cost of living in different countries, and we sometimes run experiments to identify the most appropriate prices for our users.

Over time, the price may change to reflect inflation and development costs. For reference, the lifetime license for Smart Launcher in 2012 was just $1, and now it is at least 20x, reflecting the product’s evolution and growing value.

So keep it in mind that looking at the long-term perspective, the current price may represent great value!

Nova costs much less.

Nova Launcher had a smaller team and a significantly larger user base, largely due to its early success. This allowed them to keep prices lower, but such a model isn’t directly comparable to Smart Launcher.

It’s worth noting that Nova Launcher’s team eventually sold the product, possibly indicating dissatisfaction with their revenue or company growth.

Would lowering the price increase premium purchases?

Our testing shows that lower prices don’t necessarily lead to better results. We’ve found that the current pricing strategy supports the sustainability of the product while ensuring consistent quality and innovation.

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Why Smart Launcher has subscriptions?

Smart Launcher is continuously updated to provide new features and improvements. Indipendently from when you purchase it, we continue working on it every day and offering the same support to old and new users. A business model based only on lifetime license wasn't sustainable, this is why in 2018 we introduced subscriptions as an alternative purchase option.

Subscriptions bring advantages for both users and developers:

• For users:

  • You pay only as long as you’re satisfied with the product. If you no longer enjoy the product, you can cancel without regret.

  • Developers are incentivized to maintain and improve the product for loyal users rather than focusing only on acquiring new ones.

  • If the developer abandons the product or doesn’t meet your expectations, you can stop paying.

• For developers:

  • Subscriptions provide a stable and predictable revenue stream, which allows us to invest in improvements and updates even in a saturated market.

  • This model ensures that the product remains sustainable and high-quality over time.

What "lifetime license" means?

The term “lifetime” can sometimes be ambiguous in the context of software, so here is our definition:

A lifetime license guarantees unlimited access to all the features available at the time of purchase, for as long as you use the product. This excludes features provided by third parties, which may be discontinued at any time for reasons beyond our control.

When a new version of Smart Launcher is released, you’ll receive access to it at no additional cost, and you will retain access to all the features included in the version you paid for.

That said, we reserve the possibility to introduce optional new features that may require an additional cost, when necessary. This would apply to features involving significant recurring costs for us or those that could not be financially justified in the context of our regular development. Here are two hypothetical examples:

• A feature that requires an expensive third-party service to work.

• A feature we would normally not consider for inclusion due to its development effort, but it is required by a few people who are willing to support its development.

Please note, these are just hypothetical examples. As of January 2025, we have no short-term or long-term plans to introduce such features. If we ever do, we will announce it transparently.